Vol. CXXXV—No. 54
Thursday, April 14, 2011
columbiaspectator.com
CU Charge to lead student council
STRONG SUPPORT
CCSC races report high turnout; USenate, ESC results released BY MELANIE BRODER, SAMMY ROTH, AND SONALEE RAU Columbia Daily Spectator
ZARA CASTANY / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
TAKING STEPS | Columbia students who have experienced sexual assault say that friends have been important in moving forward.
‘Inside Job’ sparks three reviews of disclosure policies BY SHIRA POLIAK AND SAMMY ROTH Columbia Daily Spectator In 2006, the Iceland Chamber of Commerce paid Columbia Business School professor Frederic Mishkin $134,858 to coConflict of author a report Interest on Iceland’s economy and second banking sys- Thisinisa the three-part tems. In the series about the University’s report, titled disclosure policies. “Financial Stability in Iceland,” Mishkin painted a bright picture of the country’s economic future, but he did not disclose who was paying him to write it. “Although Iceland’s economy does have imbalances that will eventually be reversed, financial fragility is not high and the likelihood of a financial meltdown is very low,” Mishkin wrote. Two years later, Iceland’s economy collapsed. Its major banks failed, its currency lost much of its value, and thousands of its citizens lost their jobs. The New York Times wrote at the time that, to Icelanders, “the collapse came so fast it seemed unreal, impossible.”
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Mishkin was confronted about his report in the documentary “Inside Job,” which explores the roots of the global economic crisis and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in February. The movie also featured an interview with Business School Dean R. Glenn Hubbard—a one-time top economic adviser to former President George W. Bush—who is paid $250,000 per year to sit on the board of insurance giant Metropolitan Life. Mishkin, who declined to be interviewed for this story, has said that many of the factors that caused Iceland’s economy to collapse had not yet emerged when he wrote the study. But that has not stopped “Inside Job” director Charles Ferguson and others from alleging that Mishkin, Hubbard, and other leading economists’ paid consulting work frequently influences their scholarly work. Columbia professors and administrators say that “Inside Job” has brought the issue of conflict of interest to the public’s attention in a powerful way. The film has prompted Columbia to reevaluate its policies and consider whether professors should be required to disclose all paid outside consulting jobs to the University.
“The ability of the movie— whether rightly or wrongly, fairly or unfairly—to tie the crisis to the advice of economists that might not have been accompanied by appropriate disclosure has certainly brought the issue to the floor,” economics department chair Michael Riordan said. ‘a serious shortcoming’ Columbia’s current conflict of interest policy requires researchers to report to the University any financial interests that relate to their research before that research gets underway. That way, potential conflicts can be reviewed and resolved, Columbia spokesperson Robert Hornsby said. The policy also requires researchers to disclose relevant financial interests in all publications, presentations, or other reports of their research. But the current policy, which was implemented in 2009, does not require faculty members to disclose consulting work or other activities, such as positions on corporate boards, to the University. Columbia University Medical Center professor Samuel Silverstein, a University senator and longtime advocate for greater faculty disclosure,
called the policy’s lack of such a requirement “a serious shortcoming,” saying that transparency is key. “Without such disclosure, the University has no way to determine … whether faculty have been truthful in reporting financial conflicts in their University research, or in work they do in their consulting practices,” Silverstein said in an email. The University is currently conducting three reviews of its conflict of interest policies: one by senior administrators, one by the University Senate, and one by the Business School. Ferguson will talk to the University Senate tomorrow after a private senate screening of his film. The debate on campus has centered on whether professors should be required to disclose outside consulting work to University administrators. University President Lee Bollinger said in a recent interview that faculty members should be required to disclose their consulting work to the deans of their schools. “I also believe that everyone should have to disclose their outside activities to their respective
SEE POLICY, page 2
Core Scholars competition to name winners next week BY SONALEE RAU Spectator Senior Staff Writer
The contest—which seeks reflections on Columbia’s Core Curriculum for a cash prize of $200—closed last month, and winners will be announced next week. The competition is intended to “encourage a conversation
Student council election results were released on Wednesday night, ending several crowded races—including one with historically high voter turnout rates. The CU Charge party, led by president-elect Aki Terasaki, CC ’12, will take over as the Columbia College Student Council Executive Board, beating out two other parties, and incumbent Alex Frouman, CC ’12, and Eduardo Santana, CC ’13, were elected to the University Senate. In the CCSC races, 45 percent of students voted— the largest turnout in years, marking an 18-20 percent increase in participation. The Engineering Student Council—which announced its new executive board headed by Nate Levick, SEAS ’12, last month—also released results for its class councils Wednesday evening. columbia college student council “Shocked? Can we go with that?” Terasaki said after he heard the news Wednesday evening that he would be the new CCSC president. “I always knew our team had the potential to win, and I think the other teams did too.” He described the other parties, Unite CU and Better Columbia, as “really, really strong competitors.” Elections Board Chair Alex Rosen, CC ’12, said that the number of voters was “the highest we’ve seen since I’ve been here.” They received between 18 and 20 percent more votes than last year. “A big part was there was a lot of competition,” Rosen said. With three executive board parties, six senate candidates, and four 2013 parties, “there was a lot of excitement,” he said, adding that there was aggressive advertising this year. The race was closest between CU Charge and Better Columbia, led by Barry Weinberg, CC ’12. Since there were three parties running, the winner was decided not simply by who got the most votes, but a combination of the number of votes and how students ranked their preferences. This ranking system was used
