Last night, about 50 students attended University President Lee Bollinger’s fireside chat at his residence at 60 Morningside Drive.
After enjoying an array of sandwiches, vegetables, cheese, and flower-topped cupcakes, everyone settled in to discuss the University.
“The year is coming to a close, in case you haven’t noticed,” Bollinger said as he opened the discussion. He jokingly informed the students that “Barack Obama will not be the commencement speaker this year” but it was “not for lack of trying.”
He then quickly turned to discuss the current economic situation. Bollinger asked the students, “What does the current economic downturn mean for you?”
He commented that students probably feel that “things are pressing in,” and students feel the need to reevaluate what they originally wanted to do due to the economic environment. But Bollinger reassured students that “sustaining your education is an intelligent response” to the crisis.
Another major subject of the night was the changing nature of journalism in the technological world. Bollinger, who is currently working on a book about how to fix the press, said that there was an “utter vitality of press in the 1970s-1980s with events such as Watergate and the Pentagon Papers.” But, now this vitality is dwindling in paper journalism with the rise of technology.
Bollinger said that today is a “great moment for higher education” but that it reflects the journalism world 10 years ago. He says that he doesn’t know what this means for universities but that students should pay attention to it over the next years.
Bollinger then opened up the question-and-answer portion of the chat with the question, “How do you get your news?” After only 25 percent of the students said that print newspapers were their main news source, he went around the room asking everyone what online sources they use.
He said that he reads four print papers on a daily basis: the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times. When asked, Bollinger responded with a smile that he also reads the Spectator and Bwog. He said he believes that the major problem in U.S. news is that “The amount of attention to global matters is both small and shrinking.” He said that, with the economy, many papers have had to decrease their foreign coverage.
Bollinger believes that the “university is already tremendously international,” and a student “can get sophisticated exposure to global issues.” But, he qualified, “most of us still have little knowledge of the rest of the world.”
He then asked the students, “How many of you have been to China? To Africa? To the Middle East?” After only a small portion of the students raised their hands, he said that “We are failing you as a university by not making it easier to travel around the world,” and students need to learn about the world through experience and not just their imagination. He said he believes that it is now “as essential to go to China as it is California.” He said that study abroad is not necessarily the best option and that the University needs to do more, which is why Columbia has begun to establish Global Centers around the world.
At the end of the chat, Bollinger urged students to continue eating and brought down his puppy for the students to play with.
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