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emma.goss@columbiaspectator.com | @EmmaAudreyGoss

Douglas Kessel

Lede title:

Tina Kit, SEAS

Douglas Kessel / Senior Staff Photographer

TRIPLE A | Tina Kit’s work with the Asian American Alliance has taught her that “all oppressions are connected,” she said.

Senior profile: Daniel Lagana, GS

Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Daniel Lagana has been around the world and back.

He spent much of his youth moving from country to country with his parents, who worked in the Foreign Service, and he served two tours of military duty in Iraq. But Lagana said he found a home for himself when he joined, and later became president of, the U.S. Military Veterans of Columbia University.

In 2003, when Lagana was 19 and living in the suburbs outside of Washington, D.C., he was highly conscious of the mark that 9/11 had left on the nation. It was this mark that led him to join the Army.

“There was a lot of kinetic energy in the air in the country in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. I think there was this general mood in the country—at least I felt it. I felt compelled to want to participate in it somehow,” Lagana said.

He characterized his six years in the Army as a transformative experience, during which he matured emotionally and learned personal responsibility.

But above all, shedding 60 pounds in basic training, along with the insecurity that had come with being overweight, gave Lagana a self-confidence that he said helped him immensely at Columbia.

Lagana spent his final two years of military service going to Northern Virginia Community College, where he excelled. At age 25, his motivation to transfer to Columbia had a lot to do with the University’s prestige.

Looking back, Lagana believes he made the right choice in coming to Columbia. But today he values Columbia because of the people he met on campus, rather than the name of the school.

During his first semester, Lagana experienced difficulty fitting in, but he had a “eureka moment” during his Climate and Society class, in which his project partner was David Fine, CC ’13.

“I remember working with him and thinking how impressive he was, thinking, ‘Wow, this is his first semester here, and he’s going full force.’ I was a 25-year-old combat veteran, and I’m looking up to someone who is 19 years old,” Lagana said. “And that was my moment when I realized there was a lot you can do here, and I started getting involved.”

In his first year, Lagana became treasurer and finance vice president of the General Studies Student Council, but he found his niche the following year, when he became MilVets president.

“Being president of the MilVets was the highlight and the ultimate privilege,” of his time at Columbia, Lagana said.

In recent years, more veterans have been attending Columbia, largely due to a revised GI Bill and Columbia’s participation in the Yellow Ribbon Program, a federal financial aid program for veterans. As the student veteran population got larger, Lagana wanted MilVets to generate an “outward focus” of offering more support for student veterans.

He said that when he first joined MilVets, it was somewhat alienating because “it was smaller, it was more insular—it was much more of a social club.” Lagana recalled going to a few meetings where only one or two people attended.

As president, Lagana introduced professional skill-building and networking components to MilVets, ultimately tripling its membership. He also brought a seriousness to the organization’s internal operations by holding biweekly executive board meetings and sending out weekly listserv emails, informing members of agenda items that the MilVets were working on.

“It’s little things like that that go a long way in building credibility,” Lagana said.

After graduation, Lagana plans to move back to his home in Alexandria, Va., and work toward a career in public service. But he will always be at the beck and call of the MilVets whenever he can be of service. Lagana said he didn’t want to sound cliché by characterizing the MilVets as his family, but that he doesn’t know what else he would call them.

“It wasn’t just a student group, per se. There’s sort of an interconnectedness between MilVets that’s different, and that’s what makes being the president of the group so special,” Lagana said. “It’s the nature of the people that you’re in charge of. It’s the interactions between us that count.”

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christian.zhang@columbiaspectator.com | @ChristiZhang

Lede title:

Daniel Lagana, GS

David Brann / Senior Staff Photographer

FAMILY | “There’s sort of an interconnectedness between MilVets that’s different,” former president Dan Lagana said.

Senior profile: Lakota Pochedley, CC

Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

During elementary school, Lakota Pochedley, CC ’13, wanted to be an FBI or CIA agent because she loved Jennifer Garner’s character on the television show “Alias.”

Then she wanted to travel and see the world, so she studied French in Senegal in the spring of 2012.

But after she took an anthropology class with professor Audra Simpson, Pochedley turned her sights back to her own heritage and decided to major in Native American studies.

“I took her course, and that made me realize how much work needed to be done in our communities,” she said.

Now, the former president of the Native American Council and the Native American studies-anthropology double major wants to be a teacher and policy maker and help reform education on Native American reservations. This fall, she’s headed to the University of Texas at Austin for a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction.

Pochedley calls two places home: Cleveland, Ohio, where her family lives, and Shawnee, Okla., where her tribal home is. She said people in Cleveland joke that it is the “New York of Ohio,” but relatively speaking, the city is “pretty dead.”

Although Pochedley did not grow up on a reservation, she went to high school in Kent, Ohio, near many Potawatomi tribes, and regularly attended powwows.

“My parents always made sure I was involved in understanding who I was and where I came from,” she said. “My grandpa always told me stories.”

But before coming to Columbia, she said, “I’d never actually been at a school where there were more Native American students than, like, me, my brother, and my mom as a teacher.”

Even so, Pochedley didn’t get involved with Native American groups at Columbia until her sophomore year. She spent her first two years working at a Head Start program at a local preschool. On the way to the school, she would regularly walk down Morningside Drive, and the edge of Morningside Park is one of her favorite spots near campus.

“It’s a nice break from campus and it definitely reminded me of home,” Pochedley said, sitting on a bench in front of the park and wearing a pair of oval floral earrings made by a Native American jewelry artist. Pochedley said she wears them whenever she feels homesick.

She joined NAC in her sophomore year. It was “very much a growing organization at that point,” she said. One of the first powwows she organized was just six people sitting in a dorm room, she said.

In Pochedley’s junior year, two or three times as many students joined the council than had joined the year before. She said the group “pushed off” when it co-organized Native American Heritage Month celebrations that year.

“That’s when NAC became this voice on campus,” she said. The council has been very vocal this year, organizing rallies as a part of the Idle No More campaign and pushing for the University to install a plaque on Low Steps recognizing campus land as historically Lenni Lenape territory.

Now, Pochedley is learning Neshnabemowin, the Potawatomi native language.

During her time at Columbia, Pochedley said, “I think I’ve become a lot more comfortable in voicing my opinions. I was pretty quiet my freshman year.”

“I’ve learned a lot, in every aspect,” Pochedley said. “Columbia’s all about powering through.”

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samantha.cooney@columbiaspectator.com | @sammcooney

Luke Henderson

Lede title:

Lakota Pochedley, CC

Luke Henderson / Senior Staff Photographer

ROOTS | “My parents always made sure I was involved in understanding who I was and where I came from,” said Lakota Pochedley, the former president of the Native American Council.

