Finance

Every fall break, the Columbia University Democrats bus out across the country, from Virginia to Ohio, on an annual campaign trip. In years past, we have helped elect governors and helped reelect presidents. But this year, we will take to the porches and street corners of Maine, not to support a candidate for election, but in the hopes of attaining an ideal—campaign finance reform.

"Most of the time, articles are about integration, and I don't think that's as much of a problem," Adam Korzeniewski, a School of General Studies senior, says as he surveys coverage of military veterans returning to school in the media. While he struggles to connect to some of his peers at Columbia, that is not a difficulty he correlates with the time he spent in service. "It's not so much that I am absent of a community to lean back on. It's just that I am an individual."

The Notorious B.I.G once said, "Mo money, mo problems"... but my comrades in college already know that's complete bull. Mo money = mo money, plain and simple. However, I wouldn't know the sweet taste of having "mo money." Textbook prices have robbed me of that privilege.

Liberal arts colleges can be open invitations for parents to question things like practicality and job prospects. Even students with traditionally "practical" majors (the sciences, economics, comp sci, we're looking at you) get criticized for wasting credits on mandatory classes like Art and Music Hum—trust me, I've seen it happen!

The Columbia Fed Challenge team's investments paid off this weekend with the team coming in third in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's annual economic challenge—the first time Columbia has made it to the finals in a district competition.