Sigma Nu fraternity wants to host a comedy show at JJ’s Place. One student suggested a benefit concert featuring rapper Talib Kweli. The Columbia University InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is already planning a 5k run. Campus Media Watch, a group that follows Middle Eastern media coverage, offered to build a website.
These were just a few suggestions from over 300 attendees at a forum held Wednesday night to discuss possible Haiti relief efforts at Columbia.
At the forum—led by the Haitian Students Association, Caribbean Students Association, and GlobeMed—representatives recommended that student groups form an umbrella coalition to help out the Caribbean nation, which suffered a 7.3 magnitude earthquake last week. The coalition could be part of a larger national movement to be facilitated by GlobeMed.
“Everybody wants to do something, but to do it quickly and efficiently, we need to work together,” Keesandra Agénor, BC ’10 and president of the HSA, told the energetic crowd.
Most group representatives who spoke up at the forum offered to donate the funds they have collected or plan to collect to an organization of the HSA and CSA’s choosing.
Maya Cohen, CC ’10 and president of GlobeMed, advocated strongly for aiding Partners in Health, a nonprofit health organization that has been running clinics across Haiti for over 20 years.
Cohen said that universities like Stanford and Dartmouth have already begun collecting funds for Partners in Health, and hope to create a national student movement that would support this charity.
“I think that because there’s a national movement growing around this organization, it’ll bring Columbia into a conversation that’ll keep the campus mobilizing.”
Attendees took a vote at the end of the evening and decided that they would speak with their respective clubs before committing to an umbrella coalition, a decision that defied earlier calls for a firm action plan to be made that night.
Haitian student Gregory Paul, CC ’13, said he was disappointed that the night didn’t end with a firm commitment from attendees.
“‘L’Union Fait La Force.’ ‘With unity, there is strength,’” he said, citing his homeland’s national motto.
Paul said that the quake has left his uncle homeless in the streets of Port-au-Prince, and he believes that the people of Haiti need money, not supplies or visitors, more than anything else now.
But most attendees were not fazed by the decision to regroup later.
Gabrielle Apollon, CC’ 09 and one of the School of International and Public Affairs students who was in Haiti during the earthquake, said she was happy with the turnout and results of the forum.
Apollon said she hopes to contact President Lee Bollinger in the coming weeks to encourage the University to match contributions made by students.
Students at Stanford have already raised $18,000 and administrators there have agreed to match the funds they raise for two weeks.
“If Columbia did that too, it would prove that our institution truly is global and truly does care,” Apollon said.
Robert Taylor, executive director of student development and activities, attended the meeting and told students that the University would like to funnel funds raised by student groups into one university-wide account.
He said, “Our goal is really just to support you in doing the most for the most people.”
leah.greenbaum@columbiaspectator.com
Correction: An earlier version of this article said that Columbia spokesperson Robert Hornsby attended the event, when it was actually Robert Taylor from the Student Affairs office. Spectator regrets the error.
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