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Spectator Welcomes you to
Columbia University
Orientation 2017 illustration by Kate Gerhart
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welcome
Editor’s note Dear new students, Welcome to Columbia! You are about to embark on some of the most exhilarating and fulfilling years of your life. To help you orient yourself on campus and prepare for classes, we have compiled this special issue as your guide to Columbia. NSOP is an exhausting but once-in-a-lifetime adventure. You will be thrust into a million new experiences, meet dozens of new people, and encounter a whirlwind of information and an overwhelming number of decisions to make. We’re here to help you with all of it. Over the next four years, expect a variety of content from us that will inform, engage, and help you get the most out of your Columbia experience. This orientation guide is just the start. ABOUT SPECTATOR Spectator is a financially independent, student-run organization that producescreates a collection of publications, products, and events. Our mission is to create content that makes an active intervention in enhancing the Columbia experience. The Columbia Daily Spectator—our newspaper and the nation’s second oldest college daily—is at the core of that mission. Every day, our journalists uphold a 141-year tradition of writing hard-hitting stories that hold those in power accountable to their decisions. You can learn more about our publications, products, and events by visiting specpublishing.com/about. JOINING SPECTATOR AND WORK-STUDY We believe that becoming a Speccie is the best way to spend your four years at Columbia. Joining us means joining a community of sharp and passionate students who are constantly pushing themselves—and the people and communities around them—to be better. Through the work they do at Spectator on our journalism, business, or tech teams, Speccies grow as leaders, thinkers, and people, gaining transferable skills that apply to any career path they choose to pursue. We’re also committed to ensuring that anyone who wants to become a Speccie can—that’s why we’re proud to offer some of the best work-study jobs on campus. If you qualify for work-study, even as a first-year, you can apply to our program right away. Be sure to come to an open house or check out joinspec.com to learn more about various ways you can get involved. We hope you find this guide useful, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly at
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Catie Edmondson J. Clara Chan Anurak Saelaow Editor in Chief
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Contents STORIES TO WATCH..........................3 class of 2021.................................8 WHO’S WHO..................................9,12 MOHI, AT A GLANCE........................10 116 TRADITIONS.................................14 academics.........................................16 STUDENT leaders...........................17 SPORTS................................................18 OPINION...............................................19
orientation staff Catie Edmondson, Editor-in-Chief J. Clara Chan, Managing Editor Anurak Saelaow, Publisher
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stories to watcH
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Lawsuit targets Columbia’s Title IX compliance BY AARON HOLMES Spectator Senior Staff Writer Student activism has placed Columbia squarely at the forefront of a larger national movement to reduce sexual assault on college campuses in recent years, with advocates leading a push to change University policies to better support survivors and make it easier to report assault. After Emma Sulkowicz’s 2014 senior art thesis “Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight)” brought national attention to her reports of sexual assault at Columbia, activist groups No Red Tape and Coalition Against Sexual Violence pressured administrators to overhaul the University’s genderbased misconduct policy. But even after sweeping changes, Columbia’s handling of sexual assault reports
remains the target of scrutiny—specifically through the lens of Title IX, a federal law that prohibits gender-based discrimination or exclusion. Last spring, Spectator reported that Columbia is the subject of at least four Title IX complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. And in March, a student filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Columbia took too long to investigate her reports of rape and failed to provide adequate accommodations. Columbia’s attorneys argued in that lawsuit that the University is not responsible for the conduct of students—even those living in its residence halls—and that its bureaucratic systems of providing accommodations and investigating reports of assault are reasonable. The ultimate ruling on the
lawsuit, however, is difficult to predict. According to legal experts, there is little court precedent dictating the specifics of how universities are required to handle sexual assault reports, meaning the outcome of the suit is likely to set a new national precedent. In the coming months, findings and testimony from the lawsuit will renew activist pushes for reformed University policies. But the state of anti-sexual violence activism on campus is radically different from its height following Sulkowicz’s performance piece, with No Red Tape as the only remaining group. Yearly turnover has shifted the group’s agenda in past semesters, making the future of this movement on campus one to watch as it evolves. aaron.holmes @columbiaspectator.com
RYA INMAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
REAFFIRMATION | Bollinger has signaled that he will remain a defender of affirmative action.
Affirmative action faces national scrutiny BY ELI LEE Spectator Staff Writer As the Trump administration moves to target affirmative action policies and sue universities that practice them, University President Lee Bollinger’s vocal support for affirmative action could place Columbia in conflict with the Department of Justice. The Justice Department has announced it will investigate admissions policies that it deems discriminatory against white applicants. Meanwhile, pending lawsuits across the nation are challenging affirmative action, including a complaint by 64 Asian-American associations alleging that Harvard University’s affirmative action policies unfairly discriminate against Asian applicants by giving an edge to black and Latinx
students with comparable test scores. Bollinger has signaled that he will continue to defend affirmative action as he has in the past. As president of the University of Michigan, Bollinger was the defendant in a 2003 Supreme Court case that upheld precedent allowing race-conscious admissions policies, and has since penned op-eds and made numerous public statements in support of affirmative action. Bollinger came out in support of the Supreme Court’s 2016 decision upholding the University of Texas’ diversity policies in a public statement. “With today’s decision, the Supreme Court has ensured that our nation’s universities and colleges can continue to assemble the kind of truly diverse student bodies that are essential
to achieving the highest levels of excellence,” Bollinger said. “The fact is, affirmative action in higher education has been overwhelmingly successful and we should be proud of the impact it has had not only on college campuses....” The New York Times reported that the Trump administration has already solicited lawyers to investigate and argue cases against affirmative action policies, potentially placing these views in the crosshairs of a Justice Department lawsuit. If litigation makes it to the Supreme Court, where the last affirmative action case was decided on 4-3 ruling, Columbia alumnus Neil Gorsuch, CC ’88, could tip the balance in favor of the Trump administration. eli.lee @columbiaspectator.com
YASMINE AKKI / SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER
SPEAKING OUT Investigations question Columbia’s handling of sexual assault reports. |
JAIME DANIES / SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
FIGHTING STATISTICS | Columbia’s suicide rate has outpaced the national college average.
The fight for mental health support continues BY AARON HOLMES AND RAHIL KAMATH Spectator Staff Writers Long a topic of advocacy and activism on campus, the issue of mental health was given a new level of urgency in the past year, with at least six student deaths since last September adding to perennial concern surrounding Columbia’s unique culture of stress. A Spectator investigation in January showed that Columbia’s undergraduate suicide rate in the past decade far outpaced the national college average and that the University’s practices for suicide prevention and post-suicide protocol fell behind expert-recommended best practices. Students of color and international students were also shown to face a disproportionate level of risk. Last spring, administrators announced the formation of a steering group on mental health tasked with assessing existing resources across campus and
recommending University-wide improvements. Additionally, the Jed Foundation—a suicide prevention organization founded by a Columbia College alumnus— will partner with the steering group to spearhead an internal investigation of mental health crises at Columbia. Going forward, a primary focus of the steering group will be Columbia’s Counseling and Psychological Services—a constant target of student complaints throughout the years. The most common grievances students voiced about CPS revolve around scheduling appointments, as many students must wait at least two weeks just to see a clinician. Additional difficulties with CPS’s phone triage system further deter students from seeking mental health support, only adding to the host of obstacles that impede students from receiving treatment at Columbia. The University has also begun to push for an increase in the number of students
accessing mental health care on campus. Reducing risk for suicide on campus in the future is likely to hinge on the effort to increase the number of “gatekeepers,” or people who can identify students at risk for suicide and intervene in time. In the week following Spectator’s reporting on Columbia’s suicide rate, Executive Vice President of University Life Suzanne Goldberg announced that suicide prevention gatekeeper training would be made available to all University staff and that the University would increase its mental health awareness programming. Shortly after Goldberg’s announcement, Dean of Columbia College James Valentini also announced that all Columbia College staff would be mandated to receive gatekeeper training going forward. No such widespread training, however, has been mandated for faculty or students.
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stories to watcH
JAIME DANIES / SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
OPEN SEASON
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The two newly-opened buildings, the Jerome L. Greene Science Center and the Lenfest Center for the Arts, will house research, graduate programs, and performance space.