Senior profile: Brian Wagner, SEAS

Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

In the final editor’s note of his tenure at the Blue and White, Brian Wagner, SEAS ’13, wrote, “I appreciate you putting up with having an engineer run the literary magazine for the past few months.”

For Wagner, a computer engineering major, his work as editor in chief of the campus magazine provided him an outlet away from his laboratory classes in Mudd Hall.

“They’re two worlds that I don’t think mix as often as they should,” Wagner, a Chicago native, said.

Wagner joined Bwog early in his sophomore year and later transitioned to writing for the Blue and White, where he wrote numerous campus character profiles, a labor history of Ollie’s Restaurant, and, his personal favorite, a piece about the culture of four campus comedy groups.

“There were only a few of us in my year,” he said, “so when it came time to name the next editor in chief and managing editor, there were really only us two,” himself and Sylvie Krekow, BC ’13.

The two ultimately came to the agreement that Wagner would serve as editor in chief and Krekow as managing editor. Wagner simultaneously served as the managing editor of Bwog.

“That was a ride,” he said. “The Bwog and Blue and White relationship was kind of complicated at that point because they started drifting farther and farther apart, even though they’re under the same umbrella.”

While at Bwog, Wagner helped oversee the site’s redesign, cover campus stories, and manage its housing selection coverage, which was his favorite part of the job.

“Bwog was, of course, exciting. Being able to do something online is always fun, and since I’m a computer engineer, working with websites is enjoyable,” Wagner said.

“It was kind of wild and a lot of fun,” he added. “The magazine was certainly much calmer, but it was in sort of a rebuilding period during that time.”

Wagner said that after replacing Mark Hay, CC ’12, as the magazine’s top editor, he worked on a recruiting campaign to build up the staff, which was short on editors, writers, and illustrators at the time. He oversaw the production of five issues throughout his tenure in 2012.

“It’s in a great spot now, so I’m really happy with how I got to leave it,” he said.

Wagner came to Columbia knowing that he wanted to pursue engineering, but didn’t know what to major in until he took an introductory Java course as part of the engineering core curriculum.

“I kept taking courses along that track and I kept enjoying it so I ended up declaring as a computer engineer,” he said.

Wagner said that he enjoyed most of his courses, but some of his favorite academic experiences involved experimenting with computer programs outside of class.

“It’s interesting—especially with computer science, a lot of the cooler aspects aren’t necessarily what’s taught in the classrooms because usually the classes you take and your homework assignments are more pedagogical and theoretical,” Wagner said. “Experimenting on your own and creating your own projects was also a fun experience when I had time.”

“But I didn’t have too much free time, obviously,” he added.

After graduating, Wagner will move to California to work as a software engineer in Boeing’s space and engineering division.

“I’m excited to really get a flavor of West Coast life,” Wagner said. “I enjoyed living in the city for four years, but I’m excited to see what the other side of the county is like.”

Wagner said that his favorite memories of Columbia are the people he met along the way, from his engineering classmates to his co-workers at the Blue and White and Bwog.

“One of the reasons I enjoyed working on the magazine and Bwog for so long was just because I got to meet a lot of people that I didn’t normally encounter in my engineering classes,” he said.

“It was cool to have friends that I could talk about programming or engineering with, but then also spend time with people who were more literary or more interested in media, writing, and editing,” he added.

Wagner believes that engineering and communications, often thought of as polar-opposite career paths, should be more integrated.

“I think it’s very important that people who are pursuing these projects and really trying to cause changes in the world technologically really need to be able to interact with people to instruct them on what they’re doing, get people interested, and motivate people to learn about science and engineering,” he said.

He added that it’s important for people to realize that “there’s more to engineering than sitting in a lab.”

Wagner remains unsure of how he will combine the two subjects he got to actively pursue at Columbia into a long-term career.

“I think, eventually, I’d like to pursue something that would allow me to sort of mix my two passions of computers and writing,” he said. “I don’t know what that is yet, or how I could do that, but we’ll see.”

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tracey.wang@columbiaspectator.com | @TraceyDWang

Kimberly Flores

Lede title:

Brian Wagner, SEAS

Kimberly Flores / Staff Photographer

NOT SO BLUE | Former Blue and White editor Brian Wagner said he’s “excited to really get a flavor of West Coast life.”

Senior profile: Jordan Alam, BC

Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Jordan Alam is working on her fifth novel.

A double major in creative writing and psychology, Alam said that her previous novels were, in many ways, written in preparation for this one.

Her current novel tells the story of three Bengali sisters who live in the United States with their mother, until their mother dies and the sisters have to deal with the aftermath of the grieving process.

“It’s sort of a mystery after that,” Alam said.

Alam has recently won two writing prizes from Barnard’s English department, both for her prose. Her stories often deal with issues of identity, which Alam has spent much of her time at college exploring and examining.

“The most important thing for me is the intersection between arts and activism,” she said. “My creative writing is central in my life, and that’s been my path this entire time.”

As the outgoing chair of the Asian American Alliance, Alam has largely dedicated her time at Barnard to activism efforts and building alliances among communities of color on campus.

“For me, AAA was such a growing experience, figuring out how we create a pan-Asian community, and how do we express that, and how do we do that politically while still fostering that social aspect,” she said.

Alam described herself as an activist and a woman of color, and words like privilege, class, race, and ally have become ingrained in her vocabulary. Having led multiple workshops on these issues, she acknowledged that she can often go into lecture mode.

In fact, her philosophy on learning and college education centered around the influence of postcolonial history. She said she loves that Barnard’s Nine Ways of Knowing gives her the freedom to choose her classes, and she is grateful that she didn’t go through Columbia’s Core Curriculum. Core classes like Literature Humanities, she said, often highlight works that come from an oppressive history.

“Before the colonization of India, there was no English literature. That was not a field to go into,” she said. “It was literally just, like, Latin and Greek and sometimes French. The reason why English was created, as a subject, was to teach quote unquote the ‘hedon Indian’ populations about the value of their colonizers’ works.”

Alam said working as a Well Woman peer educator has been one of her most valuable experiences at Barnard. The Well Woman office is a “place for when people have questions or need information about, like, any health related thing—from stress reduction to sexual health,” she said.

“It really empowers the students there, because we’re peer educators,” she said. “We don’t do advice. We’re sort of like, ‘How would it be best for you to take the materials that you’re given and make your own decision about it?’”

After graduating, Alam will be a summer dean at the Sadie Nash Leadership Project in Brooklyn, running workshops on social justice for young women of color. She already has an apartment in the borough, which she is slowly but surely decorating.

As for advice for underclassmen, Alam said, “Literally just sit down with someone who you would not have talked to before, because I think people are better resources than books.”

“Us having this dialogue—I’m transformed by you and you’re transformed by me,” she said. “Every interaction we have with another person is memorable and special and gives you something new to contend with.”

