Fin. Aid and Galil's Departure Top SEAS Students' Concerns

As students from the School of Engineering and Applied Science prepared to vote this week for at-large and class council elections, Engineering Student Council president-elect Liz Strauss, SEAS '08, laid out her goals for the coming year.

Strauss was elected last week in an internal election among the outgoing ESC executive board. She said that the impending departure of Dean Zvi Galil to Tel Aviv University at the end of the year will shape the ESC's role in the upcoming year. "It's a major blow to the school. He is an integral part to everything we do," Strauss said. "I think a big deal is outreach to the SEAS community because it's going to be a transition year."

In addition to coping with Galil's departure, SEAS students who responded to a Spectator poll stressed the importance of financial aid, alumni relations, wireless internet, and academic advising as the most important issues facing the incoming ESC.

"I don't see enough SEAS exclusive alumni get-togethers. I live in the LLC [Living-Learning Center], so I get emails about CC alumni coming for dinner talk, but I rarely get emails about SEAS alumni or others whom SEAS students might be interested," Kenneth Koo, SEAS '10, said.

Although Strauss has her own ideas, she said she does not have a set agenda she plans on having the new council execute. "My goal next year is to help the council do what they want. I could easily outline x, y, and z, but my goal is to listen to the perspective of the council and what they would like to do and help them accomplish that," she said. Strauss would also like to integrate programming with policy.

Both Kim Manis, SEAS '09 and VP Student Life-elect, and Dan Wong, SEAS '08 and vice president intergroup-elect, stressed the need to reach out to engineers and publicize events. Wong discussed his desire to communicate with student groups from within ever engineering department.

"I'd like to get the engineering student groups more funding and to bring them closer to the ESC," Wong said. "The groups that have been approaching the ESC for co-sponsorship have largely been non-engineering groups. Whenever there has been an engineering group, we really want to help them, and as a council we feel that if there are a few groups who are having these kinds of issues, there might be more groups who aren't aware of the resources ESC has."

Prish Dunstan, SEAS '09 and next year's vice president for policy, said that he will continue to work on the policy issues the council has already been working on, such as an initiative to post textbook lists online before each semester starts, so that students can save money by having the time to purchase books from sources other than Columbia's bookstore.

While responses to Spectator's poll mirrored those of the executive board regarding what issues were important, 66 percent of those polled said that ESC should open up the e-board elections.

"It leaves a lot of engineers out of the loop in terms of the issues we face and how they're being dealt with," Rick Betita, SEAS '10, said. "On the one hand, I guess labs and problem sets take up most of our time, so it's nice to not have to worry about other things like that, but then again we don't really know what's going on."

Some students defended the internal elections. "I think that the system works effectively since leaders are chosen by those who truly know the scope of their work," Alex Weinberg, SEAS '08, said. "I'd rather have my leaders elected by a well-informed few than the apathetic many,"

When polled on whether they would have voted for Strauss or Eash Cumarasamy, SEAS '08 and her opponent in the race for ESC President, several SEAS students responded that they did not know who Strauss or Cumarasamy were, although both have served on ESC for several years.

This weekend's elections will be among the most competitive in memory, a fact that Strauss attributed to outgoing ESC president Dan Okin. "I think that's a huge triumph for Dan and his council-that people have done a lot and there are people who want to take that up," Strauss said, adding that she hoped for an increase in voter turnout from last year.