General Studies Lounge

This is the email that I sent to the General Studies student body today about the results of the NROTC poll

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brody Berg
Date: Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 9:01 AM
Subject: GSSC NROTC Update
To: gsba@cuvmc.ais.columbia.edu

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of General Studies,

The results of the NROTC Survey given to General Studies, Columbia College and the School of Engineering are in:

* 6913 email invitations
* 2971 valid votes (43% of the population)
* 1463 Yes ("Bring NROTC to campus)
* 1502 No ("Don't bring NROTC to campus)
* 6 abstain

But here is where it gets interesting:

* 4905 votes were recorded
* One person voted 276 times
* And "after eliminating the duplicates and matching the unique IDs with our records, 2971 unduplicated votes are determined as "valid."

(All this information is from Columbia College SDA Advisor David Cheng)

What this means is that there were nearly 2000 votes thrown out of a race decided by only 39 total votes. More votes were thrown out than the individual size of three out of the four colleges in the survey. Furthermore, the votes thrown out were done with no supervision and with a fraud detection strategy only as good as "eliminating duplicates and matching unique IDs."

Now, let me be clear, even though I personally voted No, I believe that this poll result is meaningless due to the huge number of apparently fraudulent votes. I say this out of common sense and because, as a software industry veteran of 10 years and senior in the Computer Science department. My professional gut feeling tells me that a significant number of fraudulent votes may not have been removed.

The November Housing Walkthrough is complete. On this walkthrough was the Student Body President, Brody Berg and the VP of Policy, Michael Rain. Like the October Housing Walkthrough, our goal was to continue to identify areas for improvement and to understand the consensus view from students about their residences. All told the sentiment was that housing was rather good all things considered.

We took over 130 photos of everything from bathrooms, to bedrooms to hallways and stairwells. Contact, VP of Policy, Michael Rain (mr2593@columbia.edu) if you have questions or comments.

• Studio at 130 Morningside Drive
• Couples housing at 526 West 122nd Street
• Couples housing at 530 Riverside Drive
• Couples housing at 604 West 115th Street
• Multi-student apartment at 530 West 112th Street

From the October Housing Walkthrough:

• A one-bedroom at 906 W. 122nd Street
• The Nussbaum Building
• A K&R Leased Building: 963 Columbus

Multi-room apartment.

Out of date/repair bathroom.

Ceiling rot.

Rot in bathroom.

That's right, one set of controls works for the shower, and the other works for the bathtub.

This tile has seen better days.

Wood floors are in good shape.

Kitchen is out of date.

No idea what this caulking was meant to do for these cupboards.

Out of date cupboards are sticky and dusty.

A facilities problem description form.

This apartment is couples housing and I believe it is a one bedroom.

The first box such as this that I've seen on a housing walkthrough.

Excellent, old-school elevator.

Gleaming wood floors.

Another indoor meter.

Nice, new kitchen appliances and cabinets.

Wine refrigerator supplied by the student. This, the chandeliers, bathroom fixtures and blue paint are good examples of the type of customizations students can make on their residences.

Couples housing unit at 530 Riverside Drive.

Grim courtyard and outdoor bike storage.

Wood floor in good condition.

The single bedroom converted into a nursery. The couple now lives in the living room.

Wall/window cracks deemed insufficiently bad to repair by the building super.

Poor finish in the bathroom.

It is tough to tell, but the next two photos show how warped the wood floor is. You can tell by comparing the planes of the book case with the wall molding or the plane of the kitchen table with that of the nightstand.

Who has time for waffles in GS???

Cracked bathroom tile.

Worrisome bathtub seal.

Ceiling rot in the bathroom.

Tiny sink.

Lanoleum!

Half-in wall meter which requires manual reading once a month.

Nice cupboards.

Spacious kitchen drawers.

These photos are from 130 Morningside Drive. The unit is a studio with bathroom, kitchen, and an elevator in the building.

Letters from residents to the super from last holiday season, helpfully reminding new residents to tip this holiday.

Issued chair, desk, book case, bed, mattress and security bars on window.

Healthy wood floor.

University Apartment Housing issued bureau.

Three of these men were recently elected president.