April 2018

T H E U N D E RG R A D UAT E M AG A Z I N E O F C O LU M B I A U N I V E R S I T Y, E S T. 1 8 9 0

THE BLUE AND WHITE Vol. XXIV No. II

April 2018

Trapped in the Ivory Tower For graduate students, Me Too movement not easy to come by

Minding Progress A conversation with Michele Moody-Adams Also Inside: Live music in the Postcrypt!

CAROLINE HURLEY, CC '19, Editor-in-Chief ESMÉ ABLAZA, BC '20, Managing Editor VIRGINIA AMBELIOTIS, BC '19, Senior Editor JASMINE PARK, CC '20, Senior Editor RYAN MOHEN, CC '21, Senior Editor HUGH CECIL, CC '19, Senior Editor SOPHIE LEVY, BC '21, Senior Editor AARON SU, CC '19, Layout Editor ISAIAH BENNETT, CC '20, Publisher SHULIE WEINBERG, BC '20, Online Editor JENNIFER BI, CC '19, Senior Illustrator UFON UMANAH, CC '20, Investigations Editor CAROLINE JOBSON, CC '20, Tech Deputy PAULINA FEIN, CC '20, Staff Photographer Staff Writers MARY DAWSON, BC '20 GABY EDWARDS, BC '20 ALLISEN LICHTENSTEIN, BC '19 CASEY DAVIS, BC '20 OTTILIE LIGHTE, BC '20 MIYA LEE, CC '18 Contributors ZOE DANSDILL, BC '21 ALEX SWANSON, CC '18 BERNADETTE BRIDGES, CC '18 MICHELLE TANG, CC '19 NIKHIL DOMINIC, CC '19 HELENA ONG, BC '21 OLIVIA MILLER, BC '21 FRANK BARING, CC '21

Staff Illustrators YOTAM DEREE, GS '19 SAHRA DENNER, CC '21 Artists KELLIE ZHAO, CC '19 RACHEL CHIN, CC '18 JEN ALLEN, CC '20

THE BLUE AND WHITE Vol. XXIV

FAMAM EXTENDIMUS FACTIS

No. II

Columns

4 Blue Book 6 Blue Notes 8 Campus Characters 12 Verily Veritas 21 Digitalia Columbiana 22 M easure for Measure

Isaiah Bennett & Nikhil Dominic Gaby Edwards

Ruthie Gottesman

Ufon Umanah

Helena Ong

Isaiah Bennett

Features 10 At Two Swords Length: Do You M arch? Our monthly prose and cons 13 No Need to Take the Subway From the Travel Desk: A Jaunt to Manhattanville 14 Only Live Music in This Crypt A look at Columbia’s actual underground music scene 16 The Tale of Two Lus The impeachment was a surprise; even to dedicated ESC watchers 17 Trapped in the Ivory Tower For graduate students, Me Too moment not easy to come by 25 Minding P rogress A conversation with Michele Moody-Adams

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Cover by Sahra Denner

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR The Major League Baseball home opener for my hometown team is April 5th this year. The Yankees take to the diamond on April 2nd—who cares about the Mets, but probably around then as well. For whatever reason, I feel compelled to point out the start of Major League Baseball as the herald of Spring. I would not even consider myself to be a huge baseball fan, but nostalgic memories of bleacher seats on warm nights always come up around this time of year, as school work picks up and I find myself ceaselessly looking forward, dying for the semester to end. I abhor the feeling of perpetually drowning in homework and assignments, you know, never really caught up, always more you could be doing, horribly sleep-deprived. March 2018 did not exactly go out like a lamb, either. Bleak feelings reach fever pitch around this time every year… but then… Spring weather, Spring baseball, and for me, Spring rowing, come around to make life okay again. In the last month of the school year, find what makes Spring something special for you. Maybe you will find it in this issue, whether it be Ruthie’s trip to Postcrypt (pg. 14), Gaby’s jaunt to Manhattanville (pg. 13), or Isaiah’s philosophical musings with Professor Moody-Adams (pg. 25). Enjoy the sunshine on the Steps and if you’re anything like me, stop wishing for the year to be over. Yanks tickets are only 15 bucks right now, so enjoy a relaxing afternoon of America’s pastime. Whatever you do to celebrate—damn, there is something about Spring. — Caroline Hurley

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TRANSACTIONS ARRIVALS More Nor’easters But also Spring! Bacchanal! Days on Campus and bright-eyed admits Ballot initiatives Last-minute internship applications DEPARTURES Hopefully cold weather Thomas Jessell White House staff My 12-week New Yorker subscription Friday fish in Ferris

Come Again?! “MS Alert: Significant Poluce activity in the vicinity of 125th St. from Amsterdam Ave to Morningside Drive. Please avoid the area at this time.” — Columbia Public Safety

The Blue and White

BLUE BOOK

Campus Ups and Downs

Across: 1. John Jay Award Recipient; not the mayor of New York City 4. Recently closed, but back and better than ever 5. King’s College Shakespeare Troupe recently co-produced a scene out of LitHum 6. Co-founder of Columbia's Center for the Study of Human Rights 7. Emma Sulkowicz’s newest art exhibit derives from the Japanese term for the “hedonistic” urban culture of the Edo Period

9. City where you can now get a dual degree with Columbia University 10. Cornell graduate and controversial CUCR speaker of the month Down: 2. New book by extremely popular English professor. Short, but pricey. 3. US state and impeachment aficionado 8. His Oscars campaign turned into a disaster after allegations of sexual harassment

Answers: Across— 1. Garcetti 4. Koronets 5. Electra 6. Henkin 7. Ukiyo 9. Dublin 10. Coulter Down— 2. Art of Love Poetry 3. Montana 8. Franco

POSTCARD FROM MORNINGSIDE

April 2018

Postcard by Jennifer Bi

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BLUE NOTES

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wooden desk fades in from black, and a gloved hand delicately places a red rose in frame, forming an ominous triangle alongside a magnifying glass and burned out candle. The camera drifts to a leather bound book, where the words “A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY” glint golden on the cover. The hand turns the pages with all the self seriousness of the ghoulish Victorian mystery from which the video takes inspiration, finally revealing it’s title: “Murder in the Stacks.” Not to be confused with David Dekok’s truecrime novel on the 1969 murder of Penn State student, Betsy Aardsma, this gruesomely titled video filmed in Butler Library deals with matters a little more mundane. Produced in 1987 by the Columbia University Libraries Preservation and Digital Conversion Division, the victims of these “murders” aren’t people, but tomes lining Butler’s walls, poorly cared for by staff and students. Crafted in association with the Division of

Library Development at the New York State Library, the video hopes to educate its viewers on the necessary, but oft disregarded, practices of book preservation. Donning his iconic deerstalker hat and an atrocious posh affect, Sherlock Holmes himself leads viewers and the bumbling Dr. Watson through Columbia’s most iconic library in this pursuit. Investigating the crimes against the books around him, Holmes lectures on the proper handling, placement, and removal of books on the shelf with all the passive-aggression that one might expect in such a tutorial. He zig-zags around the library pointedly criticizing its occupants for misplacing books, leaving bookmarks in returned books, and eating (“Watson, eating in the stacks brings bugs and roaches just as surely as ants follow a picnic!”) . After 14 minutes of what could only most generously be deemed investigation, the oddly bookfixated Holmes concludes his lecture, staring straight into the camera and declaring, “If we are to keep books alive, preservation is the 100 percent solution”. He gives a final suck on his empty pipe (presumably bad library etiquette), and disappears into the over-conditioned Butler air. The credits roll as Watson chuckles and follows suit, evaporating and joining his principle as well meaning, if poorly acted, pieces of Columbia library history. — Isaiah Bennett

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hat experience is more definitively Columbian than a group of students sitting in a circle, passionately arguing about a topic for which they have no more than a basic understanding? The Roosevelt Institute is a national organization, with a chapter at Columbia, that shapes this scenario into a fresh take on policy debate. At the begin-

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Illustration by Julia Flasphaler

The Blue and White

BLUE NOTES ning of each debate, which all turn out to be more think-tank in style than a rigidly structured discourse, each attendee is handed a simple fact sheet regarding the topic. Every person has the same baseline knowledge, and can then contribute to any conversation the club might decide to enter. It is not uninformed rambling that dominates club meetings, but rather a collection of fresh perspectives that rise from a shared set of facts. Special individual experiences can sometimes inform the group’s final policy proposals. When I spoke to the club’s Outreach Director Ben Kaplan, SEAS '20, he told me “While very few at the meeting actually knew much of specific affordable housing policy both in NYC and elsewhere, one student who had stayed at an AirBnB in Germany (a country with a great number of restrictions on the service) was able to share that experience as an effect of the Germans’ policy.” The club’s openness to new perspectives is its main tenet, but they also aim to produce coherent and high-quality policy proposals. Their novel approach and fun structure are supported and driven by purposeful and actionable policy proposals, which can be collected and presented in different forms including the club’s annual Roosevelt Review Journal and long-form Policy Center Initiatives. One of the most interesting challenges that the club’s leaders face is constructing topics that facilitate discussion—the club has to create something debatable every single week. Kaplan told me, “To make sure our meetings continue to push people, our board must work to find topics which may spark controversy and discussion between even a group of students with a dominant liberal majority.” The Roosevelt Institute at Columbia conducts policy debates in Lerner every Tuesday night at 9 PM, with topics and details on their Facebook and Twitter. They encourage new prospective members to come seize their constructed controversy and argue their hearts out. — Ryan Mohen

