Tanya Shah

Tanya Shah SEAS '14 was born in Worthington, Ohio, though she now resides in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. She is a premed majoring in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in English and Comparative Literature. She was an elected member of the Engineering Student Council throughout her college tenure, serving as the Vice President of Policy during her senior year. She also worked as a Residential Advisor for three years.

Student Council

Tanya's student council career started inauspiciously when she set the record for number of ties in a freshman popular election by tying twice. She was eventually elected as the Class of 2014 Representative and became the primary first-year representative for the ESC Policy Committee. Though she spent a year on the Communications Committee while she was the SGA Liaison and a year on the Student Life Committee while she was the Class of 2014 Vice President, she remained involved with the Policy Committee throughout her first three years. This culminated in being elected the Vice President of Policy in her senior year as a member of the party PSet 150.

Tanya's work on the Policy Committee include the following initiatives:

• Good Samaritan Policy (Responsible Community Action Policy)
  • Tanya helped Logan Donovan in her push to institute a Good Samaritan Alcohol and Drug Use Policy at Columbia University
  • Their work here eventually led to the institution of the Responsible Community at Columbia (RC@C) alcohol education that replaced alchohol.edu as a first-year requirement
• Multiple Meal Swipes
  • Tanya worked with dining to allow first-years to swipe for a meal multiple times during a meal period
• SEAS Pass/Fail
  • Along with Logan and Sheila Misheni, Tanya helped draft and institute a new SEAS Pass-Fail Policy
• WiFi in Carleton Arms
  • Tanya worked with the newly elected 3-2 Representative to have UAH install wifi in Carleton Arms
• WiFi in the Law School
  • Pushed CUIT and the Law School administration to set up a public network accessible to undergraduate students
• SEAS Honor Code
  • With Robert Ying, Harry Munroe, and graduate students, she helped with draft and implement a Columbia Engineering honor code
• Mandatory Cancellation of Unused Space
  • Working along with ABC members and Sidd Bhatt to mandate student groups to cancel unused space and encourage a more efficient use of space on campus
• Grading Policies
  • Led the policy committee to conduct a comprehensive review of grading policies in the engineering school to be presented to the COI at the end of the year

Other policy initiative that occurred while she co-led with Joint Policy Committee with CCSC Vice President of Policy, Bob Sun, include Restoring Limited Commuter Swipe Access, the Green Labs Initiative, and the push for Sexual Assault Transparency with the CU Dems.