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Kimberly Flores

Lede title:

Jordan Alam, BC

Kimberly Flores / Staff Photographer

YOU & I | “Every interaction we have with another person is memorable and special,” said outgoing Asian American Alliance chair Jordan Alam, who built communities of color.

Senior profile: Kwasi Adi-Dako, CC

Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Kwasi Adi-Dako, CC ’13, has found many homes at Columbia.

The graduating senior—who hails from Ghana—dove into a diverse range of activities upon coming to Columbia, participating in everything from Columbia’s ballroom dance team to Youth for Debate, and has remained loyal to many of his commitments for all four years.

After graduation, Adi-Dako, a psychology major and business management concentrator, will spend two years interning in finance, first in New York and then in Boston. However, he says that his real passion lies in mentoring and teaching—skills he discovered through his work for Youth for Debate.

“I think that’s given me the most clarity with what I want to do in life,” he said of Youth for Debate. “I feel like I’m most comfortable when I’m in a classroom, teaching, or you know, using my experience to help others to shape their experiences. I feel like those are the times when I’m happiest.”

Adi-Dako hopes to find opportunities to continue mentoring children after graduation, saying he might go into education once he completes his finance internship.

Adi-Dako lists Columbia Urban Experience, the African Students Association, Youth for Debate, and the Intercultural Resource Center among the organizations he considers most important to his personal development.

After participating in CUE as a first-year, Adi-Dako served as a leader for the pre-orientation program, which introduces students to New York City through a combination of community service activities and an exploration of the city’s arts and cultural attractions.

“When I try to think about communities on campus that I’m really close to, the Columbia Urban Experience is definitely one that I would call my family,” Adi-Dako said.

He feels that way about many of his involvements. As a student going to school so far from the place where he grew up, Adi-Dako said he found a home with the African Students Association.

“The ASA just kept me grounded,” he said. “When I came from Ghana, everything was new. The ASA provided a space for me to feel really really comfortable and really really feel like I was among family.”

Adi-Dako said his time living in the IRC also shaped his Columbia experience.

“I feel like the IRC was one of the most powerful experiences I’ve had because I learned so much about myself and my place in society. I feel like it’s something I didn’t have to think very critically about before I came to the U.S.,” he said.

He said that the IRC shaped the way he thinks about issues such as race, class, gender, and privilege.

“I’m black, but in Africa, in Ghana, I’m a racial majority, so it’s not something I had to think about,” Adi-Dako said. “You realize as a black person in America you’re being viewed in a different way than you might view yourself. The IRC helped me become cognizant of that.”

As he looks back on his time at Columbia, Adi-Dako said he will remember the ASA meetings in the Malcolm X Lounge and all of the interesting people he has met within and outside of his groups and activities.

In addition to the rest of his commitments, Adi-Dako has played intramural soccer with the same team since his first year and has found it “therapeutic” to have that time reserved for fun.

Some of the best advice he’s received, he said, is to “think critically about what spaces you’re occupying, who you’re spending time with.”

“In college it’s very easy to have a lot of fleeting relationships. But I feel like it’s important to be able to identify, even if it’s one person, two people, three people, who you trust fully with yourself,” Adi-Dako said. “If you’re able to identify a couple people who you really trust, it will make your college experience so much better.”

abby.abrams@columbiaspectator.com | @abby_abrams

Tags:

josephine.mcgowan@columbiaspectator.com | @josie_mcgowan

Lede title:

Kwasi Adi-Dako, CC

David Brann / Senior Staff Photographer

NOT UP FOR DEBATE | “I’m most comfortable when I’m in a classroom, teaching, or you know, using my experience to help others to shape their experiences.,” Kwasi Adi-Dako said.

Senior profile: Brandon Lewis, CC

Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Whenever Brandon Lewis, CC ’13, faces a trying question or encounters a turning point in his life, two key concepts drive him forward.

“Despite whatever obstacles my organizations or I may face on a daily basis, I always make it a point to keep mission and vision at the center of everything that I do,” he said.

With both in mind, Lewis served as president for Youth for Debate and was a leader in LGBTQ activism on campus, and he recently accepted a post-graduation job with Teach for America. Through these involvements, Lewis has kept his passion for public speaking at the forefront of his activities.

“Public speaking has always been an outlet for me to express myself, as I don’t consider myself to be particularly artistic,” he said. “But I was able to write speeches, and I have this deep voice, so it worked out well for me when I decided to make the transition to teaching in order to use my voice in a more productive and effective way. So far, it’s been really exciting.”

As president of Youth for Debate, Lewis worked to improve self-esteem among the primarily low-income and underprivileged students with whom he worked.

“Just because people exist at the margins doesn’t mean that they can be marginalized,” he said. “The mission and the vision behind Youth for Debate is that just because those students live in the margins does not mean that their voices should be silenced. It’s important for those students to know that someone cares, especially about what they have to say. And we do care.”

Lewis said he enjoyed seeing the inspiring transition his students underwent during the program. He recalled one student in particular who was not particularly engaged in the class but whome he helped to realize her full potential.

“I had the opportunity one day to pull her aside and tell her why I thought what we were doing was important, why I thought she was important, and that I saw her real ability to rock this curriculum and write a great speech,” he said. “At the end of the semester, when all of the students presented their speeches to us, hers was one of the best.”

In addition to his public speaking work, Lewis is an activist for LGBTQ rights, which he said went hand-in-hand with the goals of Youth for Debate. He emphasized that in a “short” seven weeks, the YFD curriculum helps the students to feel comfortable and confident in their own skin.

“Many of the students that I work with [at YFD] are struggling with LGBTQ issues, but since our goal is to empower students, we have had students come out during their speeches and debates because they feel that empowerment through the curriculum that we teach them,” he said. “Many of our students have been encouraged to think that they are comfortable enough to be who they are in the classroom, and that’s very important.”

Looking back at his time at Columbia, Lewis said he feels bittersweet preparing to leave the school, and everyone he has met here. He noted that attending the 2011 Bacchanal, which featured the artist formerly known as Snoop Dogg, was one of his best memories on campus for the “fun, funk, soul, and energy” that he felt was usually lacking.

Lewis hopes that the mark he has left on Columbia will be inherited and augmented by other strong leaders.

“I left a pretty good legacy,” he said. “But I’ve also done a good job of bringing people into the leadership fold who I think could carry on that legacy.”

Though he initially wanted to be a consultant because it “pays well,” he realized that he will find more satisfaction in the goal of changing the lives of his students through teaching.

“My mission and vision in life is not to accumulate a lot of money, but rather, to impact as many children as possible in a positive way, and Teach for America is the first step to accomplishing that goal,” he said. “I’m most excited to work with students who look like me who don’t necessarily see good things in their future, and me being in the classroom to tell them that good things do lie ahead if you work hard and you believe in yourself.”