April 2018

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he Columbia student’s perennial problem of finding suitable study space on this crowded campus iss, it appears, something less of a problem if you know where to look. . Buried in the depths of Kent Hall’s East Asian Library, the underground stacks are an extensive, well-lit study hall with comfortable tables and a warm, benevolent atmosphere. Cases and cases of books in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Tibetan surround wooden tables, private cubicles, and even a row of desks with computers, and although the space is underground, the lighting is soft and comfortable: bright enough to work, but not glaringly fluorescent. Both the daring explorer and the desperate, I’ll-settle-for-anything-at-this-point forager will agree that the base of Kent’s library stacks is a remarkable discovery — for those who are able to find it, that is. The journey to these hidden stacks, however, is less glamorous than the destination. Go through the nondescript door on the right-most side of the East Asian Library’s main floor to get to the upper level of stacks. Then, perhaps with a flashlight in case the power goes out, make your way past a few shelves until you reach the rickety, industrial set of stairs that run through the stacks. There among the automatic dehumidifiers, abandoned notes, and various unidentifiable stains, you may feel pressured to turn and run, but press on dear scholar, press on. After a few more flights, the light of the study hall will illuminate your face, erasing the trauma of the earlier stacks and consolingly welcoming you into its bounds. For an added challenge, try to find the extensive collection of Tibetan Buddhist canons. This is studying at Columbia like you’ve never seen it before. — Sarah Wallstrom

Illustrations by Sahra Denner and Julia Flasphaler

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Campus Characters You might not know the following figures—but you should. In Campus Characters, The Blue & White introduces you to a handful of Columbians who are up to interesting and extraordinary things and whose stories beg to be shared. This issue, we bring you two people with interests in their Columbia class pages. If you’d like to suggest a Campus Character, send us an email at bweditors@columbia.edu..

Josh Zweig

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rom the get-go, it is clear to me that Josh Zweig, CC '18, is much more organized than myself, and much busier. Teaching assistant for Advanced Programming and Computers and Society, Josh is a senior caught up in computer science, but, as I learned during our talk, he is also interested in the humanities. Zweig came to Columbia knowing he would major in Computer Science, but became a teaching assistant for some of the department’s most challenging courses by chance. Modest in admitting that he did not get the job when he first applied, Zweig has now, after four semesters, been TA to over 1000 students, all of whose names he has made great effort to learn. Josh says, “It’s really hard, but I work hard at it. It’s great…students come to office hours and you can have personal interactions with them, you greet them by their name and they’re a little taken aback.” His students are most likely taken aback because they expect to find a TA, who would rather spend hours coding alone in his room, but Josh Zweig confronts them with the complete opposite. “Whatever the case is, you just smile at people

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in the elevator, say ‘hello’ and it’s pretty simple. I actually think New York City is like that too, or at least I treat it like that. I smile at people on the street; if you’re just on the subway platform and you say ‘hello’ to someone, you can strike up a conversation with anyone”. This sentiment speaks more to Zweig’s affable nature and desire for engagement than to the fast-paced and solitary nature of coding. “One of the things about CS is that it’s moving so fast that it’s almost hard to keep up to date…you feel like you have to be taking up information.” Contemplating the similarity between programming and university schedules in which weeks of work seem like a repeated blur, Josh spoke to me about how he appreciates time away from tech. “It’s really nice to be able to go and take a lot of time to think about things—that feels worth it.” The moments in which he is not attached to his phone are the ones he cherishes most, “because that’s what it’s all about. Otherwise you have your phone in your pocket and everything is just different.” When asked how he typically spends time away from his phone, Zweig notes the shower as an easy place to start, and a tried-and-true favorite:“Anywhere you don’t have your phone is a good start.” For as much as Zweig enjoys his work as a teaching assistant and computer science student, time away from technology helps him to slow down and reflect. Speaking to his somewhat paradoxical relationship with CS, Zweig hopes to make technology less immediate, and is, in his own words, “kind of making a career out of it.” Zweig works at Palantir, on their Civil Liberties team, and he plans to continue in this position fulltime after graduation. Zweig focuses on ensuring data is handled in a way that makes companies and citizens comfortable. This job fits Zweig’s interests perfectly because he is “interested more in how computers get used in society rather than building apps.” In a joint SIPA, Columbia Law and Columbia

Illustration by Yotam Deree

The Blue and White

Engineering class, Zweig combatted the challenge of identity theft and the strengthening of social security numbers, by creating an individually-utilized ‘authenticator.’ Similar to the chance encounters he loves having in New York City, Zweig’s machine works to remember human faces in the same way, thus bringing his own personable nature and inclination towards human interaction to the project. One of his last comments in our interview was on the oddly intangible nature of CS: “It’s ephemeral — you think about it for a few weeks and then, what’s the point?” Zweig answers his own question when he says that engineering and computer science are “not just about building stuff. Because in that [act] there’s this critical inseparable nature of considering the world in which you’re building something into.” — Otillie Lighte

Julia lubey

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hen I go to meet Julia Lubey, BC '18, they are seated on the second floor of the Diana center, fully consumed in their work, just like the rest of campus in midterm season. Amidst the crowd of busy workers, I can spot the quarter notes scribbled on the pages that cover their table. Their over-sized, over-ear headphones are fitting for any prominent radio DJ. Lubey is a co-general manager for WBAR, whose love for radio is matched only by her humility. They tell me that they’ve been with WBAR since their first year at Barnard, but when I ask about their leadership, they give only a smile and a shrug. “I never expected to end up in this position of leadership, but here I am for my third semester.” Lubey’s long-term involvement with WBAR has allowed them full view of its immense growth in recent years. Previously programming six hours of content a day, WBAR has ballooned to a full 24/7 internet radio station, while bringing on new DJs and fresh perspectives. The unprecedented growth has not all been easy, as the club still operates out of a dingy, if well- loved, basement room on Barnard’s campus. The space has character and history, but Lubey hopes that WBAR will get a larger space in the new Milstein Center to accommodate the club’s growing needs. While many of their fondest memories involve stuffing ten friends into the studio that only comfortably holds a couple of people, they admit, “The grunge vibe impedes when you have asthma and you’re just trying to hang out.” Lubey can no longer realistically hope to listen to every show the club programs, as much as they’d love to, but the station’s growth has also created an oppor-

April 2018

tunity for a change they believe is a long time coming. The forefront of the club’s new agenda is a concerted effort to increase the diversity of both staff and content. WBAR is making strides in better representing their DJs’ identities, the campus’ identities, and the wealth of diverse music out there waiting for radio attention. They look forward to passing on the torch to the staff members coming behind them because they have confidence in the community that they helped mold. Lubey is excited for the club, but they admit, “I’ll be happy to finally step down because I’ve been there for so long…I’m white…and I play indie rock.” Barnard was an obvious choice for them when choosing where they wanted to go to college. “New York was a place I wanted to be for the music scene,” they say. Lubey has enjoyed the music scene off campus, and they have played a critical role in making that community its most vibrant self on campus. Their favorite and most essential responsibility as a general manager at WBAR is scheduling and organizing the club’s concerts. Their favorite show to date is the “Goth Prom,” held last fall. “During the final performers’ set I was sitting in the corner and thinking…this is what I wanted WBAR to be: full of people, good music, and everybody being super involved and engaged with the event,” Lubey says. When Lubey imagines their life after college they hope, “I’ll probably stay in New York … and hang out at WBAR all the time.” They hope to work full-time for Columbia’s youth summer programs that they helped lead for three years running. The position allows them access to the community they have created in the city, with its vibrant music on and off campus. Lubey has accepted the fact that they have to let WBAR grow and develop on its own now, but they will be front row at future shows, beaming with pride. — Ryan Mohen

Illustration by Jennifer Bi

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AT T W O S W O R D S ’ L E N G T H

Do you A

re you fucking kidding me? I March… so hard. for a misplaced sense of superiority, a belief that their You know what March means, don’t you? pompous apprehension makes them somehow better. Shit might as well be synonymous with spring break! Who cares if I’ve depleted all my serotonin for Oh baby, I’m talking body shots, beaches, da boys, the next three years? Who cares if some unknown and blackouts. I can’t go into details because I cer- horror has been documented on the internet for my tainly can’t remember them, am I right? Of course the future employers to discover? Who cares if I can’t experiences may now seem fuzzy, but the month and remember every moment of my getting ‘stupid lit’ for all nonetheless transformative. 186 continuous hours? I know There are of course naywho I am. I know what I did. I can sayers, some might call my stance feel it in me, as a changed man. vapid, but I prefer ‘liberated.’ Not to mention, we’ll always have You good times antagonists, the Instagrams. anti-party elitists, NPR listenBut uh, have you ever actuing asshole fun-sponges, you ally seen what goes on down don’t know what it means to cut there?... I mean, where do all loose, to embrace your animalthese greasy psychopaths come istic desires. March, as I see it, from? Wielding beer bongs, is something both offensive to platinum debit cards, and hunyour sensibilities and beyond dreds of juul pods, they descend your domesticated, book-ofupon equatorial coastlines like the-month club capacities for a biblical pestilence. Hiding understanding. March, and all it behind each of those oversized contains, is spiritual. The month sunglasses, beneath each dad hat, presents an opportunity for myseach tropically themed 2-piece tical and transforming experiswimsuit, lies a deeply malevoences. The beaches of Mexico, lent spirit: fueled by hysteria and Florida, and the like serve as a the death-screams of liver cells. locus of contact between man I saw a girl climb on stage, ffirmative and the sublime, much like those pausing her erratic and crazed deserts of the Middle East served dancing only so that the director By Isaiah Bennett the prophets of Abrahamic antiqof ceremonies could shave her head uity. for free drinks. Hundreds looked Anyone who would have you believe that April on with glee, smiling, screaming, and dancing under and its showers, May and its flowers, or any other a thousand-degree sun. Over the beastial cries, only piddly little month could be better than one in which the sound of distorted electronic music could be it’s socially acceptable to drink a margarita the size heard. Half expecting the sacrifice of hair to turn of a small dog house, is a sad fool. In their quasi- into one of blood, I feared for my life. I feared that if intellectual, self obsessed temperance these saps lose I didn’t dance, the shears wielding emcee would turn out two things: a piece of that which makes them most on me. That my lifeless body would be trampled into human, and the ability to take themselves beyond the sand underfoot, pounded deep into the mash of their body, the ability to transcend common under- sunscreen, sweat, and beer. standing in an addled state of glorious stupor. They What the fuck is wrong with these people? trade these indescribably valuable bits of themselves Someone help me. I just want to go home.w

