november

Student life at Columbia was hard enough to navigate even before the COVID-19 pandemic, but with people scattered across the globe, finding a community within the student body has become even more difficult. With our monthly Spotify playlists, Spectrum hopes to engage the University community and reminisce about the activities and memories that we share. We hope you enjoy our first installment!

Welcome back to campus. Hope everyone has enjoyed their break! As midterms are coming to a close (for the most part), you may be looking for things to do in your spare time. Don’t fret—we’ve got you covered.

You may notice that there are more mustaches and overgrown five-o'clock shadows on campus than usual. At first you may think it's a new men's grooming trend, like the Bieber or man buns. But then you hear the term "Movember" or "No-Shave November" tossed around. Men aren't just cultivating their beards, mustaches, and sideburns for the sake of protecting their faces from the harsh winter cold. No, the onset of scruff is part of a larger activist "mo-vement" to raise awareness for testicular cancer, prostate cancer, and mental health.

But how are people supposed to figure out the link between facial hair and cancer prevention? Normally, when I see someone with a bushy beard, I don't immediately think, "Whoa, testicular cancer!" For those who aren't already in the know, there's no way to figure out that this is a form of activism.

In practice, Movember fails to raise awareness. Participating in the movement doesn't tell anyone about prevention or detection methods. To make a difference, we need more than a friendly reminder that prostate or testicular cancer exists. What we have here is a classic example of slacktivism. It requires minimal effort (such as not shaving) and does nothing to solve the problem at hand.

This is just the latest example of slacktivism. Who could forget when everyone changed their profile pictures to their favorite cartoon character in support of child-abuse victims? Or our efforts to stop Joseph Kony in 2012? Then there's my personal favorite: when girls posted the colors of their bras to Facebook in an effort to raise awareness for breast cancer, without telling boys what it meant.

None of these efforts taught us anything about these issues. Cartoon characters did not teach us to recognize the warning signs of child abuse. The public momentum to stop Kony dissipated, thanks to the fact that the director of Stop Kony 2012 was caught streaking and masturbating in public. While checking the color of her bra, no girl talked about the importance of simple checks for breast cancer.

Our long history of social-justice activism is one of the most important, distinguishing qualities of the Columbia and Barnard community. But as we try to expand the number of issues for which we fight, we spread ourselves too thin and we lose sight of our passion. Activism has become a knee-jerk reaction, and we've stopped questioning if our actions have any effect. We find low-effort causes to support so that we can pat ourselves on the back for making the world a little bit better. We are becoming Lindsay Bluths of activism—our commitments to causes are fleeting and the results are relatively low-impact.

Activism needs to return to its origins: action. Action brings change. Causes shouldn't be reduced to winning social justice Brownie points. On campus, we have so many creative and motivated students who are capable of making a real difference. Obviously, we cannot devote ourselves to every cause that needs attention. Rather, each of us needs to focus on a few causes toward which we can devote the energy required to make real progress. We cannot allow ourselves to get stuck in the trap of slacktivism—our job isn't done just because we didn't shave for four weeks. We owe it to ourselves and everyone else to do better. In the words of Ron Swanson, "Don't half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing."

Alex Della Santina is a School of Engineering and Applied Science sophomore majoring in electrical engineering. She is a member of the Columbia University Marching Band. The aleX Factor runs alternate Tuesdays. Today is her birthday. Happy birthday!

To respond to this column, or to submit an op-ed, contact opinion@columbiaspectator.com.

Back in 1972, a now-classic paper by biometeorologists in rainy old England called "Classroom Performance as a Function of Thermal Comfort" reached a conclusion that a lot of students know in their heart is true, but don't want to believe: The warmer a classroom gets, the harder it is to concentrate. Based on the amount of complaining about the wild weather extremes that we've all been hearing at Columbia in the last few days, you'd think that everyone here actually wished they went to Stanford, where all winter it's usually somewhere between 65 and 75 degrees and sunny and you can pluck citrus fruits off trees all over campus. Well, with all due respect to Stanford, as far as climate and academic performance is concerned, science isn't on its side. The English students, at least, were able to think most clearly when the classroom was... a nippy 62 degrees Fahrenheit, and their abilities declined with every degree above that.

You wake up on the floor of a rustic log cabin in New Hampshire's White Mountains. You're softly humming a Norwegian lullaby as you sharpen your father's old hatchet. The sun won't rise for another 30 minutes, but you've already finished the week's chores. You straighten the Brian Wilson portrait hanging above your fireplace. Yeah, that's better. You light a wooden pipe and think back to simpler times. Ah. No Shave November. No Shave November is an annual, month-long marathon of questionable hygiene and brutish masculinity. Participants wake up on December 1st, gaze into the mirror, and ask themselves, "Am I a man or is there a god behind that beard?" We want to help you answer that question. Now that the marathon is over, it's time to reward yourself. Don't go reaching into your drawer of razors or trying to borrow your shepherd friend's sheep shearers. We've got a list of the best Morningside barber shops for your face's rebirth. Check them out after the jump. more Melvin & Pat's Barber Shop - 998 Amsterdam Avenue This place is packed with people and mirrors, so it ends up looking much bigger than it actually is. Salsa music blares over the stereo all day long. Expect a quick, inexpensive, and melodic shave. Miguel's Barber Shop - 942 Amsterdam Avenue Miguel's is almost always busy, so expect a bit of a wait if you go. The fragrance of their shaving cream is by far the best of Morningside's many barber shops. That may be reason enough to try out Miguel's. Santana's Barber Shop - 965 Amsterdam Avenue Our personal favorite, Santana's is home to the best story-telling barbers on Amsterdam. It's kind of a hang out place for the neighborhood, and if you're lucky, the guy giving you s shave will also be wildly flailing his arms as he acts out a scene for the regulars. Queridos Barber Shop - 983 Columbus Avenue The best part about Queridos is the wise, black cat that occupies the shop and sternly judges you as you get your face shaved. The prices are relatively cheap, but it's not the quickest shave. Barbershop Mercedes International - 205 West 104th Street Aside from the bulky name, Barbershop Mercedes International offers some great cuts, though not the cheapest. The best part about the place? The chairs. You could fall asleep before your barber even lathers your face. Columbia Barber Shop Unisex - 3066 Broadway This barber shop is relatively cheap, and when combined with the $2 student coupon on their website, you can get a haircut and a shave for less than 20 bucks. They even have televisions tuned to sports games so you don't have to make awkward small-talk with your barber. Did we miss one of your favorites? Let us know in the comments!

Today is the last day of November, a beautiful month of autumnal weather featuring short but satisfying academic breaks and an opportunity to wear fall jackets. For that, I am sorry. Today is also, however, the last day of No Shave November, a month that celebrates the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad decision to, well, not shave. (I've also heard of a variant wherein one grows a mustache, but I am not going to humor that in this post.) For that, I rejoice. It turns out, however, that Spectrum—that is, this very website—is encouraging further validation of the choice to not shave one's face for an entire month by way of a contest. I generally hate meta posts, partially because I am never really sure that I am using "meta" correctly, but mostly because I don't actually think they're contributive. But this time, I have a very specific contribution: Those of you who are eligible to partake in this contest should instead rectify your earlier mistake (which, again, was to not shave for a month). Why? I'm so glad you asked.more