Residential-Life

Between September 2018 and May 2019, six migrant children died in Border Patrol custody. In July of that same year, the New York Times reported on horrendous conditions at a Border Patrol detention facility in Texas: overcrowding; unsanitary conditions; children forced to sleep on concrete floors; parentless babies being cared for by migrant teens; and heartbreaking stories of children hearing their family members’ voices on the phone for the first time in months. This September, a whistle-blower report alleged that multiple women in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Irwin County Detention Center—operated by LaSalle Corrections, a private company—were pressured into invasive surgeries without proper consent. As recently as October, the country learned that ICE had lost track of the parents of over 500 migrant children. Despite its short history, ICE has managed to amass a significant record of human rights violations. In addition to the abuses detailed above, sexual abuse, violence, and family separation run rampant within the agency.

Content Warning: This episode of The Ear discusses sexual violence and rape.

I came to New York City when I was four. I spent the next seven years living in a flat in Gravesend. Perhaps the most aptly named neighborhood in the city, Gravesend is as weary and empty as its name suggests. I don’t remember much about those days besides that the winters were cold; sharing a room, my sister and I would sleep in winter coats because the heater was broken.

Being rejected by student clubs can be hard, as they are an important part of the college experience. While it’s OK to mourn that, there are also other ways to participate in the community. It’s important to realize that club rejection isn’t personal, and that there are many factors that go into a decision beyond an applicant’s control. With that being said, if you’re in a situation where you are faced with rejection, you might find these tips helpful.

After the police killing of George Floyd sparked greater scrutiny of anti-Blackness in organizations across college campuses, a wave of students has disaffiliated from Panhellenic sororities at Columbia—at Sigma Delta Tau and Alpha Omicron Pi alone, 60 members in total have disaffiliated.

Messages between members of the Columbia chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, nicknamed Fiji, have circulated over the past week, implicating several students in racist comments targeting a Black woman photographed in The Denver Post after being tear-gassed by police. One fraternity member’s concerns were dismissed when he expressed disgust with a joke that compared the tear gas—a toxin linked to chronic respiratory diseases and miscarriages that has been used as a weapon against protests—to semen.

Film screenings and festivals have historically required large gatherings of people in one room, all looking at the same silver screen. But due to social distancing measures taken in response to the coronavirus pandemic, that is not an option anymore. Yet the show went on for the second annual CU Film Showcase, which brought people together from all over the world on April 27 to watch students’ short films on their personal silver screens.