for all other council positions as well. “In the first round, they were fairly close,” Rosen said of the executive board numbers, but “in the second round, it broke towards CU Charge.” The party that came in third place, Unite CU, headed by current Vice President of Policy Andrew Nguyen, CC ’12, entered the voting period this week after losing its VP of policy candidate Elizabeth Kipp-Giusti, CC ’12, who stepped down for personal reasons on Sunday. The party ran with a four-person ticket. Terasaki, discussing his priorities, said he planned to implement an online portal system where students can access all Columbia-related sites, such as Courseworks, SSOL, and Cubmail. “First thing we’re going to do is get in the office of CUIT and make sure they understand students’ priorities,” he said. Another thing he stressed was giving more funding to student groups. “We really believe that’s where the strongest bonds of community are formed,” he said. “Giving student groups the ability to put on the events that they want to do, and bring out people who are interested in attending those events, is one of the most important things we can do as a student council.” The ticket hopes to increase outreach to students, said newly-elected Vice President of Campus Life Jasmine Senior, CC ’12. “The free food will still be there, but expect more.” Both CU Charge candidates and Elections Board members say one of the highlights of this elections season was Sunday night’s debates. “It was a very candid conversation and I think it brought out a lot of differences in our parties’ ideologies,” Terasaki said. The members of CU Charge said they will pay attention to the issues raised by the other parties and their supporters. “We’ll still be their liaison to the administration to get things done that they want,” Jasmine said. “We still care about them, we want to see their issues resolved as well.” university senate In the University Senate elections, students elected incumbent senator Alex Frouman, CC ’12, and Eduardo Santana, CC ’13,
SEE ELECTIONS, page 2
CORE STRENGTH | Students meet with Core Scholars program creator Christia Mercer to discuss judging for the competition.
between different disciplines,” said Literature Humanities Chair Christia Mercer, who pioneered the program. Participants from CC, SEAS, and GS were eligible to submit works of music, art, theater, dance, film, poetry, or fiction linking different Core disciplines to be judged by an allstudent committee. “We’ve seen ... some unexpected pieces. Some stuff that we really just found beautiful,” Student Committee Chair Joey Shemuel, CC ’11 and former Spectator deputy photo editor, said. “To get students engaging with the Core outside of class is important.” Columbia College Dean Michele Moody-Adams and Dean of Academic Affairs Kathryn Yatrakis supported the project, and professor Roosevelt Montas helped organize the program, Mercer said. “The program is designed in part to encourage discussion— maybe even debates—among students, and since students are involved in judging the entries, I am sure that there been an
on-going and robust exchange of ideas, opinions and visions about the Core,” Yatrakis wrote in an email. “I hope that it becomes an important and creative part of students’ academic experience here at Columbia.” Mercer said that students who were deemed “representative of their departments” by department heads and professors in fields including music, art, and film were selected and referred to her for the committee that selects winners. Shemuel said that receiving entries was slow going, but that submissions eventually picked up. “It’s the first year, we weren’t really sure. At the beginning we were a little bit apprehensive,” he said. Though winners have been decided, they will not be announced publicly until next week, Mercer said. “I can tell you there’s this really interesting take on Jackson Pollack with a feminist twist ... but again, I don’t want to say too much,” Shemuel said. sonalee.rau @columbiaspectator.com
A&E, PAGE 3
OPINION, PAGE 4
SPORTS, PAGE 8
EVENTS
WEATHER
Barnard hosts 18th annual WBAR-B-Q
Dirt-poor graduates
Sophomore sensation
A Decade of Debt
Today
Hosted by WBAR Barnard College Radio, the festival brings the indie rock of Real Estate, the psychedelic beats of The Crystal Ark, and the sounds of other bands to campus.
Don’t let them see you sweat
Sophomore Nicole Bartnik has shone in her second year as the Lions’ No. 1 women’s tennis player.
The Program in Economic Policy Management presents a talk with Carmen M. Reinhart on public debts. Shapiro Hall, Davis Auditorium, Room 412
Around 100 undergraduate students submitted entries across disciplines and media in Columbia’s first Core Scholars competition.
ZARA CASTANY / SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Being young and unemployed may lead us to make desperate decisions.
Setting unrealistic standards of perfection can be detrimental to us.
REMEMBERING CHILDHOOD
KATE SCARBROUGH / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
READING IN | President Barack Obama’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, read from her new children’s book on Tuesday.
