<p>I just thought I’d share this report of a study done by a Barnard urban studies class. They dropped wallets all over Manhattan to see what would happen – where the wallets would be returned, where they would disappear. </p>
<p>I read about the experiment on the NYMag website. I've said it before and I'll say it again...I think New Yorkers get a bad rep from people in other parts of the country. Also, I found it interesting that the people in the Upper East Side kept the wallet (of all places...). I wonder how frustrated they were when they found out the contents of the wallet?</p>
<p>I want to be an Urban Studies major at Barnard. I wonder if they do cool experiments like this every year?</p>
<p>Probably. There are some pretty cool classes at Barnard. Urban studies could be a cool major, too. </p>
<p>I also thought it said a lot about myths and stereotypes with the way the Upper East Siders not only kept the wallets, but swept them up immediately without even looking around for an owner. Meanwhile the people in Harlem were doing team tag running up the street to return the wallet to the rightful owner. :D</p>
<p>Prof. Greg Smithsimon (the guy who teaches the Consumption and Control of Public Space class that carried out the experiment) is a great professor. He's a fast talker, but he's got some interesting theories in that brain of his. If any of you Barnard women ever have the opportunity to take one of his classes (especially like that one in seminar style), I would definitely recommend him. If you're an Urban Studies major, i will probably be hard to get through the requirements without taking one of his courses.</p>
<p>In our Race, Ethnicity and Immigration class he had us stand in various places in the city and write down the ethnicity of people that walked by in a certain time frame. It was not only an experiement on what kinds of people use what urban spaces at what times, but the kind of looks you got while standing there taught us alot about the unspoken rules of city life (like the fact that you shouldn't stand on a street corner counting people...)</p>
<p>As a first-year at Barnard in the 80s when NYC was still pretty rough, I left my wallet on the subway. Not only did it have absolutely everything in it, but it also had a signed blank check atop my entire checkbook. I was distraught for a few days, felt guilty and stupid, and down on humanity, but then got a notice in my mailbox that postage was due on a package in the mailroom. It turned out to be my wallet with everything perfectly intact, which someone had dropped into a mailbox. It restored my faith in people and gave me a great story I like to tell.</p>
<p>Oh, wow, this makes me want to go to NYC, attend Barnard, and take that Urban Studies class. </p>
<p>Anyone wonder whether this investigation was biased, though? All the people dropping the wallets were women, weren't they? Considering Barnard has only female students.. it is possible that people are just more likely to return wallets to women.
Hah, I just threw a confounding variable into THAT study ;-)</p>
<p>Barnard has male students in most of its classes. The only classes restricted to females are the first year studies seminars, which are both mandatory for and limited to Barnard students. There is open and unrestricted enrollment between most Barnard & Columbia classes (as far as which school the student is enrolled in).</p>
<p>Urban Studies is a joint department with Columbia, but housed at Barnard. In other words, any student at Columbia who is interested in taking an Urban Studies course or who wants to minor or major in Urban Studies would take the courses at Barnard.</p>