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Illustration by Jennifer Bi

The Blue and White

AT T W O S W O R D S ’ L E N G T H

March? N

o, I don’t march (or protest, or counter-pro- of ours that I need to spend more time taking care of test, or etc.). I used to back in freshman year, moi. Sure, we all know people who use “radical selfof course, because back then it was still Obama’s care” as an excuse to stay in bed and watch Netflix; America: Things could get pretty grimy, but it wasn’t the difference here is that I would never sully such a shit compared to the cocknoble excuse for anything eyed surrealist fantasy we’ve so frivolous. I never flake trapped ourselves in now. In on my lunch dates! What late 2016, our nation collecI do flake on is political tively lurched through the activism, and that’s only Bermuda Triangle (Crossed because I feel the slings through the Looking-Glass? and arrows of the Trump Entered the Upside-Down? regime so, so deeply. Half So many fictional refractions the time they aren’t even to choose from!) and now going after any group that I everything is the shadow belong to, but it still hurts, of some nth-dimensionally you know? I have such unireflected hyperprism of a versal sympathy for my felsemi-plausible little truthlow persons that I simply let. Did that make any sense? can’t keep looking at what No, and it hardly matters, they’re doing to them. So right? I’ve taken enough instead I disconnect by classes since my last Low staying home and scrolling Steps poster party to start through Facebook, and get authoritatively misquoting all my political urges out Baudrillard, so trust me that safely through armchair this is all very profound. philosophizing. It’s much And further trust less stressful when the me when I say that nobody feels stakes are purely theoretical. our great unmooring from Truth And if you have to call it disilegative and Justice and That Was What lusionment, at least note that it’s the By Nikhil Dominic Democracy Looked Like than me. romantic, world-weary kind. And My friends, I am positively overif you want to call it bullshit? Then come with malaise and ennui at the state of this I call fake news on your call of fake news, my guy! country today. Only French etymologies can express Remember that words don’t matter and marches don’t my disdain, and perhaps French culture too, not the matter and we’re probably not even talking about part where they storm the Bastille but the part where the same thing to begin with anyway. What does they sit around sipping burnt coffee and being sad this prompt even mean? Do you march? I swear the because actually doing things is for neoliberals and lack of definition is going to derail the whole debate Modernists. It’s heavy stuff. before we even get started—although I suppose shortThe point is that it isn’t apathy or laziness that circuiting this argument would save me a dose of guilt keeps me from marching, as much as it all might from the Affirmative for not vainly raging out there in look the same from the outside. I am simply so over- the cold. Actually, wait: if that’s what I stand to gain whelmed by the daily iniquities of this terrible nation from post-truth America, then sign me the fuck up.w

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April 2018

Illustration by Jennifer Bi

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V E R I LY V E R I TA S

TOLD BETWEEN PUFFS

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In which our hero struggles to write a thesis

t’s all dribble,’ thought Verily, as he crumpled up another piece of vellum parchment. ‘It’s all scattered, discombobulated, anarchic dripple.’ With an arch toss, he discarded his document high into the musty air of his Riverside abode and procured another sheet on which to commence his writing. Meanwhile, as our hero muttered arcane expletives under his breath, his scattered, discarded thoughts tumbled down onto the varnished walnut floor, riddled with the of Verily’s brogues past. It joined a pile, thousands strong, of rejected ruminations. Said pile had been growing steadily throughout the past wintery months, the manifest carcass of Verily’s spluttering mind. It had started small—one, perhaps two crumpled fists of surrealist sculpture—then began to accrue as Verily’s thoughts laced up, through, and over one another. Now the pile had begun its slow, inevitable, colonizing push from the spitoon behind Verily’s bureau to the outer tassels of his Kashan. In time, the pile of discarded parchment would spill yet further into the adjacent rooms, an unending torrent of crumpled notes, destructive as Homer’s Scamander, wrathful as the Tiber under Maxentius. Oh, how the decôr of Verily’s sitting room and conservatory would be mired by the uncouth, asymmetrical heap of papers! ‘No,’ thought Verily, ‘Creased vellum has never mixed well with lavish paisley. The pile must end, and I must be the author of its cessation.’ Besides how difficult could it really be to sculpt the opening sentence of one simple dissertation? He had already succeeded thrice before, once

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whilst sipping Nespresso with Clooney in an airport lounge over a discussion of Venetian interiors, and once whilst petting Franklin, Barbra Streisand’s three-legged Retriever. Verily had all the rhymes of Byron at his disposal, the lyricism of Cavafy at his fingertips. All he had to do was convert his ideas to written words. But the question still remained: how best to introduce his subject? Verily had long been interested in Mauryan interactions with Ghandaran artisans, but his interest had led him into a niche nook in scholarship, one which required much foregrounding for his layman reader. What a mouthful the influence of Baktro-Hellenistic figural representation on the artistic styles of the Indus had turned out to be! Verily cursed his curious, beautiful, yet complicated mind, cursed his intellectualism. “Would that I had been born a mortal with ephemeral thoughts!” he cried, as he tore yet another sheet into prismatic ribbons that splayed over his desk. He looked outside his icicle-framed window and reminisced over days spent in summers past at his grey cubicle in Morgan Stanley. How simple it all was. He missed the lack of boffins on the trading floor, the conglomeration corporate jargon. He missed his summer romances, his old haircut. Everything seemed so stale in his mire of—dare I say—writer’s block. Perhaps proto-Mauryo-Hellenistic realism was too elusive a tale for Verily to tell, perhaps his dabbles in Sanskrit had led him too far off the beaten path. Maybe he should return to his Econ-PoliSci roots and fit in with the rest of the beancounters content to endure their credit limits. Perhaps he should take up coding.w

The Blue and White

S O R RY I ' M L AT E

No Need to Take the Subway From the Travel Desk: A jaunt to Manhattanville By Gaby Edwards

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haotically refined, delicately concrete, intimately enormous: the new Manhattanville campus fits each of these descriptions, and the journey to get there presents an invigorating opportunity for exploration of Morningside Heights. While the vibrancy of our neighborhood cannot be understated, every Monday and Wednesday, my endurance and stamina undergo the ultimate test. With only 15 minutes to get from Milbank on 119th street to the Lenfest Center, the new arts building on 125th street, part of the Manhattanville campus, I arrive consistently late and out of breath. Upon mapping my journey, I learned that the Lenfest Center is approximately 0.7 miles, or roughly a 13 minute walk. Although one would think I have two minutes to spare, this estimation does not take into account the bustling hallways of Milbank that do not allow for a hasty departure, the phenomena of slow-paced walkers, and spontaneous sightings of cute dogs. On account of this, my delayed arrival to class usually means I have to awkwardly approach the professor after class in order to sign the attendance sheet. Is perpetually late really the legacy I want to leave behind at Manhattanville? While overhearing (or rather eavesdropping) on a fellow, gray-hoodied classmate, in order to gain insight into the general perceptions of such a journey, I found that he also believed this trek was “pretty much the worst.” He further qualified that it is the expedition back to 116th, which involves a steady incline for almost the full nine blocks, that is “actually, most definitely, the worst.” So, how can Columbia students overcome the 0.7 mile walk while still making it to class on time? The answer is to simply embrace the moment, and accept the situation. This mindset is crucial in order to overcome the inevitable and repeated shame that arises from interrupting lecture. After weeks of disgracefully arriving to class seemingly decades into