New buildings open at Manhattanville as majority of new campus remains under construction BY ELI LEE Spectator Staff Writer Columbia will begin the next academic year with two new buildings on its recently opened Manhattanville campus. The Manhattanville campus is a 17-acre tract of land at 125th Street the University acquired for use as an additional campus in 2003. Approved by the New York City Planning Commission and City Council four years later, all seven buildings on Manhattanville
are now slated to be completed by 2030. The expansion, the first of its kind in 120 years, offers the University a chance to increase its influence and prestige and is seen as University President Lee Bollinger’s most significant accomplishment in office. Columbia has the least square footage per student of any Ivy League institution, which drove the University’s desire for more space. Specifically, the prospect of new classrooms and offices vacated on the
Morningside campus by graduate departments moving to Manhattanville is highly attractive for cramped undergraduate academic departments. The two completed buildings are the Jerome L. Greene Science Center and the Lenfest Center for the Arts. The University Forum and Academic Conference Center is slated to open at some point in 2018, while a new building for the Business School will be completed in 2021. Manhattanville has enough
space for seven more buildings beyond those already planned. Research will begin this year at the centerpiece of the Manhattanville campus: the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. This building includes cuttingedge labs for faculty from across the University, though the degree to which undergraduate departments and students will be involved appears limited. As the relocation of the Business School from Uris Hall to Manhattanville in
2021 approaches, Arts and Sciences—the main administrative unit for most departments in which undergraduates take classes and the promised recipient of the vacated Uris Hall—has begun jockeying between departments for the chance to take over the vacated space. The Student Affairs Committee of the University Senate, a set of student senators responsible for student life, organizations, housing, and community, is also interested and is campaigning for the inclusion of
student spaces in Uris. The Lenfest Center for the Arts opened last spring and hosted its first art exhibition in June. The completion of the building offers the School of the Arts better performance space, but its lack of office and classroom space means that the School of the Arts will continue to occupy Dodge Hall on the Morningside Campus. With Dodge still occupied, Arts and Sciences departments will continue to struggle with space.
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JAIME DANIES / SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
TIPPED CAP |
Administrators have sought to implement policies that curtail student stress.
New policies lower credit caps per term BY ELI LEE Spectator Staff Writer Under a new set of policies announced last spring, Columbia College and School of General Studies students will now only be able to take 18 credits per semester. Two other new policies also take effect for the first time this fall, including restricting students to majoring, minoring, or concentrating in only one subject, and allowing students to double count some courses toward their programs of study. Limiting the number of
classes that students take is part of an effort by administrators to combat Columbia’s stress culture. The need to address the impact of high pressure academics on students’ mental health has become especially urgent after a spate of undergraduate suicides last year. The policy changes were the work of the Committee on Instruction, a powerful body that sets all academic programming, like accreditation and credit policies, for all Columbia undergraduates. The committee announced the policies an entire year after voting
to make the changes. Dean of Columbia College James Valentini, who also chairs the commitee, outlined the policies in an email to the student body shortly after finals concluded. Students that could be particularly affected by the new policies include double majors and those graduating early. Valentini’s email did not specify whether exemptions might be granted to students whose current academic plans would be disrupted by the policies. eli.lee @columbiaspectator.com
stories to watcH
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COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO / JASON SMITH
NEW HERE | Beilock’s hiring fulfilled calls from faculty for a president with an academic background.
Beilock inherits fundraising, divestment challenges as Barnard president BY AUBRI JUHASZ Columbia Daily Spectator AARUSHI JAIN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
IMPACT | As Trump implements policies chaotically, their effects have been felt on Columbia’s campus.
Columbia students feel impact of Trump policies BY AARON HOLMES Spectator Senior Staff Writer As President Donald Trump’s agenda has been chaotically implemented in the past eight months, with sweeping changes to immigration law, health care, and foreign policy often announced overnight, impacts have been felt almost immediately on Columbia’s campus at every turn. Last November, hundreds of students and faculty gathered outside Low Library repeatedly to demand a sanctuary campus for undocumented students. The University complied, announcing that it would keep students’ documentation status confidential from federal immigration authorities. Going forward, the
security of undocumented students will hinge on whether Trump maintains his promise to rescind the Obama-era Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program, which grants work eligibility to undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as children. Under pressure from activists, Columbia vowed last year to bolster financial aid for students who would lose the eligibility to work if the program ends—currently, it remains under review by the Department of Justice. International students at Columbia have also been directly targeted by Trump’s executive orders suspending travel from several majority-Muslim countries. While those orders were overturned by federal courts before the end of last year, certain
provisions have since been upheld by the Supreme Court pending its final decision, and the details of their implementation remain murky. Columbia has made free legal advice available to affected students but has not addressed students’ calls for guaranteed housing should their ability to travel home be cut off (administrators review emergency housing requests on a case-by-case basis). Trump has also proposed sweeping cuts to arts, humanities, and research funding—all of which provide millions of dollars to Columbia annually. None of these cuts have been implemented, but Republicancontrolled Congress is expected to vote on budget changes when it reconvenes this fall. aaron.holmes @columbiaspectator.com
Sian Leah Beilock was appointed as Barnard College’s eighth president on July 1, following a five-month search process after the unexpected departure of Debora Spar. Spar, who was hired as Barnard’s president in 2008, left the college in March—despite being contracted through May 2018—to serve as president and CEO of Lincoln Center. During the search process, Chief Operating Officer Rob Goldberg served as interim president but has now returned to his original role with the appointment of Beilock. During her time at Barnard, Spar was responsible for
the creation of the Athena Leadership Center, the Milstein Teaching and Learning Center, which is scheduled to be completed by fall 2018, and the ongoing $400 million capital campaign called The Bold Standard. The appointment of Beilock, who previously served as the University of Chicago’s executive vice provost and was the Stella M. Rowley Professor in the Division of the Social Sciences, fulfilled calls from the Barnard faculty for a president with a prominent academic background. A cognitive scientist by training, Beilock’s research has focused on the impact of stress on individual performance, with a focus on how women and girls perform in math and
science. At UChicago Beilock was responsible for starting a program to help prepare graduates for careers in academia, government, and the nonprofit sector, among other fields. She also oversaw the school’s engagement with the surrounding community and several campus building projects. At Barnard, Beilock will take on several unfinished projects, including the completion of the Milstein Teaching and Learning Center, the final phase of the capital campaign, implementation of new diversity standards, and divestment of college finances from companies that deny climate science. aubri.juhasz @columbiaspectator.com
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NEW TERMS | Barnard President Sian Beilock was not involved in contract negotiations.
Union contract to be implemented at Barnard BY AINSLEY BANDROWSKI Spectator Staff Writer The Barnard contingent faculty union reached a first contract with Barnard College in February after a year of tense negotiations, narrowly averting a strike deadline. The contract, which was ratified by the union’s membership in March. will go into effect for the 2017-2018 academic year. The Barnard contingent faculty union represents over 200 members of Barnard’s adjunct and full-time non-tenured faculty. These are faculty members who are contracted on a per-semester or per-year basis and are limited in the number of courses that they teach. Prior to the ratification of their union contract, these faculty members did not receive benefits such as health care. But the path to the contract
stalled for several months as the union and college struggled to come to an agreement. The union and college continued negotiating over the contract throughout fall of 2016, with the union voting to commence strike authorization last November. The motion passed, allowing the union to set a strike deadline without prior consultation with the college. In January, the union announced that a strike would commence on Feb. 21 if a contract had not been agreed to by then. But five days before the strike deadline, the college and union reached a tentative agreement over a first contract that provided for a minimum base pay for courses of three credits or more of $10,000 by 2021, an increase of $4,000 from the current rate. Term faculty, who are contracted on yearly or multi-year contracts,
will receive $70,000 per year at minimum by 2021, an increase of $10,000 from the current base pay. Barnard will additionally contribute half of the percentage it allocates for full-time faculty benefits toward contingent faculty benefits—which include dental, vision, and medical coverage—for adjuncts teaching nine credits or more in an academic year. Faculty not meeting this threshold will now have the option to purchase a plan at full value. Term faculty will continue to be covered under the same plan as full-time faculty. Though the contract is set to go into effect in September, Barnard President Sian Beilock was not involved in the negotiations, as her tenure began several months after the contract was ratified. ainsley.bandrowski @columbiaspectator.com
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stories to watcH
Committe continues search for new General Studies dean BY CARA MAINES Columbia Daily Spectator A new dean of the School of General Studies has not yet been named despite efforts to find a replacement for Peter Awn this summer after he stepped down this past spring. Awn, who served as dean for 20 years and was beloved by students, steps down at a time when General Studies is at a crossroads. The next dean will face challenges that could redefine General Studies in the decades to come, such as significant budgetary obstacles. General Studies faces financial constraints and needs to increase revenue in order to meet the needs of its nontraditional students. As a result, unlike Columbia’s other undergraduate schools, General Studies is unable to offer guaranteed housing or full need-based financial aid. The next dean will have to balance the financial interests of the University and the needs of its nontraditional students. During Awn’s tenure as dean, the school underwent numerous changes. General Studies has risen in terms of academic reputation and affordability while increasing the number of military veterans, international students, and students in dual-degree programs. Awn was praised by faculty and students for his efforts to expand General Studies programs and opportunities while keeping the school tight-knit. He is staying on as a member of the faculty after stepping down from his administrative position. A new dean will be announced by January. A search committee steered by University President Lee Bollinger and
YASMINE AKKI / SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
HELP WANTED
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The next dean will face budgetary obstacles and other challenges that could redefine General Studies in the decades to come.
Executive Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences David Madigan has not released any information about the potential candidates
for the position, although the search has been underway for eight months. Notably, the committee does not include any students, which has not been the
case in the search for deans of other Columbia schools, but students have been consulted in the process. Members of the committee
previously said the position would likely be filled over the summer. But with the academic year rapidly approaching, Awn will remain in his previous
position and the leadership of General Studies remains up in the air. cara.maines @columbiaspectator.com
AARUSHI JAIN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
MAKING A LIST
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Barnard’s divestment task force will make a list of climate change deniers and begin divesting from shares in those companies.
