Name: Danielle Deiseroth
Bio: Hi! I’m Danielle, and I’m a junior majoring in Chemical Engineering and minoring in Earth and Environmental Engineering. On campus, I’m the current ESC Sustainability Representative and a member of the Roosevelt Institute. You can find me running across campus to Mudd, studying in NoCo, and exploring the city with my friends in between finishing problem sets. I’m passionate about the intersection of policy and engineering, both on Columbia’s campus through the work of ESC and on a national level. I’m originally from Pittsburgh, PA, and will be spending my summer interning in Washington, D.C.
Platform: As the current ESC Sustainability Representative, I’ve developed a serious interest in academic policy on campus from my experience as a member of the Policy Committee. As a rising senior, I plan to utilize the wisdom I’ve gained over the past three years to improve the SEAS experience for the entire engineering community. My main goals as Academic Affairs Representative include:
1. Evaluate and improve key causes of academic stress
I plan to solicit student feedback from across all departments to evaluate the most stressful aspects of each department. From frustratingly long waitlists to trivial lab requirements, I will work to improve the key causes of academic stress depending on each department’s unique needs, as well as the stressors experienced by the entire SEAS community.
2. Revise the first and second-year advising process
Younger SEAS students, especially those who have not yet declared their major, are often overwhelmed with choosing classes and navigating necessary prerequisites for majors of interest. I plan to work with the VP Communications to continue ESC’s current efforts to improve academic advising and expand the opportunities for departmental advising even before a student has declared a major.
3. Advocate for student needs in the Committee on Instruction
As a sitting member of the SEAS Committee on Instruction (COI), I plan to use my voice to strongly advocate for student needs and concerns in front of key university stakeholders. I will ensure that the diverse voices across the SEAS community are represented and heard by the administrators, faculty, and deans who make critical decisions that affect SEAS students.
Name: Krithika Kuppusamy
Bio: Hi! I’m Krithika Kuppusamy and I’m from Houston, Texas, the home of both Queen-Bey and the rodeo. After transferring from Northwestern and changing my mind many many times, I have settled on studying computer science and pre-med and minoring in psychology. I’m an avid consumer of Mexican food, the West Wing, and trashy rom-coms. On campus I’m involved in Club Zamana and I’m Operations Chair for Ignited Voices. I’m thoroughly excited to be able to be the voice student concerns about academics to the administration next year!
Platform: As Academic Affairs Representative, I will provide attainable solutions to reduce stress culture on campus and improve the mental health of the general student body. As a transfer student who has experienced the student and academic cultures of a different university, I am well equipped to suggest new programs on campus that I have seen effectively work on another. The recent tragedies on campus have highlighted a need for immediate and powerful change at the administrative level. I promise to be an accessible and open liaison between student concerns and a complex bureaucracy that often lacks transparency. After talking to many other engineering students, I would like to focus on the following:
1. More upper level CS classes and sections
A common complaint by students studying computer science is the inability to get into classes they would like to take until junior or senior year, with waitlists up to 300 students. As one of the fastest growing majors in SEAS and CC, the demand for computer science classes is much greater than the supply. Working alongside the Committee on Instruction for SEAS, I will push for an increase in the number of available upper level CS classes, while also asking for an increase in the number of sections for current classes.
2. Extending P/F for non-technical electives
I would like to extend the pass/fail options for engineering students to cover required non-technical elective courses. Concerned about their grades in humanities classes, SEAS students take the easiest non-technical classes possible, defeating Columbia’s idea of a well-rounded engineering program. By giving the pass/fail option for these classes, SEAS students will be more motivated to take classes that they truly find interesting and challenging, exploring interests without fear of doing poorly.