April 2018

whatever my professor is lecturing about, I’ve decided that while swift pace is necessary, enjoying this commute ranks higher on my list of priorities. How am I supposed to appreciate the dozens of Manhattan School of Music students, trombones slung on their back, smoking their cigarettes on 122nd street? Or the man I have seen at least five times wearing a Phish t-shirt outside the Vape Shop? The hidden treasures from 116th street to 125th are abundant, and without a watchful eye, they can be easy to miss. For example, the toy store with fading barbie dolls in the front window also operates as a site for any copying needs. Had I not taken the time to welcome my environment, I would never have known I could buy my niece a present while simultaneously printing out flyers for my impending start-up business. Furthermore, the amount of quirky coffee shops are plentiful within this 0.7 mile expedition— and to think my options until now had been limited to Joe’s! Now I can impress all my friends by telling them I’m going to order my chai latte at Kuro Kuma, self-proclaimed “contemporary nook,” instead! In addition, a sense of solidarity and community has emerged because of the large crowd of tardy students. Initially, I knew not a single soul in my class. But as each week went by, and I became familiar with the friendly faces of my fellow late arrivals, we learned we are stronger together. Now, aisle seats are thoughtfully left empty, or at least backpacks out of the walkway so sitting down can be as sly and speedy as possible. It’s the little things that count. And so while this trek may not be ideal for those who pride themselves off of their punctuality, it does offer a pretty stimulating and entertaining splash of exercise, for better or worse. I have been told the shuttle to the Medical School makes regular stops at Manhattanville, but at this point, I could not be paid to take a ride to class.w

Illustration by Sahra Denner

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FEELIN' FOLKSY

Only Live Music in This Crypt A look at Columbia's actual underground music scene By Ruthie Gottesman

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utside, it is hailing and wind is howling on this wintery Friday night.Inside, though, the warm red glow of the light emanating from the basement of St. Paul’s Chapel invites lovers of music to gather for warmth at the Postcrypt Coffeehouse, and this is exactly where I find myself. The room is small— a plaque that hangs on the wall declares that the maximum occupancy to be 30 people—and people squeeze themselves into the nooks of the room, taking their seats at tables with flickering candles whose light dances on the stone walls. The chairs all face a humble, petite platform, on which an older man perches, slowly plucking the strings of a bandura. He speaks softly as though he is talking to a friend when he explains that the bandura is a Ukrainian folk instrument that has been traditionally played by blind musicians. Over his head, fairy lights snake their way around an exposed pipe. The dance of his fingers across the bandura’s 68 strings reflects in shadows across the instrument’s broad surface. With a shaky voice, he begins to sing about a war that took place a long time ago. When he finishes, everyone claps, and he bashfully smiles. The Crypt Manager thanks him for his time and reminds everyone that they are selling snacks and beverages at the bar, though nothing alcoholic. Established in 1964, Postcrypt Coffeehouse is an entirely student run not-for-profit organization that hosts professional, amateur, and student artists from across the country. Typically, three performances take place every Friday and Saturday night from 8:30 to 11:30. The performers play music from a variety of genres, such as folk, jazz, and blues, but Postcrypt Coffeehouse has become a renowned venue especially for folk music since its inception. There are also open mic nights and comedy nights every so often. These performances always take place in the intimate setting of the basement of St. Paul’s Chapel. They are free to attend, and attract both students from Columbia as well as the locals of Morningside Heights. Lawrence Chillrud, CC '20, has been

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involved with Postcrypt ever since his first semester at Columbia, when he started volunteering at the performances. In order to get students involved, the Postcrypt managers invite students to sign up for a performance and assist with setting up, addressing the artists’ needs, and interacting with the attendees. Chillrud became the bar manager earlier this year. His responsibilities include going shopping and stocking Postcrypt every week with coffee, tea, cookies, and beverages. He says that being a manager is “pretty relaxed and a fun way to make the Crypt a bigger part of my life.” Postcrypt was founded in 1964 by the University Chaplain at the time, Reverend John Cannon, with the help of a student, Dotty Sutherland. They transformed a dusty storage unit below St. Paul’s Chapel into a venue for performers. The name “Postcrypt” is a play off of the word “postscript,” and was chosen by Cannon as a nod to his favorite philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, whose best known work may be Concluding Unscientific Postscript. Sutherland and Cannon designed and created a mosaic countertop that is still used as the bartop today. The attendees of Postcrypt have been served beverages and snacks over this same mosaic piece for over 50 years, while up-and-coming folk acts, and some very famous faces perform on stage. Perhaps the most famous artist to take to the tiny platform was Jeff Buckley, famed for his cover of “Hallelujah.” Dating back to its inception in 1960s, Postcrypt has a long history. Past student managers of the Crypt have come together to try to uncover its detailed past. Postcrypt’s old website’s history page begins with a note from a former bar manager from ‘92-’95 that reads, “As with many student-run organizations, the Postcrypt has a long and undocumented history. As the unofficial Postcrypt historian, I have tried my best to be accurate, but please correct me as necessary! This page will always be a work in progress.” Per his request, the page is filled with updates, including the dates that they were added. It seems to be an ongoing project for students to piece

The Blue and White

FEELIN' FOLKSY together the details of this intimate space that has been preserved for so long. Students keep track of all past performers, past bar managers, the origins of their furniture and signs, and old photos of students of the space. They gather this information through contacting alumni and former students. Chillrud informed me that just like the mosaic countertop, which features images of the Last Supper and is Postcrypt’s only nod to its religious residence, not much has changed since 1964. The original stage continues to support artists and performers, even if it has been reinforced with fresh plywood, and much of the furniture is original to what Cannon and Sutherland purchased.The band Minus Ted, which used to perform every so often in the early years of Postcrypt, came back to perform this past January 2018. Band member Terry Pender is a Columbia alumni who is currently the Associate Director of Columbia University’s Music Center. He told the Postcrypt managers that he met his wife at Postcrypt in the 70’s. “It was really fun talking with him and hearing about how the Crypt evolved,” Chillrud told me, adding, “It apparently hasn’t changed much at all.” When asked to tell about notable artists that he’s seen Postcrypt host during his time being

April 2018

involved, Chillrud struggled to narrow down his answer, gushing, “There are honestly so many!”. He named an acoustic songwriter Josey Blue, whom he recently heard while he was managing, saying that “He [Blue] had an awesome sound and was super personable.” Chillrud described how “there was this crazily intimate moment where he dedicated a song to someone he went to highschool with who had just died and he missed the funeral service as it was too far away.” Instead, Josey “was playing at the Crypt, so it was super intimate and kind of touching.” Many performances are often described in these terms. Because of the nature of the small space, Postcrypt lends itself to an intimate concert experience unlike any other. Chillrud asked me to highlight that the Postcrypt sign was stolen in February and has not been seen since. “It’s super upsetting because it’s been a part of Postcrypt for decades,” Chillrud said. In the context of Postcrypt’s longevity, it is clear what an affront this is to the organization. While the lives of Columbia students barreling ever onwards towards Wall Street, Postcrypt serves as a small space preserved in time. Head down the stairs of St. Paul’s on any Friday or Saturday night to experience it for yourself.w

Illustration by Jen Allen

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IF YOU LIKE CAMPUS POLITICS

The Tale of Two Lus The impeachment was a surprise, even to dedicated ESC watchers By Ufon Umanah

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residential candidate Lu appeared to carry the group with her background as VP of Finance and had the most concrete understanding of each individual role within the executive board,” read the Columbia Daily Spectator’s endorsement of Aida Lu for the position of President of the Engineering Student Council. Indeed, there was little about her that the Spectator could criticize. Lu started off as a first-year back-bencher, where she organized events and served on the Finance Committee, led VP Finance the next year, and won the presidency as a junior. Almost one year later, during an otherwise quiet general body meeting, Montana St. Pierre, SEAS '19 and ESC Representative, initiated impeachment proceedings against Aida Lu. Afterwards, the council moved to create a committee to investigate the charges, but no one in the press can communicate more than that because, like many events in ESC, the discussion between council-members was closed to both the press and the public. Closed meetings, of which there were several, start to describe how ESC began to create two Aida Lus. In private, St. Pierre described Lu as having “a lack of respect for her peers on council.” ESC, after impeaching President Lu, reported that Lu would be “frequently late to general body meetings and other meetings” and “when she is on time, she berates and shames those who are late.” When she couldn’t make it to an administrative meeting, she would put the responsibility of attendance on other council members within hours of the meeting, according to other members of ESC. She failed to reply to emails from members of the community who needed to talk to ESC, failed to send out newsletters to the Engineering School, and failed to represent the student body in her conversations. And yet, besides Lu only sending two newslet-

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ters under her name as opposed to her predecessor’s six, the allegations took the press by surprise. No one would accuse Bwog’s former ESC Bureau Chief, Finn Klauber, of missing a general body meeting. Klauber “never noted Aida to have been late to or extremely improper in general body meetings.” Lu seemed to always say the right things to the Spectator. While one of the allegations against her accused her of molding her conversations “to that of administrators’ [opinions],” she was once quoted in The Spectator as saying, “In order to better understand [food insecurity], you have to talk to the people who are using the food bank or feel food-insecure,” which is often the conclusion of many Spectator op-eds on food insecurity. Despite this, many of the allegations against Lu referred to non-public matters. St. Pierre described himself as “lucky” that he didn’t have to work as much with Lu as a class representative, compared to members of the Executive Board. Per the allegations, “The Executive Board ...only met once in the Spring Semester due to [Lu’s] absences and her lack of scheduling.” Presidents are also supposed to disclose what they do to the general body meeting, as with every other executive board member. Only members of ESC know what Lu told the council when she missed a critical meeting to “discuss mandated mental health training.” ESC moved in Constitutional Review to clarify what impeachment would look like going forward. If the council is serious about moving beyond Lu or preventing absentee leaders from abusing power, it might consider making it tougher to close meetings to the press, perhaps requiring a prior discussion and vote within the Executive Board. Otherwise, any uncontested frontrunner can slide through elections only to destroy the council from within, even councils designed by engineers.w

