MEINIG FAMILY CORNELL NATIONAL SCHOLARS
EXCELLENCE IN LEADERSHIP AWARD
Betsy Cooper
As a pre-frosh visiting Cornell, I stayed with a girl named Jaclyn West. A primary influence on me in making my decision to come to Cornell, Jaclyn challenged me to think about the role of politics at the university. Currently, the political parties control all the civic action on campus, with a monopoly that allows no room for discussion or the formulation of beliefs outside the party platforms. As a result, many kids are turned off from politics at Cornell from day 1, despite their political involvement in high school. As Jaclyn and I discussed these issues before I had even confirmed that I was going to attend, we plotted out the basis for a non-partisan political organization that would be affiliated with the national organization Rock The Vote. As Rock the Vote failed to set up school chapters despite our active pursuit of their administrators, we reformulated our idea.
Two years later, I can now proudly state that I am the President of the Cornell Political Coalition, an organization that will hopefully change the face of Cornell politics. Modeled after the Harvard Institute of Politics, and sponsored by the Cornell Office of Governmental Affairs and a national organization, United Leaders, we have had some instrumental structural help to make the organization work.
First semester of this year was a planning semester. Jaclyn and I met with at least 15 administrators and faculty, seeking their support and advice. Eventually, we gathered a 4-member neutral faculty advisory board. We established our roots with United Leaders and the Cornell Office of Governmental Affairs. We also drafted a constitution and filled our executive board. Under my leadership, the Cornell Political Coalition established roots on campus that will hopefully prevent the campus opposition from getting rid of us after I graduate in 2 years.
Second semester, we focused more on programming. We compiled a political internship database, with over 55 contacts. We unsuccessfully applied for programming grants, and got $200 from the SAFC. We planned a trip to Boston to meet with United Leaders, and participated in the Student Aid Trip. With all this, we expanded our membership to 30 members. The culmination of our efforts occurred last week with a big debate between Michael Moschella and Joseph Sabia. The success of the debate made the front page of the Daily Sun, and our attendance (which came close to 200 people) was the most well-attended debate publicized this year. Considering it was our first ever event, we have high hopes for the next year.
I have personally driven the organization this year: my exec board calls me the “CPC bitch” because I spend 10-20 hours a week working on our projects. I do it because I love it, and because I want to spread political leadership across this campus without forcing people to affiliate with a political party first. Over the next 2 years, we hope to grow the organization to the point that we will be able to get by-line funding, a high goal for a brand-spankin-new organization
Although I have attended meetings and participated in elections, my major involvement in MFCNS has been through the big-sister program. My little, Whitney Simon, and I have continued our mentoring relationship through the year, and she has become one of my closer friends on campus. I’m thankful to MFCNS for the opportunity to get to know her better. I was also involved in a mentoring group with LeNorman Strong. In addition, I was supposed to participate on the business side of the new volunteer project. I emailed the coordinator several times about participation, and even had Kris put me in contact with him, but I was never given anything to do. I hope that I’ll get a chance to participate more next year.
