But apparently, not everyone was as excited as me. About ten people on the council were missing—enjoying SEAS NY trips, returning Homeward Bound at Kim's, etc. I snuck listens to the various coercing cell phone conversations that were happening: "Yo, can you just come for like twenty minutes? Then you can peace." I hope to someday sound that cool on the phone.

The competition was between Daniel Gundrum and Kenny Rivera—both SEAS '10, both into computers, both very nerdy. Daniel, whose oratory skills have impressed me before, again began working the crowd with an undeniable smoothness: "I think you wanna see some of the things I've done." Without even waiting for our validation (that's part of his smoothness), he proceeded to present several games he had programmed in his free time. One of them tested how many times he could click the mouse in thirty seconds, for which Daniel racked up an inspiring 134 clicks, perhaps symbolizing the 134 things I would rather do than play that game.

Bwog just received an email announcing the winners of ESC's 2008 General Elections. It's time to meet your new governing cabal, SEAS.

Class of 2011
President: Kamal Yechoor
Vice President: Chris Elizondo
Representatives: Albert Miller and Dana Ibarra

Class of 2010
President: Heather Lee
Vice President: Lili Gu
Representatives: Gunnar Aasen and Kelly Chen

Class of 2009
President: Kim Manis
Vice President: Erin Svokos
Representatives: Krissie Zambrano and James Tsai

University Senator: Rajat Roy

CCSC Liaison: Kimberly Lipman-White
GSSC Liaison: Epsita Hoque
SGA Liaison: Sophie Chu

Academic Affairs Representative: Boris Mindzak
Alumni Affairs and Professional Development Representative: Pradeep Bandaru
Student Services Representative: Emma Lebwohl

Bwog's Fu Foundation Bureau Chief Tony Gong reports on yesterday's very special (positively Clintonian!) ESC meeting.

Considering the sometimes tedious nature of ESC meetings, last night's was one for the books. And not just any books, like Goosebumps or The Giver (just to name a few... I could go on). Last night, not one, not three, but two council members were formally indicted for impeachment review! To my comfort, the expected bizarreness of discussion about beef dinners and secretive ESC operations made appearances as well.

Highlights from this first portion of the meeting included a brief introduction to the new CourseWorks website from the senate. This new interface, known as Sakai, will feature Podcasts and allow you to physically drag files onto a portfolio from your desktop, which is obviously very necessary.

Fu Foundation Bureau Chief Tony Gong stayed up all hours to report on the biggest night of the ESC calendar year, with the possible exception of Mole Day.

After seven grueling hours, twelve speeches, and far too many handfuls of complimentary grapes and cheese, ESC finally finished up electing next year's Executive Board last night, while everyone I have ever known in my life was sleeping—barring my grandma in China. (What's up Grandma?)

The winners and their opponents are as follows:

President: Peter Valeiras '09

(vs. Prish Dunstan '09)

VP Student Life: Huei Ong '09

(vs. Angela Blackwell '11, Daniel Gundrum '10, Esther Zuckerman '09)

VP Intergroup: Lauren Minces '09 (vs. Gunnar Aasen '10, Krissie Zambrano '09)

VP Policy: Prish Dunstan '09 (vs. Boris Mindzak '09, Ken Yearwood '09)

Secretary: Whitney Green '10 (vs. Jiaying Xu '11)

ESC elects president. No one will have to brush their teeth in Mudd anymore.

CCSC campaigns kick off today. Everyone is promising the same thing. What ever happened to off-campus flex?

Ticket with a funny name, welcome to the big show. Get slapped with a rules violation.

A New face for Bank Street College.

Bloomberg, hates hot water that is suddenly cold, saves tenants.

Intrepid ESC Correspondent Tony Gong inquires into the mysteries of flyer-less class council elections.

In case you haven't heard enough about politics lately, the annual debate over the Engineering Student Council executive board process, an internal system by which the council elects itself, has been rekindled in light of ESC's ongoing constitutional review. But this time, people are angry. And writing articles.

The issue became active again last Friday, with a comprehensive opinion piece against internal elections. But it didn't end there — three ESC members dramatically countered with their equally lengthy defense of internal elections, which printed in the same issue of Spec. Overall, engineers wrote more in a day than they had in six years, so everyone took the weekend off and did some math.

February 22nd marked the official start of 2008's CU Assassins, a game "of espionage, stealth, and resourcefulness" (according to sponsor ESC's website). With nearly 4 days of gameplay behind CU's most resourceful/stealth, the death toll keeps climbing. ESC keeps a record of all deaths that include a description of the deceased at the time of h20 ex machina. Bwog has anthologized a collection of this year's most colorful and most violent death certificates.

Deceased: Xinsuide
Time of Death: Monday, February 25 at 11:02 PM
Location of Death: McBain 6
Summary of Death: Xinsuide, a fierce assassin and maiden in gentle youth, who glows in the midst of thousands of enemies, female warrior, who had laid down her arms for the evening. Faith of friendship her vulnerability exposed, her brilliant form welcomed the sly acting villain into her abode, the enemy. And she [Xinsuide], virtuous amazon, while in gentle trust of the serpent she harbored, turned to offer noble hospitality, the fiend, cruelly, struck her from behind. Cut down by water, all lament, and even her killer is moved to regret.

Seeking comfort after my tragic, yet beautifully reported assassination, I decided to attend another ESC meeting last night. Alas, no comfort; but a merry time discussing school on-goings was in store.

