First-Years Settle in With RNC Protests

Think of them as something like the Republican delegates. Starting the last Monday in August, this year's crop of Columbia first-years was presented with an array of New York City activities from which to choose.

While the delegates were seeing Bombay Dreams on Broadway for free, the first-years were offered tickets to Amateur Night at Lower Level McIntosh. While delegates attended a Governors-and-Spouses lunch at the Central Park Boathouse on Tuesday, the first-years took in a barbecue on East Campus plaza.

And while delegates took a walking tour of the public rest rooms near Madison Square Garden (sponsored by Angel Soft bathroom tissue), their counterparts uptown were participating in an array of walking tours of their own (Sunday morning, Alexander Hamilton exhibit; Monday morning, notable Dim Sum sites).

Of course, neither group could avoid the inevitable encounters with protestors. And while the delegates didn't send, well, delegations to any of the protest events, the first-years did. No fewer than 10 first-years could be spied at the Central Labor Council rally on Wednesday, mingling with union workers.

How did they get there? Just like first-years get to any other event: they saw fliers (posted by members of Students for Environmental and Economic Justice), and they met at the 116th Street gates.

The event was part of SEEJ's attempt to provide a valuable political program for first-years, since it's absent from the official orientation program, said veteran SEEJ organizer Jacob McKean, one of the leaders of the delegation. Organizers said they hope to provide an outlet for their newly-found radical zeal.

The first students who showed up at the gates were a mixed bag. There were some engineering students. There were five straight-haired girls. There were a couple of kids from the Midwest. Only one was wearing tie-dye.

"Few had ever been to a protest before," McKean said, "and they seemed nervous at first." But it only took them a few minutes to feel at home, and only a few more to come to the unsurprising realization that labor rallies aren't the most exciting thing in the world.

So, is the First-Year Protest Delegation as radicalized now as the Republican delegation is conservative? And will they all stick with SEEJ?

"I don't think all of them will," McKean mused. "Some of them are just Democrats."