Interschool Governing Board Contests University Senate's Attempts To Depoliticize The Organization, Pause Elections And Activities

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11 May, 2022

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By Isabella Ramirez, Columbia Daily Spectator • May 3, 2022, 8:02 PM As the Interschool Governing Board continues to lead a nationwide movement to rename the tallest Teachers College building after Edmund W. Gordon, the first Black tenured professor at Columbia, the University Senate's student affairs committee issued unprecedented revisions to the IGB constitution barring the organization from conducting "business relating to political and/or advocacy efforts." According to Article 1 of the new constitution, matters of advocacy now fall under the purview of the student affairs committee—which consists of all 24 student senators and one non-senator observer from Union Theological Seminary—rather than IGB. Previously, the old constitution did not include any specifics on political engagement by the committee or IGB itself. Article 6 states the student affairs committee may periodically audit IGB and suspend the organization for a period of 30 days with a majority vote if IGB engages in "lobbying for legislation pending in any governmental body; campaigning of any person running for public office; and/or any and all other political and/or advocacy efforts." Other revisions grant the student affairs committee further power over IGB, such as the ability to veto IGB's executive board and delegate selections. The Guide to the University Senate, most recently updated in May 2019, outlines that the student affairs committee's jurisdiction covers all matters of student life, but does not explicitly mention its role in political projects. Additionally, the guide explains that the student affairs committee "works closely with a number of other University governance structures" and lists IGB, but does not detail the committee's formal powers over the organization. When the IGB delegation met on April 22 to review the changes to its constitution, the delegates were "shocked and flabbergasted" by the revisions that the student affairs committee had proposed and objected to all of them, IGB co-chair Krystal Cruz, TC '22, said. After IGB submitted the constitution to University Life without the student affairs committee's changes, Jeanine D'Armiento, chair of the University Senate executive committee, wrote to IGB that she was temporarily pausing the organization's activities. "My understanding is that the [constitutional] review is ongoing, and therefore I am writing to you to inform you that I am pausing all activities of the Interschool Governing Board, pending the successful completion of this review," D'Armiento wrote. "The pause will allow time for you to continue the work of the review and then proceed with activities when the process is finalized." Despite the pause, a couple of days later, Cruz announced the election results for the 2022-23 executive board of IGB with the intention that the new board address the constitutional revision concerns. But Ixchel Rosal, University Life's associate vice president for student life, wrote to IGB reiterating D'Armiento's previous email, explaining the pause "includes the election of the 22-23 IGB Executive Board." Although IGB was born out of the University Senate's student affairs committee to account for and fund multi-school student groups not covered by the jurisdiction of preexisting governing bodies, Cruz and IGB co-chair Tushar Agrawal, a graduate student in SEAS graduating in 2022, echoed that, since 2018, IGB has worked primarily under the auspices of University Life and not the Senate. While the relationship between IGB and the student affairs committee has always been "a gray area" to Agrawal, he says it has not been present for the past year. "They're trying to wrangle us back into submission, and that's just really weird, because they're opportunistically leveraging the fact that this is the first revision we've done on the constitution for three years," Cruz said. "We are to allocate student group money, put our heads down, toe the line—allocate, not advocate. And if we can just do that, then we won't be paused anymore. If we try to do more than that, then we'll become suspended, supposedly." Both Cruz and incoming IGB Chair Jeremy Wahl, GS '22—who currently serves as the School of General Studies senator and the student affairs committee co-chair—believe the constitutional revisions and pause related to the Edmund W. Gordon Tower advocacy, an initiative spearheaded by Cruz to rename Thorndike Hall, whose namesake was a eugenicist, after a renowned Black psychologist. Wahl said he was instructed by faculty members on the senate to not engage with IGB's movements regarding Thorndike Hall as a senator and that the project fell outside of the capacity of the student affairs committee. Because of this, Wahl worked independently with Cruz on the TC advocacy. "Once there is significant momentum, once we get the American Psychological Association on board, once members of Congress start riding on board, once that traction shows up, then they say, 'Oh, IGB can't do that anyway,'" Wahl said. "Now they're saying that actually SAC, they're the ones who have political control. What the hell does that mean?" Along with the Gordon Tower initiative, Wahl says he has "ruffled a lot of feathers" with administrators and faculty members on the senate as General Studies senator on a series of political issues. At the April 1 senate plenary meeting, Wahl expressed concerns over the University's relationship to the Sackler family, the founders of Purdue Pharma and key figures in the U.S. opioid crisis. In light of institutions like Yale University severing ties with the Sacklers, Wahl asked University President Lee Bollinger about the University's plans to address remaining connections to the family, according to the minutes. "What happened is that I've been speaking truth to power, Krystal has been speaking truth to power. It's been uncomfortable for a lot of people. And it's been inconvenient for people who don't want to deal with it," Wahl said. "So now, they're trying to simplify the equation by cutting us out of the political process." Before IGB elected Wahl as the incoming chair, Cruz said University Life pressured her into extending the initial deadline for elections to allow for self-nominations from the University community beyond IGB. Cruz believes the election process change was a result of Wahl's uncontested candidacy for chair and related to a desire to "thwart the chance for a Sackler initiative to be on the horizon." In an email exchange with Rosal, Wahl questioned D'Armiento's authority to unilaterally pause IGB activities and described the action as an "overreaching abuse of power." Additionally, Wahl wrote that D'Armiento's