Tomorrow
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NEWS
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APRIL 14, 2011
Other business schools require more consulting disclosure POLICY from front page deans, and the deans should be able to monitor what’s appropriate and consistent with the University relationship with the faculty,” Bollinger said. Steele, who is overseeing the administration’s conflict of interest policy review, agreed that professors should disclose consulting work to the University, but only if that work creates the appearance of a conflict of interest in one’s research. “I suppose that if you have a consulting relationship that in some way establishes a conflict of interest with your research, then that should be disclosed,” he said. Ferguson, though, called for a more extreme solution. “Require public disclosure of people’s consulting activities, including in their publications, on their websites, when they write books, etc.,” he told Spectator. “The second step, which is something that a number of medical schools have done, is to limit outside income that directly presents a conflict of interest.” Silverstein said that the medical school will probably start publicly reporting its faculty’s consulting arrangements and other commercial ties in the near future, although it will not report the dollar amounts of those arrangements. But full public disclosure is not likely to gain much traction in the debate over a Universitywide policy. Steele said that it is not necessary to publicly release disclosures made privately to University officials. “I don’t think that the public needs to have access to forms that people fill out and all the materials that go into that,” Steele said. “That would be onerous at least, and there might be other objections … that you are invading people’s sense of privacy and freedom.” Silverstein agreed. “For universities to unilaterally disclose would be a huge disadvantage for professors to disclose honestly,” he said. But some, including Business School professor and University Senator Frank Lichtenberg, oppose the disclosure of consulting to the University. Lichtenberg said that many factors besides money can influence professors’ academic opinions. “There are lots of other sources of bias and non-neutrality in academia anyway,” Lichtenberg said. “People often have predispositions for or against different hypotheses, and unfortunately, those sometimes prevail.” Some professors question whether paid consulting positions influence researchers at all. Business School professor Bruce Greenwald said that the economists featured in “Inside Job” have “long espoused and long promoted” pro-market
ideas and would have made the same arguments regardless of financial ties. “Public groups who use economic professors for public policy purposes are careful to select the ones whose views coincide with their ... preferred positions,” he wrote in an email. Riordan, though, said there is a general consensus within the economics profession that researchers should disclose their funding sources. “The funding source of research is an attribute of the research,” he said. “In order to evaluate the objectivity of the ideas, it’s important to know how the research that produced the ideas is being supported.” a failed effort When the University Senate was debating a new conflict of interest policy in 2009, two senators—Silverstein and biology professor Robert Pollack, CC ’61 and former Dean of Columbia College—proposed an amendment that would have required faculty to report income from outside consulting work. The requirement would have applied to “all income from all sources by all members of the University, in excess of $10,000 or 1/5 of annual University income, whichever is larger.” But some senators staunchly opposed the 2009 PollackSilverstein amendment, and it ultimately did not pass. During a debate on the amendment, senator and industrial engineering professor Soulaymane Kachani read aloud a letter from Business School Senior Vice Dean Christopher Mayer, in which, according to senate minutes, Mayer wrote that the amendment would create “an onerous and invasive reporting structure.” He also expressed concern that the amendment would make Columbia’s policy stricter than those in place at other major universities, writing that he know of “no policies of nearly this scope of reporting at any of our peer institutions.” He argued that implementing the amendment could drive faculty away from Columbia. “Should this proposal be put into place, it would likely cause Columbia to lose some of our most productive and valuable faculty,” Mayer wrote. Mayer, who was pegged by Hubbard to lead the Business School’s conflict of interest policy review, declined to be interviewed for this story, as did Kachani and Hubbard. University Senator Liya Yu, GSAS and co-chair of the External Relations and Research Policy Committee, disagreed with the idea that a stricter disclosure policy would lead to faculty flight. “Actually, they [professors] have more freedom at Columbia,” Yu said. Some peer institutions have
columbia university Policy last revised in... Do faculty members have to disclose non-research financial interests?
2009
who is filling the seat vacated by Tim Lam, CC ’11. Frouman and Santana will represent Columbia College in the University Senate alongside Kenny Durrell, CC ’12, who was not up for reelection this year. “Eduardo seems very, very committed. ... It’s great to have people on [the Student Affairs Committee] that care a lot,” Frouman said. Frouman said he plans on running for co-chair of SAC with Business School senator Adeel Ahamed. Student senators will vote for their co-chairs at the April 29 SAC meeting. Ron Mazor, CC ’09, Law ’12, and dental school senator Dustin Bowler will also run on a ticket together, and other candidates could still enter the race. “I’m very excited,” Santana said. “It’s been a great experience. ... I’ve gotten a chance to meet a lot of really great people, and reach out to a lot of really great people.” Santana has a unique history at Columbia—he enrolled two years ago but took last year off for personal reasons and to focus on his career as an artist.
