2nd Tier Ivy

I've HAD IT with Columbia.

Just because it's nearly located in a ghetto (which it's trying to buy-out, but is complaining because now that Bronxville knows that Columbia is buying everything and gentrifying the area they are holding out for higher prices) doesn't mean that it has to BE ghetto.

Yesterday, the student lounge at the law school (the ONLY quiet study lounge, which I like a lot) was off limits because they had to clean it. Couldn't they clean it off-hours or, I don't know, NOT in the middle of the day during reading week? On the other hand, I actually had to wipe-down my carrel in the library, yesterday, with a wet paper towel because all the dust was making me sneeze.

Today the lounge was AGAIN closed because there was a special event that was using it...I mean that lounge usually holds like 30 students, and today the entire floor outside it (which easily hosts another 60 students when its full) was also closed for the conference.

FINE.

I went to the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) library, which I like even though it feels VERY cold war (like you can sort of imagine really important scholars sitting around in the late 70s and early 80s talking about things, there), but the private study room I went to (it's like a phone booth with a chair) didn't have a functioning light. How hard is that to change with a support crew like Columbia's which may very well have more than 100 people working for it?

I then decided to just sit at one of the long shared-tables and was horrified to see that there is only one outlet -- ONE -- on the entire lower floor. Keep in mind there are probably 50 seats, maybe more. Combining ALL the carrels and tables and lounge area there is ONE outlet. It's just disgusting.

Anyway, THIS is the meaning of a second tier ivy. It's a school that had all the history and Nobel prize winners and founding fathers as the top tier ivys but was too lazy to get its act together to create the best environment meriting the most generous donations from alums. I'm not saying other universities don't have problems, but there is a weird complacency that comes with being solidly second tier, but still ivy, that I feel is unique to Columbia and probably a few other places. I walk along college walk, or down the stairs in SIPA or the law school, and it feels like the place is decaying at a rate faster than it's being maintained (let alone improved) and that's a really disheartening thing.

On a more positive note, I quickly organized my CDs and DVDs (still have a LONG way to go in terms of labeling, though) and came across the backup CD from my interim computer I was using at the end of my time in Cairo that I then sold to Glam. This CD is really important because it has ALL my India photos, all my Israel/Palestine photos, my text messages and phone photos, AND a lot of academic work, including the humanitarian law in Iraq paper that I wrote and was desperately looking for (and now found one day too late for the summer job aps I sent out yesterday).

VC