Student Groups

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.

Hello out there, you with your 13 class credits and one-club commitment. How’s life? Pretty nice, I’m sure. Sitting with friends in John Jay for hours, never missing an episode of Project Runway, organizing your schedule around your friends—ah, I remember the days.

With the primary season looming, ubiquitous “Students for...” political groups are abuzz with plans to attract student votes to the presidential candidates that they champion.

Support for Israel, long a topic of global political debates, has become a focal point of controversy within Columbia’s Pro-Israel community as well, with different groups of students organizing around varying views of how best to advocate for the country.

“I need you to survive,” rang out Teachers College instructor Patrice Turner, her melodic voice going against sounds of New York traffic. In one hand, she held a candle, while in the other, she held a microphone which students were passing around in a circle.

In a much-anticipated appearance last Friday, conservative writer David Horowitz, CC ’59, attacked the professors at Columbia University, addressed abuses of women’s rights in predominantly Muslim countries, and discussed the U.S. War on Terror.
• CTV NEWS VIDEO: Horowitz's Speech

“Is peace possible?”

Armed with pre-written questions, activists and students gathered last night at a panel held under the auspices of “Islamo-fascism Awareness Week” in a crowded Mathematics building classroom.

Columbia students joined together with middle-schoolers from the Bronx to celebrate Dia de la Raza last Friday at an event put on by Latino student groups.

More than 200 students, family members, and area residents gathered in prayer as darkness fell Saturday to celebrate the breaking of a day of fasting, called an Iftar, beginning the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.