Tags:

Lily Liu-Krason

Lede title:

Brandon Lewis, CC

Lily Liu-Krason / Staff Photographer

SPEAK OUT | “Just because people exist at the margins doesn’t mean that they can be marginalized,” Brandon Lewis said.

Senior profile: Matthew Renick, GS/JTS

Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Matthew Renick had a busy and turbulent four years at Columbia, serving as president of Alpha Epsilon Pi the year after it lost its brownstone and resigning as chair of the Greek Judicial Board after criticizing administrators for not returning the brownstone to AEPi more than two years later.

But when Renick sat down with Spectator to reflect on his time at Columbia, administrative disputes and brawls fell to the back-burner. Renick said his four years at Columbia grounded his understanding of himself as a religious thinker and taught him that being a leader means being a listener.

“Things for me became a lot less black-and-white,” he said. “When I came in, I very much thought I understood the world, and I knew what was right and was wrong—and you come here, the lines get blurred.”

Renick, who hails from Los Alamitos, Calif., double-majored in American history and modern Jewish studies, which allowed him to take classes in literature and philosophy. A class he took with Eric Foner on the Civil War and Reconstruction inspired a thirst for changes in public policy and effective leadership.

Foner “would start class immediately on time. He would have no notes,” Renick said. “It was so smooth, and he made history interesting and relatable. It was one of the few classes where I really wanted to do my reading—a hard thing here.”

When he enrolled in the joint0 program between the School of General Studies and the Jewish Theological Seminary, Renick said, he was making a commitment to become involved in the religion that he had only been exposed to in a small community in Orange County.

“I still identify as a liberal, Reformed Jew,” he said, adding that students tend to be divided at JTS according to their level of observance, by virtue of groups eating and praying together. “It’s definitely on your mind, especially at JTS, where I’m one of the least observant people at the school.”

And what do his parents think of that?

“I started to have a lot more Jewish debates and discussions with my parents after my first year at JTS when, you know, I actually knew something,” he said. “They know that I’ve become more Jewishly knowledgeable, and they’re probably convinced that I’ll become more observant in the future. They’re curious to see how it goes, as am I.”

Renick was named president of Alpha Epsilon Pi a few months after one of its members was arrested in a December 2010 drug bust, known as Operation Ivy League. Renick said he had firm plans for moving the Greek organization forward, even after it lost its housing.

“I had decided that we were going to go in a certain direction, and I essentially told people that it was going to be my way or the highway,” he said. “We were going to do these things by the book in order to get back on track with Columbia, and there were a lot of people who disagreed with that.”

“I wish that I had been able to work with them more, because it was a significant blow to lose those people,” he added.

Renick also said that with the expansion of Greek life on campus, more and more students know members of fraternities and sororities, which has made it easier to combat stereotypes about those organizations.

“Operation Ivy League defined all of us to a great extent. Greek life is an easy group to attack when you have stories like that,” Renick said, adding that while Greek life has not been perfect, its record of philanthropic achievement often goes overlooked.

Even Renick went into AEPi with misconceptions about its character.

“I learned pretty quickly that this is not ‘Animal House,’” Renick said. “We’re at Columbia. We’re not at some state school elsewhere.”

One of his favorite moments at Columbia, Renick recalled, was “A-E-Pie a Brother,” a philanthropic event held on Low Steps with the proceeds going to Save a Child’s Heart.

“We had so many people come, the way that the community sort of rallied around it, and whipped cream is always good,” he said. “I think it surprised me, that a philanthropic event could be that fun and get so much attention.”

In the fall of 2012, a committee of students and administrators chose to give AEPi’s old brownstone to another organization. Renick argued the decision was unfair and resigned as chair of the Greek Judicial Board in protest, sending a furious resignation email to a host of administrators and student leaders that prompted administrators to write a letter to Alpha Epsilon Pi’s national organization.

The Columbia letter was “essentially complaining about what I did, saying that the University was disappointed in me,” Renick said. “I thought that was just very petty.”

Renick said one Bwog comment following his resignation from the board stood out in his mind.

“One of them told me that I was trying to put privilege frosting on my privilege cake,” Renick laughed, adding, “I just never thought that telling the administration to hold true to what they had stated, calling for public accountability, was me asking for something especially privileged. That’s something that we ask of our government. That’s something we ask of everyone.”

Renick plans to join a long line of attorneys in his family. He’s going to Boston College Law School to focus on environment and energy law, after having co-founded Columbia Undergraduate Energy Club.

Renick is sure he’ll miss the community he found at Columbia.

“Everyone here has one thing they care about so deeply, and they put everything into,” he said. “To be in a community like that, where everyone has something, political, musical, religious, they just love algebra ... I don’t think I’ll ever be in a community like that again.”

cecilia.reyes@columbiaspectator.com | @kcecireyes

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that three members of Alpha Epsilon Pi were arrested in a December 2010 drug bust. Only one member was arrested. Spectator regrets the error.

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avantika.kumar@columbiaspectator.com | @avantikaku

Michael Discenza

Lede title:

Matthew Renick, GS/JTS

Michael Discenza / Senior Staff Photographer

HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER | “I learned pretty quickly that this is not 'Animal House,’” said former AEPi president Matthew Renick, who made waves as chair of the Greek Judicial Board.

Senior profile: Rebecca Gray, BC

Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Rebecca Gray, BC ’13, led Columbia’s hiking club, played in Columbia’s orchestra, sang in Barnard’s a cappella group, worked in Barnard’s admissions office, and spent three years as an RA.

Her lesser-known accomplishments, she said, included serenading squirrels in Riverside Park, winning a pie-baking contest, spearheading Barnard’s flag football team, and forming an underground band.

“I always want to be doing something outdoors and want to be making sounds,” Gray said, pausing mid-sentence to start beat-boxing. “I would hope to be described as rhythmic, because I totally enjoy making beats and music out of even just walking down the street.”

At Barnard, her love for nature extended to her positions as leader of Columbia’s hiking club and founder of Barnard Flag Football. Gray founded the flag football club in an effort to make women’s sports more visible on campus.

“Barnard sells this shirt at the school store that says, ‘Barnard Football: Undefeated since 1889,’ or whatever,” Gray said. “Which is funny, but I think that, you know, women in sports aren’t seen a lot, and especially on campus, I don’t think our green spaces are used for sports.”

Gray, who participated in a National Football League-sponsored youth program called “Punt, Pass & Kick” when she was younger, said teaching the basics of football was a memorable experience.

“That made my day, you know, to see people in skirts and high heels who maybe you wouldn’t think could throw a football, but they just completely kick your ass,” Gray said.

Gray also described herself as a “squirrely” person: She’s led several squirrel-themed events as an RA. During the “Squirrel Hunt,” residents took drums and guitars to Riverside Park to serenade the little creatures.

