Seniors See Columbia's Role Grow in Harlem, World

This year’s senior class has witnessed an especially fitful period in Columbia’s history. Over the past four years, Columbia has gained in stature globally, increased its local profile, and settled into a period which has been—and seems likely to continue being—largely defined by the leadership of high-profile University President Lee Bollinger. In the process, the University also attracted the caring attention of public figures ranging from Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs to Robert Kraft and Kofi Annan.

Four Years of Tumult

This year’s graduates were introduced to controversy at Columbia just over a month into their first semester, as word spread about a documentary featuring Jewish students accusing professors in the Middle East and Asian languages and cultures department of seeking to intimidate those students enrolled in their classes who supported the State of Israel. The resulting controversy played out over several months as the University conducted an internal investigation into the charges and devised a new procedure for students to file grievances while outside media sparked a debate about academic freedom. In the end, an ad-hoc University committee found “no evidence of any statements made by the faculty that could reasonably be construed as anti-Semitic.”

In another incident that jarred the campus late in 2005, two students scrawled racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic graffiti on the door of a dormitory suite, setting off a criminal prosecution. While the charges against the students were dropped as part of a plea bargain, the event led to the formation of Stop Hate on Columbia’s Campus, an ad-hoc coalition of students who sought to protest intolerance at the University. These events served as the groundwork for the Community Principles Initiative, a University-directed drive to create a set of common standards for student behavior.

A year later, student activism again took center stage on campus when a group of students rushed the stage during a speaking appearance by anti-immigration activist Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project. The ensuing melee, which included physical fighting between the students and members of Gilchrist’s contingent, created a national controversy. Conservative pundits criticized Bollinger for Columbia’s alleged lack of free speech, a charge that arises during most University controversies due at least in part to Bollinger’s status as one of the nation’s leading First Amendment lawyers. Several students faced disciplinary action for their participation in the events, although ultimately none received anything harsher than probation. Months after his initial appearance at Columbia, Gilchrist was expelled from the Minuteman Project for financial improprieties under his watch. However, Gilchrist became enough of a household name on the Columbia campus that he was rumored to have been reinvited to Columbia the following fall to debate his activist adversaries at a Columbia Political Union event. The potential second appearance­­­—which was never officially confirmed—never occured.

This year too began with a bang when the University invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak on campus as part of the annual at the World Leaders Forum. For a week, campus was rocked as students and administrators planned for the day. International media outlets, disgruntled alumni, and protesters from across the Northeast maintained a constant presence outside of the main University gates from the moment of the invitation until after the speech. At a meeting with Bollinger the day after the announcement, student leaders defended the University’s invitation while opposing the head of state’s views on homosexuality, human rights, and the State of Israel. Students organized a massive forum on campus—which was restricted to Columbia ID holders on the day of the speech—while administrators set up huge television monitors on South Lawn.

During the event, Bollinger delivered a blistering introduction, condemning Ahmadinejad’s positions on Israel and human rights, saying that Ahmadinejad exhibited “all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” and stating that his views of the Holocaust showed him to be “either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.” In a question-and-answer period following a wandering speech about the intersection of faith and science, Ahmadinejad denied that the nation was pursuing the development of nuclear weapons and defended his desire to conduct research into the Holocaust while generally evading questions about the treatment of women in Iran, the nation’s support of terrorism, and whether he desired the destruction of the State of Israel. In a moment that was widely replayed on television after the event, Ahmadinejad also denied the existence of homosexuality in Iran, saying: “We do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have it.”

At about the same time, a string of bias incidents rocked the community. In September, homophobic and Islamophobic graffiti was found in an International Affairs Building bathroom. Two weeks later, a noose was found on the door of African-American Teachers College professor Madonna Constantine. The New York Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force has yet to identify the perpetrator. In February, Teachers College sanctioned Constantine for plagiarizing her students in academic work, a charge she denies. A month after the noose incident, anti-Semitic graffiti was found in a Lewisohn Hall bathroom and a swastika was found on the door of a TC professor known for her research on the Holocaust.

In response to these events, as well as in protest of the University’s expansion plans in West Harlem, a small group of students staged a hunger strike in November demanding changes to the expansion plan, curricular changes, and increased support for minority communities on campus. The strike provoked strong reactions on all sides, with students divided between those supporting the strike, those supporting the strikers’ goals while condemning their form of protest, and those opposing both the strike and its aims. After 10 days, the strikers ended their protest following the announcement that Columbia would revamp the Major Cultures requirement of its Core Curriculum and provide greater support for campus minority groups.

Manhattanville Comes to Life

Though Columbia may have had its eyes set on the wider world, perhaps its most important undertakings have occurred right here in Upper Manhattan. Bollinger’s plan to create a new 17-acre campus a half-mile north of the main gates on Broadway—the most important single expansion of space for Columbia in a century—has gone from abstract plans to blueprints to the brink of construction as the senior class has worked its way through the University. In December, the New York City Council signed off on the plan, paving the way for Columbia to begin tests on the land as early as this summer.

