cultural-groups

In light of newly available spaces on Barnard’s campus due to the recent opening of the Milstein Center, leaders of seven student organizations voiced their needs for dedicated space at a Student Government Association town hall on Tuesday.

In my hometown, our crosswalks are rainbows. Queerness is part of the air; I breathe it in like it’s the third most abundant gas in the atmosphere, only behind nitrogen and oxygen. It’s quite typical of a San Franciscan to rave about our lovely little gay 49 square miles—how the drag queens strut the streets next to the naked walkers on the Embarcadero and how sexual innuendos inundate our storefronts—showing just how liberated we are compared to the rest of the world.

The exclusivity of student groups seems like a fact of life at Columbia. By the first week of October, with summer heat starting to retreat and midterms on the horizon, most student groups have all but closed their doors to new members. And some clubs do have good reasons—the debate team certainly can’t send 300 members to their next debate tournament. But what about cultural clubs? Or interest groups? Is there a good reason that they have acceptance rates that rival college admissions?

On the last day of finals this past May, exhausted from all-nighters and seemingly never-ending review sessions, I forced myself to wake up early so I would be able to say bye to one of my good friends whom I knew I would not see all summer. I wasn’t headed to Wallach or John Jay—I was headed to Ferris.

The Steering Group on mental health will implement 14 major changes in health services and programming for the 2018-2019 academic year, including bolstering student trainings during the New Student Orientation Program and developing anti-overdose medication administration tutorials, Dean of Columbia College James Valentini announced in an email to undergraduates on Thursday.

Content Warning: This piece addresses issues of sexual assault. Student organizations are technically not allowed to oust students from their groups on the basis of allegations of sexual assault without going through the University. What obligations do student groups have when one member is accused of sexual assault by another?

Here I am on my mat, draped in a forward fold, rising slightly to a half lift, flinging myself upwards for a back bend. Magnified by a microphone, the teacher asks us to “open a dialogue with your bodies” and “to practice self-forgiveness,” to exhale in a “shhhhh” and to inhale until we can’t inhale anymore. She tells us to thank ourselves for “making it to your mats today.” As always, I’m torn between the urge to roll my eyes and the urge to nod emphatically.

Last weekend, my improv group welcomed four new members. We surprised them at their dorms and took them all out to Tom’s, the best place to celebrate on a Sunday after midnight. But as we ate our grilled cheese and drank our milkshakes, I thought about the larger group of students who were sitting in their rooms, reading their rejection emails instead of going out with us. I remembered what it was like to be one of them.