Representative Standards and Community Partner Guidelines
Representative Standards and Community Partner Guidelines
The purpose of this proposal is to analyze relationships between the Activities Board at Columbia (“ABC”), an official student governing board of Columbia University, and community partners, defined as non-Columbia-recognized entities with aligned interests to ABC, in an attempt to most effectively fulfill the ABC mission and avoid conflicts of interest.
Resolved,
- ABC members should submit a conflict of interest disclosure form at the beginning of each semester, which describes current affiliations with Columbia departments, student groups, and student groups wishing to be recognized.
- If USL enters into a negotiation stage with a non-Columbia affiliated entity which ABC is aware of as related to its mission statement, all ABC representatives will be immediately required to disclose conflicts of interest with relation to said organization. This includes, but is not limited to, a vested (financial) stake in the company, a close personal relationship with a company agent, and personal involvement in company operations.
- Conflicted ABC members will involuntarily abstain from related motions.
- Failure to disclose conflicts will initiate executive board review of the representative’s connection to a community partner; disciplinary action will be taken commensurate with existing representative bylaws.
- The Board will closely partner with Undergraduate Student Life in reviewing non-Columbia affiliated corporate partnerships as it relates to its mission statement. ABC will not independently enter such a relationship with an entity without USL approval. This will include an opportunity for representatives to directly interact with the vendor and service.
- The Board must approve inclusion of non-Columbia affiliated entities in either its newsletter or website by a simple majority, excluding media and news articles. ABC may retroactively remove these materials from the record with a simple majority.