During that time, he published a book, he said. “That time off from Columbia made me appreciate Columbia that much more, and made me all the more eager to contribute,” he said. Santana said he is already close friends with Durell, and that he knew Frouman when they were both members of the class of 2012. “I think we’re going to be able to do a lot of great things together, the three of us,” he said. Frouman added that while he is excited to work with Durell and Santana, he would like to see more female students get involved with the senate. All six candidates in this election were men, and only five of SAC’s 24 members this year are women. “SAC has somehow become a male-dominated organization,” he said. engineering student council In the Engineering Student Council races, two students who lost in the internal executive board race last month won seats in this week’s class council elections—which are determined by student votes. Spencer Almen will continue
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more comprehensive disclosure policies than Columbia’s. These schools include the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and Stanford University, whose business schools were ranked first, third, fourth, and fifth best in the country, respectively, by Bloomberg Businessweek last year. All four schools require faculty members to disclose their consulting activities—including those unrelated to academic research—on annual, confidential forms. Silverstein lauded Stanford’s policy as an example for Columbia to emulate, saying that requiring faculty to report all consulting is a “reasonable request.” “It’s the only way the University can monitor if faculty and staff are disclosing appropriately in publications and lectures,” he said. At Stanford and Penn, professors are required to disclose the exact dollar amounts of compensation for their consulting work. Silverstein’s amendment would have made this a requirement at Columbia. Lichtenberg said such a requirement would be “excessive.” “Yes, the fact that you have relationships with certain organizations may be appropriate for public disclosure, but getting into more detail than that is potentially problematic and an invasion of privacy,” Lichtenberg said. Others say they would support a policy like the ones in place at Stanford and Penn. Riordan, the economics department chair, said he would be willing to disclose his outside income to Columbia so long as it remained confidential. “I have no problem with the University requesting information on my consulting activity or the income I earn,” he said. Silverstein emphasized that universities should know about their professors’ potential conflicts of interests. “History indicates that Pollack and I were right,” Silverstein said, referring to the revelations made in “Inside Job.” “Our proposal was not one that
Election results revealed for ESC, CCSC, USenate ELECTIONS from front page
university of chicago
as class of 2012 representative after losing the presidency to Nate Levick and losing the post of VP of policy to Logan Donovan last month. The E-board races are decided within the council, although next year voting will be open to all SEAS students. Sidd Bhatt, SEAS ’14, won the post of VP for the 2014 council after losing the E-board position of VP intergroup to Frank Yin last month. Current VP of Student Life Santosh Balachandar will continue on the council next year as a representative for the class of 2012. Current class of 2014 representative Tanya Shah, who was elected after two ties at the beginning of this academic year, was ousted by Bora Kim, CC ’13, in the race for alumni affairs/ pre-professional development representative. Incumbent academic affairs representative Dong-Yoon “Tom” Yang was defeated by Huili Zhu. Judy Kim and Mailing Wu will continue as class of 2012 president and vice president, respectively, and Mary Byers will stay on as the class of 2013 president with VP Shudipto Rahman. news@columbiaspectator.com
is unreasonable in any employment situation.” ‘no norms’ The policy changes being discussed at Columbia would have the greatest effect on a select few academic disciplines, among them business and economics. Other disciplines, including psychology, medicine, and sociology, already have well-established codes for disclosure. Bollinger said there are some disciplines in which “there basically are no norms with respect to disclosing outside activities that may result in appearances of conflict of interest.” He added that this lack of norms “strikes me as wrong,” and that he thinks it is an issue Columbia should address internally.
“I asked the senate to take this up as part of their two-year review,” he said. Still, some say it is equally important that the various disciplines police themselves. Steele, a social psychologist, said that in psychology journals it is standard practice to disclose any potential conflicts of interest on the first page of an article. He said disciplines that do not have such codes should follow the example of those that do. “The simpler solution is that the disciplines get on the ball and do this,” he said. The American Economic Association, the country’s leading organization for the discipline, is now considering establishing formal ethics rules for economists. In January, the
AEA established the Ad Hoc Committee on Ethical Standards for Economists. Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Solow, a professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the chair of that committee, told Spectator that it is time for academic economists to establish their own disclosure policy. He added that the AEA has considered creating an ethics code in the past, but that this is the first time it has set up a committee to handle the issue. “I think that professional associations should have disclosure requirements, and universities should as well,” Solow said. “One institution shouldn’t have exclusive rights.” news@columbiaspectator.com
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
APRIL 14, 2011
PAGE 3
Rock out to indie beats at 18th annual WBAR-B-Q BY CLAIRE STERN Spectator Staff Writer Good things come in twos, and WBAR Barnard College Radio is bringing double the fun for its 18th annual WBAR-B-Q this Friday, April 15, at Barnard. The afternoon and evening music fest will include two venues, two headliners, and two delicious food options. And it’s all free. Festivities will take place on Lehman Lawn from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and then the Diana Center Event Oval for the evening portion of the show, which will last until 11 p.m. Lo-fi surf rockers Real Estate will man the outdoor stage, and The Crystal Ark—Gavin Russom of LCD Soundsystem’s latest project—will supply the psychedelic beats indoors. The Crystal Ark has only played one show in New York City before this one. “We’re really excited about it [WBAR-B-Q],” Russom said. “I can’t think of anything that would be much more fun than playing in that context for this particular moment where we are at as a band.” WBAR, a free-form, independent, student-run radio station, held a campus showcase of student bands in January in the Glicker-Milstein Theatre as well as a winter formal in Hewitt Dining Hall with Brooklyn-based disco band Midnight Magic. According to WBAR college rock music director Nathan Albert, CC ’13, WBAR was able to secure two big-name bands for this year’s WBAR-B-Q because they decided against hosting an additional spring show this year. “The rationale behind booking a band like Real Estate was to get a band that we really like but also a band that will bring people out,” Albert said. He added that WBAR strives to find bands who are under the radar but doing experimental things in music. “Working independently, we have a small budget,” WBAR treasurer and DJ Eli Wald, CC ’12, said. “I like being able to work with a small budget because it makes you draw from a totally different world of music than you would otherwise.” The trend with the WBAR-B-Q has been that, within a year, some bands get widely recognized. Past WBAR performers include Japanther, Gang Gang Dance, Wavves, and Vampire Weekend.