statement was "painfully unclear" and asked for clarification on the matter. "Dr. D'Armiento does not enjoy dictatorial powers within the Senate. She has ample powers and significant influence, but she is not an autocrat within the context of the Senate nor the committees and task forces which comprise it," Wahl wrote to Rosal. "After all, the Senate is a deliberative body that is bound by rules, not mere claims of authority. In that sense, Dr. D'Armiento holds the same power as any other voting member of the Senate, whether they are students, faculty, research officers, or belong to another group. If there is some policy mechanism that I have overlooked, please inform me and the other members of IGB and the Senate expeditiously." Rosal's response explained that although University Life advises IGB and IGB's recognized student groups, "SAC has ultimate jurisdiction." She noted the student affairs committee's location under the University Senate and D'Armiento's position as executive committee chair. In a statement to Spectator, D'Armiento reemphasized her reasoning behind pausing IGB activities. "SAC and IGB are reviewing and revising the IGB constitution, with activities paused pending completion of this review," she wrote. During a private meeting with D'Armiento, Wahl asked her directly where she derived the power to pause IGB activities. D'Armiento clarified that the executive committee of the senate voted unanimously on the pause without the input of the student affairs committee, a practice the executive committee has enacted in the past. At the conclusion of the meeting, after continuing to contest D'Armiento's authority over IGB, Wahl said, "I think we are at an impasse." "When you start engaging in University politics, … you become an equal player in the political sphere, and you become a decision maker and a leader within that place. That's why it is important that I challenge people in power directly," Wahl said. "Everyone who's a major player at Columbia has a vested interest in the most senior people—having a good relationship with them. When I'm critical of someone at the top, it makes the people in the middle resent me, because they feel I'm souring their ability to continue benefiting from that relationship." At the April 29 senate plenary meeting, following a presentation regarding the proposal of a University-wide anti-bullying working group, Wahl delivered a speech relating his experiences on the senate to bullying. He cited mistreatment from administrators on the senate through silencing and said "students are supposed to have access to the room where it is happening, but right now, this is not the case." "With great sadness, I must say to you that our senate is broken. Student voices are being hushed, dissent is being quashed. I find my vote and voice have been watered down through a culture of obstructionism," Wahl said. "People in power at the University administration, and here in this senate, have opted to push away so that I don't challenge authority or the status quo." In his speech, Wahl continues to detail his belief in the University's responsibility to address issues such as the Gordon Tower initiative, the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, and the importance of student involvement. "I fear our senate is broken, but I know we can fix it. We must fix it. Columbia is better than this. We all are. I implore each of you, my colleagues, members of the Columbia community, to swiftly engage with the Gordon Tower project, to follow Harvard [University's] lead and dedicate significant time and resources to addressing the legacy of racism at our institution head-on," Wahl said. "Cold, unfeeling silence is complicity, we need to do hard things together. We must not dither. Here, we have another time to stir." Wahl has decided not to run again for senate on the belief that the institution needs reform and plans to instead continue his work as IGB chair. Cruz's primary concern with the pause of IGB activities is the effect it will have on the organization's over 40 recognized student groups—the majority of which are identity-based—such as the Columbia Student Disability Network, Ukrainian Club, and Saudi Student Association. The groups' funding allocation requests to IGB were due Monday, while the organization remains paused. Cruz and Wahl are uncertain how the pause will impact IGB's distribution of funds. "If you just literally look at the names of the student groups that we represent—that we provide for, that we serve—it's undeniable that stymieing progress or stopping the flow of funds or impeding their ability to commune in any way whatsoever is nothing short of disgusting and unacceptable," Wahl said. "It's wrong because those students should be able to have access to their communities." Student affairs committee co-chair Valeria Contreras, SoA '23, assured that "[t]he activities of student clubs under IGB will not be impacted by this pause" in a statement to Spectator. "SAC looks forward to continuing the work with IGB to finalize the documents," she wrote. Both Cruz and Wahl agreed the bottom line for preventing student engagement in political advocacy through IGB comes down to financial incentives. "We have to follow the money. We're effing with their money," Cruz said. [ "Of course, people simply might throw their hands up and say, 'Well, it's always about money,' but we have processes, or we ought to have processes that are well-functioning to make sure that we're not taking money as bribes," Wahl said. "Things are only getting more turbulent when it comes to having to reckon with our history, and so it is a threat to this institution. It is a threat to our city of New York, and it is a threat to American society, when a powerful and moneyed institution like Columbia does not do this hard work." Although the pause of IGB activities continues to be contested and in effect, Agrawal remains hopeful the issue will be resolved soon and sees a positive in IGB being brought into the spotlight. "Since the work that we have done has actually brought about change, revitalized the campus community, the importance of IGB is immense," he said. "I love Columbia—love Columbia fiercely, … but I think there's a real issue that's endemic that our community gets people to feel siloed. You always hear about how decentralized Columbia is administratively. But at the end of the day, that means that people feel alone," Wahl said. "We cannot be healthy or joyful, or productive students or humans … if we don't feel safe and we don't have places where we can belong. IGB at least does some of that work, so the fact that they're taking that away, for reasons that we're struggling to figure out, is infuriating." Staff Writer Isabella Ramírez can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow Spectator on Twitter @ColumbiaSpec. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.