opinion: columns

“Human rights” is a term often thrown around in campus discourse. Yet for the past four years, this term was perhaps used most frequently concerning the Trump administration, as many students were dismayed at its frequent and flagrant violations of human rights. Now, following Joe Biden’s inauguration, many of us are breathing a sigh of relief.

When I am asked who my favorite historical figure is, I cannot help but say Prince Klemens von Metternich. Throughout my life, the majority of the responses I’ve gotten to this have been incredulous. Most people have no reason to know who Metternich is, and the majority of those who do scoff at the idea that an 18th-century Austrian aristocrat who is most often remembered for his repressive conservatism is a fitting exemplar, let alone one relevant in the 21st century. Well, I beg to differ.

On July 10, University President Lee Bollinger announced the opening of the Columbia Climate School. He based the decision on Columbia’s commitment to public life, writing: “We are not free to ignore the issues of our age and pursue whatever we want. We are ultimately responsible to our societies and the world. To that end, we must answer the call to serve.”

Liam McGrane: A proud Brit, and now for three years a proud New Yorker, he spends his time between classes cartooning, reading biographies, and putting the finishing touches on his first full-length play “Premature Immaculation”. Liam studies computer science. He also serves as vice president of campus life on the General Studies Student Council. Liam hopes that you will enjoy his cartoon windows into the world, and if that happens to be the case, you can find his other cartoons on Facebook and Instagram @liammcgranecartoons.

For many, January was supposed to be a month of cautious optimism. In the wake of one of the most traumatic years in our lifetimes, it should have marked the beginning of a new and hopeful political age but what the chaos on Capitol Hill showed us all is that this year must mark the age of accountability.

Long-standing institutions that seek to move toward social correctness in 2021 are often proud to declare that those who are closest to the issue are closest to the solution and should be driving the change. While true, in its current application, this proximity to justice and advocacy rhetoric for the oppressed manifests only in mere concept. It is nothing more than rubber-stamped language rearticulated from organization to organization that expresses understanding and empathy. The reality is that well-known organizations continue to profit from prioritized funding, accessible social resources, and supportive networks that would be more beneficial to Black and Indigenous people in communities like Harlem. These benefits should be reallocated to smaller, nontraditional community-based projects and organizations that are birthed right out of the neighborhoods they serve.

As I return to Columbia from a semester off, I am confronted with the same jarring culture shock I experienced my first year—the experience of existing in a predominately white and wealthy institution while coming from a predominantly Black and poor community. Unlike many of my peers and many Black students who attend Columbia and other elite institutions, I didn’t attend a wealthy and white school nor was I raised in white picket-fenced suburbia. After spending my summer and fall in the predominantly Black and lower-income community of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, I return to Columbia with the same anxiety and feeling of foreignness.

Dear fellow members of the Columbia community,

Just after Election Day, I saw room for optimism. Republicans had gained seats in the House, limiting the Democrats’ power to jam through partisan legislation. Many of the newly-elected Republican representatives were moderate ones from diverse backgrounds: Among them were two of the first three Korean American women ever elected to Congress. Donald Trump was defeated, and Joe Biden—a candidate running on a promise to restore the soul of the nation—won.

Columbia students are organizing the largest tuition strike in U.S. history. In the past two weeks alone, over 3,000 students have joined the effort, and the number of committed strikers continues to grow rapidly. But it’s not just the sheer scale of the tuition strike that makes it so unprecedented—it’s also the nature of the demands themselves.