“I just think that at some point in everyone’s life, they’ll have to serenade someone in order to gain affection. So why not practice on squirrels in the park?” Gray said.

Gray, who is originally from Malibu, Calif., came to Barnard with an interest in math and science and an intention to be premed, but she is graduating with majors in music and English, with a creative writing concentration.

“I came here, and a professor I had who doesn’t teach here anymore—her name’s Frances Richard—taught first-year English, and she completely shaped my soul in a more English direction,” Gray said. “She really showed me how to appreciate literature and how cool the study of words can be.”

Gray now writes poetry and is a percussionist in Columbia’s orchestra and Barnard’s all-female a cappella group, Bacchantae. She also formed an underground band, voiXXXing (pronounced “voice crossing”), with two other students last year. She called it “a chill out and play music, and restore our souls kind of thing.”

As part of Bacchantae, Gray had the opportunity to meet Meryl Streep, sing for President Barack Obama, and perform at the Plaza Hotel and at the apartment of Diana Vagelos.

“It’s been really cool to go places with that,” Gray said. “And then on the other end, with the orchestra, it’s been cool to be in a group where the musicianship is so top-caliber—and again these people who might not be music majors, who might be studying electrical engineering, are still able to rock it on the cello.”

She added that being exposed to the creativity and talent of her peers made the orchestra experience memorable.

“I think percussion’s very funny because most of the talent comes in counting rests and knowing when you have to do your one triangle hit,” Gray said. “But to consistently go to rehearsal every week and hear all this lovely music being played in Lerner C555 has been such a privilege to be a part of.”

After Gray graduates, she plans to move in with her 89-year-old great-aunt in an apartment near Washington Square Park—the same apartment her great-aunt has lived in for 50 years.

“We’ve had a really lovely relationship since coming here, and she’s absolutely been a rock,” Gray said. “She’s really my only relative on this coast, so it’s cool to get advice from someone in their ninth decade of living.”

Gray plans to work for a nonprofit bike company this summer, and she’d like to educate people, especially in New York City, about the importance of respecting the outdoors. In the long-term, however, she hopes to work in music production or music publishing.

One of Gray’s little-used skills in college has been her pie-baking talent—one she credits with helping her get accepted to Barnard. After winning a pie-baking competition in her hometown shortly after applying to Barnard, she sent a newspaper clipping to Barnard’s admissions office. Shortly afterward, she was profiled as a pie baker in the admissions office’s profiles of incoming first-years.

“I don’t think I would be known for that at all,” Gray said. “But I think it’s cool that I can play sports, and do music, and also go home and bake a pie and enjoy that.”

Gray entered and won the Columbia Culinary Society’s pie-baking competition with a friend.

During her time at Barnard, she has has also been a member of Q, Barnard’s LGBT-issues club, and she said that being actively involved in the queer community has led to “great talks about sexuality and sexual orientation, just, you know, whether it’s in my history class or on a stairwell in the quad.”

Ultimately, Gray finds Barnard a “small-knit place.”

“I’ve been able to have a lot of access with administrators and professors and stuff, the normal reasons why people go to a small liberal arts college,” Gray said. “I think that I’ve been able to make an impact, you know—I think if you come here, you’re really able to make an impact.”

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Lede title:

Rebecca Gray, BC

David Brann / Senior Staff Photographer

GREEN THUMB | “I always want to be doing something outdoors,” Rebecca Gray said.

Columbia College Class Day speakers balance jokes, advice, pathos

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:16:05 +0000

With the sun beating down on South Lawn, Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally, CC ’60, told Columbia College graduates on Tuesday to use their educations to make a difference in the world.

In his keynote address at Columbia College Class Day, McNally reflected on how the University has changed since his time here in the ’50s, encouraging students to “take advantage of the opportunity we have been given” with a Columbia education.

When McNally, who grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, told his parents he would be attending Columbia, they were “aghast,” he said.

“They’d been told Columbia was a hotbed of communism,” he said. “To me, that was a selling point.”

But despite its liberal reputation, McNally said, Columbia at the time had far less diversity than current students experience. As a gay student, McNally said he felt alone.

“The connection between sexual expression and who we were was nonexistent,” he said. “It was an easy time to be a middle-class white male at a prestigious university. What wasn’t easy was to be gay at one.”

He soon discovered life outside Columbia, exploring New York City’s arts scene, hidden gay bars, and nightlife.

“If it was Columbia versus the city, the city and what it had to offer frequently won,” he said.

Still, McNally loved his classes and felt shaped by English seminars and Contemporary Civilization. After many years, he still feels he received an education superior to that of everyone he knows, he said.

“Columbia is a gift. It’s so easy to matter, to make a difference,” he said. “It’s even easier not to do either, but then we have failed ourselves and this institution.”

McNally sprinkled jokes throughout his speech, with students and parents cheering at particularly funny moments. In addition to more serious wisdom, he offered some everyday advice for graduates.

“Be nicer to people, wash your hands more frequently, count to 100 at least twice before asking someone to marry you,” he said. “Re-read that email before you hit the send button, don’t put compromising photos of yourself on Facebook.”

University President Lee Bollinger also spoke to graduates, urging them not to leave the Core Curriculum behind.

“The question now is what to do with this extraordinary education,” he said. “We here at Columbia have a strong sense of our responsibilities to the world and recognize that the privilege of free inquiry must be carried on with an underlying commitment to advance human welfare and the public good.”

Bollinger added that students should not forget the works they’ve read throughout their undergraduate education.

“Make them your friends for life,” Bollinger said. “And if you live with them that way … they will reward you over time in ways that only a great friendship can, as they have for generations.”

Senior class president Ryan Mandelbaum gave a humorous speech that echoed the day’s focus on how best to use a Columbia education during what he called “real wake-up-at-8-a.m.-what-the-heck-is-a-401(k)-and-a-mortgage adulthood.”

“Some of us will have to wake up at 8 a.m. every morning for a reason other than to pregame Bacchanal,” Mandelbaum said. “Whether we’re going to grad school, starting our jobs, or moving to Brooklyn to look for something to do, we’re going to have to figure out where these new, confident adult selves of ours are going to fit in with the world we’re being catapulted into.”

Mandelbaum ended his remarks by reminding his classmates to “preserve what makes us great” and “learn to grow, but never change.”

“Don’t give up who you are,” he said.

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After the ceremony, students reflected on their upcoming transitions to post-college life.

“I’m excited, nervous to embark on life and all that stuff,” graduate Steven Castellano, who was awarded the Alumni Association Achievement Award at the ceremony, said. “But I think all the speakers talked about how life is unpredictable and you have to guide yourself by your passions.”

Another graduate, Amanda Matos, said she “enjoyed the progressive elements” of McNally’s speech.

“He talked about how Columbia has changed over the years,” she said. “That really resonated with me.”

