The Ice Cream Club was conceived on a warm summer day at the end of the spring 2001 semester. Around an almost finished tub of Ben and Jerry�s, the ideal club was staring us right in the face. This is the club that will grow up to be the first organization to both improve the school�s social infrastructure and reform the backward system that governs The Cooper Union.
The Ice Cream Club is able to meet its goals easily because of its policy of unification. One of the maxims that we live by is "There is nothing we cannot do when we are united in the cause." We understand that with the student body unified and its will pure, the possibilities are limitless. This is why the Ice Cream Club exists. As proclaimed in previous ICC literature, ice cream is the one item that will cross petty boundaries, and turn to dust the walls and fences that divide the student body.
Through ice cream socials, Vermonster competitions, and other celebrations, the Ice Cream Club will bring together the different peoples of the Cooper Union, like no other club can. These different events will improve the quality of life at The Cooper Union, and make the student community as a whole much happier. For when creamy frozen sweets are dispensed, a euphoric glow comes over all who receive its rich and wholesome goodness.
This past December seventh, we, the Cooper Union community, celebrated our freedom. At Nine O�clock p.m., the doors opened to the grandeur of the first Ice Cream Social. With the eclectic music playing from the corner of the Wollman Lounge, and the promise of ice cream lingering in the air, the room filled up with people ready to have a good time. As the night went on and as wave after wave of ice cream deliveries came through the lounge, we all mingled, danced, and had a grand time. In all, over two hundred people were served, representing all three Cooper schools, NYU, Columbia, FIT, and other New York City academic institutions. The night was a complete success.
However, at the present, the Ice Cream Club cannot function as it so chooses. It has been the victim of a strange and almost unprecedented decision. The JAC, the body that distributes funds to student clubs, has, for a mysterious cause, decided that the Ice Cream Club, this ideal club, this wholesome, almost holy club, deserves nothing.
The ICC believes that the quality of life can be vastly improved at The Cooper Union by issuing certain policies. First and foremost, every unnecessary and useless program that siphons funds from worthy organizations should be discontinued. The best example of one of these "waste programs" is LEAP. The problems with this organization are too many to list here, and would distract the reader from the point at hand: As unified support for this issue grows, the ICC will stand as a beacon, reassuring all that justice can come from the will of any group, if its intentions are to improve the life of the community as a whole.
It has become exceedingly clear that the current governing powers would not support these efforts. Therefore, the ICC calls for a direct overhaul of the system that distributes funds to clubs. The first step in this process is to revolutionize the way the JAC operates.
The Cooper Union has lived in the dark ages for too long. We have been too passive for too long. The problems have existed for too long. They have been identified, and we, as the student body of The Cooper Union, should not allow them to remain unsolved for another minute. United, and with our frozen friend, ice cream, behind us, we shall be unstoppable.
| Signed, with unburdened flourish, |
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| JOSEPH KIMMEL |
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| SALMAN BAKHT |