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N AV I G AT I N G A C A D E M I A

Trapped in the Ivory Tower For graduate students, Me Too moment not easy to come by By Helena Ong

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uring the 2017 November plenary of the Columbia University Senate, Chair of the Executive Committee Sharyn O’Halloran remarked that academia had its own Harvey Weinsteins. In the context of #MeToo, the phrase seemed a call to action. And where better to sound the call than at Columbia, which Senator Suzanne Goldberg in a different plenary described as “the national leader on these issues.” This is true, from a certain point of view. Already, we have four sexual assault or harassment stories in the press this academic year. We lead in research on sexual assault, as exhibited in the New Yorker’s feature on Columbia’s Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT), a research project led by Professor Jennifer Hirsch and Dr. Claude Mellins that focused on undergraduate sexual health and violence. Graduate students, however, are often left out of these conversations in Columbia’s undergraduate press, and in the scope of projects such as SHIFT. Hirsch and Mellins, the lead researchers of SHIFT, were unavailable for comment, although Maria O’Brien, interim Senior Director of Communications at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, relayed that they viewed the issue of sexual assault among graduate students as an important area of research which they hope to focus on in the future. Cases involving graduate students continue to occur at Columbia. Last semester, Doe v. Columbia University, a case built around the testimonies of several graduate students against Dr. William Harris, a professor of history, and the case was settled with his resignation. Another case of professor sexual misconduct, William-Farley vs. Columbia, which had previously been dismissed by the judge, is currently unresolved. At press time, Columbia University representatives were supposed to attend legal conference in March. “Criminal and civil laws remain an important bulwark against sexual harassment and assault, as well as discrimination more broadly. However, universities, unlike the courts, can ensure that a survi-

April 2018

vor of sexual misconduct has everything he or she needs to continue with school,” says David Sanford, Chairman of Sanford Heisler Sharp, and lead counsel on the plaintiffs of the Columbia University cases. He also notes, however, that “Universities often fail to comply with both the letter and spirit of Title IX.” For graduate students in particular, the mentorship of professors to students is absolutely central to graduate education, but if that relationship becomes abusive or harmful—how can students respond? “When an incident happens in an office behind closed doors, a he-said-she-said scenario can result,” Sanford says. “In the case of Professor Harris, several other women—going back to the 1980s—spoke with our firm and then with The New York Times about their abuse by Professor Harris.” Like Harris’ case, the prevalence of professorstudent relationships goes back years. Desiree AbuObeh, a History PhD candidate at Columbia, studies the emergence of the problem of sexual violence at universities, and how American college campuses have responded to it from the 1950s to 2000s. According to Abu-Obeh, “It gets stickier when it is an issue of sexual harassment and not necessarily like veering into assault, but there is a clear inappropriate behavior happening between people who are supposed to have a professional relationship, particularly like faculty and a student. I think that is when the resources get to be less ideal.” “If you go to different departments, and you check very famous and established professors… [some of] their wives were their students,” says Yaqiong Chen, a Biology PhD candidate and co-president of Women in Science at Columbia (WISC). “As far as I know, a lot of female scientists are really considerate because they’ve had similar experiences in grad school. But how do you handle relationships with male mentors, especially in such isolated environments—a super small lab, and your mentor has ultimate authority over you?” Chen continues, “I feel like this kind of [discussion] is not available to lots of students,” discuss-

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N AV I G AT I N G A C A D E M I A ing how WISC works to host workshops for female scientists and professors to share their own experiences and how to handle the close environment between mentors and students. According to Chen, many students don’t know how to actively look for help. “I even had a friend who quit her PhD studies because she couldn’t handle bullying from her mentor. It is very sad.” For undergraduates, especially those living within college dormitories, information and advertisements for college resources such as Sexual Violence Response and Title IX are posted extensively around campus. Graduate students, though, may find themselves in a different position than undergraduates when it comes to clear resources on sexual harassment. According to Title IX Coordinator Marjory Fisher, Title IX outreach materials and online resources that are provided to undergrads are very similar to those available to graduate students. Fisher was not able to provide further comment, and referred Blue and White reporters to Heather Parlier, Associate Provost for Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action. Parlier then referred us to Vice President for Public Affairs Scott Schell for comment. Schell, along with the Director of Investigations, Deputy Title IX Coordinator, Faculty and Staff Concerns, Jazmin Taylor, did not respond to our request for comment at the time of publication. It is our hope that survivors of harassment and assault do not experience the same difficulties we had in trying

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to track down someone from the Title IX department. Sexual Violence Response (SVR)responded to our request for comment saying, “At any time during the Academic Year, students can request a workshop or training on a number of topics … to maintain the safety of the campus community.” And Abu-Obeh felt that services “for yourself to cope or because you need medical attention,” like SVR, are probably better utilized than formal disciplinary proceedings. Students entering the Graduate School of Art and Science (GSAS), the largest of Columbia’s graduate schools, participate in a mandatory SVR session at orientation that covers the resources, prevalence of sexual violence, and bystander intervention. “The students are given a lot of advice, in written form, from GSAS, but then how to make that work within a department is far more complicated. Because quite often, no matter how well-meaning we as faculty might be, we can be part of the problem,” says Alan Stewart, Department Chair for English & Comparative Literature, and former Director of Graduate Studies from 2012-2015. In comparison to their undergraduate counterparts, graduate students are more deeply involved in their specific departments. Columbia undergraduates enter undeclared in their major, most live on or near campus all four years, and may feel a significant association toward their extracurricular activities: athletics, Greek life, etc. But while undergraduates apply to one of the four undergraduate colleges, grad-

Illustration by Jennifer Bi

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N AV I G AT I N G A C A D E M I A uate students enter GSAS for a department, and often pursue a specific area of study within the department, seeing “themselves as members of the department that they are in,” according to Stewart. “[Faculty] are not as involved [in GSAS’ orientation] but then the problems are going to emerge, almost always, within the department,” Stewart says. He reports that while the conversations are happening now within departments, “there is a lack of honesty on both sides,” and conversations between faculty and students are avoided. Stewart also notes a potential conflict if a department’s Director of Graduate Studies is part of a problem occurring within the department or is working with faculty members involved. While he notes that his job is, “not to protect [faculty] against graduate students,” the Director of Graduate Studies is still part of the faculty. Moreover, graduate programs at Columbia can take five to seven years, with students building longlasting relationship with their department’s faculty, as mentors and superiors. Professors review students’ progress every year and play a role in approving dissertations for granting PhDs. Even in pursuing postdoctoral study, students rely on professors for letters of recommendation to secure tenure, and may continue to interact with them in academic and professional circles afterwards. The influence that individual department professors can wield over graduate students, both within and outside the department, can be long-lasting into students’ careers. “I think it’s terrifying in a different way than if something like that happened to me as an undergraduate,” Abu-Obeh says. Stewart notes that while sexual harassment is difficult for undergraduates and graduates, at the least “an undergraduate might be able to move on, or move out of a class and not have to deal with the situation as it’s on going.” Elaborating on the difficult position of graduate students in situations of harassment, Chen says, “If you have a job, and they ask you to work late, you can say, ‘I want to quit my job and get one with a better environment.’ But leaving a PhD program and starting another graduate life, you’ve already been here four years, five years. It’s not easy to do. Some mentors emotionally abuse you, belittle you, and ask you to do extra things … as far as I know, many of these things really happen. And you can’t do anything.” Changing mentors in the program is difficult, especially when professors are invaluable to a

April 2018

student’s research, as Enrichetta Ravina alleges in her lawsuit against Columbia. Even as an assistant professor, she found herself a victim when a Business School professor cut off access to a “unique dataset.” After she had invested so much work, “she could not reasonably abandon the research without grievously delaying or ruining her career.” Some students might not want to make an official report with the university, but would rather remove themselves from a potentially difficult situation. Coming forward to report abuse or harassment could impact a graduate students’ research, degree progress, and even their future career. “All too often,” Sanford notes from a legal perspective, “proving harassment is difficult due to the lack of witnesses and evidence,” sometimes even when the standard of evidence is reduced to preponderance. And that process is even harder if, instead of believing a student, faculty members “repeatedly dismiss” and “mock” their complaints, as Ravina alleges happened to her when she came forward to the faculty. The challenge of proving an incident occurred, however, could inhibit students from coming forward with potential issues or complaints, making them feel trapped. Although options do exist on which graduate students can rely, preventative action may require structural and institutional changes that go beyond the resources that the university currently provides. Students involved in the Graduate Student Union emphasize unionization and the protections therein as the strongest solution to the problems of harassment and assault, since academia, to them, behaves like a workplace. Many graduate students would not offer comment without the context of the need for unionization. Stewart noted that unionization also gives students, “another way of dealing with these kinds of situations that does not involve the people immediately involved with their graduate education” and suggested making changes where student grievances do notfall back to the departments, where there are limitations and potential conflicts. “I don't want to make it seem like someone who goes to graduate school is going to be subjected a terrible situation,” Stewart says. “But obviously the dynamics of the way the graduate experience is structured makes it difficult.”w Olivia Miller, Michelle Tang, Gaby Edwards, Zoe Dansdill and Ufon Umanah contributed reporting.