In closing his remarks, McNally urged students to find their passions and become the leaders the world needs.

“Your work is just beginning. The truth is, we don’t know how far we can go, to what heights we can ascend, how limitless our freedom is, until somebody shows us,” he said. “We need Columbia College class of ’13 to show us what else must still be done to make this a more perfect planet and a democracy with equal opportunity for all.”

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David Brann / Senior Staff Photographer

WISE WORDS | Terrence McNally, CC ’60, encouraged graduates to “take advantage of the opportunity we have been given” with a Columbia education.

David Brann / Senior Staff Photographer

THEIR DAY | Graduates queued in Lerner Hall on Tuesday morning before proceeding to South Lawn.

David Brann / Senior Staff Photographer

FRONTIERS | "We’re going to have to figure out where these new, confident adult selves of ours are going to fit in with the world we’re being catapulted into,” senior class president Ryan Mandelbaum said.

SEAS Class Day speeches focus on curriculum

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:20:30 +0000

Robert Bakish, the chief executive officer of Viacom International Media, started his keynote address at SEAS Class Day ceremony by asking graduates to complete a vocal exercise.

“Before we get going, I feel we need to unlock some more energy,” Bakish, SEAS '85, Business '89, said. “Everyone on stage right, yell ‘Columbia’ … everyone on stage left, follow with ‘engineer.’”

“You are no longer students,” he said after the activity. “You are now, in fact, Columbia engineers."

Several speakers at the School of Engineering and Applied Science Class Day ceremony celebrated the spirit of engineering and urged graduates to make use of their education.

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“We’ve built up so much positive potential energy, and we’ve never been in a better position than right now to go out into the world and release it,” senior class president Mary Byers said. “So if the law of conservation of energy continues to hold true—which I’m pretty sure it will—we’re going to do magnificent things.”

Reflecting on his senior design project, valedictorian Joseph DelPreto said that Columbia’s sense of community shaped his engineering work. When his design project group went to Florida for a competition, he and his teammates spent their downtime at Disney World, where DelPreto appreciated the park's innovation and engineering.

“I’ve always admired Disney’s ability to integrate modern technology into a place like the Magic Kingdom, because it reminds us that engineering shouldn’t take place in a vacuum,” he said. “Walt Disney … succeeded in creating a world of wonder that everyone can enjoy, reminding us that the power of engineering lies in the potential to make the world a better place—or at least to make it a little more interesting.”

Bakish emphasized the versatility of a SEAS education.

“Our alumni have a rich career history. Some are engineers. Others go on to work as doctors, lawyers, businesspeople, and CEOs,” he said. “And Columbia engineers work all around the world.”

Bakish added that the SEAS curriculum has guided him throughout his career. Before joining Viacom, he was a partner at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

“The engineering curriculum taught me how to think, how to solve problems … Its way of thinking, that divide-and-conquer engineering mentality, is very useful,” he said.

University President Lee Bollinger said that SEAS is unique because “it integrates its education in engineering and technology with an education in liberal arts.”

But he also noted that students in Columbia College are often not exposed to engineering and called on the graduates "to help the rest of us develop a course in the Core Curriculum on engineering and technology."

Byers said that speaking to the incoming class of 2017 a few weeks ago reminded her of everything that the class of 2013 has experienced over the last four years.

“We’ve come so far … We can philosophize and empathize almost as well as we can innovate and problem solve,” she said. “We are no longer the engineers of the future—we are the engineers of today.”

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SEAS class day

tracey.wang@columbiaspectator.com | @TraceyDWang

David Brann / Senior Staff Photographer

SUPER CONDUCTOR | Robert Bakish, the chief executive officer of Viacom International Media, said that the SEAS curriculum has guided him throughout his professional career.

David Brann / Senior Staff Photographer

ENERGY RELEASE | “We’ve built up so much positive potential energy,” senior class president Mary Byers said.

David Brann / Senior Staff Photographer

PRETO PERFECT | Valedictorian Joseph DelPreto shakes the hand of Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger at the Class Day ceremony.

At General Studies class day, a liberal-arts focus

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:36:37 +0000

With 444 students donning blue caps and gowns, the General Studies Class Day ceremony Monday morning celebrated the largest graduating class in GS history. Sixty-two of those graduates were military veterans, the largest group of any undergraduate school in the Ivy League.

All of the speakers at the ceremony, including University President Lee Bollinger, highlighted the nontraditional paths that many of the graduates took to get to Columbia.

“Most of you have experienced life outside of school before returning to pursue your education at Columbia,” Bollinger said. “It is that experience beyond the academy that helps us, and helps all students—that is, Columbia—to maintain the right and proportionate relationship between our academic work and the concerns of the people outside of these institutions.”

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Keynote speaker Nicholas Dirks, chancellor-designate of University of California, Berkeley, emphasized the value of a liberal arts education. Dirks, who stepped down as Columbia's executive vice president for Arts and Sciences in November after eight years on the job, discussed the challenges facing institutions of higher education amid the national conversation over growing tuition rates and student debt.

It can be tempting, Dirks said, to try to quantify the value of a college degree through lifetime income projections. Often, he said, we “succumb to the instrumentalizing logic that stresses only the vocational nature of education.”

“The history of higher education in America makes clear: We need to maintain a balance of the practical and the intellectual, the applied and the basic, the material and the spiritual," he said.

Dirks also called for graduates to challenge the political rhetoric that frames the importance of a college degree primarily in terms of its economic benefits.

“Champion the kind of education you’ve had here at Columbia. Remind skeptics of the magic of the classroom,” he said. “We should use the current crisis to recommit ourselves to the importance of the pursuit and sharing of the excitement and insight of discovery while pushing against the frontiers of research."

Recalling his 15 years at Columbia, Dirks said that commencement week was also his favorite time of year on campus. GS Class Day, he noted, is an especially unique part of that week, because it is a school made up of extraordinary life stories.

"For now, your narratives have all converged on this single time and this single place, a momentary narrowing of the story wound up conveying for all of us the full major of your accomplishment," Dirks said.

Tiekka Tellier, one of the two salutatorians, spoke about finding beauty in the process. As a former professional ballet dancer, Tellier said that the seemingly flawless performance on stage was the product of hours and hours of work. Such was, she said, this degree.

Tellier, a single mother who worked full time as a ballet teacher, said the fatigue and hard work had paid off. As she gave a tearful shout out to graduates with children, she said, “We have modeled possibility for our children.”

After the ceremony—which also featured speeches from valedictorian Ben Shababo and Damian Harris-Hernandez, the other salutatorian—graduates posed for pictures and cheered as they congratulated friends. Pras Sivakumar, GS’13, said he was still in shock. “I’ve waited longer than most non-traditional students to get this degree,” he said.

Jen Barrer-Gall and Allie Schwartz, both GS’13, have known each other since they were 13. Both were professional ballet dancers who came to GS after suffering injuries.

