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Newsworthy day for belly dancers and linguists, the Fall 2007 New Group Recognition process over at the Activities Board at Columbia comes to a close. There were five groups to make the cut: Columbia Ballet Collective, Columbia Bellydancing Troupe, Columbia Linguistic Society, Organization of Latin American Students, and Onyx.

ABC also released their 2007-2008 budget, which includes the allocations and debts of each ABC-sponsored club, event, and publication. It's available for close reading here. More after the jump.




Winners for most-in-debt:
American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics ($3,941.04)
The Blue and White ($3,510.41) (we can explain...)
Notes and Keys ($1,931,56)
Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers ($1,229.93)
Club Bangla ($1,140.29)

Total amount requested by CU organizations: $482,482.54
Total amount ABC bequeathed: $327,259.33
Percentage of requests honored to the exact amount: roughly 12% (forgive Bwog our errors, we're not econ majors)

See also: Abc

February 18, 2008 @ 10:49 AM | Comments 49 comments | Add comment Post a comment | Link to this article | | | Share on Facebook

Posted by Woohoo: #1 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 11:12 AM (from campus)
mike dreyfuss is the most cunning linguist!!! He is the man.
Posted by Riddle Me This: #2 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 11:17 AM (from campus)
How does the Blue and White spend $12,000 a year and remain unfunny?
Posted by ABCer: #3 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 11:20 AM (from campus)
Bwog, get your facts right... the groups you mentioned were recognized LAST semester. The deadline last night was for groups that are looking for recognition for the spring semester.
Posted by Ridiculous: #4 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 11:38 AM (from campus)
I love it....ABC claims that they only accept groups that do not overlap existing ones....yet we now have how many dance groups? THREE JUST THIS SEMESTER?

And how many organizations devoted to specific national/regional students?

ABC is undemocratic nepotism at its finest.
Posted by Uhh: #5 (in reply to #4) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:02 PM (from campus)
Personally, I don't think ballet and bellydancing have much in common at all. They're about as similar as, say, the Chinese Students Club and the Organization of Pakistani Students. I mean, they're both specific regional interests, but funding those groups, since there's demand for them, is sort of the whole point of ABC existing.
Posted by ABC : #6 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:11 PM (from campus)
blows.
Posted by yay!: #7 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:11 PM (from campus)
yay linguistics!
Posted by na/: #8 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:14 PM (from campus)
abc needs more money! so abc can give more money to its groups!
Posted by haha: #9 (in reply to #8) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:16 PM (from campus)
Thanks Maxine Fortune!
Posted by Nope: #10 (in reply to #8) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:20 PM (from campus)
ABC needs to get it's budget cut, so everybody else can get more money.
Posted by nope: #11 (in reply to #10) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:25 PM (from campus)
sgb needs to stop hating. abc is awesome!
Posted by sgb...: #12 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:27 PM (from campus)
Haha, SGB groups get WAY more money per capita. Plus, they recognize groups left and right.

And, uh, why isn't their budget public?
Posted by WORD: #13 (in reply to #8) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:27 PM (from campus)
So much money is wasted at this University while ABC gets so little.

Also, go Linguistics!
Posted by ....: #14 (in reply to #5) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:28 PM (from campus)
There is absurd overlap: Southeast Asian student groups, Latino student groups, sketch comedy groups, dance groups, vocal groups.

Groups that get recognition tend to be those with connections to ABC board members. Why on earth is ABC not subject to democratic review? They're like the politburo.
Posted by how many: #15 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:29 PM (from campus)
groups applied for recognition? And how many were random (e.g. Texan vegetarians, Simpsons' club)
Posted by hmm: #16 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:42 PM (from campus)
SGB should post their allocations b/c you would be shocked to find which SGB groups get far less than most of these ABC groups.
Posted by so what: #17 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:47 PM (from campus)
but abc groups are better!
Posted by hello: #18 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:48 PM (from campus)
yeah, let's see sgb's budget! where is it?
Posted by ...: #19 (in reply to #16) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:53 PM (from campus)
but the fact of the matter is that SGB groups are a LOT smaller than ABC groups. that's why I said per CAPITA not per GROUP. some ABC groups like CSC are absolutely massive whereas most SGB groups are really tiny in terms of membership.

anyway, still waiting for SGB to make their budget public...
Posted by DHI: #20 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 12:59 PM (from campus)
If these organizations were adequately funded there wouldn't be all this squabbling. Like #11 said, there's a lot of wasted money here. Using money to help students do things is good.
Posted by ???: #21 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 1:03 PM (from campus)
who elects abc and sgb?
Posted by ahah: #22 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 1:05 PM (from campus)
abc is elected by all of the groups at the annual general meeting (april 30th this year)

-abc rep
Posted by ...: #23 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 1:08 PM (from campus)
Didn't you pay attention to the Varsity Show last year? That explains how ABC works, duh...
Posted by ABCer #2: #24 (in reply to #14) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 1:12 PM (from campus)
ABC meetings are open to the public; come review democratically anytime you like.
Posted by ......: #25 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 1:18 PM (from campus)
♪♫ our insufficient fuuuuuuunds! ♪♫
Posted by ABCer #1: #26 (in reply to #24) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 1:21 PM (from campus)
Wednesdays at 8:30 in Lerner 402!