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PAY I N G T H E B I L L S

Book Culture 536 West 112th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Monday-Friday 9am-10pm Saturday 10am-8pm Sunday 11am-7pm 212-865-1588 Book Culture 2915 Broadway at West 114th Street Monday-Friday 9am-11pm Saturday 10am-11pm Sunday 10am-10pm 646-403-3000 bookculture.com

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DIGITALIA COLUMBIANA These excerpts were culled from documents left on Columbia’s lab computers. We encourage our readers to submit their own digitalia finds to us, via email, at bwgossip@columbia.edu. Student Body President Interim Succession i. In the event that the Student Body President is unable to perform his/her duties, the following steps are to be taken: ii. The member of the Executive Board in the year of highest academic standing will take on the duties. iii. If multiple members of the Executive Board satisfy the previous requirement, the member who has been elected to the ESC for the most years will take on the duties. iv. If multiple members of the Executive Board satisfy both previous requirements, the member who held the higher position on Council the previous year will take on the duties. v. If multiple members of the Executive Board satisfy all three previous requirements, succession shall be determined by a coin toss. e Dearest B&W, Through the unstoppable tide of spam it has come to my attention that I am still on your list serve. I would like to make clear that my conversion to your list serve was complete coercion. I serve no other list serve than the one and only Holy Father List Serve SSOL. SSOL died for our courses. In the name of SSOL I demand you to go back to whence you came. If you don't I will be forced to declare a Holy Crusade against your heathen list serve. (Please remove me from the list serve.) e Hello, I have got your contact in the cause of my serious search for a reliable foreign partner through a profile which convinced me of your position/Country. However, I am Kamal Gasser Ahmed my father was a businessman and also one the leaders of Libya United

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for Reconciliation and Democracy movement that fought against the Government in Libya African. confiding in you with hope that you will never betray me at last, My most required concern is for you to recognised me as a friend/family, while establishing a long lasting relationship now and the future. Presently, I am in Europe with substantial quantity of diamonds and the sum of Fourt Seven Million United States Dollars (US$47million), These money and diamonds was realise by my father before his death when Revolutionary Movement for Democracy (L.M.D) conquered one of the oil region, by then my father was the head in my region and the Consultant with one of the Oil Fields in Libya. The money and diamonds was kept under my father care for the purchase of arms from Russia, it was a situation of war so my father died and I consider it my chance and then move immediately to Europe where my late father deposited this diamonds and money with a holding company for save keeping. My aim of contacting you is to assist me in three ways (1) to help me move this money and diamonds to your country (2) to help me secure prospective diamonds buyers (3) and to help me get a profitable business for investment any where overseas all is base on your professional advice and acceptance to assist me. Note that a substantial portion of this money would be compensated to you for your assistance. Please, do not hesitate to reply immediately to enable me furnish you with further details. Finally, keep this with your utmost secrecy and confidentiality as you can understand my condition here, hence i am into hiding as so many people who knows my late father may expose my whereabout to the government authorities in my country. Thanks for your co-operation. Best Regards. Kamal Gasser Ahmed)w

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M easure

for

M easure

Now Open at 6 a.m. on Sundays Now look here fella, The Lord’s Day never gave me any trouble. None at all. I’d be up the there, right above the shop The cars would ebb in and out with the tide, Which I guess makes sense. All we really sell are towels and fishing lines. You see me and Liz sit above the shop there And find real peace in our sips of tea and sleepy decade-old arguments. It was real holy, like the fookin’ temple veil. I don’t know. Maybe in some pathetic way my temple veil will be torn down this Sunday When I disobey the Lord’s example and take up my tools of work. So I can keep the shop. Is that sacrilege? I think my mother would have thought so. Dad wouldn’t’ve given two shites. But he loved my mam far more than he loved the Lord you see? Kian! He’d say. Kian! You haven’t finished your dinner And by God if you disrespect your mam’s cooking like this you’ll feel an almighty wrath! I really believed that man would drag me through the streets of Dublin by my feckin’ ankles Just to sit me back down infront of my dinner. And now here I am fearing the Lord like I feared my father then. It’s madness for sure but my Lord’s day is for Scrabble and movies with Liz, Not the shop. But then there are those fellas I’ve been reading about in Australia right, Aborigine or something, Who never heard of the Lord before. They’ve no clue whatsoever. I bet they don’t quit the work on a Sunday. And now, I’ve been thinking about this a lot; Here I am, grieving over the loss of my holy day of rest and they’re over there Paying no fookin’ attention to this God of mine. They’ll just be living in some other way. They might not even have a name for Sunday. Their weeks might be like 32 days long or something. I can’t explain it, but it really gets to me, you know? And then there’s everything else. Now I know I’m here telling yous that the Lord’s day never gave me any trouble But really what does a few days in my life matter in the whole picture you

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M easure

for

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know? I mean from what I understand things will just keep going when I’m gone. They’ll just keep going. Because time can’t just end, you know? Even if the Lord takes mercy on my soul and gives me heaven, I’ll be there Watching things just go on And probably thinking I should’ve slept in on every bloody Sunday I ever lived. Probably thinking “Christ! What happens now?” Probably preferring a fear of nothingness to a fear of endlessness, I don’t know. But yeah anyway, We’ll be open at 6.a.m on Sunday’s now.

— Frank Baring

Our Appointment We managed to secure a time for Two drinks before our friends arrived. I wanted to see them as well but It was important to me - our appointment. I always enjoyed the way you wouldn’t Let me get away from you for too long, Even at school. I think you noticed an absence of me And decided to correct it. This was no different. You had heard I was back from America from someone And made sure I was there at that bar with you. Tilting our heads back to laugh and drink I felt proud of us old friend. We’d made it out of school, Five years of a twisted marriage, Door to door, wall to wall, lesson to lesson. We’d made it to that table. You said I looked older. You didn’t really care about what America was like You were just happy we could still do this, This precious ritual of ours.

April 2018

— Frank Baring

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M easure

for

M easure

Some Kind of I saw a woman with your hair today – tried to grab it, keep it. Dim the lights, comb my hair, pile up the pillows at the foot of the bed. Rest my feet in your lap. Thinking about hair is confusing – when I was little everyone tried to say that “hair is dead.” It was one of those little-known-widely-known facts that grubby third-graders whipped out on the playground. Thursday I remembered it: I asked a friend “is hair dead?” but this time it was new again, and I was prepared to be stunned. He shrugged. Told me “kind of.” My new room is darker than last year’s. When I pull down the shades it’s kind of hard to see the pillows. They look less lumpy, less fabricated. I place a foot on your lap. The place where your hair should be looks better than ever. Mom told me that when she was pregnant she began to lose hair from the stress. The circle of life is similar to a bald spot or a pregnant belly. Hair is dead kind of and yet it is the easiest trace of life or DNA. The pink sheets on my bed look brown and the floral pillow that forms your head makes no sense. “What’s that, nana?” I ask the foot of my bed. “Your hair looks like a mushroom” he said to you. “You’re just jealous that I have hair.” This is what it means to be a lover, to be loved. To be scrutinized. I wonder if papa piles up his pillows too. In a new room – darker than last year without you. A room you never knew. He told me that he shat the bed last night. He told me that he found a hair of yours in his watchband. It’s hard to make short hair look formal. I forgot to pack a hairbrush, but mom didn’t fuss for once. We all looked like you in that moment as they led us into the room with your casket. I imagined looking in and finding a pile of floral pillows. Papa looked in, lost. They had brushed your hair so straight, so shiny. “That isn’t her,” he said, “that doesn’t look anything like her.” —Bernadette Bridges

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T H E C O N V E R S AT I O N

Minding Progress A conversation with Michele Moody-Adams By Isaiah Bennett A widely-renowned moral and political philosopher, and both the first woman and the first African-American to serve as Dean of Columbia College, Michele Moody-Adams sat down with Isaiah Bennett, CC '20, to talk about education, identity, and progress. [...] BW: I was watching this lecture you gave on theory versus practice in philosophy, it was actually the course-wide lecture that you did for Contemporary Civilization in 2011. You brought up this quote from Wittgenstein: “The philosopher is not a citizen of any community of ideas, and this is what makes him a philosopher.” Whether or not you agree completely with that idea, if you adopt it as some sort of constraint on what it means to be a philosopher I

April 2018

think you have to look at your career at Cornell and Columbia, and say that what you do as an administrator kind of requires you to step out of that perspective as a philosopher. Do you have any thoughts on the different frames of mind you’ve had to cultivate and switch between in those different roles? MMA: Yeah, so part of the challenge for me in answering this question, and it’s a very good one, is that I actually think that Wittgenstein is right about many philosophers, but not about the ones whose work I value the most. The philosophers I have valued the most are people for whom their membership in particular communities actually helps to give rise to the questions they care about. So for political philosophers, it’s the people who in fact get their interest in justice coming out of the injustice they see in their own community. I know the other part of what Wittgenstein wants to say, which is that you have to step outside of the community in order to be objective and distanced and reflect on the norms and practices that shape the way society exists, but I don’t think that stepping outside just to be critical means that you stop being a member of the community. And he’s meaning to be provocative there, to suggest that philosophers often come up with theories that seem so alien to us, and that must be why, but I think the alienness is less that they’ve stopped being members of the community and more that they’ve forced us to challenge the ordinary things which we do every day in our communities, and that can feel alien. I think the best philosophers are very good at that, and in fact they have to step away, but the only reason you can understand them is because they’re speaking to you in terms that mean something from within the community. And it’s funny, as an administrator, I found that it was my experience and the tendencies I had as a philosopher to step away actually made me better able

