College-Walk

This semester, while I’m working toward my English degree, my grandmother will be working toward hers too.

QuestBridge, a national organization connecting low-income students to selective colleges, announced Barnard as one of its three new partner institutions earlier this week.

As Joe Biden secures the 2020 election, the shift in power to the Democratic Party signals forthcoming change to higher education policy. Among other initiatives, Biden’s current higher education platform promises to reinstate broader Title IX protections and support lower-income students’ attendance of public four-year programs and community colleges.

I love my hometown—I think. In the summers, townies and tourists mill around Brunswick, Maine like fish in a stream. The locals are shiny, broad-backed trout; they’re tanned and wear Red Sox caps and tee shirts from local breweries; they drive trucks with immaculate exteriors and crushed Budweiser cans under the seats.

Social media has always been one of those things I’m unable to use consistently. While this may be obvious from my sparse Instagram posts, it is no secret to those who know me that I prefer the familiar intimacy of physical interactions, such as in the parking lot of a local coffee house or after school in my favorite classroom.

It is time we hold the administration of the School of General Studies to its word. If administrators truly mean that their primary goal is to make General Studies as affordable as possible, they must change their transfer credit policy to accept online classes from other accredited colleges and universities. It would save General Studies students tens of thousands of dollars in student debt.

Alicia Lawrence, deputy dean of Barnard who was beloved for her support for students of color as one of the few Black administrators on Barnard’s campus, died Thursday evening from a pre-existing health condition unrelated to COVID-19, according to an email from Barnard President Sian Beilock. She was 36 years old.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hospitalize thousands of people across the country, specialized doctors are being deployed to emergency rooms, some for the first time since they were medical students. Some worry that they are ill-equipped to do so. Others worry that the inability to perform specialized procedures—including plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery, and ophthalmology—will lose Columbia hundreds of millions in revenue.