Names: Ruben Rui Diaz-Pacheco for President, Richard Nederlander for Vice President of Policy
Party: Grassroots Columbia
Bios: Rui Diaz-Pacheco (CC ’18) was born and raised in Mexico, and at 15, he migrated with his family to the United States to escape violence and to pursue a better education. As a low-income, first generation student, he has experienced the indifference of privileged systems. Rui majors in physics and mathematics in the College. He does research at the Columbia Plasma Physics Laboratories working to make nuclear fusion a reality. His two passions are energy research and water-polo. Rui holistically involves himself in spiritual life by being a part of Columbia Catholic Ministry, CFA, and Intervarsity.
Richard Nederlander (CC ‘18) grew up in New York City, and is double majoring in Astrophysics and Music. He has worked on various astrophysics projects with Columbia and Barnard professors, and understands firsthand the difficulty of finding research opportunities at Columbia. Currently, he is the President of the Columbia Science Review and a frequent volunteer for the Columbia Astronomy Outreach Program. With the help of Grassroots Columbia, Richard strongly believes that they can tackle the most pressing issues facing students academically and socially.
Platforms: Grassroots Columbia is a team of student leaders with a vision and passion for empowering our CC peers. We believe Columbia’s most pressing issues can be most effectively tackled from the bottom-up, especially through the smallest unit of community–student groups. We plan to create tangible solutions for mental health, food services, disability services, first-generation students’ rights, and fair and effective space allocation for student groups. We also strive to create school spirit focused on a supportive campus culture by spearheading and promoting myriad student events, including innovative music concerts, science speaker events and interclub community service.
We embrace our diverse backgrounds and experiences that allow us a deeper understanding of the issues facing our student body. Rui, as a first-generation student of color, was appalled by the lack of comprehensive and effective support available for first-generation students. He will fight against the stigma of the label, advocating for programs that understand what it truly means to be a student who has never been taught how college works. Through science clubs Richard found the community support he needed to combat Columbia’s stress culture. He plans to alleviate it by fostering closer, more socially-conscious student organizations. Cindy arrived at Columbia as an avid pianist, and was disheartened by the perpetual lack of space for practice, rehearsal, and concerts on-campus. To expose the issue, she rallied the support of the entire Columbia music community, past and present, and co-authored a petition that brought this thirty-year-long issue to the President and Provost of Columbia.
Names: Nathan Rosin for President, Nicole Allicock for Vice President for Policy
Party: Alliance
Bios: I’m Nathan, a junior from the Boston area studying MESAAS and Econ. I’ve been working on building community at Columbia since Freshman year, starting as an appointed rep and working my way towards my current position as VP Campus Life. I’ve enjoyed working from a programmatic perspective to enhance the community experience here, both through my current position and as McBain Hall Council President last year, and hope to expand my reach by tackling issues from a systematic and policy-focused perspective. I’m a proud member of the Advisory Board for the Undergraduate Recruitment Committee, COÖP, and the Columbia Bartending Agency.
I’m Nicole, a junior from the DC area studying Linguistics. I have been working on policy since coming to Columbia, with projects like shadow declaring for first-year students to connect with departments earlier and recurring appointments for first-generation students at the Writing Center. As current President, I have been working on improving the engagement level of the Global Core, setting up a travel fund for student groups, and allowing double majors to double count classes. I’m proud to have also been a part of the Activities Board at Columbia, the Undergraduate Recruitment Committee and Alpha Omicron Pi alongside CCSC.
Platform:
Nathan: Allyship and Mental Health
In improving the mental health of our community, Alliance believes that recognizing the ways in which different identities interact with and are affected by the culture and policies of this institution is critical. Noting trends in poor mental health specifically and unduly affecting underrepresented communities such as LGBTQ and students of color, we hope to strengthen both the institutional support for and the level of allyship felt by the student body.
Building Community
Alliance recognizes that community exists in small and sometimes isolated groups at Columbia. For those not directly affiliated with student groups or other pockets of community, it can be easy to fall through the cracks. We aim to systematically and programmatically ensure that all students feel a sense of large-scale Columbia community on our campus in addition to existing individual communities. By working to expand pre-orientation programs like COOP and CUE, we hope that more students will come in already feeling a sense of connectedness to their peers.
Student Group Fund
Alliance will work to establish a strong and direct financial connection between student groups and alumni. We will build a program to connect small-scale alumni funding with specific student and student group projects and initiatives, and will work towards establishing a larger fund that will allow for expanded programming beyond student life fee funding.
Nicole: Faculty Mental Health Training
Though there are currently many faculty members who are comfortable discussing mental health, the lack of uniform training for faculty leaves many students unable to engage their professors on the issue. Alliance hopes to advocate for training that would give faculty the tools to not only understand the issues facing many of their students but also to recognize potential signs of their distress.
Sexual Respect Initiative
Alliance will work to reform the current Sexual Respect Initiative so that all students take a different iteration of training each year rather than a handful of students taking the same training every year (because of Greek life, COOP, club executive boards, etc). By having training for first-year students specific to their entry to college and the Columbia community, more advanced training for sophomores and juniors dealing with relationship violence and intersectionality, and training for seniors about what sexual respect looks like post-Columbia, Alliance hopes to create a safer community for all students.