Following landmark decision, Barnard begins process of fossil fuel divestment BY AUBRI JUHASZ Columbia Daily Spectator Barnard has begun the process of divesting from companies that deny climate change, as well as companies that mine coal and tar sands. Barnard’s decision to partially divest came more than a year after student activist group Divest Barnard first called on the college to divest from fossil fuels. In response, the college assembled the Presidential Task
Force to Examine Divestment, a group of students, faculty, and trustees assembled to analyze the financial and economic paths to divestment. The group published its findings in a report last December that helped inform and provided recommendations to the board of trustees, which voted in favor of the divestment agreement last March. The decision came nine days before Columbia’s board of trustees voted on March 13
to divest from thermal coal producers, which would be the first sweeping fossil fuel divestment move that Columbia has made. At present, Barnard’s endowment—which totaled $286.8 million as of June 2016— is invested in a commingled fund with 13 other institutions managed by the firm Investure, LLC. Institutions with smaller assets often benefit from commingled funds due to the higher revenue produced, but
outsourcing endowment management makes it difficult to implement institution-specific requests since all the money is pooled. While the board’s decision to accept the recommendation was celebrated as a win, then-interim president and Chief Operating Officer Rob Goldberg—who chaired the task force—acknowledged that implementation would be a “challenge,” but that the college was looking forward to taking it on.
The first step of the implementation process includes creating a working definition of “climate deniers” and establishing an implementation task force to oversee the process, according to Goldberg. With that information, the college can then analyze companies to determine whether they meet certain criteria and then work with an endowment manager to ethically divest and reinvest. At the time, Goldberg also noted the novelty of Barnard’s
approach—at the time of writing, Barnard is still the only American college or university to divest from fossil fuels using the task force’s proposed method. Despite the landmark nature of their decision, the college has offered no further updates on divestment since March and the formation of an implementation task force has yet to be announced. aubri.juhasz @columbiaspectator.com
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KATHERINE GERBERICH / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
NEARLY THERE | Construction will continue throughout the year, with interior finishing scheduled to end in May 2018. TRINITY LESTER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
TRUMP CARD | Now that the NLRB has new Republican leadership, it could overturn the decision allowing graduate students to unionize.
New labor board could imperil graduate student unionization BY CARA MAINES Spectator Staff Writer With President Donald Trump’s recent appointment of two new members to the National Labor Relations Board, graduate student unionization efforts could falter. Columbia’s graduate students have sought to unionize for years and had gained a landmark victory last fall when the NLRB overturned a precedent set by a case involving Brown University that banned graduate students from unionizing. Now that the NLRB has new Republican leadership,
it remains uncertain whether last fall’s decision—made by a left-leaning board—will be overturned. After the NLRB overturned the Brown precedent last year, graduate students voted 1602 to 623 to join Graduate Students of Columbia-United Auto Workers. While the University argued that unionization would reclassify graduate students as workers rather than scholars, graduate students contended that joining a union would help improve issues including payment and health care. In the weeks following the
election, the University filed objections to the vote with the regional office of the NLRB, setting off what could become a multiyear legal battle. The objections, which called for a new election, claimed improper conduct during voting. After the regional office of the NLRB rejected the objections, the University filed exceptions to the objections, sending the case to the national board. The previously left-leaning federal NLRB will shift right with the appointments of Marvin Kaplan and William Emanuel to the five-member board. Although the NLRB still
has months to decide whether to uphold the objections, the appointment of two new Republican board members could mean a decision in the University’s favor. If the objections are upheld, the results of the union’s election will be nullified, and a new vote will be held. The union has continued to organize while awaiting the decision, but if another election on unionization is held, GWCUAW will have to garner any momentum lost over the past few years. cara.maines @columbiaspectator.com
Barnard’s Teaching and Learning Center set to open BY AINSLEY BANDROWSKI Spectator Staff Writer Barnard’s new Milstein Teaching and Learning Center—named after Cheryl Glicker Milstein, BC ’82, and Philip Milstein, CC ’71, who contributed $25 million to the $150 million building—is set to open in fall 2018. The building will replace the former Lehman Hall, which was torn down in spring 2016. The Milstein Teaching and Learning Center will house Barnard’s library, the Barnard Center for Research on Women, the Athena Center for Leadership Studies, a
computational science center, digital commons with five teaching labs and several flexible learning spaces, a café, and several departmental offices. In the interim, Barnard’s library is located in the LeFrak Center in Barnard Hall, which was constructed as a swing space in the former LeFrak Gymnasium. Construction on the Milstein Teaching and Learning Center will continue throughout the year, with the external structure set to be completed by September and interior finishing scheduled to end in May 2018. ainsley.bandrowski @columbiaspectator.com
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class of 2021
survey results
8
Domestic Diversity 50 States Represented Top States: New York, California, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachussetts, Maryland, FLorida, Illinois
FInancial Aid
This summer, Spectrum surveyed the incoming classes of Columbia’s four undergraduate schools. Five hundred and thirty students anonymously responded to a variety of questions about their lives, beliefs, and habits. Here is a selection of their responses. To read more, scan the QR code at the top of the page, or visit
Do you feel that your ffiinancial aid package Adequately covers your need? N/A
13.4% Yes
Maybe
40.19%
16.79% No
www.columbiaspectator.com/ orientation-2017/class-of-2021.
29.62%
MIDATLANTIC
37%
WEST
SOUTH
MID-WEST
24%
19%
11%
NEW ENGLAND
9%
530 Responses*
FInancial Aid vs. Income
Yes No
NUMBER OF STUDENTS
100 80 60
Academics What subject area(s) do you plan to major or concentrate in?
Undecided
Engineering
13.02%
13.4%
*530 Responses
40
Social Science
HUmanities
22.83%
22.64%
20 Math & Science
0 <$40K
28.11%
$40K-$80K $80K-$125K $125K-$250K $250K-$500K $500K+ Combined Family income
530 Responses*
Student Life Have you ever had sex? Do you expect to have sex at Columbia/ Barnard?
Did you drink in high school? Do you expect to drink at Columbia/Barnard? No and NO
*510 Responses
*521 Responses
20.2%
No and NO
Yes and Yes
Yes and yes
36.27%
28.6%
44.53% No and Yes
No and Yes
40%
24.57%
Yes and No
Yes and No
3.53%
2.3%
Beliefs and opinions Columbia should fully divest from companies that invest in fossil fuels. The University has adequately handled the issue of sexual assault on campus. Stress culture is a problem at Columbia that needs to be addressed better.
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disAgree I dont have an opinion *530 Responses
0
100
200
300
400
NUMBER OF STUDENTS
500
600
who’s who
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Central Administration
Jonathan schiller Chairman, Board of Trustees
John H. Coatsworth
lee bollinger
Provost
University President
suzanne goldberg
anne sullivan
Executive Vice President for University Facilities and Operations
Executive Vice President for University Life
Executive Vice President for Finance and Information Technology
Campus services
david greenberg
david madigan Executive Vice President for Arts and Sciences and Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Scott wright
Vicki dunn
Melanie Bernitz
Joyce Jackson
James mcshane
Vice President of Campus Services
Executive Director of Columbia Dining
Associate Vice President /Medical Director
Executive Director of Columbia Housing
Assistant Vice President for Public Safety
Jessica Prata Assistant Vice President Environmental Stewardship
undergraduate student life
Music Department
Featured New and Elective Courses
Multicultural affairs
FALL 2017
UN2023 Beethoven Call #: 22194, 3 pts, T/R 4:10pm-5:25pm, 622 Dodge
Instructor: Elaine Sisman
Chia-Ying Pan
Cristen Kromm What made Beethoven such a game-changer? Influenced by Mozart but frustrated by Haydn's late successes, his career spanned Enlightenment, Revolution, and Romanticism, and his final decade overlapped the age of Rossini and Schubert. We will examine Beethoven's music and impact in a volatile era of political and philosophical transformations. No score-reading required.
UN3182 Divas, Monsters, Material Girls: Women in Music Video Call #: 70944, 3 pts, M/W 10:10am-11:25am, 814 Dodge
Associate Dean of Multicultural Affairs
Director of Outreach and International Student Support
Instructor: Paula Harper
The stark black and white of Madonna’s “Vogue” and the pinks and sparkles of “Material Girl.” The lavish cinematic spectacle of Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” and the blatant product placement and in-your-face sexuality of Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.” The explosive surprise launches of Beyoncé's BEYONCÉ and Lemonade visual albums. Since MTV’s advent in 1981, hit music videos have made a number of pop songs inextricable from the iconic imagery of their videos; ubiquitous digital devices and the rise of YouTube have only increased the audiovisuality of pop music. What happens when we look at, as well as listen to, female pop icons?
