At last night’s CCSC meeting, Council President Daphne Chen announced that Class of 2016 Representative and Campus Life Committee member Ben Kornick had resigned over the weekend. In his letter of resignation, Kornick cited "lack of initiative, creativity, dedication, and work ethic among the current leaders and proposed future leaders of the Campus Life Committee" as reasons for his departure.
Outside CCSC, Kornick is co-chair of Bacchanal board, and has been in charge of organizing such events as the Columbia Music Festival, which brought Hoodie Allen to campus.
At the same meeting, a resolution proposing a reduction in the number of class reps from 3 to 2 came up for a vote. Had the council not voted against the resolution, a total of 4 class representative seats would have been eliminated. However, Kornick seems to have made the decision to resign prior to the resolution’s introduction.
According to Chen, the process of filling the position will be left to the Class of 2016 Council. Currently, they are currently considering an indirect election where CCSC members would vote on applications submitted by students.
Impromptu indirect elections have been controversial as of late, but according to Class of 2016 Council President Ramis Wadood, "given the time and the elections board lack of resources, we would have this direct election in three weeks, and in another week and a half there’d be the election, which brings that person out of power." Wadood added that the indirect election "would be as direct as possible—we would reach as many students as possible, we would blast the student body, we’d blast on facebook, get as many students as possible to apply for this position the student council would vote on."
According to the CCSC Constitution, positions can be filled through indirect elections, requiring “a 2/3 majority vote of the CCSC, in which case CCSC is required to call for nominations from the student body.”
“Class Disparity” and Issues with the CLC
The issues raised by Kornick in his resignation letter have been discussed before. A Spectrum analysis of CCSC's Fall 2013 semester report pointed out that the Class of 2016 Council spent the least ($650) on programming, contributing to "class disparity." In contrast, the Campus Life Committee's budget was $11,456. While Kornick served both as class rep and Campus Life Committee (CLC) member, his criticisms of CCSC have been weighed primarily toward the CLC.
According to an anonymous source within student council, the CLC has faced a number of problems recently. Though it spent $1271 more than any of the class councils, the committee's membership shrunk from 12 last year to 5 this year. Kornick says in his letter that the committee's focus has gone off track, funding "simple events [based] around 'swag' and giveaways."
The source added that last year, despite CCSC funding 2 to 3 events each month, no event outside the "Big 4" — homecoming, Glass House Rocks, Basketball Mania, and Tree Lighting — was run by CCSC themselves other than Bagelpalooza, where council members handed out bagels, cream cheese, and refreshments in the residence halls.
"Instead, money is given exclusively to other groups. The proof is in the budget," said the source.
Electioneering Before the Election
In his letter of resignation, Kornick also claims that despite being the only member of the CLC who is not graduating, he was not chosen as VP of Campus Life by either of the two parties expected to campaign for CCSC’s executive board later this semester. He claims that he was denied a place on either ticket because he did not fit the desired “demographic profile” of either party.
Kornick publicly acknowledges that though registration for CCSC elections begins after spring break— and campaigning before the elections period is strictly prohibited (see Sec. 4, Article E) — the creation of parties is already underway and influencing councilmember activity.
This is perhaps the first public acknowledgement of the private formation of parties that has been well underway since December. According to insiders within CCSC, the council has faced internal troubles as of late due to factionalization along party lines. Such issues were, these sources say, the subject of the “elephant discussion” in the portion of the CCSC meeting last Sunday that was closed to the press.
It also comes on the heels of a mixer held by the Columbia Elections Board this weekend that was intended to help prospective “learn about potentially running for CCSC or ESC.” In their editorial Friday, Spectator’s Editorial Board heralded the mixer as an opportunity to “encourage a wide variety of people to run for student council” to pose an alternative to the “incumbency.”
Kornick's resignation is the second for CCSC this year. In September, former University Senator Cleo Abram resigned, resulting in the subsequent election of Marc Heinrich the following month. Unlike Abram, however, Kornick makes clear the reasons for his departure from CCSC, as outlined in his letter to CCSC below (emphasis ours).
February 15, 2014
Dear CCSC,
I am writing today to inform you of my decision to resign as an elected Representative of the CCSC Class of 2016. I am not happy with the direction that the Campus Life Committee has taken and do not feel that the current leadership can bring about a positive turn of events in the near future. However, please note that out of respect for the organization as a whole, I will see to my responsibilities and obligations by continuing to work on my current projects, including the 9-day Columbia Music Festival and various activities sponsored by the Class of 2016 Council.
