As the 2008 Fall Activities Fair kicks off Friday afternoon, College Walk will overflow with eager first-years and the even more eager representatives of Columbia’s countless student groups. But in the wake of a turbulent school year and in the final months before a hotly debated national election, extracurricular life may be up for a new kind of energy.
Fall 2007 was a painfully dramatic semester for many of the campus’ socially minded student groups. Within the span of a few months, Columbia saw a 10-day hunger strike, a loudly debated visit from President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and a spree of race-related bias incidents culminating in the appearance of a noose on a Teachers College professor’s door.
“Obviously, you always hope and pray that something like that never happens again,” said Ruqayyah Abdul-Karim, CC ’10 and president of the Black Students Organization.
The bias incidents and Ahmadinejad’s speech were surrounded by protests that garnered national media attention, and the hunger strike won both strong support and noisy opposition. Although many lauded students’ often passionate involvement, others criticized an activist community that they saw as fractured. This fall, despite a continued emphasis on debate, some leaders say their focus has shifted.
“I think student groups are thinking a lot more in terms of coalition-building,” said Emily Steinberger, CC ’10 and president of the Columbia/Barnard Hillel. “People are thinking more interfaith, intergroup, intercultural. That way, when issues come up, there’s already a framework in which to deal with them.”
College Republicans Executive Director Lauren Salz, BC ’11, agreed and said that the Republicans saw a large turnover in their executive board with the spring graduation of many of its members.
“I think we’re cosponsoring events that maybe in the past we wouldn’t have done,” she said. During the upcoming Queer Awareness Month, she explained, the group will stand alongside the College Democrats, the Columbia Political Union, and the Columbia Queer Alliance in hosting a political debate of the issues surrounding gay marriage.
Outreach projects, both new and traditional, are always a big part of clubs’ September ambitions. Left-wing activist group Lucha will launch a print version of its publication El Participante this week, and the Asian American Alliance has moved its annual showcase CultureSHOCK to the fall from its traditional spring slot.
Steinberger said Hillel is focusing on “community building within our own community,” a sentiment echoed by other groups.
“We are kind of celebrating the launch of our mentoring program,” Abdul-Karim said of the BSO. He described a system called Black Student Outreach through Mentoring and Community Service that makes underclassmen both mentors to high school students and mentees of older Columbians.
And across the spectrum of groups, the presidential election forms a common thread as an always-opinionated campus gears up for a rip-roaring race.
“I think the focus last fall was on things happening on campus, and this year the focus is on the election,” Salz said. “It’s a different set of issues.”
Party organizers hope that students who might normally remain ambivalent will find the copious media coverage an incentive to become more tangibly involved.
“We definitely saw bigger interest last year during primary season,” said College Democrats President Chris Daniels, CC ’09, “And we hope that will continue through the general election.”
In large part, these efforts begin today, among long rows of posters, lollipops, and eye-catching gimmicks.
“We’ll probably do the little food bribery game like everyone else,” Salz said.
Alix Pianin contributed reporting to this article.
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