COURTESY OF RYAN MUIR
NEXT BIG THING
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Real Estate, the Brooklyn-based psychedelic surf pop band, will perform at WBAR-B-Q this Friday, along with other indie bands.
Vampire Weekend’s bassist Chris Baio, CC ’07, was on staff at WBAR. “The point of WBAR-B-Q is that we have a band that’s accessible and people want to come to,” Albert said. “But we want them to come earlier. That’s where the free food comes in.” WBAR has placed orders for kebabs from the authentic Uzbek joint Cheburechnaya in Queens. They will serve up a vegetarian option as well and plan to have a cotton candy machine as at last year’s
show. While nothing is set in stone yet, Wald said that WBAR is also planning some giveaways: a stuffed dog autographed by all of the bands, free records, and gift certificates to Liz’s Place and the Diana Café. The other bands in the lineup do not disappoint either. Some notable names include indie band Big Troubles, electronic dance duo Blondes, and the cosmic choir sounds of Julianna Barwick, who—like many of her fellow rockers—resides in Brooklyn. Barwick said that this Friday, her audience could
expect “an enjoyable, hopefully beautiful set that takes you somewhere imaginary.” She added, “I think that’s the best thing you can hope for making music—to take someone to some imaginary world.” The boys of Real Estate are also excited to be back in New York. Drummer Alex Bleeker and guitarist Matthew Mondanile have both attended WBAR-B-Q in past years.
SEE WBAR-B-Q, page 6
Composers take shortcut to unite with audience at Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival BY CATHERINE RICE Columbia Daily Spectator Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival presented its third performance in a series of four concerts on Monday, April 11, at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space. Committed to its mission to promote new music in an intimate setting, the festival aims to “bring the composers in front of the audience to speak about their artistic inspiration and explain their music” in an informal, accessible manner, according to the festival’s artistic director, Victoria Bond. On Monday, the program consisted of four pieces—“La Chute d’Icare” by Brian Ferneyhough, “Through a Stillness Brightening” by Jeffrey Mumford, “Exiles” by Harold Meltzer, and lastly, “Instruments of Revelation” by Victoria Bond. “La Chute d’Icare,” performed by the energetic Argento Chamber Ensemble, featured Carol McGonnell on clarinet in a chamber concerto. In a brief introduction with the ensemble’s conductor, Michel Galante and Bond discussed how Ferneyhough’s music has frequently been
described as “thorny”—which was immediately evident upon hearing the clarinet’s virtuosic display of harmonics, pointed remarks, and sharp slides. Perhaps the thorniness of the piece was meant to mirror the distress that accompanied Icarus’s futile attempt to fix his wings. The chaos was followed by a remarkable moment when the ensemble played light, fluttery, crystal-like sounds. They evoked a floating feeling, like that of Icarus beginning his descent. The music managed to be stirring both intellectually and sensually. “Through a Stillness Brightening” was a stark contrast to the previous piece both in its program and in its compositional style. “Icare,” based on the Greek myth, had moments of cacophony and chaos, with high, fast notes and a pervasive excitement. On the other hand, Mumford’s piece was serene and calm, emphasizing long unison notes that faded in and out with slow crescendos and sudden decrescendos. As he explained to the audience, Mumford was inspired by painting, particularly Impressionism and 19th-century French landscapes, which was clear in his use of timbral layering as instruments weaved in and out of each
other’s pitch space and rhythmic space. There were times when listeners could, through the notes, visualize the image that Mumford was striving for—rays of light shining through trees—as certain instruments and
The chaos was followed by a remarkable moment when the ensemble played light, fluttery, crystal-like sounds. They evoked a floating feeling.
sounds fought to be heard amidst the general ambient noise. Moments of dissonance and loud dynamics represented shadow and shade, while moments of clarity, consonance and poignancy
represented attained luminosity. Argento played with the deftness and sensitivity necessary to accomplish such visceral effects. “Exiles” was a setting of a series of poems by Conrad Aiken and Hart Crane. Its primary goal was to depict “a sun and moon of loneliness,” according to Meltzer. The bleakness of the piece was obvious from the start, with mezzo-soprano Mary Nessinger employing a static, flat tone during the opening stanza. Although the piece embodied stagnancy and lifelessness, the musicians may have exuded these feelings to the detriment of the piece. What ensued was 15 minutes of uninspiring music, interrupted at times with shrieking harmonics and unintelligible mumblings. Ultimately, Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival achieves its objective of presenting thought-provoking contemporary music in an accessible setting. The last concert in the festival, on April 25, will feature one world premiere and three New York premieres: Amy Neuburg’s “Strange Hats,” Ronald Bruce Smith’s String Quartet No. 3, Ben Johnston’s Quartet No. 10, and Reza Vali’s “Neyshaboorak.”
