3 ms·

> "Almost certain" seems like an exaggeration. At my college (Yale), the "student government" was basically just a committee to plan Spring Fling. You can see

> "Almost certain" seems like an exaggeration. At my college (Yale), the "student government" was basically just a committee to plan Spring Fling. You can see their budget online: As a counterpoint, Columbia's student government is quite powerful. There are multiple levels (with different domains of influence), but the most powerful is the student senate - each school is allotted two (I think) student senators, and they have the same level of authority as the senators representing the faculty, etc. Columbia also has a long history of political activism and public protest, and the University Senate was actually established in the wake of the most famous of these[0], to provide students with a structured outlet for supporting or opposing university policies that did not involve literally occupying buildings on campus. As far as elected representation within a private institution goes, it's not perfect, but it's pretty well-executed. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University_protests_of_1968 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University_protests_o...

coulombian 10y ago
The Columbia undergraduate student government was also basically just party planners, in addition to being a feeble roadblock to university policies. The truly powerful group was the student-run Activities Board, which distributes student life fees to a hundred or so student clubs and groups. (Of course, all student governments and groups are subject to administrative oversight and override.)
- chimeracoder 10y ago
  > The Columbia undergraduate student government was also basically just party planners, in addition to being a feeble roadblock to university policies. Not really, though the degree to which that's true depends on whether you're talking about CCSC, ESC, GSSC, or SGA. The student governments absolutely can effect meaningful policies of their own; I know because I worked on more than one such policy while I was there. > The truly powerful group was the student-run Activities Board, which distributes student life fees to a hundred or so student clubs and groups ABC (Activities Board at Columbia) is only one of the four funding umbrellas for student groups. And incidentally, ABC does not fund any student groups related to politics, religion, humanitarianism, or public activism. SGB is responsible for all of those, and SGB's funding decisions are fairly autonomous, as opposed to ABC's, which fall under more direct oversight from the atrociously-named F@CU.
  - urs2102 10y ago
    I'm pretty sure our University Senate does something, but again - I always forget what group specifically does what.

coulombian 10y ago

The Columbia undergraduate student government was also basically just party planners, in addition to being a feeble roadblock to university policies. The truly powerful group was the student-run Activities Board, which distributes student life fees to a hundred or so student clubs and groups. (Of course, all student governments and groups are subject to administrative oversight and override.)

chimeracoder 10y ago
> The Columbia undergraduate student government was also basically just party planners, in addition to being a feeble roadblock to university policies. Not really, though the degree to which that's true depends on whether you're talking about CCSC, ESC, GSSC, or SGA. The student governments absolutely can effect meaningful policies of their own; I know because I worked on more than one such policy while I was there. > The truly powerful group was the student-run Activities Board, which distributes student life fees to a hundred or so student clubs and groups ABC (Activities Board at Columbia) is only one of the four funding umbrellas for student groups. And incidentally, ABC does not fund any student groups related to politics, religion, humanitarianism, or public activism. SGB is responsible for all of those, and SGB's funding decisions are fairly autonomous, as opposed to ABC's, which fall under more direct oversight from the atrociously-named F@CU.
- urs2102 10y ago
  I'm pretty sure our University Senate does something, but again - I always forget what group specifically does what.