After a grilling from her colleagues and a long string of deliberations at Wednesday evening’s elections, Samantha John, SEAS ’09, has been chosen to lead the Activities Board at Columbia for the 2008-09 academic year.
Selected by ABC board members not running for office, John will assume the role of executive board president alongside newly elected vice president Grace Chan, CC ’09, secretary Krissie Zambrano, SEAS ’09, and treasurer Scott St. Marie, CC ’10. While John, Zambrano, and St. Marie originally had their sights on the presidency, Chan and John Klopfer, CC ’09, vied for the position of vice president.
The new leaders of ABC, which oversees the funding processes of more than 150 student groups at the University, aim to improve communication with the class councils and the Student Governing Board and to make allocations procedures more accessible.
John, a former ABC secretary and a representative on the Engineering Student Council, stressed the organization’s need to move “beyond the bureaucratic” position that she said sometimes disengages it from its constituents. Chan, currently an ABC representative-at-large and a Spectator affiliate, expressed similar concerns. By distributing regular surveys soliciting feedback from ABC groups, Chan suggested, the board could “make an active effort to reach out to students.”
As for what is considered a rivalry between ABC and the similarly oriented SGB, the board dismissed it as myth. “That’s not the case,” John said. “Both governing boards have the same responsibilities.”
“The relationship between the SGB and others is strained due to a lack of communication,” Zambrano said, but added that ABC can take advantage of this by collaborating with SGB to better serve their major constituency—the students.
John said she is Facebook friends with Arjun Kapoor, CC ’09 and her SGB counterpart. St. Marie also commented on ABC’s image, joking that inefficient meetings can cut into the showing of Project Runway—a show in which he said he is “a firm believer.”
The possibility of acquiring alumni and corporate donations for funds surfaced during election speeches, but Chan said the proposal’s complexity warrants much discussion. Still, she said, “It’s definitely something to explore.”
The board also looks to create a more rapid and effective system of providing financial information to student groups. The present method, based on e-mail exchange, is considered excessively bureaucratic by some, and the new board hopes that a more extensive database on the Web might assuage those bureaucratic headaches. Describing the new site, which she expects will be available by next fall, John said that the board is “pretty determined to get it done.”
scott.levi@columbiaspectator.com