‘Catch Me If You Can’ Broadway musical cons its way into audience’s hearts BY MARICELA GONZALEZ Spectator Staff Writer
COURTESY OF THE HARTMAN GROUP
HIDE AND SEEK “Catch Me If You Can” brings characters from the movie screen to the Broadway stage. |
While students can enjoy the recent theatrical works of Columbia students and alumni at Lerner Black Box, Riverside Theater, and other local venues, they can also head straight to Broadway to enjoy the latest work from a Columbia alum. Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning producer Hal Luftig, SoA ’84, along with Margo Lion, presents “Catch Me If You Can,” a musical based on the true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., and on the 2002 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. From the creators of “Hairspray,” the show chronicles Frank’s escapades throughout the world as he cons his way into becoming a pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer, among other things— all with the FBI on his tail. Aaron Tveit, of “Gossip Girl” and “Next to Normal,” shines as the charismatic Frank Abagnale, Jr., exuding the confidence and ingenuity that is required to get away with creating $2.5 million in fraudulent checks, at least for a short period of time. But Norbert Leo Butz, as FBI agent Carl Hanratty, steals the show with a surprisingly robust singing voice and nimble dancing feet. Playing up Hanratty’s curmudgeonly personality with graying hair and a slight hunch from sitting too long at a desk, he stuns the audience when he unexpectedly breaks into a jazz dance number for the scat-inspired “Don’t Break the Rules.” Because Frank is the central narrator of the show, his inner turmoil is often masked by his confident cons and positive attitude. Only at
the end of the show does Frank’s artificial persona crumble as he performs “Goodbye,” and Tveit allows the real Frank, an insecure teenager who misses his father, to appear. However, as Hanratty hurriedly explains Frank’s fate— working for the FBI, becoming a family man, and staying life-long friends with Hanratty— Frank’s cool swagger and bright attitude immediately return.
Norbert Leo Butz, as FBI agent Carl Hanratty, steals the show with a surprisingly robust singing voice and nimble dancing feet. He plays up Hanratty’s curmudgeonly personality with a slight hunch.
Despite the entertaining dance numbers and witty—albeit cheesy—dialogue, the show lacked a unifying musical theme to pull it together. Perhaps a musical number titled “Catch
SEE MUSICAL, page 6
EDITORIAL & OPINION
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APRIL 14, 2011
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inter jackets have been shed, and spring is upon us. For seniors, the warm weather means graduation is nearing, and the unemployed among us are beginning to panic. We all begin our job search looking for our dream job, but as graduation ALEXANlooms and reality hits, we become DRA KATZ less selective. Our expectations have Umm, Exshifted, and some of us have downsized our dreams. cuse Me A friend of mine was recently offered a prestigious full-time fellowship at a well-respected national magazine. The news was bittersweet, however. They would only pay him $8.25 an hour, which amounts to roughly $16,500 per year. I entered this information into ACCESS NYC, a New York City government website that identifies eligibility for more than 30 city, state, and federal human service benefit programs. Filling out the anonymous form as my friend, I answered questions: What other monthly expenses does he have? $900 for rent and $300 for food. Is he paying for health insurance? No, because he can stay on his parents’ policy. After 20 minutes’ worth of forms, I discovered that my friend would be likely be eligible for Section 8 housing assistance and various work assistance programs. He was near the borderline for cash benefits, food stamps, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Medicaid Excess Income Program. In other words, if he took this job, he would be poor. Why would an employer create a position for college graduates that pays minimum wage? Why do they exploit the struggling economy and bad job market? Because they can. They know that if my friend is forced to turn down his offer because he can’t afford to make minimum wage, there are plenty of eager applicants who would be more than happy to take his spot. Offering a recent college graduate a minimum-wage position in a major city with an astronomical cost of living requires that the individual be able to afford to take the job. It is doubtful that this publication and other employers using similar tactics expect that their employees will be on public assistance. It is more likely that they expect the employee will be partially supported by family or be able to live with parents. Clearly, this magazine is uninterested in hiring talent from all social strata.
This seems to be a relatively new phenomenon, sort of like a continuation of the unpaid internship culture that we have been forced to buy into, and a product of the Great Recession. We watched as members of the unlucky classes of 2008 and 2009 graduated into a grim job market and many were forced to move home or to take unpaid internship positions. Though there are clearly signs of economic turnaround, and the class of 2011 seems to be facing slightly better prospects, the Great Recession mentality has remained: A job is a job, and we should be so thankful to be employed that we won’t notice we are being exploited.
