CCSC election results

Election results for Columbia College Student Council are in and party Stand Columbia is the new winning party for year 2011. CTV News sat down with two of the party members, Learned Foote and Brandon Christophe, to hear about their victory and plans for the forthcoming year.

Christophe was first to speak of his party's victory. "I would say we're obviously very happy about the elections and how everything turned out but we're looking at a really talented and a great board overall next year."

Foote was also happy about the results but more about the process: "I think the campaign stayed friendly all the way through and I have enormous respect for everyone who ran."

The party also addressed what policies they would be focusing on next year.

Christophe talked about one of the most important issues on campus: the tech fees. "Right now it costs 18dollars to have someone to tech at your event and it's going to go up to 34dollars next year. We've also seen a lot of groups going into the red because they are not notified ahead of time when the money is going to be taken from their account and there is no posted schedule for renting the items so what we want to do is to increase the transparency in the whole process so we can schedule the fees and students will know what they are paying."

Foote focused on academics as he said, "we also want to be working on things that affect everybody in terms of academics. We're looking to increase study spaces during exam times, especially in Hamilton. Having it officially open to students as opposed to neaking in. We're also looking at putting course evaluations results online. We're really looking to unify this across college so students can make informed decisions about the classes that they take and have the course evaluations online."

ESC Election results

The Engineering Student Council general election winners have been announced. Amanda Tan defeated three-year incumbent Kamal Yechoo for the post of 2011 class president in this year's only contested election. The rest of Mr. Yechoor’s "Fu Tang Clan" party ran uncontested and will join Ms. Tan. Judy Kim's "The Foundation" party will represent the class of 2012, and "The Roar Party" will represent the Class of 2013.

SGA Election Results

Across the street at Barnard, Lara Avsar, class of  2011 was elected as next year's SGA president. Avsar, who ran on a platform of greater interplay with other groups on campus, will be joined by Bridgit Donnelly as vice president, Priyata Patel as vice president of finance, Megan Shannon as vice president of student activities, and Diana Rastegayeva as vice president of communications. Reni Calister will serve as the new senior class president. Candidates for the senior and junior class councils ran uncontested.

Protesters march for safe streets

Chants filled the air around Morningside Heights as marchers flooded the streets to raise awareness about domestic violence. As part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), members of the group called Take Back the Night held its annual march and speak out.

"People don't talk about sexual assault. People don't realize that there are survivors on our campus. We want to create a space for those survivors to feel safe and speak about their experiences," explains Lauren Herold, co-coordinator of Take Back the Night.

With 500 survivors and supporters marching  around campus, Herold addressed the reasoning behind the sex-segregated portion of the march.

"We have a whole section behind the women's space to be gender neutral. We tried to be as inclusive as possible while recognizing the reality of the issue."

"The women's space has been made to make female marchers more comfortable. We know that sexual assault is a very gendered crime in which 90 % of all survivors are female so we felt that it was really important this year to recognize that."

Herold stressed that the march, and SAAM in general, should be seen as a means of starting a campus-wide conversation about sex.

"A lot of those situation where people don't know how to communicate and talk to their partner or feel uncomfortable or don't know what consent is, a lot of those situations are where sexual assault can occur. So we think it's really important to celebrate your sexuality and talk about it in a healthy and effective, clear way. We really value creating a consent culture on campus which means talking about sex, being sex-positive, making healthy decisions, talking about your desires, communication."

SAAM festivities will include Sexhibition, a sex-positive fair that will take place on Wednesday, April 21, and film screenings to promote consent- and sex-based dialogue.

USenate compromises on Study Days

On Friday, the University Senate's Education Committee reached a consensus no the question of Study Days.

Student and faculty representatives have clashed in the past, with faculty opposing a student-led proposal to begin the fall semester before Labor Day in order to finish final exams earlier.

The new proposal states that students whose exams on December 23rd constitute an "undue hardship" may petition to have them rescheduled to an earlier date. The wording of the proposal allows the deans of individual schools to implement the measures as they see fit.

The proposal will likely be presented at a plenary meeting at the end of the month. If it passes, it will go into effect in September.

