Barnard-International-Artists-Series

Sitting inside the dark black box theater is a simple wooden structure—the bones of the house. Over the course of one weekend, this house will hold religious icons, a moonlit window, and the ghosts of women sacrificed in Greek mythology as three different stories come to life.

Columbia-Barnard Young Democratic Socialists of America’s tuition strike, which organizers claim mobilized at least 1,000 student strikers at its peak, ended on Monday, April 5.

The polls for General Studies Student Council open on Monday, April 12, at 10 a.m. and will remain open until Thursday, April 15, at 10 a.m. The polls for the Barnard Student Government Association reopened on Wednesday, March 31, at around 4:30 p.m. and will remain open until Monday, April 12, at 12 p.m.

Barnard has received a record number of undergraduate applications for the class of 2025. This puts the college among the many selective, historically wealthier universities, including Columbia, that have seen more applicants than ever before amid the coronavirus pandemic—while public universities with smaller endowments and less wealthy students on average scrape for applicants.

Andersen Gu, a Columbia College sophomore, knows what it means to navigate New York as a Chinese American. Growing up in a predominantly Chinese-immigrant community in Queens, surrounded by people who looked like him, Gu found comfort in the community in the city; hearing people around him speak different languages made him accustomed to diversity and attending Chinese school connected him to his origins and community.

With a bright smile and infectious enthusiasm, chef Adriana Urbina cuts slits in a sweet potato before placing it into the microwave. In a bowl, she mixes chickpeas, yogurt, and lemon juice together. To finish off, she breaks mint leaves into tiny pieces for a garnish on the top. The end product is a nutritious dish she makes multiple times a week: chickpea-loaded sweet potatoes with lemon tahini.

A group of college-aged women dressed in togas roll hoops to a finish line and jump over hurdles in the 1920s. Another group of women listens diligently to recordings of consonants and vowels for an English speech course in the 1940s. Others are dressed in their best winter clothes with suitcases in hand about to embark on a journey to the Westchester hills. What do all these women have in common? They are all part of Barnard’s unique history.

Over a century ago, Barnard commissioned actress and interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe to furnish a newly built Brooks Hall. Known for designing the Colony Club, she brought in chintz, silks, and mahogany antiques—all the trappings of the gaudy New York elite—to attract wealthy students to the college from out of town. Only a year earlier, the very idea of a residential hall on campus seemed unimaginable to students, let alone one with Wolfe’s over-the-top parlor décor. That is, every student except for Barnard senior and amateur playwright Edith Somborn Isaacs, BC 1906.