“It’s exciting to do this together after performing … It’s surreal. It finally happened!” Schwartz said.

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Qiuyun Tan / Staff Photographer

CALIFORNIA DREAMING | Nicholas Dirks, chancellor-designate of the University of California, Berkeley, delivered the keynote speech at the General Studies Class Day ceremony.

David Brann / Senior Staff Photographer

ALL TOGETHER NOW | General Studies Dean Peter Awn celebrates with students after the ceremony.

David Brann / Senior Staff Photographer

TOP OF THE CLASS | (left to right) Salutatorians Damian Harris-Hernandez and Tiekka Tellier, and valedictorian Ben Shababo, sit on stage at the ceremony.

May 22, 2013

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:28:27 +0000

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Gbowee to Barnard's class of 2013: Step out of the shadows

Mon, 20 May 2013 05:50:14 +0000

Leymah Gbowee had one message for graduates at Barnard's commencement ceremony at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday afternoon: Step out of the shadows.

Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist and 2011 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, told students to stand up for themselves and be proud of what they can do to help the world.

“Growing up most times as young women and as girls—regardless of where you come from—we’re socialized as women to be humble,” Gbowee said. “In very extreme cases, be seen and never heard.”

Even her own mother, Gbowee said, once told her granddaughter, “Good girls should read their books and be quiet.”

“Good girls should read their books and tell the world what they’ve read," Gbowee said.

Gbowee noted that while preparing her remarks, she ended up reading the Bwog post announcing her selection as Class Day speaker.

“After reading part of the article, I would usually just skip down to the comments. You all did well compared to some of the sites that I go on,” she said. “You were very nice to me.”

Gbowee said that women are often told that “this is the decade of women.” However, she said, the contradictions she sees between rhetoric and the reality of women’s lives can be frustrating.

“In many countries around the world, including my own country of Liberia, it is a struggle to convince fathers that their daughters are worthy of being in school and not in the shadows,” she said. “You have to challenge in most cases, keep your hands up in other cases, and in some cases, break protocol if you are to step out of the shadows.”

Barnard President Debora Spar also spoke to the graduates about the different types of advice they receive in the media, including discussions about whether to “lean in or lean out” and various opinions on whether women can “have it all.”

Ultimately, she urged students to “figure out how you, too, will come back home and make the world more beautiful.”

Gbowee also talked about her own work to improve the world, using women’s struggles in Liberia as an example of how women can step out of the shadows.

“We stepped out of the darkness of victimization and into the light of activism and peace. Today the peace that we strive for in Liberia has translated into empowerment and refusal to be seen and not heard,” she said.

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In addition to Gbowee, Barnard awarded three other medals of honor on Sunday to individuals making a difference in their fields: journalist and human rights advocate Jimmie Briggs; Elizabeth Diller, an architect and the founding principal of Diller Scofidio + Renfro; and Lena Dunham, the award-winning creator, director, writer, and star of the HBO series “Girls.”

Students seemed particularly excited by the medal of honor recipients this year, giving each a large cheer that fit the festive atmosphere in Radio City Music Hall.

As Barnard Dean Avis Hinkson called graduates' names, parents continued clapping and cheering, some spilling into the aisles to snap photos of the event, and one family even doing a "wave" to show support for their Barnard graduate.

After the ceremony, Barnard graduate Liza Roizman said that she found Gbowee’s remarks inspiring.

“It was really moving,” Roizman said. Gbowee, she added, is “just really awesome.”

Simone Wolff, another graduate, said she was glad Gbowee didn’t see more unfriendly comments on Bwog.

“I thought it was fitting with our studies that she’s an activist. We’re women’s, gender, and sexuality studies majors,” she said, referring to herself and Roizman. “A lot of my friends were saying they’re glad it’s a woman that was speaking our year.”

At the end of her speech, Gbowee reminded students of the power they hold as role models and as graduates of Barnard.

“Always remember that stepping out of the shadows, your stepping out, will ensure that some girl will also find the strength to step out,” she said.

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David Brann / Senior Staff Photographer

WOWEE GBOWEE | Winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Leymah Gbowee urged Barnard's class of 2013 to make their voices heard.

Letter to the editor: Teachers College compensation

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:16:52 +0000

To the editor:

Teachers College is a proud, independent institution, with an important affiliation with Columbia University. Throughout its 125-year history, TC has been a leader in education, health, and psychology. TC is the oldest school of education in the country and is by far the largest. TC has initiated many of the important advances in education in the United States and around the world.

TC also has a proud tradition of community involvement in shaping policy and decisions that will preserve the strength and future of the institution. The recent faculty vote on the college’s FY14 budget is an example of such a process, and we treasure the freedom at TC that allows all voices to be heard.

Spectator’s recent article on last week’s vote, however, contains several inaccuracies that call for correction to ensure that everyone understands the facts surrounding these issues.

First, the article reports that “top administrators have been giving themselves bonuses.” This is absolutely false. The Board of Trustees, through its Compensation Committee, makes all compensation decisions relating to the top administrators. All salaries and any incentive-based compensation are benchmarked through comparative data provided by compensation consultants.

Second, in the article, Professor Dubin claims that no one knew of budget surpluses, that there is no oversight of these surpluses, and that no one is looking at the long-term impact of these issues. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Board of Trustees, which is charged with the responsibility of ensuring the long-term viability, financial health, and success of Teachers College, provides the oversight and works closely with the administration on all budgetary matters. With regular input from the faculty, the administration crafted and implemented a multi-year budget to forecast trends that will affect future decisions on tuition, salaries and the other major components of the college’s finances.

We are very mindful of the burden that ever increasing tuition places on our students and must all work to find other sources of revenue and additional financial aid to limit the impact of tuition increases. While faculty and staff salaries must remain competitive to attract and retain the best and brightest in our field, the entire burden cannot be put on the shoulders of our students.

We also are mindful of this fact: Since becoming president at Teachers College more than six years ago, Susan Fuhrman has made the faculty an active participant in a collaborative budgeting process while also bringing greater transparency to financial deliberations.

Dr. Fuhrman’s performance over the past six years has proven that she is the right leader for TC. She is an accomplished scholar, a strong administrator, and a bold leader who is highly respected by her peers and policymakers both inside and outside Teachers College. The Board of Trustees at Teachers College unanimously confirms its support of her. We are lucky to have her at the helm during this time of exciting change in education.

Jack W. Hyland, Jr.
William D. Rueckert
Co-chairs, Teachers College Board of Trustees
May 16, 2013

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

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Letters to the Editor

Unsafe at Columbia

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:59:03 +0000

This is an open letter to University President Lee Bollinger, Deans James Valentini, Don Goldfarb, and Peter Awn, and the rest of the undergraduate administration:

I am writing to you as a Columbia College student who does not feel safe on this campus.

