Act local

Last week, Barnard’s Student Government Association held a town hall meeting discussing more efficient ways of using the Diana Center. This meeting was compelling, because I use the Diana Center on a daily basis and genuinely appreciate SGA's effort to reach out to hear opinions from students. Unfortunately, I did not attend the discussion because I had to fulfill other responsibilities that night. Equally unfortunately, only four students attended the event, resulting in a perfect 1:1 ratio with the four administrators SGA had invited.

I was surprised, disappointed, and embarrassed by the fact that even the Diana Center, a prominent building that is very relevant to every Barnard student’s campus life, failed to attract a crowd. I also felt sorry for the news writer who had to cover this event with such a low turnout and yet still had to make the story sound good. Students’ low participation in policy-shaping campus events—such as town hall meetings, talks with the administrators, and panels on improving the community—is as widespread at Columbia as the plague.

A few weeks ago, for example, Barnard students held a protest against Barnard’s new tuition policy and the fact that the administration failed to respond to students’ voices on multiple occasions. This protest, which relates to students in a very practical and financial way, had such a low turnout that it reportedly became more of an information session for passers-by than an actual demonstration. On the other side of the street, the attendance at Columbia College Student Council and Spectator’s co-sponsored Q&A session with the newly appointed Dean Valentini and the General Studies Student Council town hall meeting on housing and financial aid, were also not well-attended.

Ironically, the students whom I’ve befriended on this campus are generally vocal, concerned, and thoughtful individuals. But our student population fails miserably when it comes to campus issues. We’re vocal in making complaints to our friends, but not to those who make the rules. A friend echoed this sentiment when he remarked that people at Columbia go to Occupy Wall Street but not to their own town halls. Similarly, voter turnout for national elections, albeit low, is higher than in local elections, even though the results of the local elections actually have more effects on everyone’s day-to-day life. Such a counter-intuitive phenomenon may be explained by the fact that local events do not have the same appeal as larger, more exciting events like Occupy Wall Street.

The greatest advantage of attending a school in New York City has also become its greatest disadvantage in cultivating concern for Columbia. The world outside the gates offers so many and such varied opportunities that it becomes extremely difficult­—and unappealing—to pay attention to our relatively small, unexciting campus. This is a topic of much discussion, as Columbia students often bemoan the lack of community on campus. But when opportunities arise to address this issue and form a larger coalition, students are nowhere to be found.

As the next generation of educated elites, we must take it upon ourselves to be active, and real activism should start on the local level. I have no immediate solutions to the problem of community (or the lack thereof), but I would like to urge my fellow classmates to pause and take a moment to look at the campus around us. I promise, you will find something that concerns, interests, and calls you.

The author is a Barnard College sophomore majoring in East Asian studies. She is a page design associate for Spectator.