Want to Experience Fascism First-Hand? Attend Columbia University
I'm horrified by the actions of Columbia and its affiliates, like my alma mater Barnard College, against students protesting Israel's genocide.
It’s been 25 years since I was a freshman at Barnard College, such a long time ago that much has changed both at Columbia University and in the world – enough perhaps to warrant a look back at the women’s college that advertises itself as “bold,” “fearless,” and the sort of place where empowered young women can “generate new ideas and communicate them in a way that can change how people understand the world.” With Columbia’s innovations of censorship and authoritarianism coming at such breakneck speed, how will prospective students ever be able to keep track of them while deciding where to begin their college experience? It’s springtime, and your son or daughter is receiving envelopes and emails from admissions offices. Will they get into Columbia or its affiliate, Barnard? Should they go? As an alumna, I’m here to help.
Lessons in Getting Arrested, Suspended, and Evicted
As an anxious 18-year-old away from home for the first time, I remember being slightly alarmed by a friendly orientation session on basic self-defense tips, after which we were gifted a rape whistle. But I needn’t have been alarmed; that was the extent of the threats and dangers presented to us. In my time, Columbia University didn’t call the NYPD on its students, inviting them to fly police drones as they did over Hamilton Hall nearly a year ago when students protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza took over the building, renaming it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed along with her family in their car that the Israeli military shot at over 300 times. Dressed in riot gear, the police used stun guns against the students, arrested 100 of them, and tore down the encampments. Columbia has such a good relationship with the NYPD now that they keep calling them back to campus! Ever wanted to know how you might fare in jail? How many Ivy Leagues give you the chance to find out?