The Great Recession mentality has remained: A job is a job, and we should be so thankful to be employed that we won’t notice we are being exploited. This drift toward lower starting salaries will have a severely negative impact on our generation. A study from the Yale School of Management discovered that graduating from college during a recession has serious longterm consequences. Graduates who enter the job market during a difficult economic period will earn consistently lower salaries throughout their lives than graduates who enter during boom years. In addition, the study found that over 17 years after college graduation, these groups have a $100,000 difference in earnings. In a recession, graduates are often forced to compromise and take jobs unrelated to their career goals. By the time they enter their field of choice, they are already behind. In a recession, everyone hurts. Organizations and companies are forced to cut costs in order to stay afloat, but offering college graduates “prestigious” positions at minimum wage only gives affluent individuals with resources an additional leg up. While my friend is debating whether to take this position at $8.25 an hour, the publisher is a well known mega-millionaire, and top reporters are paid $350,000 a year. You would think they could afford to pay him a living wage. Alexandra Katz is a Barnard College senior majoring in political science. Umm, Excuse Me runs alternate Thursdays.
SPENCER DUHAIME Finance Director
DEPUTY BOARD News Editors Karla Jimenez, Chelsea Lo, Abby Mitchell, Sonalee Rau, Sammy Roth Arts & Entertainment Editors Claire Fu, Claire Stern Copy Editor Zuzanna Fuchs Design Editor Rebecca Schwarz Photo Editors Zara Castany, Maria Castex, Alyson Goulden, Phoebe Lytle, Christina Phan Sports Editors Zach Glubiak, Kunal Gupta Infrastructure Editor Amrita Mazumdar Sales Thomas Elustondo, Alex Smyk Finance Gabriela Hempfling, Noah Kolatch, Daniela Quintanilla Alumni Rob Frech, Rex Macaylo
Editorial Page Editors Andrea Garcia-Vargas, Samantha Henderson, Leo Schwartz, Lanbo Zhang Arts & Entertainment Editors Ian Erickson-Kery, Maricela Gonzalez, Melissa Haney, Joseph Pomp, Katy Tong Copy Editors Maggie Alden, Jack Dickey, Abigail Fisch, Jessica Geiger, Emily Handsman, Michelle Lappen, Hannah Laymon, Gina Lee, Emily Neil, Emily Sorensen, Sean Wong Page Design Editors Maya Fegan, Joe Girton, Tanvi Gupta, Leila Lin, Geetika Rudra, Finn Vigeland, Isaac White, Laura Ye Graphic Design Editors Stephanie Mannheim, Yuma Shinohara Photo Editors Arvin Ahmadi, Hannah Botkin, Phoebe Brosnan, Kate Scarbrough, Henry Willson Sports Editors Rebeka Cohan, Trevor Cohen, Robert Wren Gordon, Jeremiah Sharf, Molly Tow, Ryan Young Sales Katherine Estabrook, Aurora Lende, Ross Lerner, Jamie Yu Finance Brendan Barry, Shivrat Chhabra, Michelle Lacks, Jiaqi Liu, Zhaokun Ma, Bruno Mendes, Gedion Negash, Kinnari Norojono
EDITORIAL BOARD Sarah Ahmed, Yohana Beyene, Sam Klug, Jonathan Lee, Stephen Snowder, Vighnesh Subramanyan
WEDNESDAY NIGHT STAFF Copy Maggie Astor, Mark Choi, N. H. Diane Kim, Kevin Lee, Katie McNeirney, Samantha Saly
ADDRESS & EMAIL Columbia Spectator 2875 Broadway, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10025 info@columbiaspectator.com PHONE & FAX Daily Spectator (212) 854-9549 Business (212) 854-9550 Business Fax (212) 854-9553 EDITORIAL POLICY For more information about the Columbia Daily Spectator and editorial policies, visit http://www.columbiaspectator.com/about. CORRECTIONS The Spectator is committed to fair and accurate reporting. If you know of an error, please inform us at copy@ columbiaspectator.com. COMMENTS & QUESTIONS For general comments or questions about the newspaper, please write to the editor in chief and managing editor at editor@ columbiaspectator.com.
