salutatorian
2018-04-22T01:00:14.593Z
In many ways, the day Michael Tong learned he was valedictorian was just like any other. Checking his email in bed, he saw the message from Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science Mary Boyce telling him he had won the award.
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2018-04-18T03:54:11.650Z
Sam Goldberg, CC ’18, had just come out of a weekly meeting with her thesis adviser when she saw a chain of emails from the University congratulating her for her nomination as valedictorian.
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2017-04-19T04:05:38.190Z
After opening an email with a congratulatory subject line, Noah Zweben, SEAS ’17, ran out of class to call his parents.
2017-04-12T05:36:55.558Z
Hui Yu Wong, CC ’17, was on a coffee break from work Tuesday when she received an email from Columbia College Dean James Valentini.
2016-04-18T10:37:28Z
Felix Qiaochu Jin, CC '16, remembers working on problem sets for accelerated physics with his friends in Carman Hall as a first-year, staying up until 3 a.m. to complete work for a class that Jin cites as one of the hardest he has taken at Columbia, but also one of his favorites.
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2014-10-20T00:30:03Z
Harper's Magazine publisher Rick MacArthur, CC '78, opened his Columbia College Class Day address with a joke.
"I realize that many among you are disappointed that I am not the president of the United States," he said. "I want you to know, I share your disappointment."
CC's Tuesday morning class day ceremony was a much quieter affair than Barnard's Monday commencement ceremony, where President Barack Obama, CC '83, was the keynote speaker.
But that didn't stop the college's more than 1,000 graduates from celebrating their graduation and looking back on their time at Columbia. Senior class president Sarah Chai said that the experiences "that are most quintessentially Columbia" are those "not advertised by admissions officers," describing her first time eating a slice of Koronet pizza.
"Columbia has undoubtedly become a place of many firsts for us," she said.
MacArthur's speech in many ways reflected the Core Curriculum, as he spent much of it "analyzing texts," as he put it. He described his difficulties reading the "Marx-Engels Reader," a Contemporary Civilization text, quoting Karl Marx extensively.
"I was trying, really trying to understand, but the German Ideology Part 1 was more than I had bargained for," he said.
After quoting a particularly dense passage, he said, "I went back to the text, as I know all of you do, and reread the whole damn thing."
MacArthur, a former Spectator news editor and a member of Spectator's board of trustees, also discussed Obama, saying that the president misread former Columbia English professor Edward Said. According to a recent biography of Obama, the president once called Said a "flake" more interested in literary theory than actual text, an assessment with which MacArthur disagreed.
"As a Protestant-baptized Palestinian-American who attended British colonial and American schools, Said was himself decontextualized as an Arab, permanently out of place," MacArthur said. "Said's sense of deracination, of never quite knowing where he came from, is something Barack Obama should know all about."
Continuing his analysis, though, MacArthur said that he ultimately does not believe Obama considered Said a flake, because "the grown-up Obama is a serious, intelligent person who attended Columbia College, where he learned how to read past the obvious and the superficial."
"My hope is that none of you seniors would shrink from such a reading assignment or such a political risk because of your exceptional Columbia College education," he continued. "The role of the intellectual, a Columbia intellectual, is to be prepared to tackle any text."
"My advice to all of you today is to absorb, to question, to challenge, to refute any author on any subject—or for that matter, any politician or commencement speaker," he added.
Graduate Kalasi Huggins said that while MacArthur's address wasn't his "ideal graduation speech," it was "well-executed."
"I thought it was relevant, and it definitely addressed the Obama issue, and he did it in a comical way which offset the animosity and the tension," Huggins said.
MacArthur's discussion of Core texts served to highlight a point made by Columbia College Alumni Association president Kyra Tirana Barry, CC '87.
"The Columbia experience is very powerful," Barry said. "It spans the years and generations."
There were several speakers besides MacArthur, including Barry, Chai, University President Lee Bollinger, Columbia College Interim Dean James Valentini, and salutatorian Zachary Levine. Valentini referenced a tagline once used by Jeep: "The things we make, make us."
"At Columbia, we are not manufacturers," he said. "But we do forge citizens, scholars, scientists, artists, writers, and leaders."
Levine thanked his classmates for making him "feel comfortable" in his own identity after he came out, discussing the ways that Columbia orients and disorients students.
"What we believe and know is dependent on how we were raised, relationships we've formed, accomplishments and accidents and blessings that we've had along the way," he said. "The presence of a queer community made the disorientation, the dizziness, feel good and beautiful, and uncomfortable in the best sense."
"This is a familiar story to each of us," he added.
Chai encouraged her classmates to remember their peers as they "continue to take chances and take charge."