In light of the recent arrest of a Columbia football player who harassed a student and has been charged with a hate crime, student publications and groups on campus have looked into the social networking pages of other Columbia football players and have found sickeningly hateful and ignorant statements toward the LGBT community, African-Americans, Asians and Asian-Americans, and Jewish people.

As a gay student, I feel unsafe knowing that I attend an institution that has taken no corrective action against these students, whose published words reflect feelings of not only deep seated bigotry but intense hatred, the kind of hatred that often finds its release in physical and verbal abuse. The University must make the decision to protect either the victimizers or the victimized. I have yet to experience such abuse, but the knowledge that the University has not dealt swiftly with such bigoted individuals is enough to make me fear for myself. This is not a matter of freedom of speech; it is a matter of freedom of existence. Their words and actions infringe the rights of Columbia students based solely on the complexion of their skin, the way they love, and the faith they follow. It is far from much to ask that these students be denied the chance to continue spreading such hatred until they have either proven their own reform or choose to leave the our university behind. I don't know if it's possible that their words and actions went unnoticed by coaches and fellow students, but no one has the right to condone them.

For far too long, this University has allowed the divide between student-athletes and other students to exist and grow, and the product of such neglect is now visible for the world to see on local news outlets. The administration has either failed to notice or has willfully permitted a consistent outpouring of hatred from these individuals, whose words and actions, for better or for worse, are seen as representing the words and actions of students-athletes of a top university. It is an embarrassment. The University can either choose to give these students a slap on the wrist, at the expense of the general safety of the student body, or it can actively acknowledge the faults of these students and its staff begin a long-needed reform of our diversity education programs. Administrators must focus especially on education within the athletics program, in order to prevent this same kind of hatred from festering within athletic teams in the future.

It is not OK for people who openly express hatred and bigotry to be next to me or any other Columbian in class or on the field. Columbia students who express their hatred publicly should not need to be arrested for hate crimes, because they should not be here long enough for hate crime to occur. Their hatred and their words should not be condoned any longer by the inaction of the University. Mass emails in which administrators attempt to cover every base and offended party—without expressing any real action—will not do. The hateful students need to go. Something needs to change, and this all needs to happen now.

This letter is not a diatribe aimed at the entire athletics program or the entire football team. It is a condemnation of the hatred and exclusion we have all witnessed in the past week. Students and student-athletes are one in the same, distinguished by our gender/orientation/race/religion-neutral demonym: Columbian. Protect us and our name—that’s all I ask.

Joseph O’Donnell is a Columbia College first year.

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

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Op-eds

2012-13 in review: Undergrad deaths increase focus on wellness

Mon, 13 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

This article is part of a special issue looking back at the 2012-13 academic year. Read the rest of the issue here.

Three undergraduate deaths this academic year provided a grave reminder that the ongoing dialogue about student wellness is far from over.

Columbia College student Martha Corey-Ochoa died after falling from her 14th-floor window in John Jay Hall on the first night of the New Student Orientation Program in August. Her death was ruled a suicide.

Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger said in an email to students that Corey-Ochoa, a first-year student who hailed from Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., was “passionate about mathematics and literature, and recognized as a very talented writer.” She graduated as valedictorian at Dobbs Ferry High School, just north of New York City, earlier this year, and she planned to major in English and mathematics at Columbia.

Students were also shocked by the death of Jessica Fingers, a Columbia College student who had been on leave for the past year. Fingers was found dead in East Campus on March 31. The city medical examiner has yet to announce a cause of death, although multiple news outlets have reported that it was drug-related.

Fingers, a distance runner on the cross country team, hailed from Monticello, N.Y. She planned to major in sociology.

Fingers was a member of the class of 2013 before going on leave in spring 2012. Shollenberger said she was on campus visiting friends.

And off campus, former engineering student Tejraj Antooa, who entered the School of Engineering and Applied Science as a member of the class of 2013, died in January. The death was a suicide, friends said.

Antooa, who was from Elmont, N.Y., on Long Island, was pursuing a major in computer science and was involved with the Hindu Students Organization and the Columbia International Relations Council.

Antooa took a leave of absence from Columbia after the spring 2012 semester and did not return.

The three deaths this year did not spark the ongoing dialogue about wellness, which has been a hot topic on campus since the suicide of CC junior Tina Bu in October 2011. They did, however, add gravity to that dialogue.

In an effort to ease the often stressful transition to Columbia, the Columbia College Student Council passed a resolution last month calling for a policy to require first-semester first-years to take all non-Core classes pass/D/fail in their first semester.

The policy, which would need to be approved by Columbia College Dean James Valentini and the Committee on Instruction before going into effect, would also lower the credit limit from 22 points to 18 points during students’ first semester.

A passing grade would not be uncoverable, but would be “published on students’ unofficial transcripts for personal review,” the CCSC resolution states. Those grades would not be calculated into students’ GPAs but could be used “under the students’ discretion” on internship or scholarship applications.

The resolution, which passed CCSC 23-4 with two abstentions, is the culmination of a yearlong effort by academic affairs representative Steven Castellano, CC ’13, who said that the policy probably would not go into effect until the class of 2018’s first year at the earliest, due to the time needed to get it approved.

Many students take 18 or 20 credits in their first semester, Castellano said, which can lead them to “isolate themselves in work.”

“It’s going to be a draw for students interested in coming here,” said University Senator-elect Jared Odessky, CC ’15. “The fact that we’re constantly rated as the number one most stressful campus is a drawback for the school. You don’t want to go to college to be stressed out. You want to have a rigorous academic experience but also a good campus experience.”

The Student Wellness Project also sent a report to Valentini late last month that outlines three recommendations for improving wellness at Columbia.

The report calls for a reform of the New Student Orientation Program, the implementation of the first semester pass/fail policy, and a restructuring and expansion of Counseling and Psychological Services.

A product of SWP’s February wellness summit, the report includes input from representatives of several health-focused student groups, CCSC, the Engineering Student Council, Barnard’s Student Government Association, and administrators from Alice! Health Promotion and the Office of Residential Programs.

The Student Wellness Project, which was created in late 2011 in the wake of Bu’s death, has been in conversation with administrators about ways to improve student wellness for a year and a half. Now, SWP leaders hope administrators will use the report to start turning dialogue into action.

Administrators said they were open to the suggestions in the report.

“We need to create an evaluation moving forward for NSOP, which we don’t have,” Dean of Community Development and Multicultural Affairs Terry Martinez said. “We had an evaluation of the orientation leader, but there hasn’t been an evaluation of the program, an assessment, a true assessment from students.”

Rakhi Agrawal, Lillian Chen, Sammy Roth, and Finn Vigeland contributed reporting. Yasmin Gange contributed reporting last semester before serving as editorial page editor.

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