This past year, I ran for an elected representative position on CCSC for the Class of 2016, in hopes that I would be able to have a greater impact on developing events and activities that would bring about a stronger sense of community on campus. Urban schools like Columbia often face a lack of school spirit and campus unity. With the resources available to CCSC both on campus as well as within the greater New York City, I was disappointed to see a lack of initiative, creativity, dedication, and work ethic among the current leaders and proposed future leaders of the Campus Life Committee. Last year’s committee streamlined many new and exciting events, while this year’s has just been playing catch-up on the “mandatory” events we have to throw. It seems that we are throwing money at giveaways and events other groups are planning rather than stepping up and planning our own. While writing this, I received yet another email about a proposal to throw money and minimal support at an event RHLO is doing. I am not saying we shouldn’t support these other groups, but we have to prioritize our own work at some point. Further, when one person caused a major setback in Columbia Music Festival, there were talks of just cancelling it. That’s 50,000 dollars. That amounts to a yearly salary for many Americans. Who are we to just throw it away?
This past year, CCSC has been a huge disappointment. The leaders of the Campus Life Committee have been unprofessional, uncommunicative and unsupportive of the members at large, who are working tirelessly to make things happen.
The Campus Life Committee of CCSC has a large financial backing, particularly in comparison to the other Councils and various clubs, and yet does very little, with the exception of simple events around “swag” and giveaways. I feel that the goal should be to use its budget to bring unique and special events to campus that would further unify the student body and encourage school spirit. Glass House Rocks is a perfect example of the type of thing CCSC should be immersing itself in, and, although I imagine the Council might in fact applaud themselves for it, I would caution CCSC to take credit for it, as for the last two years, it was run by non-elected members. All CCSC did was foot the bill. Furthermore, with uninspiring leadership, it is simply hard to stay motivated. Nevertheless, I tried to instill changes to the best of my ability as the only underclass member of the committee, but those changes have only brought Campus Life Committee up from a dysfunctional committee to a functional one, not one that should be praised.
There is so much we could do and it is for this reason that I wanted to run for VP of Campus Life. As the only active elected member of Campus Life not graduating, I thought I was the most qualified candidate. However, both running parties informed me of their decision to go with someone else both less qualified and less experienced than me but who fit the demographic profile they were looking for to “round out their party.”
Putting my issues and concerns aside, I encourage those running next year to seriously think about why they are running and what they hope to accomplish as a member of the Board. I recognize the good work of the Policy Committee but I am very concerned about the Campus Life Committee. The Committee is not in a good place at this time, since its strongest members are graduating. If we do not have in place the leaders qualified enough to make good things happen, perhaps CCSC should move away from planning events and put the money towards sponsoring events produced by other clubs and groups. In other words, if we don’t start achieving excellence, I recommend that Campus Life disband and disperse its budget to groups who could put it to better use.
As far as I can tell, there are three types of people in CCSC. There are those who do a ton of work and come to every meeting, there are those who do dismal work but come to every meeting, and there are those who do a ton of work but do not make many meetings. I like to think I am part of the third group and my resignation is one way of owning up to that fact. I do not see the value in meetings where we sit around and talk in circles and nothing gets done. I hope the resignation of someone in the third category sparks some self-reflection for those who are in the second category. I feel I have worked very hard for this organization, and yet, when the leadership draws the line for potential impeachment or resignation, only the third category is significant. Perhaps the CCSC Constitution should be revised such that members in the second category also qualify for impeachment. Or better yet, that these members hold themselves accountable and consider resigning, just as I have done.
For the most part, my experiences in CCSC have been great. I have met a ton of people who I absolutely love and respect. I want to make this clear, as this letter highlights the negatives rather than the positives. To those I love, you know who you are and I sincerely hope we stay in touch, even though many of you are graduating. I wish you all the best. Finally, I hope this letter comes off as constructive criticism rather than an attack, but ultimately, if anyone has any questions, I invite you to come speak to me directly.
Best,
Benjamin Kornick
The CCSC executive board has written the following response to Ben Kornick’s letter:
Last semester, some members of the CCSC Campus Life Committee (CLC) expressed disapproval of the committee’s direction. Between the end of last semester, over winter break, and throughout the beginning of this current semester, E-Board members held multiple meetings and conversations among all of those involved, including 2016 Representative Ben Kornick, VP Campus Life Briana Saddler, and the entirety of the CLC. These concerns were brought up with the entire general body in a closed session at last week's meeting dedicated to promoting open discussion and constructive criticism among all on CCSC. While we as a council agreed to keep what was discussed at the closed meeting confidential, we feel it is important to note that the consensus expressed by members of the CLC was that issues within the committee had been addressed internally, that they were already seeing improved progress this semester, and that they wanted to focus on moving forward.
The CCSC E-Board will continue working to improve the CLC and empowering its members to plan great events. CLC meetings continue to be public and take place every Sunday at 5pm in Lerner 501. Anybody who is interested is encouraged to come. The E-Board thanks Ben sincerely for the work he contributed in his time on council, and wishes him the very best in the rest of his endeavors.
Additional reporting and content contributed by Daniel Stone and Jake Davidson.
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