GU4468 Transpacific Musicology: Monsters, Princesses, Bombs at Sea Call #: 11697, 4 pts, Monday 10:10am-12:00pm, 620 Dodge
Dean of Undergraduate Student Life
melinda aquino
Instructor: Miki Kaneda
What are the musical and political assumptions and implications behind terms such as “Western” “non-Western,” “Asian” “Western-classical,” and “Asian
Valeria Martinez
chris woods
Janae Hubbard
Associate Director of Multicultural Affairs and Community Outreach
Associate Director LGBTQ Outreach
Associate Director of Intercultural and Social Justice Programs
Residential Life
American” in contemporary music scholarship? Case studies primarily draw on scholarship related to Asia/Pacific/American cultural and geographic spaces. The course readings combine theories and keywords relevant to the study of musical exchange and circulation, with closer examinations of musical practices through case studies. Additionally, we will explore the state of “multiple musicologies” by investigating musicological research beyond US-based scholarly publications and institutions. Theoretical topics and keyword studies include orientalism, colonial legacies, mimicry, difference, diaspora, cultural diplomacy, and con temporary indigeneity; musical topics may include transpacific avant-gardes, Afro-Asian alliances, global popular music in local Asian scenes, experimental music in East Asia, and the influence of Asian music on composers working in Euro/American traditions.
GR8111 Music and Early Modernism, 1880-1920 Call #: 16216, 3 pts, Tuesday 4:10pm-6:00pm, 701A Dodge
Jazmyn Pulley
Instructor: Walter Frisch
Associate Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life This seminar will explore music, ideas, and relations among the arts in the critical decades around 1900, especially in Europe, and with a focus on the Austro-German sphere. Beginning with Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler (born in the 1860s), we will move on to consider some of the figures born in the next decade (Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Zemlinsky, Max Reger). All these figures were considered on the cusp of “die Moderne,” as were some of their contemporaries in literature and painting (Richard Dehmel, Stefan George, Wassily Kandinsky). We will explore how both critics and creative artists understood this early phase of modernism, from cultural, social, psychological, and, of course, musical standpoints. Reading knowledge of German is strongly recommended, but not required.
GR8257 Analysis of Musical Form: a Tool for Contemporary Composition Call #: 81096, 3 pts, Tuesday 4:10pm-6:00pm, 620 Dodge
Instructor: Georg Friedrich Haas
This course will look at musical form in an alternative manner: rather than follow standard concepts of traditional analysis, we will approach form on the basis of perception, namely the perception of time as well as tension and suspense. How does musical form set up expectations of the listener, “manipulates” them, and ultimately destroys/denies them? The new approach taken in this course aims to offer a viable alternative to composers working today, providing not only abstract concepts but hands-on tools. A thorough knowledge of traditional analysis of musical form (i.e. the standard musical forms of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods) is expected and required as a prerequisite.
GR8370 Ruth Crawford Seeger Call #: 23043, 3 pts, Monday 12:10pm-2:00pm, 701A Dodge
tara hanna Director of Residential Life
scott helfrich Associate Director First Year Area
Student engagement
Instructor: Ellie Hisama
Ruth Crawford Seeger: Modernism and Tradition in 20th-century American Music explores the music and life of the modernist composer and folk music advocate. The seminar considers her prescient contributions to American modernism and traditional music, as well as the contexts in which she worked, through an examination of writings by music theorists, musicologists, historians, folklorists, and women's studies scholars and through close study of her compositions and arrangements. By presenting interdisciplinary perspectives on a pathbreaking figure who bridged modern and traditional approaches to music-making, the seminar offers a multi-pronged understanding of how musical movements such as ultra-modernism and the urban folk revival helped to shape twentieth- and twenty-first century culture.
josh lucas
Aaron Gomes
Director of Student Community Programs
Assistant Director Student Community Programs
see page 12
10
morningside heights, at a glance
mohi,
W 123RD ST
Friedman’s
BROADWAY
CLAREMONT AVE
RIVERSIDE CHURCH
Union theological Library (Burke) Teacher’s College Library
APPLETREE MARKET
W 120TH ST Joe Coffee
liz’s place (Diana)
barnard college
columbia university see campus map
RIVERSIDE PARK
W 116TH ST
Sweetgreen
AMSTERDAM AVE
MORTON WILLIAMS
Up Coffee
BROADWAY
RIVERSIDE DR
Shake Shack VINE Sushi
STARBUCKS
Arts and crafts Bar
MORNINGSIDE PARK
Hamilton Deli
University Book store
BOOK CULTURE
Stroikos Deli
ARTOPOLIS FRAT ROW W 113TH ST
NUSSBAUM & WU
MILANO MARKET OREN’S THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SAINT JOHN THE DIVINE
BOOK CULTURE The Heights
HUNGARIAN PASTRY SHOP
STARBUCKS
WESTSIDE MARKET W 110TH ST
1020
Key Coffee Groceries
W 108TH ST
ABSOLUTE BAGELS
Restaurant BAR
Library or Bookstore ILLUSTRATIONS BY DANIELA CASALINO
morningside heights, at a glance
11
at a glance the ins and outs of your new home 6
Pupin
milbank 4 hall
Schapiro
diana center
dodge fitness center
Uris
Schermerhorn
Havemeyer
Earl
2
1
east campus
low library
Buell
philosophy hall
Greene (Law)
Wein
the quad
iab
St. Pauls
Lewisohn
barnard hall
3
Fayerweather
Avery
mathematics
Milstein Teaching and Learning Center (in construction)
3
Dodge
2 KENT HALL college walk
W 116TH ST
hamilton hall
Journalism
4
hartley hall
butler Plaza
furnald hall ferris booth Commons
6
wallach hall
butler library
1
JOhn Jay
carman hall
5
AMSTERDAM AVE
Altschul
Chandler
noco
AMSTERDAM AVE
Fairchild
7
Schermerhorn ext.
5
mudd
Campus Map
Barnard Columbia
ILLUSTRATIONS BY DANIELA CASALINO
campus resources
1
2
well woman
1
119 reid hall
primary health care service
lerner hall
brooks hall, basement
3
furman counseling services hewitt hall, 1st flr .
4 5
fiFinancial aid
2
registrar 107 milbank hall
bursar 6 15 milbank hall title ix office 7 105 milbank hall .
registrar (student service center) 205 kent hall
3
.
11 milbank hall
counseling and psychological services
4 5
id center 204 kent hall
the core office .
202 hamilton hall
medical services john jay, 4th flr .
6
6
Sexual Violence Response Center Lerner HAll
12
who’s who
CC and SEAS Administration
GS Administration
James Valentini
Mary Boyce
Dean of the College, Vice President of Undergraduate Education
Dean of Engineering
Peter awn Dean of General Studies
Curtis Rodgers Vice Dean
Lisa Hollibaugh
shih-fu chang
Soulaymane Kachani
Dean of Academic Planning and Administration
Senior Executive Vice Dean
Vice Provost, Senior Vice Dean
Tom Harford Dean of Students
Cristen Kromm
, Roosevelt Montas
Dean of Undergraduate Student Life
Associate Dean, Director of the Core Curriculum
Jessica Marinaccio Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid
Victoria Rosner Senior Associate, Dean of Academic Affairs
Barnard Administration
Jolyne Caruso-Fitzgerald Chair, Board of Trustees
Sian Beilock President
Rob Goldberg
Linda Bell
avis hinkson
Chief Operating Officer
Provost and Dean of the Faculty
Dean of the College
Gail Beltrone
Natalie Friedman
Vice President for Campus Services
Dean of Studies, Dean of the Senior Class
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13
14
116 traditions
start checking some off during orientation 1. Enter the 116th Street gates and sing “Roar, Lion, Roar” on the first night of orientation. 2. Check out all five boroughs. Alternatively, set foot in four, and look at Staten Island on the subway map. 3. Try to figure out the BarnardColumbia relationship. Give up, and realize that students from both sides of Broadway are great. 4. Lock yourself out of your room while in a towel and flip-flops. Proceed to Hartley or the security desk. 5. Lock yourself out of your room while dressed. Borrow towel and cell phone from friend, and call Hartley to say you are locked out and undressed (lazy bums only). 6. Enroll in an 8:40 a.m. or Friday class. Never go. 7. Get a Broadway shake at Tom’s after 3 a.m. 8. Graduate without ever setting foot in Mondel Chocolates or Samad’s Gourmet. 9. Detach your closet door. Play beer pong on it. 10. Sign up for 20 clubs. Get spammed for the next four years. 11. Forget to transfer at 96th Street. Never make that mistake again. 12. Catch someone moving your laundry. 13. Do your laundry at midnight during the middle of the week just so you can do your laundry. 14. Develop a vague idea about what Manhattanville is. Realize it probably won’t affect you, but argue about it anyway. 15. Listen to Vampire Weekend’s discography. Alternatively, lie about having listened to Vampire Weekend. 16. Pretend to know the acronyms used on campus. Nod your head in fake understanding until you actually learn them. 17. Get sexiled. Sleep in the lounge. . 18. Eat a slice of Koronet pizza after a long night of drinking. Return another day to discover it’s not as good when you’re sober. 19. Explore the tunnels. Alternatively, dream about exploring the tunnels. 20. Watch the Varsity Show each year at Columbia. Notice repetition of tired Barnard jokes. Also GS jokes. And SEAS jokes. 21. Register for a class without consulting CULPA. Never do it again. 22. Take a class on the seventh floor of Hamilton. Hate yourself for it. 23. Go to every bar in MoHi—realize they weren’t as cool as you thought they would be. 24. Go to a frat party (just one). 25. Get an A without ever doing the reading (humanities classes only). 26. Protest something. 27. Counterprotest something. 28. Get shafted in McBain. Instagram passive-aggressive posts of the shaft view. 29. Eat at Sylvia’s in Harlem. 30. Brunch at Community before Bacchanal. 31. Go to Columbia Health with a cold. Leave with condoms.
