<p>Isn’t anybody else here sick and tired of these stupid arguments? Some people are always going to think that Barnard is a part of Columbia “proper”, and some people will always disagree. What the hell is “Columbia” anyways? If you think about it, it’s a mosaic of different schools that are integrated to highly varying degrees. The College of P&S is so far uptown and wasn’t even a part of Columbia for quite a long period in the University’s history. How many Columbia College students know very much about, or have good friends in Teacher’s College, School of Social Work, SIPA, Journalism, Art School, Mailman School of Public Health? etc. etc. etc. There are many other ways in which I could probably argue that “Columbia” is a huge network of schools rather than a singular and perfectly integrated whole. If students that have virtually no interaction (or minimal interaction) with other Columbia students can still be considered part of Columbia, then why can’t Barnard students that have far more interaction with us?</p>
<p>Anyways, Columbia benefits from having a large, college-aged, female student body right across the street. If they want some of Columbia’s prestige to rub off on them, who really cares enough to argue that they have no right? I personally think it’s a little sad for Barnard girls to say that they go to Columbia, but I can see how it’s somewhat true if there’s an overlap in educational resources between Columbia and Barnard, and Barnard girls are making use of those opportunities. Barnard is a great school as well, and I dislike how some Barnard students and Columbia students generally take their fortunes for granted.</p>
<p>At this point in time, I can see how Barnard and Columbia both benefit more from keeping the status quo rather than forcing a merger or forcing a complete separation of resources and access. One imperfect analogy I like to think of when it comes to this is Taiwan and China.</p>