The Alumni Affairs and Professional Development Representative affirmed Columbia's first implementation of the Recyclebank program. But one engineer expressed concern about abuse to the Recyclebank's honor code, citing incidents of students weighing themselves in place of recycled material. ESC's Gateway-tested solution? "Don't worry about it," explained the representative. "People will start to feel guilty after awhile." I quickly made notes to myself to A) weigh myself that night and B), never, ever feel guilty about it.

Our Student Services rep announced Health Services' new Did You Know campaign, which aims to once and for all inform us about what Health Services does. I couldn't help but think of NBC's The More You Know PSA campaign. And, akin to NBC's effort, Did You Know is likely to fail in both reviving John Stamos' career and teaching me what I need to know about my changing body. Which worries me, because my mom says I can't keep calling her about that stuff.

Breaking CCSC/ESC/GSSC/SGA news in the form of new dark horse candidate Chas Carey, CC '08. Carey, running on the "Federalist Party" platform has decided to simultaneously run for presidency in all class councils. According to candidate Carey, his campaign is one of unification: "Class councils have long been powerless against the overwhelming might of Low Library, but if we yoke them together, we can scale the steps and crowthe people with Bollinger's wig," the statement read. You can read the full declaration of candidacy after the jump, including what will no doubt become a legendary campaign speech entitled "The Future Is Now; No, Now; No, Right Then; I Mean, Wait, Fuck"

Bwogger Justin Gonçalves weighs in with words and pictures from last night's ESC Battle of the Bands.

Last night, on the storied stage of Roone Arledge Auditorium, the Engineering Student Council capped off its annual E-Week celebrations with the ESC Battle of the Bands. After five bands ran through ten-minute sets, Crown Victoria and the Kitchen Cabinet were crowned winners, leaving this reviewer wondering whether the university's lack of dedication to undergraduate "underground arts," as discussed today in the Spec, has had any impact on the music scene's creative spirit. Has the creative spirit had been replaced entirely by a (not entirely mutually exclusive) desire to entertain?

The night began with eventual winners, Crown Victoria, whose Teddy Geiger-inspired alt-rock set an early tone for the musical portion of the evening. The band, fronted by Alexander Howard C'09, rollicked through a very tight series of tunes that might eventually find their home in a Budweiser commercial. And for that, they received the highest score of the evening.

Last night, the ESC and their political colleagues assembled for its second formal meeting of the semester. Policy, Glass House Rocks, and mystery were aplenty. Bwogger Tony Gong reports.

The meeting began unremarkably as several representatives of outside groups began to brag about all the things they had done. First up was the CC '09 Class Council, who used the time to present its "Art of Community" campaign, which is a series of projects that aim to "utilize aspects of the vibrant culture present in our community in the form of art, and performance." One initiative involves Columbia students attaching their crayon drawings of "personal images of Columbia" onto Low Steps, fulfilling the important two-pronged objective of community expression and community pollution. I immediately began working on my personal image, which involved PrezBo holding hands with a dinosaur in front of Hamilton Deli.

Directly following that, a student services representative insightfully explained to us that stress was "not a good thing." To remedy student stress, the Student Mental Health Services may be installing an online forum where students reveal secrets for public display, which sounds like it will cause even more stress.

Congratulations to Barnard '11 President Reni Calister! (Time to put the red cup down, Reni). She'll be joined by Becky Gimple and Abbey Warner as the first-year SGA VP and Secretary, respectively.

The wheels of democracy are also in motion over at SEAS. Kamal Yechoor of the Fu-Tang Clan was declared the first-year ESC president. His ticket took 58% of the vote, with over half the Fu first-years completing the online ballot.

And in CCSC news, does the official photo of the Class Action ticket look like a promotional shot for Gossip Girl or what?

XOXO,

Bwog

First, CUIDs actually becoming prepped for off-campus use, now somewhat sensical advising reform? The student council legends were true!

Which of course means the councils get to pat themselves on the back

Changes are coming to Harlem too: a W hotel might be opening

Meanwhile, Saigon Grill employees still treated like shit

SENIOR COLUMN: After four years, Spec's better, but College Walk still eats Prada pumps

Looks like there may be more kids lighting up outside Butler soon--if ESC gets its way, smoking will be prohibited in all suites, the last step in a process that began two years ago with the banning of smoking in corridor-syle housing. ESC passed a resolution tonight (14 in favor, 0 against, and 5 abstaining) saying as such, which outgoing president Dan Okin says originated from "student concerns." He's also been in touch with the relevant adminisitrators--Herman Matte of Dining Services and Kevin Shollenberger of Student Affairs, to name a few--who he says "will move forward if the students call for it."

But are they calling for it? CCSC discussed the proposal at their meeting Sunday night, and decided to recommend no change until the councils get a better read on student opinion (in 2005, 51% of students polled wanted smoking banned in all residences). VP Policy Izumi Devalier noted that, unlike the previous change, banning smoking in suites would leave smokers with no alternative but to feed their habit in the cold. She added that the vast majority of the CCSC e-board doesn't smoke.

Bwog's bet: anything that happens will be because admin wanted it anyway. Sad, but true.

- LBD

The results of ESC's virtual election are in, and the winner is...online voting. In contrast to last week's abysmal turnout at the CCSC polls, over half of SEAS undergrads participated in this year's contest (well, barely...exactly 50.9% voted). And that's without the ability to directly choose SEAS' highest leaders!

Of course, the above figure is an average: participation dropped steadily as students got older, from 77.5% of freshmen to 31.6% of seniors. SEAS grad students, though, took the cake - only 1.3% of them bothered to log on to help choose the school's University Senator.

Full results for the ESC's democratically-chosen positions below...