The Activities Board at Columbia (ABC) is a part of Columbia's student government that is responsible for funding over 150 student groups here on campus. The ABC is one of five governing boards that operate under the student councils. ABC groups have a broad range of functions that include: pre-professional, academic, competition, cultural, special interest, performance, publication, media, performing arts and large scale events. The ABC is not responsible for any recognized group that falls under the following categories: social, political, religious, community service oriented, sports team, honorary society, or fraternal organization. The ABC operates under the Office of Student Development and Activities, who provides advising and resources and manages all ABC accounts.
About ABC
The ABC also serves the following purposes:
1. Represents and serves the interests of its groups;
2. Makes recommendations for recognition to Student Development and Activities;
3. Allocates initial funding and approves expenditures of those groups recognized;
4. Sets funding and policy guidelines for ABC-recognized organizations;
5. Empanels a Judiciary Committee to enforce above guidelines.
The ABC meets every Wednesday at 8:30pm in Lerner 502. All our meetings
are open to the public!
ABC also has three standing committees: Appeals, New Group Recognition, and Policy.
The Appeals Committee reviews requests for appeals, allocations for Category C groups, and emergency allocations, and makes recommendations to the board. The committee also discusses funding guidelines and policies.
The New Group Recognition (NGR) Committee makes recommendations on new groups' applications for recognition as well as recommends groups for de-recognition. The NGR committee also reviews groups' constitutional changes and applications to move from one ABC category to another.
The Policy Committee pursues projects designed to improve student
group programming. Last year, the committee lobbied for the installation
of a trophy case in Lerner and of magazine racks in dorms, pushed for giving
p-cards to individual groups, established a new policy for giving groups
webspace on ABC's server, and looked into opening up more space in Lerner
for student programming.