SENIOR PROFILE: Brett Murphy

If there was a protest on campus in the last four years, Brett Murphy, BC '07, was probably involved.

Murphy began by working at the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response office, producing the Vagina Monologues for two years. She got involved with the Student Coalition on Expansion and Gentrification when the Manhattanville expansion was announced her freshman year. The student teacher was also deeply involved in the push to improve the state of ethnic studies at Columbia.

It's enough to make her students say, "Ms. Murphy is OD-ing."

But when it comes to social justice, the urban studies and education major just can't get enough.

While Murphy expressed pride regarding the changes she and others have helped to enact-including the creation of the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the hiring of a new LGBT adviser. She knows there's plenty still left to do, though.

"The only way that change ever gets made is from student pressure ... moving us toward the kind of institution that Columbia should be," she said.

Murphy emphasized the intersectionality among issues.

"I am a white, queer woman. If I am advocating for feminism, I must advocate for anti-racism. There are people of color who are queer," she explained. "You can't look at issues in a vacuum."

The Sacramento, Calif., native was turned off when she first came to Barnard and found herself on a floor with affluent girls.

"They were not from where I came from," she said. "I was very confused. ... I was like, 'Should I transfer?'"

Murphy gradually became more involved, finding friends who supported and challenged her values, leading to her interest in activism and teaching, which she said she is committed to continuing. She taught social studies in a public middle school this semester and will continue to do so in the fall.

The apathy on campus can be frustrating, she said.

"For you to pretend like class and race don't affect you is ridiculous. ... We're all racialized in certain ways, and that's something that our Columbia University education needs to teach us," she said.

It's not activism all the time, though. Murphy spent her Friday nights after America Reads tutoring at Soundz Lounge.

Her seventh graders may sum up her time here best when they observe, "Ms. Murphy is bringing her attitude."

-Sadia Latifi