Shrinking Core Syllabus
The current syllabus for Lit Hum and CC makes it extremely difficult for students to complete all the readings in the time allotted causing not only stress to first and second-year students but also precluding them from full academic engagement. By advocating for a reduction in the number of texts on the syllabus, Alliance hopes to improve both quality of life on campus and help more students actually be able to complete their assignments.
Adapting to Political Obstacles
In lieu of recent executive orders, many students from affected countries have been wondering what traveling internationally means for them. In addition to staying a sanctuary for undocumented students, we will advocate for these students’ status to be taken into consideration when decisions for summer housing are made. Moreover, Alliance will work to ensure that all policies and policy changes that affect these students include them in the conversation.
Names: Dave Mendelson for President, Kristen Santiago for Vice President for Policy
Party: Low Beach Party
Bios: Hey, I’m Dave! As your Pre-Professional Representative on CCSC, I successfully pushed the CCE to refurbish the Clothing Closet (a supply of suits and accessories for students to borrow for interviews), oversaw the expansion of the Columbia College Alumni Mentorship Program, met with administrators to lay the groundwork for fall bacchanal, staffed CCSC events, produced infographics on underrepresented industries and fee waivers for graduate school admission tests, and served as a coordinator and volunteer for the CCSC tampon and pad distribution program. I am also a member of Lion Fund, the Columbia Debate Society, and the Mental health Task Force.
Hey, I’m Kristen! I’m a CC’18 student from Houston, Texas, majoring in Dance and on the Pre-Med track. I am a Columbia Outdoor Orientation Program (COÖP) leader who coordinated the biking program in 2016, and I currently serve as the Vice President of Communications for Delta Gamma. During my first year and sophomore year, I was the Space Coordinator for Orchesis, the largest performing arts group on campus, and a Senior Health Educator for Peer Health Exchange. Catch me on campus trying to make a positive change, but if you don’t find me, it’s probably because I’m too short!
Platforms:
Dave: Hey everyone, my name is Dave, and I am running for CCSC President to help my friends and my classmates feel like Columbia is the most fun school on the East Coast. My ideas are uniquely suited to foster school spirit and a sense of community, as I do not feel that the policies and events from this year’s e-board left a lasting impact for years to come. As you will read below, your support for Low Beach Party’s Fall Bacchanal will generate school pride that permeates your lives far outside of just the event; people will love their time at Columbia even more and help bring about the change to our campus culture. This might only be the first step, but it is a step that must be taken to achieve our goal.
Here are the events and policies that I will implement as your next Student Body President.
Fall Bacchanal
Structured as a benefit concert where the artist donates his or her fee to a charity that is important to the Columbia community and the artist
Designed to be perfectly feasible by having over a dozen meetings, discussions, and presentation of financial models to administrators
If for any reason an administrator uses their power to deny us the opportunity to host the Fall Bacchanal, we will host a Concert in Roone Auditorium
2) Centralized List of Campus Events, Activities, and Open Parties
Schedule on our website of all pertinent events for students
Feasible way to increase campus cohesion and event turnout
Option to subscribe to weekly emails summarizing events and parties for the week ahead
3) Open Course Materials
Encouraging the administration to allow students to access lectures and readings from all courses accessible to Columbia College students, just as you can currently do with all courses that you have taken in the past
Promotes equity for students who work part-time and cannot take all of the classes that they want or do not have the time to take 5 courses per semester
4) Inclusion and Equity Improvements
Amend the CCSC to create Sustainability, Mental Health, and Disabilities Representative Positions on CCSC
The Mental Health Representative will lead open forums on mental health on our campus to solicit student feedback; this is something that was not done this prior year
Host a Town Hall for Students of Color and Marginalized Identities to voice concerns that CCSC would not hear otherwise
Create a sub-committee on diversity and inclusion with representatives from all identity-based groups
5) Advocating for a 24-Hour Rape Crisis Center, 24-Hour CPS, and 24-Hour Medical Center.
I placed this item at the end of the platform because we can promise to advocate the serious need for these resources on behalf of the students, but the actual execution required to attain these resources is beyond our reach.
Nonetheless, our job is to convey student needs, and we will pressure the University and convince them that students need these three resources to foster a safe and inclusive community.
Kristen: My Columbia experience thus far has been shaped by the clubs and organizations I am involved in. While I have had an overwhelmingly positive experience at Columbia, I realize that many people do not feel the same way, and I know that there is a lot of room for improvement. I have had the opportunity to make an impact in various communities that I feel strongly about, but being your VP Policy will give me the opportunity to make this impact on a college-wide scale.
I have focused my platform around advocacy for policy changes, as my job is to relay student concerns to administrators to bring about tangible change.
1. Doubling the number of locations with pads, tampons, and sanitary boxes
• Advocacy for the administration to put sanitary boxes in residence hall bathrooms
• Stocking tampons and pads more frequently and in greater quantity
2. Form for professors to identify at-risk students
• Encouragement that professors follow up on students who miss seminars frequently
3. CPS-Specific Advocacy
• Weekly health email modeled after Barnard Well Woman
• Advocacy for Identity-Specific CPS Counselors
• Encouragement that CPS should have a presence at Career Fairs
4. Space Recommendations
• Advocacy for Uris Undergraduate Dining Hall
• Advocacy for Muslim Space in Lerner or Uris
5. Alumni Relations
• Events for alumni to give students resume help and career advice
• Supplementing the Columbia College Alumni Mentorship Program with in-person meet-ups