University Unveils Statement of Principles

Administrators and undergraduate student leaders unveiled a Community Principles Statement yesterday, even as officials scrambled to respond to the swastika found on a Teachers College professor’s door.

The project began as a joint administration-student response to racist graffiti found in Ruggles in 2005. The 118-word statement—which was read aloud by student council representatives—is the result of more than 18 months of efforts, though administrators and students warned that the document should be considered a “working draft” open to feedback.

Students involved with the document’s preparation showed their support for the statement by signing a banner with the text of the document as administrators passed out cupcakes at a nearby Halloween-themed “Meet the Deans” table.

Dean of Student Affairs Chris Colombo thanked students for working on the statement and reiterated points from the document’s preamble. “These principles serve as a framework to facilitate on-going conversations for how we interact with one another,” the preamble reads. “They are not meant to be additional rules of conduct: rather they are a means to which to hold ourselves and others accountable.”

The principles are strictly guidelines for the University community, and students who violate them will not be subject to disciplinary proceedings.

“I’m really excited we’re finally launching the principles,” senior Michelle Diamond, Columbia College Student Council president, said. She added that all the student councils and governing boards are involved in the Community Principles Initiative of which the statement is just one part.

Jenni Oki, CC ’07 and a former leader in Columbia Concerned Students of Color and Stop Hate on Columbia Campus, worked on the CPI last year. She said that overall she thought it was a great idea, but that “it didn’t manifest itself in reflecting the campus we have.”

“CPI is ambitious in that it’s trying to get a wide spread of the campus,” Oki said, but she added that those involved in crafting the initiative were not necessarily representative of the student body. “Student leadership is not indicative of the entire campus.”

“People are not willing to say we reject racism,” Oki said of the statement, indicating that it was toothless. Referring to a similar initiative which began at the University of California, Berkeley, she said that the CPI is “meant to encompass everybody, including people who write graffiti in bathroom stalls and hang nooses. It’s harder in that forum to get that bold and that powerful and that clear of a statement.”

Diamond said the statement was not intended as a reaction to the hate crimes that have occurred in the past few weeks. “These principles were written prior to the recent events on campus. They’re not meant to be reactionary. They’re not meant to be negative, but something we should be striving toward.”

Colombo said the upcoming CPI summit would be a forum for the entire student body to discuss recent events and discuss how to better work together on responses. “The Nov. 9 event is targeted to bring all those groups together,” he said. “This was really just to announce the draft of the principles and to get the general community’s feedback.”

But with the recent string of bias incidents on campus in mind, General Studies Student Council President Niko Cunningham said that “All the community principles in the world won’t deride attention-seeking idiots.”

Cunningham said he was excited about the Wall of Words. Created by John DeSerio, GS, the wall is designed to offer passersby on Low Plaza a venue for expressing whatever they wish.

“The unveiling of the CPI statement was, in fact, a historic moment at Columbia, but the sheer nature of its purpose promises to fade from our students’ memory,” Cunningham said. “The Word Wall promises to never fade from our students’ memories, as it is now a part of the very fabric of a Columbia student.”

The writings on the wall span a number of subjects, including, “Red Sox Suck,” “Peace in the Middle East,” “Let Freedom Ring,” and “You can bomb the world to pieces but you can’t bomb it into peace.”

DeSerio said he was seeking a public space for all to vent and create dialogue, while also letting outsiders know that Columbia students disapprove of the hate incidents on campus. He said Columbia carpenters helped build the wall, which he estimated had brought about 600 comments in three days.

Referring to two recent incidents where anti-Semitic and Islamophobic racist was scrawled on the stalls of campus bathrooms, Deserio said, “You’re not writing it in bathrooms, you’re in front of everybody, you’re putting it on and hopefully constructive argument will spark. It takes courage. ... You’re putting yourself more on the spot than if you were just writing it by yourself.”

“The Word Wall begged and demanded attention from hundreds of students this week,” Cunningham said. “The Wall took the crap from the bathroom stall and made it lunchtime conversation. That is where a community is built—around our Wall.”

Laura Schreiber contributed to this article.
Tom Faure can be reached at tom.faure@columbiaspectator.com.