Adm. Michael Mullen speaks at World Leaders Forum

As part of the ongoing World Leaders Forum, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff spoke at Columbia today. After having lunch with veterans attending Columbia, Mullen discussed the university's leadership in helping veterans and their relatives obtain an Ivy League Education. The university leads Ivy League schools in having 270 students receiving from veterans' benefits. The conversation also addressed pressing world issues, such as the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Iran's nuclear program. The Admiral also advocated the repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Rule, while President Bollinger responded that the University might then be more welcoming to military groups on campus.

Housing takes unexpected twists

 As anxious students filed into John Jay lounge for housing selection, housing services worked to create a relaxed environment for suite selection by providing candy, sodas, and music. With suite selection at its end, students are reflecting on the process of trying to find the best housing options possible.

"It was really hard to understand it at first just because we were sure what the process was, like how to form a group and all. We didn't know what each building offered and it took a long time for us to actually research and figure it out." replied a student.

 While Senior Regroup appears to disadvantage the sophomores and juniors, this year, it led to new trends that surprised the housing services.

"We had sophomores pick into Watt studio double apartment and we're pretty sure it's the first time sophomores have lived in Watt." replied Scott Wright, Vice President of Auxiliary Services

Senior Regroup tries to ensure that seniors have the best possible housing options available for their last year at Columbia. 

"Senior regroup is an opportunity for the seniors that have entered into suite selection get, it's a one time chance, to reform different groups or numbers of students into a group" explained Wright.

 While some might worry that general selection won't have anything to offer them. Wright provides some advice to those entering general selection.

"I think the only thing I would caution everyone on is make sure to double check our website, it has up to date information about things like summer projects so you know exactly where we are doing renovations and things like that. " said Wright.

 General selection will begin April 20 and will require students to make their room selection online.

Pulitzer Prizes

On Monday, Columbia University announced the 94th Annual Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism, Letters, Drama and Music. The Bristol Herald Courier won the coveted public service prize. The Courier is a newspaper from southwestern Virginia with a circulation of just 29,000. ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization, became the first online news source to win print journalism’s most prestigious prize. Other notable winners include the Washington Post, which received four prizes, and the New York Times, which received three.

Sports Roundup

The mens' rowing team competed for their third Blackwell Cup win only to be foiled by Yale. Coaches say a last minute change to the lineup affected the team but felt overall they had a good race. The Lions will host Boston University and Syracuse for the Doc Lusins Trophy on Orchard Beach Lagoon. 

UC Davis will be cutting four of its 27 intercollegiate programs for the next coming year due to cuts in state funding. UC Davis announced that it will cut womens' rowing and mens' swimming, wrestling, and indoor track and field. 

Runners race to save lives

Each year, Relay for Life seeks to raise funds and awareness in the fight against cancer. On Saturday, here at Columbia, students jogged and walked in Dodge Fitness Center for twelve hours in support of this event.

"People who are interested in participating will form teams with their friends and then they'll come and try to raise money."

"It's the same thing across the entire globe. It's become the American Cancer Society's signature fundraiser as well as the largest not-for-profit fundraiser in the world."

"I think we raised a little over fifty thousand dollars and that money goes directly towards things like research or advocacy work, providing care for people who can't afford it."

The organizers sought not only the Columbia community's contribution but also wished to have an impact on the student body.

"To get involved, there are endless possibilities because we have kind of a level of evolvement for everybody. You can do Relay for Life as a participant, and that's a great way to get involved. And so you just show up one day and you do some fundraising and that's it."

"One thing is that a lot of people feel like cancer is not really something they can relate to but we try to put a lot of emphasis on survivors. There are actually a few survivors at Columbia and there are actually some survivors in the committee."

Many groups on campus contributed their time and effort to make Relay for Life a success, ensuring that their seemingly small efforts count in the larger efforts of the American Cancer Society.

"We've been doing a lot of recruitment this year. A lot of it is getting people excited for Relay and I think that was really good in that people were really excited to come."

"The cancer survival rate is higher than it has ever been and it's great but it's not enough because one in three people will be affected by cancer in their lifetime and that's too much. That's why we're here."