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Damooei Jumps into CCSC Presidential Race
PUBLISHED MARCH 4, 2008
Alidad Damooei, CC ’09, made the long-anticipated announcement Monday that he will run for Columbia College Student Council president.
As part of his ticket, Jennifer Choi, CC ’09, will run for vice president for funding, Donna Desilus, CC ’09, for vice president for policy, Cliff Massey, CC ’10, for vice president for student life, and Veronica Colon, CC ’10, for vice president for communications.
In an interview with Spectator, the five party members publicly entered the race, noting that the timing of the announcement does not necessarily correspond with the decision to run.
“It’s more a point of when candidates decide to get in front of a camera or reporter,” said Damooei, the current CCSC vice president for policy. “It’s not like we’ve been hiding under our beds for the last four weeks.”
Though the party has been complete since January, the ticket members said they wanted to be sure of their platform and plans before jumping into the contest.
“We didn’t see a necessity to rush into the spotlight. Presence isn’t writing a letter and putting it on Bwog,” Damooei said, taking a more overt stab at his competitor, George Krebs, the current CCSC junior class president, who released a candidacy statement that was posted on Bwog on Feb. 17.
Colin Drummond, CC ’09, is a possible third contender for the presidency.
Asked for his opinion of Damooei, Krebs spoke carefully, saying simply, “I think there are a lot of critiques that can be made about this last year’s [CCSC executive] board.”
Along with Damooei’s three terms on council, Choi is the current CCSC vice president for funding and Desilus is the CCSC academic affairs representative, giving their ticket the most combined years of council experience out of all the contenders.
But they quickly rebuffed accusations that such experience made them a more institutionalized party that would pander to the university administration.
“If that’s how people are going to paint us, then they don’t know us, they don’t know what we’re about,” said Choi, who was considered an outsider when she won the same position last year. “Next year I won’t be that fresh pair of eyes that I was, but I’ll still stay connected to the communities that I come from. I really don’t think anyone can say we’re going to be blinded by our council experience.”
“I think people like to paint CCSC as a tool for the administration, but it’s not—it’s a tool for students,” Damooei said, pointing to the council’s record of producing changes in the University’s pass/fail policy and the advising system. “When we’re meeting with the administration, it’s not like we’re sipping cognac and smoking cigars and saying, ‘Let’s give the students cake.’”
The ticket members said their one of their best assets is their diversity.
“What I think is amazing about this group is I wouldn’t know them if not for council bringing us together,” Choi said. “We run in such different circles.”
Ultimately, “We want to bring student groups together,” Damooei said.
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