Illustration by Jennifer Bi

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T H E C O N V E R S AT I O N to understand what administrators did and said and cared about. There’s often the assumption that you become a “them,” and you’re no longer an “us,” And in fact the best, at least academic, administrators, are people who never stop caring about the things that the teachers care about, which is that you want to give your students a great education, you want to disseminate the best research in the best way possible and have it make a real contribution to life outside the university. That’s what the best administrators do. I’m not saying that I was one, I hope! But I actually found that some of my philosophical training actually made me better prepared. Some of the best college presidents and deans and so forth have actually been philosophers—they actually make up a pretty good percentage of the university administrators you find. Not all, but they make up a good percentage. [...] BW: You yourself attended one of the most renowned women’s colleges in the U.S. [Wellesley College]; now you work in an institution which is arguably infamous for only at a very late point in history allowing women to attend the college. You’ve also spoken positively in the past about a right to single-sex education... MMA: [laughs] Wow, you really did your homework! Yes, okay. BW: It seems we look to cultivate a personal or a beneficial educational environment without slipping into stigmatizing segregation, do you think you’re capable defining a boundary there? MMA: What I think is best is a range of educational opportunities for people who’ve had a kind of basis, a ground level, I’ll say, of immersion in education, for the sake of equality. When other kinds of values besides civic values are at stake as part of an education, there I think it’s critical to have other opportunity. I must say, I push back against the idea that elementary schools should ever be single-sex. There are people who believe in them, and I confess, my daughter went to a high school that had single-sex education. I myself would not have wanted her to go to a single-sex elementary school, but I felt that it was good for high school, when it was something

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other than purely civic virtues that I thought were at stake. And it was known that there would be contexts in which, by the age of 12 or 13, the culture didn’t allow young women to think of their education as something that had the right to demand a lot of them intellectually. It seemed to me there’s a whole set of values and virtues that come in that make it very important to have a range of options. I don’t think that we should ever go back to a time when every educational institution, particularly of higher learning, is single sex. I do not think that would be a good thing. But I think that as long as we have a world in which some people cannot presume in some educational context that they will get equal treatment, they may thrive more fully by having access to an educational setting where they’re, in some sense, the centerpiece. They’re the star. No one doubts their right to be there. No one tries to undermine their credibility as students. I’m not saying that I don’t imagine a world in which we don’t need such schools, but I think still, even for for some people of color, particularly African Americans… I did not go to a historically black college, but I understand, even in 2018, there is culturally still enough pressure that makes some educational institutions less friendly than they could be, that there’s still a reason to support such institutions and to hold them out as one option among many. BW: It seems to me like education is something which is at that the nexus between the personal and the public. Do you think this conversation could be applied to things that are more clearly personal and private? In regards to a ‘right to association’ in a society or club like the Boy Scouts of America? I mean, the Boy Scouts of America have in the past been criticized for not allowing gay and transgender members or leaders. MMA: And I think... lately haven’t they allowed some young women to participate in the upper levels, like the Eagle Scouts? That might be incorrect factually [Editor’s Note: the organization decided in 2017 to allow women to join], but it’s certainly been debated. And again, I think these are voluntary associations. Education is, in some sense, less purely voluntary. It is something that’s critical to your capacity to develop into a responsible citizen. I have very mixed feelings about this. I think I know why we need and ought to leave room for, on the grounds of freedom of asso-

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T H E C O N V E R S AT I O N ciation, activities and institutions that celebrate some particular dimension of a person and bring people together on those grounds, but I am uncomfortable with institutions that need to define themselves in opposition to others by demeaning them. I have never been very active on this issue, you know, and so I have never thought very much about it... When the grounds of association are to exclude others on some discriminatory ground, and some ground that discriminates on the basis of considerations that are morally irrelevant, it seems to me that’s very different. You know, it’s one thing to say, “Let’s celebrate girls and let’s celebrate boys,” but it’s another thing to say, “Let’s celebrate them and exclude others from being part of our group, because we think they’re somehow inferior because of who they are.” That to me seems very different.

the question is, who can we demand that you have a duty to hire as a teacher? It seems to me that is a very difficult question. I do wonder about people who are confident that they know what it means to live the tenets of faith out in a life that doesn’t look exactly like theirs. That’s my own belief, but I acknowledge I have a much more liberal understanding of what it is to have religious beliefs. But I think it does become a question that can only be solved on a case-by-case basis, not from on high. Again, if you’re Christian or if you’re Jewish or if you’re Buddhist or whatever, you have a right to say, “We expect you to teach these tenets of our faith,” but what is required for you to be able to do that? That may be something that we can determine only on a case-by-case basis.

BW: I guess this is something that probably we, as the public, are in the middle trying to figure out, but do you think there’s a clear distinction between when you’re doing something because it’s beneficial to the population you’re defining, and when it’s demeaning to the other?

BW: To bring things back to campus a little bit, and this is something that is definitely leaving the theoretical and going back to the practical, and something that you probably dealt with in your time as dean, do you have any thoughts on the value of exclusionary clubs on campus, like Greek life, that’s including fraternities and sororities, but also co-educational ‘literary societies’?

MMA: I don’t know that there’s a general principle that, from on high, allows us to say what an organization has to be willing to allow or who it has to be willing to allow. I do think it probably can only be resolved on a case-by-case basis, and unfortunately there just are some kinds of moral challenges, moral problems, with regard to which a general principle can be a blunt instrument, and one that is unlikely to allow you to appreciate the complexity of that particular context. So I wouldn’t want to make a general claim… I will make a general claim about not excluding people on grounds that are meant to be demeaning, but when the grounds are demeaning may be something you can determine only on a caseby-case basis. I think religious organizations have a right to— you know, whether it’s Christian or Jewish or Islamic or Buddhist or whatever—have a right to expect you to sign onto certain tenets of the faith. That’s exclusionary, right? The question is, does that exclusion, that involves resistance to people based on tenets of the faith— which you might say had to be revealed also in conduct— where does your right to hold onto that commitment run into the possibility of being unacceptably discriminatory? Say you run a school, and

MMA: I always hope that all the activities that any group engages in are activities that are either just about having a good time without hurting anybody or about lifting people up, rather than about having a good time hurting people or damaging and demeaning people. And I think that those two problematic things, having a good time by hurting others or defining yourself by demeaning other people, it’s not just Greek societies that can be guilty of that, any group can. And I’ve known Greek organizations, male and female, where sometimes they do great things for other people. There are some contexts in which Greek societies have been more prone to the bad side, but that’s not true of all of them; and I guess I would want, in fairness, to let people show me their best side. I’ve always felt that. It was more of a problem, the Greek issue, at other schools I’ve taught at. I taught and was an administrator at Indiana University at Bloomington and also Cornell, where there were larger undergraduate populations and more fraternities. And there were good, and there were not so good. And the not so good ones, again, this is true on every campus, the things they do that are not good are not because they are Greek organizations, but because they’ve

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T H E C O N V E R S AT I O N let themselves see what it is to have a good time in the wrong way, or they’ve seen what it is to identify as a group, and they’ve seen it as too much about demeaning other people outside the group. Again, that doesn’t have to be a Greek society. Any kind of student group can be guilty of that, and people who are administrators and teachers and student affairs personnel, they need to be cautious and help and council people to bring the best out of themselves, whatever group they’re in.

because there may be times when people’s security and safety is endangered in unexpected ways by the presence of some voices on campus. But you can’t say in advance. I guess I also want to say, I would sit down with students who want just to provoke, and I would say, “What is the ultimate value, you know, ten years from now, when you look back on what you contributed to your campus and you say, ‘Wow, I provoked people into fighting and beating each other,’ is that really what you would like to remember your four BW: I think it’s funny that years in college for?” Even you talk about the good and if the value of freedom of harm that different societies “What can you say you contribut- speech turns out to be on bring to campus, and I think ed to this campus? If it’s only that their side, as an educator, that broaches on a question I would ask—and I’ve done you made a lot of people mad, is this with students, not only of non-social societies and the good and harm they do that really what you sacrificed as an administrator—“what on campus. I mean really do you want want to look and studied and worked hard recently, there’s— back on, and what do you to get here for? Is that what you want to be proud of when you MMA: Of what sort? leave here? What can you want to leave as your legacy?” say you contributed to this BW: In particular, I was campus? If it’s only that you thinking most of politimade a lot of people mad, cal associations. Columbia University College is that really what you sacrificed and studied and Republicans, the Republican club on campus, has worked hard to get here for? Is that what you want been accused of bringing harm to a portion of stu- to leave as your legacy?” I would ask that. If they say dents in the student body, whereas the club members “yes,” I might then just have to just back off and say, disagree and argue that what they’re doing is part of “Fine, but understand that that’s who we think you discourse, it contributes to an active academic com- are, and that that’s what you were to Columbia.” And munity. ten years from now, I believe students will be sorry that’s what they left. Maybe in the current political MMA: Right, so the free speech questions, Isaiah, climate, where, for everybody, there’s been a general are so complex, I’m not sure I’d want to try to answer coarsening of political discourse … but I can’t believe them now so quickly. I mean, I have written about that with age most people will look back and say, “Oh them in different dimensions and places, and even yeah, I’m really proud of that.” If they are, fine, but having done that, on any given campus, depending on I would hope that nobody I care about would think what things have preceded, say, a particular lecture that’s a legacy to leave to an institution of higher or a speech, there’s always something going on that education. you can’t see unless you’re on the ground, there, on that campus. You know which students are leaders in BW: I mean, I think that some of the students might which groups, and why things come up in a particular respond that what they’ve done on campus isn’t mereway. ly provocative, but that it’s genuinely starting a conBut I would push back always in this one versation. Perhaps it’s harder to defend with matters regard: I always believe that freedom of speech in a of race, but particularly with something like the value non-classroom context is a fundamental value to be of unions in our society. Recently, a very anti-union respected. Is it an absolute value? I actually don’t speaker was invited to campus who was protested a think, on a campus, that we can afford to say that, lot and generated a lot of anger. Yet I think there are