32. Have fun at Glass House Rocks. Once it’s over, be reminded about how much Lerner sucks. 33. Go to a campus group’s performance. Cheer obnoxiously for the friend you know. 34. Go to Midnight Breakfast, and drown your pre-exam jitters in syrup and ’90s pop music. 35. Make friends with maintenance workers and security guards (and buy their CDs). 36. Participate in PrezBo’s 5K Fun Run. 37. Witness a Columbia Athletics victory. High-five Roar-ee. 38. Subscribe to each new philosopher you read. Believe in nothing but social constructs at one point in your college career. 39. Finish your Foundations requirements as early as possible (BC only). 40. Read a text from every author on the Butler frieze. Find out who Demosthenes is and let us know. 41. Take a walk of shame. Run into your professor. Understand true shame. 42. Spend your first year rotating through Mel’s, The Heights, and 1020. Then pick one sophomore year and never go anywhere else. 43. Change your major. Twice. 44. Take the vertical tour of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. Be genuinely awed. 45. Take part in 40s on 40 on Low Steps—if it still exists. If not, pour out a 40 for another casualty of the War on Fun. 46. Watch the sunrise from Butler. Marvel at its beauty through your bloodshot eyes. 47. See a movie filming on campus. When the movie comes out, go see it, and obnoxiously point out Columbia scenes to your friends. 48. Go to a fireside chat. Eat mini-burgers and chocolate chip cookies in PrezBo’s living room. 49. Sneak onto the roof of Mudd or IAB for a picnic. 50. Take a class on something you know absolutely nothing about. 51. Eat brunch at Community while hungover. Temporarily forget your woes until you receive the check. 52. Make 2 a.m. halal your comfort food of choice. 53. Only take: the M60 to LaGuardia/the train to Newark/a taxi to JFK. 54. Pull an all-nighter with the rest of your floor studying for the Lit Hum final. 55. Find a study spot in Butler. Sleep there to keep it during finals week. 56. Go to Orgo Night. Feel conflicted about what you’re laughing at. 57. Attend Take Back the Night. 58. Spend a vacation on campus while it’s empty. Enjoy it until the crushing loneliness hits you. Vow to appreciate your friends more. 59. Go to Postcrypt Coffeehouse in St. Paul’s Chapel. Dress like a hipster. 60. Quote a Core text outside of class. Bonus points if you do it at a cocktail party. 61. Go to the World Leaders Forum and shake hands with a foreign leader. Bonus points if it’s a brutal autocrat. Alternatively, never manage to sign up in time. Complain about the
116 traditions limited seating anytime Columbia is called a “global university.” 62. Have a snowball fight on Low Plaza. (Bonus points if you get on the news for doing it.) 63. Ignore the red flags on South Lawn. 64. Pretend that Low Steps are your local beach when it gets nice out. (only possible for two weeks during each semester). 65. Forget your umbrella. Pick up a copy of Spectator to protect your books. 66. Call CAVA—now CUEMS—for a friend. Resolve to never be CAVA’d. 67. Discover previously unidentified substances in the McBain/Carman elevators (see 66). 68. Take part in CU Assassins. Develop intense paranoia. 69. Make a spare key with an old credit card and an X-Acto knife (VingCard dorms only). 70. Check out the view of campus from Butler’s roof, preferably at night and preferably sober. 71. Jump in the fountains in front of Low Library. 72. Start using Flex because it feels like free money. Feel the wrath of your parents when it shows up on your tuition bill. 73. Get into museums for free using your CUID. Hate paying for the Frick and Guggenheim. 74. Listen to your out-of-town friends call the 1 the “red line.” Laugh at their ignorance. 75. Go for a run in Riverside Park. Post about it on Instagram so people have proof it actually happened. 76. Learn that Williamsburg isn’t the only place in Brooklyn worth visiting. 77. Eagerly await the announcement of the Bacchanal headliners. Then complain that they suck. 78. Walk all the way up Lerner using the ramps until you discover the staircases in the back. Pretend they’re secret passageways when you use them. 79. Hear Jeffrey Sachs speak. Experience liberal guilt. 80. Sample the various local supermarkets. Pledge your heart (and wallet) to Westside. 81. Pass a course without ever scoring above 60 on a test (SEAS only). 82. Drag yourself out of bed at 4 a.m. for a fire alarm—three times in one week. 83. Walk from Battery Park to campus or vice versa. 84. Join a campus tour and ask the tour guide awkward questions. 85. Be first in line to get a warm bagel from Absolute Bagels when it opens. 86. Get a coffee from Joe or Oren’s. Never go to Starbucks again. 87. Spend a month never going south of West 107th Street (Absolute) or north of West 120th Street (Joe Coffee). 88. Take Principles of Economics with Sunil Gulati. Become an econ major. 89. Discover econ majors have to take econometrics. Become an English major. 90. Try to go to a party in EC. Spend your whole night waiting to get signed in (BC/GS only). 91. Log into LionSHARE and realize that 90 percent of the internships are in consulting. 92. Collect as many free T-shirts from McAC events as possible. 93. Only attend Homecoming senior year for the free beer. 94. Seriously consider dropping out. All the cool Columbians have. 95. Pledge to cook more. Fail. Get Seamless. 96. Attend a ceremonial religious meal, but not for your religion.
15
97. Hook up with someone. Awkwardly bump into said hookup everywhere. 98. Find the owl and then sit on Alma Mater. 99. Participate in Primal Scream. 100. Go to the Tree Lighting and Yule Log ceremonies. Discard your jadedness for several hours. 101. Attend a WBAR-B-Q. Pretend you’ve heard the bands to impress the bespectacled, beanie-clad WBAR staff. 102. Attend Senior Night more times before senior year than during your senior year. 103. Run into a TA at 1020. Awkwardly talk about your time in their section. 104. Spend one summer living and working in the city. Appreciate how good New York smells the rest of the year. 105. Make friends with a General Studies student who is 10 years older than you (CC/SEAS/BC only). Be the General Studies student who is 10 years older than everyone around you (GS only). 106. Lose friends in senior housing regroup. 107. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge at night. Eat at Grimaldi’s. 108. See your name appear in a campus publication. (Bonus points if it’s an op-ed in Spec.) 109. Realize the value of research librarians. 110. Check out Citi Field, Yankee Stadium, and Barclays Center. 111. Work an off-campus internship. Either love or hate the commute. 112. Put off the swim test until the second semester of your senior year. Consider having a water phobia to get out of it (CC only). 113. Hook up in the Butler Stacks. 114. Remember that thesis you were supposed to write. Leave the stacks to get actual work done. 115. Get into arguments about how terrible your commencement speaker is with friends. Realize it doesn’t matter. Instead, focus on the remaining time you have left with those friends. 116. Graduate!
Columbia fun facts • •
•
•
• •
We don’t know of any secret societies on campus (unless you count St. A’s, but that’s debatable), but there are two known senior societies (that are still pretty secretive) at Columbia: Sachems and Nacoms. There’s an extensive tunnel system under the University that is accessible via several undergraduate buildings, such as Mathematics, Havemeyer, and Mudd. If you ever find a way into the tunnels (good luck), expect to see graffiti of molecular diagrams and the signature of one of CU’s most famous tunnel explorers, Benoit. Pupin may not seem all that interesting to non-physics majors, but it has a pretty storied history. Scientists conducted nuclear research there during the Manhattan Project (thus earning it the title of a National Historic Landmark), and that’s where the uranium atom was first split. You may have known that Allen Ginsberg, CC ’48 and famous Beat poet, was a Columbia alum, but did you know that he was suspended from CU for a year? Biographers claim it was because he wrote “[University President] Butler has no balls” on the walls of his Hartley dorm. Edwin Armstrong, SEAS ’13, invented FM radio in the basement of Philosophy Hall. You may know LeFrak as Barnard’s temporary library space, but in 1965, it was the venue at which Malcolm X would give his last public speech.
16
Academics
ACADEMICS
tips and tricks to a successful first year
Classes we
recommend Early AfricanAmerican Voices professor: Cristobal Silva Thought you could analyze a text just fine? You obviously haven’t had the magical Cristobal Silva. You’ll read a combination of well-known and obscure black Atlantic narratives and critics, and promptly realize that you’ve never known how to properly read or write analytically. Silva will bestow upon your unworthy soul three gifts: a necessary understanding of the Atlantic slave trade, the skill of streamlining an argument and mastering a close-reading analysis, and the ability to insightfully interpret nontraditional texts by reading between the lines and into silences. It’s a must-take for anyone looking to mix up a literature requirement or the English major.
Literary Texts, Critical Methods professor: Erik Gray Why you recommend it (around 100 words): From his very first lecture on why literature is better than sex (trust me, it’s convincing), Erik Gray gave provocative, insightful, and compelling lectures on poetry, prose, drama, and literary criticism. Even if you’re taking this as an elective, the readings aren’t overwhelming, and you take what you learn with you across disciplines. I wasn’t sure what to major in coming to Columbia, but this is the class that made up my mind.
