Activities Board at Columbia
The Activities Board at Columbia (ABC) is the largest of five governing boards that oversee undergraduate student groups on campus. As of Spring 2007, there are 148 organizations recognized by ABC, including cultural clubs, performance groups, publications, and special events. The ABC recognition affords a group the right to officially use the Columbia name, access to space reservations, and a potential budget.
There are two categories of recognition for student groups, Category A and Category B. About two-thirds of the recognized groups are in the latter category, which provides full benefits. Category A is a more limited form of recognition generally reserved for newer, less established groups. Such organizations are allotted a maximum of $250 per semester by appeal.
ABC has a complicated structure of appeals, allocations, and event approval that enable the board to serve as fiduciary for its groups, laison with the administration, and solve problems within the bureaucratic structure. While the ABC traditionally has received much criticism for its shortcomings as a student-run organization, recent boards have worked to make the organization more into an advocate for student groups in their efforts to build community on campus and create new events.
ABC consists of an internally elected Executive Board composed of four members, usually with prior experience on the board, thirteen Representatives-at-Large, elected by the officers of recognized clubs, and three laisons from the General Studies, Columbia College, and Engineering student councils. These twenty individuals are responsible for approving expenditures, advising recognized groups in cooperation with Student Development & Activities (SDA), and voting on the allocations to each group.
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In campus culture
In the 2007 Varsity Show, ABC was portrayed as a maniacally greedy, evil organization that had started World War II and which denied student groups funding in order to reconstruct the orb that once sat atop the Sundial, so as to determine the location of Alexander Hamilton's treaure. The depiction is a result of the shortchanging many student groups feel at the hands of Columbia's administrative and student bureaucracy, of which ABC is an integral part.
Executive boards
2007-2008 (current)
- President: Paula Cheng CC '08
- Vice President: Dominic McClure CC '08
- Treasurer: Jacob Weaver CC '09
- Secretary: Samantha John SEAS '09
2006-2007
- President: Keith Hernandez CC '07
- Vice President: Lissy Hu CC '07
- Treasurer: Angela Kou CC '08
- Secretary: Allison Fortune CC '07
2005-2006
- President: Stanley Tan CC '06
- Vice President: Shyam Kadakia SEAS '06
- Treasurer: Keith Hernandez CC '07
- Secretary: Robert Wray CC '06
