The Blue and White remembers a Conversation from 2011 with Dean Awn In 2011, The Blue and White published a conversation with Peter J. Awn, who for 20 years was the Dean Emeritus of the School of General Studies. He also taught Islamic and Comparative Religion at Columbia University. On Sunday, February 17th, Dean Awn…
Those arrested in the college admissions bribery scandal were not alleged to have tried to get their kids into Columbia University. However, The Key Worldwide, the consulting company at the center of the elite admissions crisis, bragged about getting applicants into Columbia. Specifically, in an archived version of the site, the company reportedly got students…
On March 7th, The Eye magazine, published “Access Denied: Columbia Clubs and Their Struggle for Inclusivity” which reported on the difficulties students face getting into extracurriculars at Columbia University. The topic was touched on in the first issue of the XXIV volume, in an article titled “CCSC Targets Exclusive Student Groups.” David A. Lee, who…
Katie Kitamura discusses writing where the typical becomes atypical By Kate Iida As part of the Creativing Writing Lecture series, Katie Kitamura, author of the New York Times Notable Book, A Separation, spoke at Columbia on the night of February 20th. As the topic of her lecture, she explored the idea of a “zone” in…
How one graduate student’s experience in the Middle East informs their scholarship By Matthew Petti “I’ve been jumping around for twenty years. I don’t think I’ve lived in the same place for more than two years at a time since college,” Andrew Slater laughs. Over Italian coffee at V & T, he tells me about…
Students are reviving a late 80s protest in honor of Women’s History Month By Nicole Kohut Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Cicero, Vergil. These eight names are plastered on the front facade of Butler Library–arguably the most iconic landmark on Columbia’s campus. Nine other names wrap around the west and east sides of the…
Broken for Love I saw the Taj Mahal before it saw the Sun and noticed, in the fragile light of dawn, that it was crying. “Why, O Taj, do you cry,” I asked. But the Taj did not answer, for it is made of stone. Rather than ask again, I closed my eyes and listened.…
A conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen By Sam Needleman Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose debut novel, The Sympathizer, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2016, will deliver the Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture at the Italian Academy in April. The lecture’s title, “Out of Place: Refugees, Immigrants, and Storytelling,” alludes to major themes in Dr.…
“I would say my music falls into the singer-songwriter genre,” Michelle Shen began, sitting across from me in the dimly lit back room of Max Café, sipping on an iced chai latte. “…That genre is defined by presenting a certain narrative in a very honest way through rawness and simplicity, and I feel like that’s…
You may have spotted their space meme flyers around campus. But you may not know that in Columbia Space Initiative’s new podcast “This is Rocket Science,” these two first-year engineers guide their audiences on a journey through the cosmos from a DIY studio in their John Jay floor lounge. Henry Manelski, SEAS ‘22, pitched the…
Professors discuss amending the 13th Amendment to remove a troublesome clause By Annie Zavitz Amend the 13th: “A Conversation about Ending Legalized Slavery in the United States and Abolishing the Prison System As We Know It” took place on Friday, Feb. 22, 2019 and was organized by Citizens Against Recidivism, Inc. and Columbia University Staff.…