CCSC

The four undergraduate student councils have defined the year largely through their responses to events that affected the campus as a whole, while also dealing with internal council strife.

Students, given a slew of cookie-cutter candidates, voiced their dissatisfaction by abstaining in tremendous numbers. How then, can student council elections be restored to their role as an impetus for debate, a source of democratic pride, and a symbol of Columbians’ (generally) progressive beliefs?

After a week of heated accusations before campaigning ended, George Krebs of the Experience Columbia party has been elected president of the Columbia College Student Council. The race between Krebs and his opponent, Alidad Damooei of the Connect Columbia party, looked close until the end, but ultimately Krebs pulled out a solid victory with 58.94 percent of 1,856 votes cast.

UPDATE (7:50 p.m.): As voting drew to a close, the Columbia College Student Council Elections Board announced that it would not accept the alleged rules violation complaint from presidential candidate George Krebs. In a statement, the board said that a previous compromise between Krebs and his opponent Alidad Damooei invalidating their offsetting rules violations would hold despite attempts by Krebs in the last day to revive his complaint. Krebs aired his concerns to several campus publications, including Spectator. "The media focus this morning regarding the Spectator comment made by Diamond was the result of Krebs exercising his rights as a student at Columbia to bring his concerns to the attention of campus media organizations, not a pending rules violation," said the statement.

After years of discussion, plans for the revamped use of Lerner Hall’s sixth floor were announced this afternoon in an e-mail from the outgoing Columbia College Student Council and Engineering Student Council presidents, Michelle Diamond, CC ’08, and Liz Strauss, SEAS ’08. The project would move administrative offices from the fourth floor to the sixth floor of Lerner—a space that is relatively unused—thereby making space for a centralized Center for Student Advising on the fourth floor.

With two undergraduate council executive-board elections completed and two more to go, students are witnessing the peak of the campaign season. To curb such student apathy, the councils should revise the campaign schedule and engage the student body early and often to underscore why student government matters. They must further act to effectively end the favoritism some outgoing council leaders seem to extend to their preferred candidate.

In the midst of voting for Columbia College Student Council positions, presidential hopeful George Krebs, CC '09, said late Wednesday night that he planned to file a rules violation complaint against his opponent, Alidad Damooei, CC '09.

As is often the case, the two parties campaigning for this year's Columbia College Student Council Executive Board elections propose similar platforms with only minor differences. That leaves leadership style as the key decisive factor for voters casting their ballots beginning Wednesday. Experience Columbia has advanced innovative policy proposals and exhibits a good relationship with the student body. But Connect Columbia is better suited to take the helm of CCSC, thanks to its disciplined ticket, its interest in coalition-building, and its familiarity with the mechanics of the council.

After initially drawing from a broad mix of talking points, ranging from sexually transmitted infections testing to academic advising, the debate for the Columbia College Student Council at-large candidates gradually centered around one subject: community diversity.

With fewer audience members than speakers, the candidates for the Columbia College Student Council’s senior class council talked programming and environmentalism in Wien lounge Wednesday night. “The senior class council is an entirely different breed than the whole council,” Drummond said. Instead of policy changes, “we’re mostly dealing with programming.”