Recommended by:
Hannah Barbosa Cesnik
professor: George Deodatis Recommended by:
Sophia Hotung Staff Director, engagement director Barnard college `18 Major: English, Economics minor
This course doesn’t have any prerequisites and is open to both SEAS and non-SEAS students alike. It trains you to analyze structures as an art form by focusing on aesthetic and structural innovations throughout the history of modern civil engineering. It is a well-balanced course in history, art, and basic physics. The coursework is light and isn’t particularly challenging, and George Deodatis is an engaging lecturer with a good sense of humor. This class is not one you want to miss.
professor: Sheri Berman
professor: Nicholas Bartlett
Yes, political science classes have a notoriously heavy reading load, but trust me, I never retreated to the library grumbling about all the reading I still had left to do for this class. Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe is fascinating, and Sheri Berman is wonderful and brilliant. Even if you think you already know everything there is to know about European history, this class will force you to discuss, debate, and write about it from an angle many of us have not yet considered. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself sitting in anticipation for the next class, just so you can see what happens in the next part of the story.
If you’re a pre-med, Culture and Healing in East Asia is an eye-opening course that forces you to reconsider how we perceive and label illness and disease from anthropological and sociopolitical standpoints. The class is centered on a number of readings and video ethnographies selected by Nicholas Bartlett (who has a really interesting background—he’s done heroin intervention work in China). After this course, you might put a little less stock in WebMD and think more about how we classify disease to begin with. The class itself is pretty light—two papers, weekly discussion posts—but immensely valuable as a premed studying in New York, where there is such a culturally diverse population.
NOTABLE PROFESSORS
Culture and Healing in East Asia
Recommended by:
Veronica Grace Taleon
Lee Bollinger isn’t just the University president— he’s also also known on campus for his political science class, Freedom of Speech and Press. Formatted like a law school lecture course, Bollinger randomly selects a few students from the roster at the beginning of class and asks them questions based on the reading. The class focuses on judicial decisions, and students have the opportunity to learn from one of the most widely respected scholars on the First Amendment in the entire legal community.
Columbia college ‘`19 Major: English, Art History
The Art of Structural Design
Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe
lee bollinger
Editorial Page Editor
Spectrum Editor Barnard college ‘`19 Major: Political Science
If you’re hoping to take a class with Wafaa El-Sadr, you may have to wait a few more years—she’s a University Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine, so most of her classes are for grad students. However, if you’re pre-med or studying any STEM subject, you may want to learn a little bit more about her. El-Sadr’s work with infectious diseases (more specifically, with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis) has been recognized and used by the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. She is also the director of the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, one of the world’s leading centers for AIDS research. Overall, her résumé is extremely impressive, but did you also know that she was a recipient of a 2008 MacArthur “Genius Grant”? Or that she came in at #76 on Rolling Stone’s 2009 “100 People Who Are Changing America” list? (For context, that placed her above Neil Young, Elon Musk, and Taylor Swift.)
Wafaa El-Sadr
Jennifer Boylan Jennifer Boylan is an English professor and Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard. Her autobiography, She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders, was one of the first books by an openly transgender American to become a bestseller. She’s a nationally known advocate for civil rights and has appeared on several talk shows, like the The Oprah Winfrey Show. She is also a co-chair of GLAAD’s board of directors and a member of the board of trustees of the Kinsey Institute. She teaches Advanced Studies in Prose Writing and Gendered Memoir, which require a writing sample and her permission, so keep that in mind if you’re interested in having her as your professor.
Recommended by:
Jaime Danies Deputy News Photo Editor
Je f f re y Sa c h s — a widely respected economist and director of Columbia’s Earth Institute—teaches a course on the basics of sustainable development. Sachs lectures once a week in his course The Challenge of Sustainable Development, while TAs teach the other lecture. Sachs serves as an adviser to the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres and has written several books arguing for massive increases in the amount of foreign aid awarded to poor countries.
Jeffrey Sachs
School of Engineering and Applied Science ‘`20 Major: Civil Engineering
Recommended by:
Allison Kiang Deputy copy editor Columbia college ‘`19 Major: Neuroscience and Behavior, concentrating in East Asian Studies
James Shapiro It’s more likely than not that you read a play or two by the Bard in high school. If you did, then you should be able to carry on a conversation with James Shapiro, the Larry Miller Professor of English at Columbia and one of the world’s leading Shakespeare scholars. Shapiro’s work on Shakespeare and other Early Modern writers is extensive— he’s written nine books on the subject and has presented the three-part BBC series “The King & the Playwright.” At Columbia, Shapiro’s classes usually focus on—you guessed it—Shakespeare. In the past, he’s taught Shakespeare I (the first part of a two-part Shakespeare class sequence), Tudor-Stuart Drama, and a seminar on Shakespeare’s poetry. Unfortunately, he isn’t teaching anything this semester, so you’ll have to wait until the spring to see if you can find a way into one of his (popular) classes.
STUDENT LEADERS
17
student leader t leaders university senators
your guide to student government
Columbia college student council
Nathan Rosin
Nicole Allicock
President
Vice President Policy
Adam Resheff
Sreya Pinnamaneni
Alex Cedar
Vice President Finance
Vice President Communications
Vice president Campus Life
Barnard student Government ASsociation
Jay Rappaport
Omar Khan
columbia college
columbia college
kira dennis
Josh Schenk
barnard college
columbia college
izzet kebudi
Ramond Curtis
school of engineering and applied science
general studies
general studies student council
Angela Beam
Alicia Simba
samantha demezieux
raisa Flor
President
Vice President Policy
President
Vice President Policy
Tanveer Hossain Bhuiyan
nicole rodgers
Evelyn McCorkle
Rhea Nagpal
Aku Acquaye
Vice President Finance
Vice president Communications
Vice president Campus Life
Vice president ffiinance
Vice President communications
engineering student council
Aida Lu
Zoha Qamar
Cesar Trujillo
Julia Joern
ben barton
PresidenT
Vice President POlicy
Vice President FInance
Vice President Communications
Vice President student life
18
SPORTS
sports athletics at a glance
A Look Ahead at Lions Football Football season is finally here, and the Lions are more prepared than ever as they enter head coach Al Bagnoli’s third year at the helm. While question marks linger on both sides of the ball, the offense looks stronger this season as senior quarterback Anders Hill returns with the same receiving corps from last season. Whether you scream “Roar, Lion, Roar” at each game, just go to Homecoming, or don’t even know w here Baker is, here’s who to look out for: ANDERS HILL Columbia’s primary quarterback from the 2016 season returns to lead the Lions in his senior year. Hill was fifth in the Ivy League last year with 191 yards per game, and he accounted for 12 touchdowns total. If he remains healthy all season, Hill could be the catalyst that bumps Columbia to a topfour finish this season. LORD HYEAMANG A key pillar to Columbia’s defense for the past three years, Hyeamang will help lead the Lions’ defensive line in 2017. In his career, Hyeamang has played in 29 of 30 games for Columbia, made 52 tackles, and picked up a Second Team All-Ivy League selection. While the defensive line wasn’t a strong suit for the Lions, which lost four games by seven or fewer points last year, Hyeamang will look to spur a positive change.
DARION ACOHIDO Acohido is a first-year from Henderson, Nevada. A wide receiver by trade, Acohido scored four times on returns in his senior year of high school—with each of those coming in the first three weeks of play—leading the team to a regional championship. USA Today even ran an article titled “Is Darion Acohido becoming the nation’s most dangerous return man?” Will he become the Lions’ most dangerous return man? OREN MILSTEIN One of two Lions named to the First Team All-Ivy League in 2016—and as a firstyear, no less—Milstein had a prolific first year, leading the Ivy League in field goals and field goal percentage. Last year, he scored 52 points as a kicker for the Lions, including all nine points that the Light Blue needed for its first Homecoming win in 16 years. 3 UNANSWERED QUESTIONS: 1. WHO IS GOING TO STEP UP AT LINEBACKER? Without class of 2017 linebackers Keith Brady, Christian Conway, and All-Ivy League First Team Player Gianmarco Rea, Columbia has to fill three key defensive spots. The trio had a huge impact—the then-seniors comprised three of the four leading tacklers for the Lions last season. With just seven tackles last season, then first-year Michael Murphy had the next highest number of tackles for a returning linebacker. Matt Tofano, Jalen Williams,
and Cal Falkenhayn round out the rest of the most experienced corps, with 15 tackles between them. Columbia has four incoming first-year linebackers to bring the team total to 16, but it remains to be seen if any of them can adequately replace last year’s standouts. 2. WHO IS GOING TO RUN THE FOOTBALL? Columbia finished seventh in the Ivy League in rushing, with only 1,251 yards. Running back Alan Watson, who graduated last year, provided 627 of those yards, so Columbia has another big role to fill. Watson’s replacements are most likely sophomores Tanner Thomas and Lynnard Rose, and senior Chris Schroer, all of whom contributed some yardage to a struggling Columbia offense last season. Rose, a jack-of-all-trades who also plays baseball, could settle into a third-down back role this season. Hill should also provide some rushing yards, as he’s relatively quick, but the Lions will need to improve their ground game to be successful on offense this season. 3. CAN COLUMBIA DEFEND ITS HOMECOMING VICTORY? Last season, Columbia won a Homecoming game for the first time in 16 years, albeit without scoring a touchdown. This year, instead of facing last-place Dartmouth, the Light Blue will take on Penn, last year’s Ivy League champions. Can Columbia build on last season’s win to establish a streak when it plays the Quakers, or will we have to wait another 16 years?