"It's the people that you met here at Columbia who have helped shape you into an even more incredible person than you were when you first came to Morningside Heights," she said.
lillian.chen@columbiaspectator.com
... "I realize that many among you are disappointed that I am not the president of the United States," he said. "I want you to know, I share your disappointment."
CC's Tuesday morning class day ceremony was a much quieter affair than Barnard's Monday commencement ceremony, where President Barack Obama, CC '83, was the keynote speaker.
But that didn't stop the college's more than 1,000 graduates from celebrating their graduation and looking back on their time at Columbia. Senior class president Sarah Chai said that the experiences "that are most quintessentially Columbia" are those "not advertised by admissions officers," describing her first time eating a slice of Koronet pizza.
"Columbia has undoubtedly become a place of many firsts for us," she said.
MacArthur's speech in many ways reflected the Core Curriculum, as he spent much of it "analyzing texts," as he put it. He described his difficulties reading the "Marx-Engels Reader," a Contemporary Civilization text, quoting Karl Marx extensively.
"I was trying, really trying to understand, but the German Ideology Part 1 was more than I had bargained for," he said.
After quoting a particularly dense passage, he said, "I went back to the text, as I know all of you do, and reread the whole damn thing."
MacArthur, a former Spectator news editor and a member of Spectator's board of trustees, also discussed Obama, saying that the president misread former Columbia English professor Edward Said. According to a recent biography of Obama, the president once called Said a "flake" more interested in literary theory than actual text, an assessment with which MacArthur disagreed.
"As a Protestant-baptized Palestinian-American who attended British colonial and American schools, Said was himself decontextualized as an Arab, permanently out of place," MacArthur said. "Said's sense of deracination, of never quite knowing where he came from, is something Barack Obama should know all about."
Continuing his analysis, though, MacArthur said that he ultimately does not believe Obama considered Said a flake, because "the grown-up Obama is a serious, intelligent person who attended Columbia College, where he learned how to read past the obvious and the superficial."
"My hope is that none of you seniors would shrink from such a reading assignment or such a political risk because of your exceptional Columbia College education," he continued. "The role of the intellectual, a Columbia intellectual, is to be prepared to tackle any text."
"My advice to all of you today is to absorb, to question, to challenge, to refute any author on any subject—or for that matter, any politician or commencement speaker," he added.
Graduate Kalasi Huggins said that while MacArthur's address wasn't his "ideal graduation speech," it was "well-executed."
"I thought it was relevant, and it definitely addressed the Obama issue, and he did it in a comical way which offset the animosity and the tension," Huggins said.
MacArthur's discussion of Core texts served to highlight a point made by Columbia College Alumni Association president Kyra Tirana Barry, CC '87.
"The Columbia experience is very powerful," Barry said. "It spans the years and generations."
There were several speakers besides MacArthur, including Barry, Chai, University President Lee Bollinger, Columbia College Interim Dean James Valentini, and salutatorian Zachary Levine. Valentini referenced a tagline once used by Jeep: "The things we make, make us."
"At Columbia, we are not manufacturers," he said. "But we do forge citizens, scholars, scientists, artists, writers, and leaders."
Levine thanked his classmates for making him "feel comfortable" in his own identity after he came out, discussing the ways that Columbia orients and disorients students.
"What we believe and know is dependent on how we were raised, relationships we've formed, accomplishments and accidents and blessings that we've had along the way," he said. "The presence of a queer community made the disorientation, the dizziness, feel good and beautiful, and uncomfortable in the best sense."
"This is a familiar story to each of us," he added.
Chai encouraged her classmates to remember their peers as they "continue to take chances and take charge."
"It's the people that you met here at Columbia who have helped shape you into an even more incredible person than you were when you first came to Morningside Heights," she said.
lillian.chen@columbiaspectator.com
2014-08-26T00:01:04Z
Claire Duvallet, SEAS '13, has a public service announcement for Columbia: "Go the fuck to sleep."
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2014-08-24T13:34:56Z
Word from the news desk is that the Columbia College valedictorian is biological sciences major Arianne Richard, CC '10. Fencer extraordinaire Jeff Spear, CC '10 and an E3B major, will be CC salutatorian. Check back for more details and the full story later today.
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2014-08-24T13:34:56Z
The Columbia College valedictorian and salutatorian have been announced! The class of 2014 valedictorian is Margarete Diaz Cuadros, and the salutatorian is Samuel Walker. Congratulations to both! Below is the full press release from the Columbia College website.
... 2014-08-24T13:34:56Z
The Columbia College valedictorian and salutatorian have been announced! The class of 2013 valedictorian is Leah Friedman and the salutatorian is Yoshiaki Ko. While the CC website is currently down (bad time for maintenance, guys!), Bwog has the full press release.
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