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T H E C O N V E R S AT I O N probably some members of CUCR who would argue that the discussion which they were having in that lecture hall was a legitimate one.

essentially held hostage [laughs]. So I know this. Also having come from an institution that continued for another year after, into 1969 at Cornell, those two years, 1968 and 1969, for a lot of people are critical MMA: I must confess here… I became a little more years. But you know, even then, people needed to removed from the campus day-to-day life than I have understood something that I don’t think they normally am in the last year and a half. And I know understood: if you want sustainable change, if you for a lot of people that was a time when many of these want change that lasts—this is what Gandhi, Martin things came to the floor in a way they hadn’t. And I Luther King, I mean I could give you any number of know that the fallout from that continues even into other people… even Mandela in South Africa would this past academic year, but this Fall I was travel- say—it needs to be change that the people you want to ing… almost every week. So get to change can ultimately I didn’t follow it as much, see themselves signing onto. and I followed it on other need to be able to essen“If what you want is sustainable You campuses, one in particular tially affect reconciliation that happens to be a campus change, it has to be change that with them. And anger can where a person in my famthe beginning of underdoesn’t just shame the other, be ily is residing [laughs]. It’s standing that something is funny, I followed that one that doesn’t just humiliate them, wrong, but if what you want more than I followed it at change, it has and that doesn’t just make them isto sustainable Columbia. be change that doesn’t just feel afraid or angry.” I would like to see, shame the other, that doesn’t with the passage of time and just humiliate them, and that maybe the settling down doesn’t just make them feel politically of some issues, that maybe people could afraid or angry. It has to be change that involves them find some ways to stir debate without making every- in the possibility of political reconciliation. This is body so angry, because anger sheds more heat, I what all the great thinkers—as I said from Gandhi to think, than light. It’s not that people don’t have a right King to Mandela—all the great recent political activto provoke, but if your only means for getting discus- ists have understood. sion going is just provocation—I mean I feel there And this idea of reconciliation, it comes from is socratic about this—that people don’t listen when another pragmatist, in this case Josiah Royce, who they’re angry, and the first sentiments that come talked about a “beloved community”, but it wasn’t to the floor are protective rather than the kind that about love, it was about a moral attitude towards the engage people in dialectic and conversation. And other that is both potentially critical of wrongdoing that is what will the campus forward, what will move and respectful of the possibility of change. I would the country forward too. even add that Hannah Arendt said that one of the most politically productive attitudes in modern life— BW: I think there’s probably a degree to which this this is a woman who basically went through the beginprovocation in the name of discourse thing is some- nings of the Holocaust, it’s not like she’s childish, or thing more of a recent phenomena, but I think it’s pollyannaish in anyway—but she says forgiveness hard to argue that anger in politics, particularly in turns out to be one of the most important political student politics, is something which hasn’t for a very sentiments that you can generate because it—this is long time been part of the campus dynamic. I mean, her language in “The Human Condition”—“releases I don’t know if you’re familiar, but we’re almost at the people from the predicament of irreversibility.” I love 50th anniversary of the famous, or infamous depend- that phrase. She said, ‘you know there are some tradiing on who you are, 1968 protests here at Columbia… tions that have developed the concept of forgiveness more,’ but she thinks its a human value that can make MMA: Oh, of course I know! I sat for two years in political life amendable and open to the possibility of the office that was at the center of some the early reconciliation. protests: the dean’s office. The dean, you know, was My worry is that, even in the '60s, if it’s all

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T H E C O N V E R S AT I O N about shaming or making people angry with no effort to try and open up for reconciliation, the change you create does not last. It may not last even with that [laughs]. But Mandela was one of the great architects of this attitude of reconciliation, it’s a shame that enough people who came after him did not understand the power of that idea in South Africa.

on one another in the… basically genocide in Rwanda, and those that were left had to figure out how they were going to live with each other in the same country. I don’t say that it’s easy, and I don’t say that demanding forgiveness of people is the way to go. But you need to open on a kind of political discourse that enables people—as in Northern Ireland, this was the peace process that Senator Mitchell helped BW: Do you see that difference of opinion as being a create—that you need to open people’s minds to the difference in focus between the ultimate goal of cre- possibility of a way of living that might involve—even ating change through the process of reconciliation, people who have been the former perpetrators and and what some activists would argue is a necessary the former recipients of injustice—potentially in a action in the immediate moment? I think it’s difficult more just world, living together as neighbors. to say that people who felt that what the University Now there are some people, and I’m now saying was doing in 1968—and this very openly, I think even maybe even more recently Hannah Arendt might have in Manhattanville—that the “I think that there is something said this, who are not willing situation of the person who to contemplate that kind of admirable about people who was being victimized by reconciliation. That’s what these actions could be made make it their aim not to get angry World War II was about. better by reconciling themThat’s what the Civil War selves with someone like the at that particular court case and was about. I don’t claim that administration. undermine the rule of law at that every perpetrator of injustice is sufficiently open to MMA: I don’t mean recon- time, but who ask, “what can we the kind of reconciliation ciling to injustice. I never do in the future to make the pro- that I am talking about 30, meant that—and you know 40, 50 years later, or that cedures work better?” Martin Luther King would they are open to do doing never have said that. I mean it in the right way. I think I get this from people who reconstruction in the U.S. believed that Martin Luther King, for instance, could failed. And it was a failure because people who only make non-violence work because in the back- perpetrated injustice did not want this openness to ground there were people waiting for a kind of explo- genuinely moral reconciliation. I mean, I think it’s sive violence… that you needed the presence of the clear, and that’s why you had Jim Crow segregation. threat of violence in order to make non-violence feel But the change that sticks, and the change that allows like the appropriate way of addressing injustice. And people not to go on just killing each other, I think, is I’m still not sure that that isn’t true. That means that the change that opens out onto not just angry “Here’s I don’t believe that every urgent political issue can the injustice. You should be ashamed. Let’s humiliate necessarily be resolved entirely by non-violence. But you.” It opens out onto other possibilities. Does that I think that the change that ends up being sustainable make sense? ends up being that change not that reconciles people to injustice, but that allows the person who’s per- BW: I think that does make sense. And if we’re talkpetrated injustice to see how they might, if they are ing about dealing with injustice through political willing, live in a world in which they are reconciled means, you talked earlier about how you think that with the people against whom they perpetrated the whether what you’re doing is voting or just attendinjustice in the first place. And that’s a very rigorous ing a town hall, or what you’re doing is really visible, demand. I acknowledge that it is. But I think this what more traditional activism, that what you're doing is people like Bishop Tutu were trying to talk when they political. Do you think that there is something to be talked about the idea of forgiveness. said for, or against, a campus community which is In Rwanda you had neighbors who had turned really notable for its vocal activism?

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The Blue and White

T H E C O N V E R S AT I O N MMA: Interesting, so the more ordinary sense of activism? I think there’s a place for it. I mean, I think it’s one of the things that can be more rewarding about teaching about a place like Columbia, knowing that you have a lot of students who care about the world, who care about things like mass incarceration, and even undergraduates who end up getting involved in prison teaching programs. I think that’s wonderful, and I would never say that that kind of activism shouldn’t be given a kind of special place in our conceptual scheme, and that it shouldn’t be distinguished from the activism that I claim is the activism of the ordinary responsible citizen. But the other work that ordinary people do just matter… Let me give you an example, an unexpected one, if there is a court case where we think that the legal procedures are imperfect, they produce an outcome that makes us upset; maybe we think that some act of police brutality should have been handled differently, or we think that the wrong that someone endured should have been recognized by a court. There are lots of ways to react to that, but I think that there is something admirable about people who make it their aim not to get angry at that particular court case and undermine the rule of law at that time,

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but who ask, “what can we do in the future to make the procedures work better? How can we ensure that rules of evidence or ways in which district attorneys work with police etcetera, don’t have to get in the way of justice in this case?” For me that’s another kind of citizen activism that says, “Let’s reform our practices. Let’s reform our institutions. Let’s make the ordinary procedures work better. Let’s hold our legislators to higher standards than we do now. Let’s demand that they care as much about the rule of law as we think is necessary for our society to persist.” So yeah, it’s fun. I want to say that on a campus like Columbia’s, if you’re a student who isn’t active like that you can sometimes feel like people think you don’t matter [laughs]. I’ve had students come and say, “I’m not that kind of person [mimes crying]”. There’s got to be a place for that person too. But you know its a lot of fun seeing… It is, I know, very appealing to a certain kind of high school student that Columbia has this long-standing culture of supporting certain kinds of activism, but there should be room for the student who maybe isn’t an activist. [...]w

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