New York’s 12th Congressional District is a mammoth of a locality. Spanning 9.6 square miles and encompassing some 752,000 residents, the district—which stretches from Riverside Drive to FDR Drive, Union Square to Manhattan Valley—is the state’s wealthiest and one of its most blue, too.

Editor’s Note: The Eye spoke with three Iranian students on the condition of anonymity, citing concerns for family safety in Iran. Their pseudonyms were generated using a random name generator.

In his first public appearance for right-of-center media company The Free Press, reporter Jonas Du, CC ’25, introduced himself as a junior at Columbia University.

I was 15 the first time someone plastered a sexual identity onto me, the casual kind of imposition, less cutting than it was sticky. Spring of sophomore year, I hadn’t grown out my hair or wisdom teeth. Hadn’t learned what it meant to be desired, or moved cities since I was seven. At night, I wasn’t yet missing my mother’s presence a coast away like a phantom limb. All this to say: I was only pretending to broach adulthood.

Entering a backroom of the St. Paul’s Chapel basement, where the Columbia University Buddhist Association holds its weekly meetings, I take off my shoes at the door like I’m entering somebody’s home. Unlike the towering space of worship upstairs, with its larger-than-life dome ceiling, this room is not as architecturally striking. Instead, I would describe the space—filled with the smell of incense—as warm, exposed. White pipes run along the ceiling’s frame. Seven chandeliers hang from above, glowing. The window is slightly ajar. I notice how lethargic I’ve been feeling. It’s the Thursday after the election, the beginning of November, and for the first time this week, it feels like campus is finally quiet. It’s 7:30 p.m., and I’m right on time. The meeting is about to begin.