Reunion

I’m sitting on the couch in the living room next to my older sister. We just met. Her name is Anna. We study each other’s fingers, which are skinny and long, with rounded tops. After a pause, we ask each other about food allergies and lactose intolerance. We’ll ask each other about shared feelings, but that’s later. She asks me if I like purses. She tells me that she has a collection. I’m not much of a purse person. She’s not into wide-leg pants.

The Columbia education has and will continue to stand the test of time. Why? Because education at our alma mater has never merely been taught in the form of textbooks. Columbia students have, instead, been fully immersed in our educational experience, which has been fashioned with the reflections of our intellectual ancestral alumni.

Could your long lost sibling be in Principles of Economics with you? This may seem far fetched, but for sisters Lizzie Valverde, GS '15, and Katy Olson, GS '14, Columbia actually brought them together. The sisters were separated early on in their childhood and adopted by different families but coincidentally ended up in the same writing class in January 2013. After sharing introductions, the two realized that they were more than just classmates, they were sisters.

Columbia Alumni Allied Against Sexual Assault announced a plan to create a set of unified student, alumni, and faculty proposals for reforming Columbia's sexual assault policies on Saturday.

Beginning tonight, many on campus are observing the 40th anniversary of the now-legendary week of protests against the Columbia administration during which hundreds of students occupied campus buildings. Many of the weekend's events promise to bring a better understanding of the events of 1968 to those who attend. However, perhaps because the reunion was organized mostly by people sympathetic to the protests, the events slotted for April 26 and 27 seem self-congratulatory in light of the decidedly mixed views toward these protesters. Whereas the more nuanced of the scheduled gatherings aim to provide valuable historical perspective, events commemorating the protesters might succumb to the assumption that 1968 had only positive effects on balance. Those in attendance should work to appreciate the complexity of the historical consequences of spring 1968.