Hello there fellow Oliner! As one of your friendly neighborhood CORe representatives, I am here to tell you about what CORe is, does, and can be. The Council of Olin Representatives (CORe), meets every Sunday evening from 9 –10 pm in the Crescent room to discuss improving Olin and we would love for you to be part of the conversation. As you may have seen in our CORe digest, this semester we are already working on some projects including improving the GO bike fleet, replacing drumheads in the jam room, and filling student roles on committees. However, these projects are just a small part of what we currently do, and CORe has the potential to be so much more.
Before going further I’d like to give you a brief overview on the history of CORe and its namesake. As with the Honor Code, the partner class invented the governing body of Olin, and the original CORe constitution can be found, still to this day, outside of President Miller’s office. Much like the Articles of Confederation and our founding fathers, this first iteration of the CORe Constitution is filled with great ideas that, when applied, didn’t work out well.
In the early days, CORe meetings consisted of a large portion of the student body; at any CORe meeting 20 to 30 students might have been presents. This was in part due to the massive numbers of students elected to be on CORe. There was the Executive Board, which comprised of the President and four Vice Presidents, each focused on a specific task, like Student Life or Finance and Records. There would be a representative from SAC, the Honor Board, SERV, “Resident Life”, and two class representatives from each class. For those counting, that’s 17 people right there. In addition, leaders of the various student groups on campus and other interested students would just show up and join in. The idea was to have key members of Olin’s community, and any other interested parties, participate in important discussions, such as how we spend the Student Activities fund and what issues we should publicize.
As with any large group, however, the bureaucracy was stifling, and it was difficult to get much done. Therefore, in the 2009-2010 school year, the CORe constitution was rewritten, and in the fall of 2010 a new CORe, emerged, hungry to do more. This is the CORe that we have on campus today, and we have been able to move and shake better and faster than ever before. As a result of the transition, however, CORe became more of a mystery to the greater Olin community.
So I am writing to tell you to be a champion of ideas, give voice to the needs and wants of you and your peers, and most importantly, talk to CORe. We are here to help make your ideas a reality, no matter how crazy they may be. CORe has helped launch a variety of programs on campus from SCUBA diving certifications to wrestling mats, and we’re always looking for more ideas.
Finally, if you’re reading this and thinking you have no incentive or reason to care, remember that every Olin student contributes $175 towards the Student Activities Fund (SAF), which, when combined, totals over $50,000. Our budget is your money, but if we don’t hear from you, we, as CORe, will go ahead and spend it as we please. Don’t let your (parents’) hard-earned cash be spent on someone else – spend it on yourself!
