At the start of each school year, Columbia’s Activities Board Council (ABC) releases their allocations of university funding for recognized clubs on campus. On Wednesday, Columbia’s chapter of the Young Venture Capitalists’ Society (YVCA) announced they would be investing their allocation for the 2025-2026 school year, which totaled $14,000, into the university’s chapter of the Youth Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), which received $0.
“As students of the market, we are constantly looking for ways to capitalize on the cultural moment,” club president Cash Belfort announced in a statement to The Federalist. “Right now, that moment is socialism.”
Columbia’s YDSA chapter plans to use their recently-received cash injection to bring mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to campus. Belfort says that YVCA is supportive of this use of funds, though they do not plan to endorse Mamdani in November’s general election. “We trust that the recipients of our investments will use them as they see fit. That includes using funds to benefit political causes we may disagree with, like raising the quality of life for the average New Yorker.”
Though Belfort was quick to distance himself from Mamdani’s policies, he acknowledged that the candidate’s presence on campus would likely increase foot traffic and bring money to businesses in the area, both of which would benefit YVCA’s local investment portfolio. “The personal anguish that we may feel when a struggling community member is treated with respect rather than disdain is worth the capital returns we will see at the end of Q4. As our advisor, cousin to the late Ayn Rand, once said: ‘Investors of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your dividends.’”