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Peter Pilling, former IMG College vice president, hired to replace M. Dianne Murphy as athletic director. MARCH 22, 2015 Fencing wins national championship
Under the coaching of Michael Aufrichtig, men’s and women’s fencing win the national championship.
PETER PILLING | Athletics Director AL BAGNOLI | Football Head Coach One of the most successful football coaches in Ivy League history, Al Bagnoli, is looking to turn the historically lackluster Columbia program around. In 2016, Bagnoli led Columbia to its first homecoming win in 16 years. Since taking on the position in 2015, Bagnoli has tied for seventh and thhen sixth in the Ivy League, leaving plenty of work to be done for the man that won nine Ivy titles in 23 years as the head coach of Penn.
January 2015
FEBRUARY 23, 2015 Football hires Bagnoli
Nine-time Ivy League Champion Al Bagnoli replaces Pete Mangurian as head coach of the football team. MAY 31, 2015 Columbia baseball beats Miami in NCAA
Baseball shuts out No. 6 Miami 3-0, forcing an NCAA Regional game in its biggest matchup of all time.
January 2016
MARCH 28, 2016 Women’s basketball hires Megan Griffith
Former Columbia star athlete Megan Griffith replaces interim coach Sheila Roux as head coach of the women’s basketball team.
Athletics Adminstration After leaving the corporate marketing side of college sports, Peter Pilling joined Columbia as athletics director in February, 2015. Since then, he has not been afraid to shake up the Lions’ program. Before he was even hired, Pilling had talked to football’s current head coach, Al Bagnoli, who would serve as Pilling’s first hire. Pilling has gone on to add several other coaches and administrators, constructing what many in the department consider a family-orientated culture.
FEBRUARY 3, 2015 Pilling hired as athletic director
APRIL 3, 2016 Men’s basketball hires Jim Engles
Jim Engles returns to Columbia to become men’s basketball coach, replacing Kyle Smith.
JUNE 5, 2016 Lightweight Rowing wins National Championship
Lightweight rowing captures its first national championship since 1928.
January 2017 JIM ENGLES | Men’s Basketball Head Coach Another one of Pilling’s big hires, Jim Engles took over as head coach of men’s basketball last year. The Lions finished fifth in the Ivy League under Engles, a slight drop from their third-place finish and CIT title from the year before. Engles had served as an assistant coach for the Lions from 2003 to 2008 and now hopes to further improve the program after its CIT win two years ago.
MICHAEL AUFRICHTIG | Men’s and Women’s Fencing Head Coach Michael Aufrichtig is Head men’s and women’s fencing head coach and has been since June 2011. Aufrichtig has led the team to back-to-back NCAA Championships in 2015 and 2016, as well as four consecutive Ivy League titles. Before coaching at Columbia, Aufrichtig served as the director of the NYAC Fencing Program. The NYAC had incredible success under the leadership of Aufrichtig, winning five national championships in 2011.
MEGAN GRIFFITH | Women’s Basketball Head Coach Megan Griffith is the head coach of the women’s basketball team, having been appointed in 2016. Her first year in charge was a success, starting the season with a 10-3 record and eventually winning three Ivy League games. Prior to coaching at Columbia, Griffith was a part of the coaching staff at Princeton. She also formerly played on the Columbia women’s basketball team and was a twotime A l l - Iv y League selection.
BID GOSWAMI | Men’s Tennis Head Coach Bid Goswami is the head coach of the men’s tennis team and the longest tenured coach at Columbia, having been appointed in 1982. Goswami has led the team to four consecutive Ivy League championships and has won 12 during his time as head coach at Columbia. More than 15 of the players he has coached at Columbia have gone on to the professional tour.
APRIL 15, 2017 Men’s tennis win streak ends
APRIL 23, 2017 Men’s tennis wins four consecutive Ivy Championships
The Lions’ 28-match conference-winning streak ends at Harvard.
Finishing with a 6-1 Ivy League record, men’s tennis wins its fourth consecutive Ivy League Championship.
January 2018
major events in Columbia Athletics
BY LEO GOLDMAN AND HENRY SCHWARTZ Spectator Staff Writers
Columbia Athletics a brief history of
opinion
opinion
knowledge, science, and discourse
Dear class of 2021, As you step through the gates at Broadway and 116th, you will notice two imposing figures flanking your entrance: Knowledge and Science. What you will be missing, however, is the graceful, intangible, ever-present figure stalking her way through campus, with her long multi-colored robes, and sharp tongue. She is the figure of Discourse, who at times snaps, or sulks, or gossips, or even—when the sun is bright and the clouds clear—converses intelligently, chewing over the many facets of an issue, and letting them marinate on Butler Plaza. Get to know her—she will be with you throughout your time at Columbia. She will inform protest after protest on Low Steps, she will infiltrate your Literature Humanities discussions, and she will be present late at night over a bottle of wine in your cramped Quad room. We know you’re just as passionate as the students that came before you, though you may be a little hesitant to jump in right away. That’s alright! We were too. So we’ll give you the SparkNotes to campus discourse and ways you can get involved—and we promise they’re more thorough than the ones you looked up for the Iliad. Spectator features campus news on everything from large administrative scandals to the latest football game. And then there’s the place where all this news twists and turns to take form in the minds of readers—the opinion pages. This is where Discourse moves her invisible hand—where relevant arguments are read by students, faculty, alumni, and the surrounding Morningside community. This is the place for facts, but unlike traditional news, this is also the place for passion and partisanship. Just this past year in the opinion section, Discourse has led us through campus conversations in which we’ve made urgent calls for empathy and appealed compassionately to improve our mental health culture after far too much tragedy; reckoned with Barnard President Debora Spar’s abrupt departure and conflicted legacy; reacted to Donald Trump’s election; engaged in heated debates about free speech on college campuses; fought the University for graduate workers’ rights; and stood up for ourselves, our peers, and our community. Our content spans different forms, and it’s always changing, but here are the basics: First, we have op-eds. Op-eds are the lifeblood of campus discourse—they are one of the easiest ways for students to engage with ongoing issues, and they put members of our community in conversation with one another. They will introduce you to opinions that you, perhaps, hadn’t even thought of before. They can show you viewpoints that you probably will agree with when hell freezes over. And that’s okay too. (As long as you write us a letter to the editor in response. We just might run it the morning after.) With op-eds, we don’t expect you to have all the answers—and that’s exactly the point. If you email us at
[email protected], we’ll turn your ideas into an open conversation, check the facts, work through the arguments, and help you put together one hell of an oped. If you’re still unsure about what to do, we’ve put together a few directions. And once it’s published, odds are that kid in your 10:10 class has thoughts on the same topic and approaches you in Ferris about it after they see your byline. Opinion-sharing, be it beautifully written or hastily thought-out, goes far beyond our pages, and that’s why we’re here. But there’s more to discourse than hard hitting administrative commentary. In case gossiping over Community brunch doesn’t do it for you, our Love, Actualized series runs every Thursday and highlights everything that our peers of all ages have learned while navigating the dating scene (or lack thereof ) at Columbia. Life and love and college are messy, and “Love, Actualized” celebrates and commiserates these truths in equal turn.
Next up are columns, our hand-picked team of 12 to 14 students from Columbia College, SEAS, Barnard College, and General Studies who write biweekly on anything from The Common Core to Nussbaum & Wu, or even representing Columbia to being a New York City asshole. Columns are your chance to really delve into student life as seen through your eyes, as content is driven by the personal and political themes and ideas of each individual writer. As a result, columnists become more than just writers—they become campus personalities and a consistent voice of the opinion section over the course of a given semester. Every semester there’s a new application, —find it online or email us. And, of course, if you’re always in the know and want to guide Discourse on her journey across campus, you can work on the opinion team—driving campus conversation, recruiting op-eds, working with columnists, keeping one ear to the ground and one finger to the campus pulse. Just show up to the Spectator Open House and give us a shout. Our only ask is that you’re ready to keep up with what issues everyone is talking about and be prepared to highlight the issues that everyone should be talking about. Discourse is the beating heart of this campus—so whether you’re planning to dip a toe in the water or make a splash, keep an open and engaged mind whenever she comes around. Columbia has the advantage of being one of the best universities in the greatest city in the world, with an incredibly diverse student body—in all senses of the word. We argue, we discuss, we protest because we have the inexorable opportunity to be young, passionate, knowledgeable, and tenacious enough to make things happen. So make things happen. We can’t wait to see what you can do. Yours, Hannah Barbosa Cesnik, Editorial Page Editor Sarah Fornshell, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Octavio Galaviz, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Catherine Hoang, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Hannah Barbosa Cesnik is a Columbia College junior and the editorial page editor for Spectator. Sarah Fornshell is a Columbia College junior and the columns deputy editorial page editor for Spectator. Octavio Galaviz is a Columbia College junior and the oped deputy editorial page editor for Spectator. Catherine Hoang is a Barnard College junior and the op-ed deputy editorial page editor for Spectator.
