<p>Does anyone know of the current issues facing students and faculty on campus?</p>
<p>here are a few..</p>
<p>-FINALS
-"flash access" to columbia dorms
-upcoming possible mta strike
-revisions to the university-wide sexual assault policy
-buying tickets for the first-year winter wonderland dance in january</p>
<p>apparently there havent been as many scandals this year as there have been previously</p>
<p>hmm interesting question to ask skylar22.. what issues were you regarding?</p>
<p>oh and scarfmadness what scandals??</p>
<p>I guess I ask because I've visited the school three times, but on each of my visits I mostly heard about the stuff you can read in admissions books or on the website. I guess I really want the inside scoop- the traditions, the drama...i dunno if there's really an answer to my question...</p>
<p>most notably last year within the mealac department there were accusations that professors were anti-semitic and took it out on their students, it was pretty huge. columbia has a long history of its students responding to scandals (the 1968 riots, etc).</p>
<p>Some people aren't happy about the change in Latin Honors standards. I think it's good that they're more strict about it- limiting summa to top 5%, magna to next 10%, cum laude to next 20%.</p>
<p>Were there really cases of anti-semitism and if so could you be specific (or was it a rumor)? Because that one thing alone would make me not apply to Barnard, but I find it hard to believe that the Barnard atmosphere/professors could be that way inclined.</p>
<p>lovecollege - you might want to read this.
<a href="http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/03/31/424bcd5f26faa%5B/url%5D">http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/03/31/424bcd5f26faa</a></p>
<p>Apparently though it has gotten alot better because of the major backlash that occured - there were rallys and even a movie made about it.</p>
<p>And Barnard just won $100,000 from the Ford foundation to "develop a faculty seminar and new curricular material for first-year students and for seniors, all focused on the intersection of religion and the academy."</p>
<p>With particular focus on "Difficult Dialogs" (the name of the initiative providing the funding).</p>
<p>whether there were actual cases of anti-semitism has been debated, and since i wasnt a student involved nor was i even a student here at the time i cant say. but basically some students in the middle eastern/asian department accused some professors of it, they made a video about it and got really angry.. they exposed a faulty grievance system (they showed that it was hard for students to give honest input about their professors) but all anyone ever concluded was that the professors accused may have been a bit gruffer than most. read the archived spectator articles and you'll see.
none of the accusations, i believe, were against barnard professors, and most of them have gone on sabbatical now anyway.
barnard/columbia has a huge and extremely active jewish population, dont let one case stop you from even applying. you (and the entire columbia community) just need to be open minded is all.</p>
<p>Thanks for the article cool2bars; I had no idea this tension was going on at Columbia/Barnard. I'll definitely be reading more about it as I think about applying.</p>
<p>Glad to inform, but please don't be turned off by that when applying - I am very pro-Israel and I am applying, Barnard/Columbia has a very active jewish population (overrepresented) and many pro-Israel groups. Unfortunately anti-semitism is something you will encounter on virtually every single campus. You just need to find your own support group and your niche.</p>
<p>Thanks cool2bars. I'm not involved in the Israel situation, but I am part-Jewish, which I feel very strongly about. So the Israel thing wouldn't bother me as much as outright anti-semitic remarks. I haven't come across anti-semitism at all (yet) but I do know that New York City has one of the highest rates of it in America (in terms of anti-semitic groups, hate crimes etc.). At the same time, NYC and Barnard are two of my favorite places! So I'm sure I would still apply there. I think I'm just surprised that there could be anti-semitic professors at Barnard/Columbia.</p>
<p>Well, NYC also has one of the highest concentrations of Jews in the country (second only to LA I think), which just shows how large and diverse the city is. If you're suprised by hearing this, I would research more carefully scandals associated with colleges. As a whole, palestinian and anti-semitic groups have much more power and say on campus than Jewish groups. Just one example is the problems at UC Irvine. Anyway I don't wish to deter you from applying anywhere, I'm just urging you to research your colleges closely, not just from the college website itself, but my googling the college (i love the verb form of google!)</p>
<p>i thought new york had one of the highest concentrations of jews in the world, not just the country.
if there are any pro-palestine groups here, they havent been very active this semester at least. columbia/barnard is extremely, extremely liberal, but generally people are tolerant of everything - which is why there was such backlash when people perceived certain professors as being intolerant. while you need to be comfortable on your college campus, not applying to a school just because of something like this seems like running away from something you should be confronting. and keep in mind barnard has dual degree programs with the jewish theological seminary. it's not exactly like this place is anti-semitic whatsoever.</p>
<p>Well, Israel (about 1/2 the size of NJ) has about 40% of the world's jews, while New York State, has about 14% of the world's jews.
City wise, New York has about 1,750,000 Jews, Jerusalem has about 512,000 Jews, Miami has about 500,000 Jews, and LA has about 435,000.
So New York City has the most amount of Jews in the world, but partly because of its size as compared to Israel.<br>
Anyway I'm sure you couldn't care less about that, but I was just interested, so I shared.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, 35% of the worlds Jews live in the country of Israel, and 40% of the world's Jews live in The United States, which happens to be 1100 times the size of Israel. Yes, I mean 1100.</p>
<p>lovecollege- do NOT worry about this situation. I'm not kidding when I say that the campus Hillel is practically the most happening spot around. The Jewish population is large, present, and very nice :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the info (and nice msg, barnardgirl)! You know, I have visited so many times, I have older friends that went there, I've lived in NYC...and nothing but positive things have come from all of these things. So I know the world isn't perfect, obvi, but I feel that Barnard is full of strong, fun, intelligent women. This minor scandal would not stop me from applying. When I first saw it mentioned I got freaked out, like there were anti-semitic professors everywhere that I had somehow missed seeing. But every school has scandal (uh, Lehigh anyone?!), that's inevitable. So barnard is still my number one. Let's hope they feel the same way about moi, haha.</p>
<p>best of luck!!</p>