The new campus would primarily serve to increase the University’s science facilities and move some of the graduate schools—including the School of the Arts, School of International and Public Affairs, and Graduate School of Business—off of the Morningside campus, paving the way for its use as a predominantly undergraduate space. Additionally, the new campus will include a new magnet school for high-achieving students from the local community, open green space, and ground-level shops.

While the University, which contends that the expansion will benefit West Harlem, has received the support of the majority of elected officials representing the area, it has also faced stiff opposition from some local leaders and members of the area’s Community Board 9, who say that the plan will change the character of the neighborhood and push out many area residents, both directly and through gentrification. At the center of the debate is the possible use of eminent domain by New York state to obtain land from a handful of business-owners in the expansion area who have so far refused to sell their properties to the University.

Policy Changes

In keeping up with its Ivy League peers, Columbia completely revamped its financial-aid policies over the last four years. Two years ago, the University announced that it would switch loans to grants for students whose families make less than $50,000 annually.

Then, following sweeping announcements by schools such as Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth, Columbia revealed an additional slate of reforms in March. The policies included the elimination of tuition, room, and board payments for families making less than $60,000 annually, as well as a decrease in loan and tuition burden for families making up to $180,000 annually. The School of General Studies has also seen an increase in its financial-aid budget, but the size of GS packages falls well behind those of Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

To fund these and other initiatives, in 2004 the University launched the Columbia Campaign, a seven-year, $4 billion fundraising drive. When announced, it was the largest such drive in the history of American higher education. The University is currently ahead of pace to meet its goal, buoyed by the $200 million gift from the estate of Jerome L. Greene, CC ’26 and Law ’28, and a $400 million gift from John Kluge, CC ’37. If successful, the drive would go a long way towards closing the gap between the size of Columbia’s endowment and that of many of its peer institutions. Over the past several years, Columbia has seen rapid growth in the size of its endowment, reaching 20 percent last year.

A School in Flux

This year’s graduating seniors have been exposed to hundreds of influential speakers during their time in Morningside. Three years ago, acclaimed theater director Peter Brook brought his troupe to Barnard College for a brief residency as part of the Columbia University Arts Initiative. In fall 2006, Václav Havel served as the University’s first artist-in-residence, during which time he delivered the Contemporary Civilization Coursewide Lecture and appeared in a discussion with former U.S. President Bill Clinton moderated by Bollinger. At the beginning of this academic year, Oliver Sacks was named the University’s first “Columbia Artist.” Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, John McCain, George Stephanopolous, Mark Cuban, John Ashcroft, John Bolton, Phyllis Schlafly, Arianna Huffington, Gene Robinson, Al Gore, Jalal Talabani, Paul Farmer, the Dalai Lama, and John Roberts are just a few of the hundreds of speakers who this year’s graduates have had the opportunity to see on campus over the past four years. Additionally, in 2006, Columbia professors Orhan Pamuk and Edmund Phelps each won the Nobel Prize for their work in literature and economics, respectively.

During these four years, Columbia’s character has also changed greatly. This year, the Cyclotron which was used during the Manhattan Project was removed from the basement of Pupin Hall and sold for scrap, a move which followed an increase in security within the tunnels that led to the machine. The West End, a bar best known as a haunt for Columbia students dating back to Jack Kerouac’s days as a student, was replaced by a classy Cuban restaurant. The way that students interacted changed dramatically—this year’s graduates never knew a Columbia without Facebook, students with laptops in lecture classes regularly outnumber those without, and many students rely on campus gossip site Bwog, launched in 2006, to get their news about Columbia. Even the University’s mascot received a face-lift, with Columbia premiering “Roar-ee” in 2006.

Mixed Success on the Field

Four years ago, a new athletic director arrived at Columbia along with the class of 2008. M. Dianne Murphy, previously the athletic director at the University of Denver, promised to change Columbia’s culture of losing. After a couple of difficult years, Columbia won an unprecedented five Ivy League championships in largely unheralded sports. The women’s soccer team won the Ivy League title for the first time ever in 2006, making it to the NCAA tournament. Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams won two consecutive Heptagonal Championships. In a continuation of that legacy this year, Columbia baseball won the Ivy League championship.

A factor in that change was the arrival in 2004 of basketball coach Joe Jones, who promptly reeled in one of the strongest recruiting classes in recent memory his first year, including graduating seniors Ben Nwachukwu and Brett Loscalzo. That talent came to fruition last year as the team finished above .500 overall and 7-7 in the Ivy League, seemingly setting the table for a competitive campaign this year. However, 2007-2008 proved to be a disappointment with the team plodding inconsistently to a mediocre record.

Columbia’s success in the smaller sports was also overshadowed by the football team’s poor performance over the last four years. New coach Norries Wilson was brought in from the University of Connecticut two years ago to turn the team around after three difficult years under Bob Shoop. His first season showed promise in the form of an unlikely 5-5 finish. However, in 2007 the team seemed to regress, finishing 1-9 overall and winless in the Ivy League.

Last year, the University also devoted a $100 million segment of the Columbia Campaign to the athletics program. The fundraising drive was kicked off with an initial $5 million donation from Columbia alumnus and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, after whom the football field was subsequently named.

josh.hirschland@columbiaspectator.com