Ed Mullins always has an angle. And of course he’s on Catsimatidis’ show, picked up by the Post. I should have guessed.
Of course police should investigate all leads but I have a hard time believing a freshmen in college would need to buy weed from local middle schoolers. It’s not hard to find on campus from other college students.
Guess we will see. I hope they take this slow and get it right.
@MYOS1634 114th to 116th is not very far at all. And on both Broadway and Amsterdam, those blocks are full of dorms and businesses, many of which are open very late. All the dorms are staffed at the front 24/7, so plenty of places to seek help if needed. I sure hope my daughter isn’t strolling into Riverside Park at 1am, but I don’t have concerns with her leaving Butler Library and walking to her dorm on 116th/Broadway at that time. She’s within sight of security virtually the entire walk.
It is a time of deep mourning. Vigils, optional finals in some cases, exam accommodations in all cases, 24/7 counseling access illustrate Barnard’s commitment to community support. The women of Barnard are a tight group who know how to support each other. They are young women from all over the US and the world who want to make a difference.
Multiple sources inside the NYPD have refuted the weed story. If proven a fictional CYA for NYPD leadership, I hope her parents successfully sue the pants off the NYPD for defaming their daughter.
I received a text message from our freshman daughter at Barnard last Friday, “I am working hard to make you all proud.” I let her know that she has the option not to take the finals but we had not heard from her for two days and were really concerned. She finally called us tonight. She has decided to take all the finals although she has high A grade in many of her classes. She said Tessa Majors had great ambitions and she would never want her to skip finals. My daughter spent last two days studying in a Columbia library. Most of my daughter’s friends will head home early next week but she will come home next Friday as scheduled. We are so proud of her!
It plays to our instinct of everything having to have an easy-to-point reason. It helps reassure us with the “knowledge” that THAT could “never” have been us/our daughter.
The reality is that MY daughter HAS walked through Morningside Park on the way back from shops or even restaurants in Harlem a bit further east and uptown, so for whatever coincidental reason that the victim was there on that day is truly irrelevant – if not her, it would have been some other girl, and for no other reason than to not take seriously enough the risk of entering ANY park after dark.
Like with anything “anecdotal”, having heard of many other people having done it for months without incident, is always a poor basis to decide on risk taking.
(This is not discounting the argument, that any incident should ALSO give local authorities cause to review trends, or facilities, procedures and policies in place.)
Actually, when I heard that I immediately wondered if the young age might have actually aggrevated the incident. Speaking for myself, I’d be more inclined to dismiss/stand my ground when facing some early teen, thus potentially escalating the situation, where I’d certainly would just go along with whatever demands, if facing an adult aggressor?
Based on the violent crime rates reported by each NYPD precinct, Morningside Heights (the location of Columbia Univ., incl. Barnard College), is in line with the NYC average. While not quite as low as the “Doorman” precincts of the Upper East Side and Upper West Side, but lower than the Midtown or Downtown precincts, which is what all the NYC visitors are familiar with.
However, the area north of Central Park North and east of Morningside Ave indeed has above-average violent crime rates, higher than the sourrounding areas in Harlem / Spanish Harlem.
This is so true.
My D had a big wake up call because of this tragic incident.
She did walk across the Morningside Park after dark a couple of times when she was babysitting on the other side. I told her to take Uber or walk around the park but she would not listen. Now she realized that having the noble ideas of being courageous and not being judgmental are separate issue from being realistic about the world we live in.
Rest in peace, Tessa.
Real life is not the same as we see in today’s movies and tv shows. Females in most cases are unable to karate kick their way out of a violent encounters with males.
I live very close to that area as well! Unfortunately, the neighborhood surrounding the park is very black (I’m black too by the way) – and the sad reality is that our race commits a vast majority of the crime, especially the violent crime.
Anywhere there are a bunch of black people there will almost always be a huge risk of a violent crime – a lot of my people have no regards for the lives of others. If a black person ever robs you, ALWAYS cooperate immediately as they usually will have no qualms about shooting or stabbing you to get what they want.
She probably wasn’t scared because they were 13 year old kids and we grew up in this anti-reality PC world where black people are “just as innocent and sweet” as every other race. Unfortunately, lying about truths in order to protect people’s feelings have major consequences sometimes.
May she rest in peace
@DigitalDad - None of my daughter’s Columbia professors sent emails offering support of any kind to their students, including additional office hours, extensions on assignments, and testing accommodations, while all her Barnard professors did.
I would assume only professors at the college attended by the victim would be involved, not colleges offering cross enrollment
They are adults, and during high school would have learned to “advocate” for themselves - specially after repeated emails from College leaders to do so, which also included links to the accomodations due to this year’s circumstances.
Here the section specifically addressing courses taken at Columbia:
“Columbia faculty have been advised by the Columbia Provost to demonstrate flexibility in accommodating students in need. Please reach out to the professor to discuss the particular accommodation. If further advice or assistance is needed, students should be in touch with their class dean.”
https://barnard.edu/advising/2019-exams
I think once the “policy” was announced to all students, and repeatedly so (I saw, read, but did not file, the various communications from Beilock, Bollock and the the Dean(s)), I can understand that there may not necessarily have been a redundant follow-up email from every party.
@DigitalDad - I’m a Columbia alum, (and a professor who was teaching at NYU during 9/11), and the lack of kindness and concern exhibited by Columbia professors towards their students at this time is typical of the institution as well as inexcusable.
Our students will “soldier on” not because they have l;earned to “advocate for themselves in high school,” but because, unlike us, they have grown up with the reality and regularity of school and mass shootings in the US and are tougher and more resilient than we were at their age. But I know from personal experience, that having a professor simply express sympathy directly to students via email is the decent thing to do, and reminds students that their college is a community, where good and terrible events bring everyone closer together.