And @#25, the notes, how do you make them?
Posted by better question: #27 (in reply to #2) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 1:29 PM (from campus)
the hell does Conversio Virium do with $1,030? Bondage field trips? I hate this school.
Posted by Bwog Commenter: #28 (in reply to #27) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 1:34 PM (from campus)
AAAH SEXUAL DEVIANTS RA RA RA! I SHOULD HAVE GONE TO HARVARD! IF ONLY I HAD GOTTEN IN! RA RA RA!

BALLET IS THE SAME AS BELLY DANCING! SOUTH EAST ASIANS ARE THE SAME AS LATINOS! I HATE GEORGE KREBS AND MICHELLE DIAMOND! I DON'T EAT FOOD; I'M FUELED BY MY OWN SENSE OF SEXUAL FRUSTRATION!
Posted by meh: #29 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 1:44 PM (from campus)
I just want to point out how awesome the track function is in discussions like this one.
Posted by Robin Hood: #30 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 1:45 PM (from campus)
Fear not, lovely students of Columbia! It is I, Robin Hood. I shall steal from the rich and give to the poor. Then, I shall steal from the now rich poor, and give to the now poor rich. I shall repeat until reaching equilibrium. Then, I shall establish a dictatorship.
Posted by hmmm: #31 (in reply to #26) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 2:03 PM (from campus)
Really? ABC meetings are in 402? The Dean's conference room? How did you convince them to hand that room over to you???
Posted by The King of Spain : #32 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 2:14 PM (from campus)
My generous patronage is available to all who would swear fealty, if anyone is interested.
Posted by debt: #33 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 2:19 PM (from campus)
Blue and White is $3500 in the debt?
Posted by wtf : #34 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 2:22 PM (from campus)
Mock Trial gets $25,000???
Posted by Stephen Schwelp: #35 (in reply to #34) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 2:33 PM (from campus)
This is why all mock trials end in settlements in which the prosecution and the defense divide up ABC's allocation.
Posted by what the hell is: #36 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 3:57 PM (from campus)
American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics

has anyone heard of them?
Posted by yeah: #37 (in reply to #36) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 4:14 PM (from campus)
don't the build the plane that competes every year?
Posted by fact: #38 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 4:40 PM (from campus)
If they hadn't spent so much damn money replacing the sundial ball, this wouldn't have happened.
Posted by what?: #39 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 5:02 PM
They've replaced the sundial ball?
Posted by haha: #40 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 5:54 PM (from campus)
this is just awkward.
Posted by expert says: #41 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 5:58 PM (from campus)
RECOGNIZE THE GADFLY!

common ABC, be cool.
Posted by No,: #42 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 6:38 PM (from campus)
SGB groups are not a lot smaller than ABC groups. Hillel, MSA, CPU, the Dems, HSO, etc. are probably about the same size if not larger than the largest ABC groups.
Posted by umm: #43 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 6:39 PM (from campus)
that's like 5 somewhat big groups...abc's got a LOT more big groups than that. use your common sense!
Posted by Right: #44 (in reply to #43) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 7:37 PM (from campus)
and so does the SGB, but I'm not going to list them all for you. Use your common sense!
Posted by Elections: #45 (in reply to #21) · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 7:46 PM (from campus)
ALL SGB board members are elected by members of each of their groups. One representative from each group (1 each from each of Hillel's 5 groups) attends the SGB Spring Town Hall and votes. Those running for SGB positions have usually had some experience running one of those groups, so it is a grass-roots organization. Groups have the final say on new group recognition and changes to the constitution.

ABC's representatives are elected by groups. But their e-board (President, Treasurer, etc) are elected internally. New group recognition is not in the hands of existing groups.

Full disclosure: I have made a lot of the pro-SGB comments on this thread, so no prizes for guessing which board I was formerly a member of.
Posted by ...: #46 · reply · track
February 18, 2008 at 9:05 PM (from campus)
ABC's new group recognition process is handled by the representatives themselves... you know, the people elected by the student groups themselves.
Posted by ......: #47 (in reply to #46) · reply · track
February 19, 2008 at 2:38 AM (from campus)
SGB's new group recognition is handled by the student groups themselves. The SGB e-board votes on a recommendation for recognition, and then student groups themselves vote to accept or reject that recommendation; two-thirds majority to overturn a recommendation.

You know, the people in the groups themselves. Are you actually trying to suggest the ABC is a democratic organization that encourages student self-government? Bahaha.
Posted by Uhh: #48 · reply · track
February 19, 2008 at 9:03 AM (from campus)
Why should the existing student groups determine whether a new group is recognized? It'd be one thing if the individuals could all vote, but since it's each group, they have a vested interest in not having more competition for funds.
Posted by guy who knows things: #49 (in reply to #48) · reply · track
February 19, 2008 at 9:16 AM
SGB groups also have a vested interest in making sure that religious, political, activist, humanitarian stuff gets done on campus. If you look at their voting trend, they approve the vast majority of groups that approach for recognition and all but one or two that the Exec Board has recommended in the last 4 or 5 years.

Maybe ABC groups would act differently if their recognition system was the same as SGB's, but thats because the groups themselves are of different natures. That's why there are different procedures.
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