EMMA KENNY-PESSIA / STAFF ILLUSTRATOR
19 Just chill out BY CHARLOTTE FORCE If you care to visit Columbia’s meme page, columbia buy sell memes, in every other post you will find a fellow student bemoaning how sleep deprived, stressed, or anxious they are. Scrolling through these perspectives on Columbia, anyone would wonder whether these kids ever just… chill. Simply put, the answer is no. This is a popular—practically universal—reality for most of us Columbia students. Either we never had chill and that’s what got us into this school, or we once had it and quickly abandoned it, along with our naïve expectations for a good football team and a BME major. But there are some things that every person should never give up, and chill is one of them. Chilling is hard to do at Columbia, but that’s what makes it all the more important. An overwhelming amount of things constantly happen on campus, so it’s hard to prioritize one over the other. And so many of us end up committing to several things at once. You find yourself double- or triplebooked a few times a week, texting people that you slept in, you’re on your way, you’re late, you’re sorry you couldn’t make it! And oftentimes you do end up doing really cool stuff when you just keep saying yes. You see The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a string theorist give a lecture, five people break down in Butler, a bunch of people dancing half-naked in Lerner, and find yourself consuming three different ratios of jungle juice, probably all within the span of 72 hours. In fact, I can confirm that this has been done before—October 2016 was a very busy time for me. But no matter how many Facebook events I was “Interested In” or “Going” to, I simply could not be everywhere at once. To an extent, I do thrive on a full schedule. But now, having finished a year of college and looking toward my next one, my favorite entries on my GCal are clear, glorious expanses of “nothing scheduled here.” But how could I be more excited about the Tuesday I have literally nothing scheduled, than seeing The Lion King on Wednesday, or driving to Vermont to ski on Saturday? I’ve learned that there is nothing to be gained from overbooking myself. In fact, all it does is keep me from chilling out and enjoying what I am doing. If I can’t be everywhere at once, I may as well appreciate where I am. Having nothing planned doesn’t mean that you’ll do nothing—it means you don’t have the pressure of having somewhere to be, and it leaves you wide open to choose what you want to do in the moment. Within the gaps in my scheduled time is freedom, and that’s the best part. So at a place like Columbia, where opportunity pulls at you from all directions, you actually need to defend your rest. Talk yourself out of taking up three leadership positions at once. Make yourself choose between three events starting Sunday at noon. Remember that even if you can do it, you don’t need to. Learn how to say no. Assert your damn right to chill. Do you remember the last time you woke up without an alarm? Even better—when was the last time you just did nothing and didn’t feel guilty about it? These possibilities are reason enough to keep an afternoon wide open at least once a week. Who knows—you may get addicted to the feeling of free time and start scheduling more of it. I finished the fall of my first year overwhelmed, having played schedule Tetris and pinballing all over Morningside Heights for four months—and was much happier in the spring, because I was ultimately able to let things go. I embraced the free time that letting things go gave me, and was able to just… chill. Spending time with my friends is more important to me than any fifth class or third club, and I relish the freedom and spontaneity of saying, “Yes I am free, I would love to see your show,” “What time should we do lunch?”, “Let’s watch a movie,” “I’ll just come over now.” So in the event that, like every human on the planet, you have needs that must be met and limits to how much you can do, you need to let yourself chill. If you need a full nine hours of sleep to function, give yourself that. If you regularly need to be able to call your family and friends back home, make that happen. Maybe you need to leave campus regularly, or always eat meals in the company of friends, or go on a walk on particularly sunny days. Whatever it is, you need chill time to do these things. And how will you know what you need if you don’t give yourself the chance to find out? Just chill out—at least a little bit. What’s the worst that could happen? Maybe you’ll actually give yourself a break. Charlotte Force is a sophomore in Columbia College studying medieval history. She is a member of the ski team and an associate columns editor for Spectator, but as you read this she is probably chilling.
A friend, a kiss, and a Carman party BY JORDAN CLINE Thrust against the same closet that I had only stepped out of four short months before, and in a daze from the many cups of jungle juice I drank that night, my tongue proved itself the strongest muscle in the human body. We kept our clothes on, not only to hide where our hands were going, but also to have a small measure of decency for the 30-some other hot and sweaty firstyears at the Carman party I went to my first night of orientation. This was the scene of my first kiss. For a hopeless romantic, the scene was far from what I imagined my first kiss would be. If you’ve watched The Princess Diaries, then you know perfectly the scene where Mia Thermopolis, princess of Genovia, describes what she thinks will be her first real kiss with the love of her life, Josh Bryant, to her mom: “You know, in the old films, whenever a girl would get seriously kissed, her foot would just kind of… pop.” For years I yearned for that “pop.” I fantasized about who it would be with, where it would happen, how I’d feel so nervous—but I knew regardless of the specifics that it would be perfect. “Perfect” turned out to be me being wasted, face-to-face with my drunk friend who I had kept in contact with over the summer after meeting at accepted students day. About 30 minutes into the party he asked me, “Do you want to make out for fun?” I quickly scanned the room: The god-awful fluorescent lighting of Carman, the many faces that I hadn’t even gotten around to meeting yet, the pervasive smell of weed, and the sticky floor. None of this was in my fantasy for my first kiss, and the beersoaked floor wouldn’t make foot-popping easy. Yet, in the three seconds I took the scene in, for some inexplicable reason, I answered, “Yes!” And that was the end of the talking. As a gay guy, some of my firsts came a lot later than those of my friends growing up. Before I came to terms with the fact that I was gay, the many stories over the years of my girlfriends’ first kisses, first boyfriends, first times, and all of the firsts they shared with our group didn’t bother me. It wasn’t until 10th grade after my first time doing anything with a guy—which, unfortunately, did not involve a kiss—that I started to really care, and get tired and embarrassed of not having had this all important “first.” I felt like I had messed up some of my other firsts by chronologically not getting my first kiss at “the right time.” I don’t know if you could technically call my first kiss a “kiss” because it went into full blown making out .02 seconds into the
game and became very tongue-heavy. But, I wasn’t complaining. I had waited most of middle school and all of high school for this to happen, so I was going to make the most of it. We made out for about a minute, and then my friend pulled away to remind me, “Alright, we’re just friends. That was just for fun.” And he walked away into the crowd that had gathered for our little show. I scampered to the bathroom, past all the novices who hadn’t learned to hold down their liquor yet, and I slipped in (somehow), locked the door, and I called my mom and my two best friends to tell them all about my first kiss. It was comically embarrassing because I had to come clean to my friends about my two years of lying during “Never have I ever.” When I came back out I was quickly met with the familiar pair of lips. Caught off guard, I just followed his lead. Another minute of this awkward passion in the midst of a Carman rager, and I was elated again, only to have him release me and repeat: “Yeah, just friends....” We both walked away, and I thought of more friends I would have to tell the truth to, but I needed to report and update the original calls on the on-going crisis. It wasn’t a foot-popper, but was I already catching feelings? So I went back to the bathroom. On my way out I repeated the whole ordeal again—with the difference that this time I had an ounce of courage and initiated the kissing—only to be reminded again of how we really were just friends. So, again, I called more friends and held up the bathroom line. I definitely spent more time in the bathroom dissecting the kiss than actually kissing my friend. I don’t recall being invited to that suite again. But the night ended rather tragically when he left with another guy. I felt like I had waited all these years, made a rash decision in the moment, and then I messed up yet another first. I couldn’t help but think if I would or should be embarrassed about my “forever first kiss story.” I wondered when I sobered up and my senses returned if the vitality of my first kiss would be cleansed away, too—if the toxins would leave at the expense of my heart. And still to this day, I wonder about my first kiss. I wonder if I had said no that night, would I still have virgin lips and fantasize about what my first kiss would be like and how romantic it would be? Would I still wallow and eat ice cream as I did after many weekends of high school parties where boys I liked would hook up with my girlfriends? Coming to Columbia, I feel like I always did the “right thing.” I always planned, executed, and reviewed what I would need to
do to make sure everything would go exactly as I wanted it to: perfectly. In general, most Columbians are apt to want things in their life to follow their meticulous plans. But not everything fits perfectly right away—like social circles, and lips, and college. Two years later, I don’t really know how I feel about my first kiss. This ambivalence toward what was supposed to be so special to me is weird because, on one hand, I don’t hold overwhelmingly positive feelings about the experience. On the other hand, I think I’ve felt this apathy because despite my initial worries, I’ve been able to supplement the experience with many other memories alongside great friends. So, even though it may have been my first kiss and largely my first memory at Columbia, it does not define the rest of my time here. I’ve learned that there are going to be times when things fall short of your expectations, and you just have to cope. And, most importantly, I’ve seen how it helped me grow to meet the many amazing people that do mark my experiences as I embark on my third year. The author is a Columbia College junior who is the coordinator of Under1Roof, on the Leadership team of the Undergraduate Recruitment Committee, a co-diversity director of Peer Health Exchange, and is still on the search for his foot-popping kiss someday...soon.
ISABEL CHUN / STAFF ILLUSTRATOR
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