CCSC Reforms Campaign Financing

Starting with the spring 2007 Columbia College Student Council elections, nearly all campaign costs will be funded by the council, thanks to a proposal passed unanimously at the council meeting Sunday.

The proposal, authored by Vice President of Policy Izumi Devalier, Class President David Chait, and University Senator David Ali, all CC '07, will allocate funds to cover the maximum amount of posters permitted by the Candidate Rules and Regulations. It will also provide tape and $10 for campaign Web sites.

The council has not specified the total cost for the next election, but based on estimates of poster and tape prices, "the program would have cost the CCSC no more than $1,500 for the 2006 fiscal year," according to the proposal.

Last year, Devalier and Chait began discussing the idea of campaign finance reform out of concern for the election system now in place. Because a campaign can easily cost individuals hundreds of dollars, the authors of the proposal feared that many students would be discouraged from running.

"Our rationale was that the current system gives incumbents the advantage because they're already invested in the council and feel it's worth putting money towards something they want to continue," Devalier said. "But for someone who's new, it's a gamble. ... Why would they burn some amount of dollars when they don't know if they'll win?"

In preparing an addendum to the proposal, Ali, who is also the vice president for policy on the Ivy Council, contacted IC members from other universities and found that Columbia is the only school in the Ivy League to lack any check on campaign finances. Four of the other seven schools already provide some form of funding, and all seven have a limit on campaign spending. Even the Engineering Student Council has a $35 cap for its candidates.

Thus far, there has been no talk of spreading this funding reform to ESC or the Barnard Student Government Association.

Devalier compared this initiative to the University's financial aid program, which also aims to remove cost as a factor and to make the council and the University more diverse.

According to Chait, more participation would ensure more legitimacy and effectiveness on the part of the council.

"I get the feeling people think this reform is just about the election, but it's just the foundation by which people get more involved in student government," he said. "Then you'll see more effectiveness manifest in every aspect of student government."

To implement the reform, the council will be collaborating with the Elections Board, which will have more influence in the enforcement of the rules.

"The Elections Board is very excited about this," said Subash Iyer, CC '07 and the chair of the board. "During elections, we're just as busy as the candidates, but I'm confident things'll be fine."