No one can argue with your individual, first-hand experience, from when you were a student there 25 (?) years ago.
I can only relate that my daughter is spending half her time in Columbia classes and dining halls, most of her time at Butler, and also working a part-time job at Columbia, and she never expressed any such sentiment. She seems to enjoy working with her professors equally (of course, allowing for different teaching vs. lectures styles of individual profs – but unrelated to the institution.)
So best I can say: your mileage might have varied, or maybe things have improved over the years with new faculty? Or maybe my daughter is just consistently lucky with her choice of courses/professors…
@roycrofmom
The murder took place adjacent to the Columbia campus – not next to the Barnard campus. This had nothing whatsoever to do with the young woman’s status as a Barnard student, and everything to do with her happening to be in a public park that Columbia students are probably more likely to enter or cross than Barnard students. Just based on the overall number of students, there are probably more Columbia students than Barnard students entering that park on any given day; also, some of the Columbia dorms are located adjacent to the park.
So it would be particularly insenstive to assume that Columbia students wouldn’t be traumatized or concerned.
I agree with @worriestoomuch that overall campus culture and faculty/student relationships are quite different between Barnard & Columbia – so that may play into how the professors see their role – but this particular crime has as much an impact on the Columbia community as Barnard. There is nothing about being a Barnard student that made Tessa either more or less vulnerable than Columbia students.
Hello everyone! Current upperclassman here. I wanted to respond to this thread because I know parents of current Barnard freshmen may have concerns and typically undergraduates don’t come back to CC when after college application season ends.
Barnard College cares a lot about students’ health and wellbeing in comparison to Columbia University. You’ve heard from your own probably or from the news, but the whole community came together to process and mourn Tess’s death. I’ve never seen community like this before. The Deans especially worked so hard through every student’s request regarding final examination accomodations and wellness checks. The first night that Barnard and Columbia held an event inside Diana, all of us were crammed into the classrooms listening and processing it together. It is something that you won’t be able to experience at Columbia. Everyone speaks of community on campus tours, in the college applications, but it was the first time I truly experienced how deeply community is ingrained at Barnard and also realized how special Barnard is.
When I say community, it is not just Barnard students supporting each other through this difficult time or the Deans and professors and health/wellness services offering support - but alumnae reached out to students in our facebook groups to offer help as well. A group of alumnae came together to offer accomodations, flights, meals, anything possible to ease the stress, discomfort, and unease some students feel once finals season ends and who have no other means of going home to be with family. Some alumnae even offered tutoring help for final exams for free. That is community and dedication.
I am so grateful to be at Barnard with people who reinforce what community means.
If you look closely at the speech President Bollinger wrote for the Diana event, you realize it’s all a publicity gimmick to show that Columbia cares. Many students that night were disgusted and apalled at Prez Bo’s attempt of empathy. His words were ingenuine and demonstrated how the dangerous attack draws consequences for himself and his family rather than for students. Parents might interpret it differently, but many of my peers were disgusted by his speech. Many students have died on Columbia’s campus in the recent past, and Columbia has never responded so willingly. Community is real at Barnard.
I think freshmen are still getting used to campus and the services Barnard offers. Many haven’t gone to counseling or wellness walk ins, others haven’t utilized the facebook group. Freshmen were most likely in shock. It was interesting to note that the peers immediately began to post in the upperclassmen groups offering community and support, while not one single post about the attack in the '23 page. I am not surprised, because it is only the first semester and how do you even begin to respond? To the parent who said he/she was proud of their daugther who decided to push through finals, while that seems wonderful to hear as a parent, remind her next time to do what is best for her and to allow time to process. The sentiment towards welllness is very different from that shared in high school and within the home (for me at least.) After being at Barnard for so long, the attack made me hit pause to be with community. I was in shock for a day and a half, couldn’t sleep, and ate little. It left a profound impact on all of us. Wellbeing is soooo so important at Barnard and I hope your own realize that soon that it is acceptable to practice mental health and physical wellbeing.
As for the reason why Tess was in the park, most of Barnard students I’ve talked to agree that that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was murdered in Morningside Park. She could’ve been walking in the park. I’m so upset with NYPD for trying to leverage a tragic death as a political tool to attack the current NYC admin and garner support for strengthening drug laws. Even if marijuana was legal or not, this still would’ve happened. I’m also upset with news reporters disrespecting the campus grounds and trying to confront students to interview. The media sensationalizes everything.
Apologize for any mistakes because it’s been a long week for me :))
TLDR: whoever goes to Barnard is in safe hands
A sweet but inaccurate post. The point is, you are not particularly safe in a major urban area with expected crime, and you and other students need to act and look out for yourselves accordingly and even then sometimes terrible tragedies happen. Tess was not the first victim of a violent crime this year or even this month in that park, and in all likelihood, another crime will occur there next month. Victims who were not fellow Barnard students (Or Columbia, or wherever) may not get the publicity, or concern from the admins, but those violent crimes are occurring too.
Can you please confirm that this is factual? Given 30,000+ students in the various undergraduate and post-graduate schools, including later adults in General Studies, I realize that it must seem that every month there is another sad notice of a student having been lost - some to accidents, illness and other causes, some on-campus, but certainly also some off-campus, or even at home/during breaks.
I’m NOT at all trying to challenge your facts if you truly are privileged to those details, or minimize the loss of any person. However, I wouldn’t want your post to be taken/quoted out of context by people less familiar with the facts, in case the “on campus” assertion was merely an assumption, or poorly worded?
I was told by a former Barnard student that at orientation students are advised NOT to walk through Morningside Park after dark. These posts make it obvious that many still do, but the college is certainly trying to warn of the dangers.