wendan li
ASSOCIATE BOARD
In the name of fair elections BY THE COLUMBIA COLLEGE STUDENT ELECTIONS BOARD We write in response to Spectator’s editorial of April 11, 2011, regarding its lack of endorsement for the position of University senator. The CCSC Elections Board firmly believes that it is important that we publicize the reasoning behind our decisions. The CCSC Elections Board exists, in significant part, in order to ensure a level playing field for all candidates. In order to do this, we are responsible for creating and following a set calendar, among other responsibilities, including funding of candidates. The calendar includes specific days for campaigning as well as a moratorium on campaign activities immediately before and during the voting period. The calendar is set far before elections, and we believe in the importance of following the calendar fully, in order to ensure that we are not favoring any one candidate. When Spectator informed us that it intended to publish an endorsement of the candidates during the moratorium and voting period, the Elections Board had significant concerns. Most significantly, we worried that this would unfairly favor the two candidates whom Spectator endorsed. Because the editorial was to be published during the moratorium period, those candidates who were not endorsed would have no viable way to publicly respond to the endorsement, since all campaigning except speaking directly with students was prohibited at that point. We as a board felt that this would fundamentally and unfairly change the dynamics of the elections, and that the board would be ignoring its responsibility to candidates should the endorsement be published and the four nonendorsed candidates have no ability to respond. Despite our strong feelings on this issue, the Elections Board believed very strongly in the importance of the media and in Spectator’s endorsement. We attempted to work with Spectator in order to reach a compromise. Specifically, the Elections Board requested that at least the endorsement could be announced at the Senate debate so that the candidates could respond. We also requested that the endorsement be published online by the end of the debates (9:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 10). The endorsement could be printed on Monday morning, even though it was during the moratorium period. While this would have been after the moratorium on campaigning began, we felt that such a compromise was reasonable in still ensuring the media a role but also maintaining an even playing field for candidates. After negotiations, however, it became apparent that Spectator was unwilling to work on such a timetable. Because of our dedication to ensuring the fairness of the election for all candidates, we simply could not approve the endorsement that would come out during the voting period. The CCSC Elections Board strives to ensure fair and free elections and firmly believes in the electoral rules and regulations previously established and approved by students. Given the circumstances, the board was extremely flexible in attempting to accommodate media requests, though efforts to reach a reasonable compromise failed. The media plays a vital role in promoting student government, and this role carries great responsibility, including the active consideration of time constraints and published rules. The campaigning period allowed ample time for news sources to deliberate and publish endorsements. In regard to endorsements for the University Senate, the board was contacted by Spectator only late in the campaign period, and the board decided that it was inherently unfair to offer nonendorsed candidates no opportunity to respond to endorsements (or lack thereof ). This decision was made not to censor the media but to prevent the censorship of nonendorsed candidates mandated by the moratorium period in compliance with the existing electoral rules. It is the CCSC Elections Board’s opinion that the media has a crucial role to play in campus elections, and we have worked as hard as possible to be open and transparent. However, at the same time, it is our responsibility to ensure equal access to the media for all our candidates. Striking the balance between these two can be challenging, and we will continue to work to determine how to best balance these two responsibilities. It is our sincere hope that, in the future, such a situation as this one will not occur again. The members of the Columbia College Student Elections Board are Alex Rosen, Laura Gabriele, Andrea Collazo, Norita Mengu, and Kevin Zhang.
Peer-fectionism
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ith ever-lower admissions percentages and the unasked-for popular title of America’s most stressedout school, Columbia sets a standard that appears almost as insurmountable as it can be empowering. We share a set of external stressors—course load and ZEBA competition among them—and at times AHMAD bear a burden of internal ones as well— Any Road stress, insecurity, and maladjustment. Perfectionism is among them, but it can Will Take empower us by the same means that it You There inhibits us. Fully understood, the same mechanism associated with anorexia, low self-esteem, self-handicapping, and procrastination can allow for a set of internal standards that finally emancipate us from the judgment of others. To some extent, an academic environment fosters perfectionism, but the choice to vilify it is our own. With some objective analyses emphasizing the effect that perfectionism has on our behavior, perfectionism can be used as a tool and a coping mechanism, a way to feel content without getting complacent. Perfectionists are divided between those who believe perfection is both attainable and somehow morally required of them and therefore constantly measure themselves against a standard they can’t reach, and those who equate perfection with the very best they can do. Although the latter seems preferable, neither ideology is unequivocally beneficial. Defining the “best I can do” often launches one on a slippery slope of “the best I can do with the time allotted” or “the best I can do with the materials at hand,” depending on the situation. Psychologists also distinguish adaptive perfectionism from maladaptive perfectionism, and while the first is generally correlated with self-satisfaction and positive striving, the second is commonly associated with self-loathing, stress, and, in some cases, procrastination. Perfectionists
are split into three groups by psychologists Paul Hewitt and Gordon Flett: socially oriented perfectionists, who see their surroundings as an inexhaustible source of external standards they have to meet; other-oriented perfectionists, who set standards for and evaluate the people in their lives; and self-oriented perfectionists, who perform self-assessment against their internal standards. According to a study by Kilbert et al., the last two groups of perfectionists often perform adaptive perfectionism, and individuals in the first category perform maladaptive perfectionism while tending to display the highest rate of procrastination.
To some extent, an academic environment fosters perfectionism, but the choice to vilify it is our own. Unfortunately, an academic environment that encourages perfection seems most likely to inculcate socially oriented perfectionism. Oxford University graduate student Emily Troscianko notes in Psychology Today that since work must be completed even though mistakes are unacceptable to the academic perfectionist because of the expectations she perceives from her peers, progressively devoting more time to work is the only apparent solution. Socially oriented perfectionism can arise almost unnoticed in a competitive environment. In large part the drive to always be better and work harder is difficult to argue with—my professors are at least as stringent on themselves as they are on their students and, if my email inbox is any indication, appear to keep later working hours than most. And yet perfectionism must spring from our character,
even if it is exacerbated by our circumstances. Art and artists have been fixated on the phenomenon for centuries. To the sometime exasperation of his directors, highly selfcritical actor Keanu Reeves works toward a “super-perfect” take of each scene. Robert Smith identified The Cure’s “Disintegration” album as a rare instance of artistic perfection, immediately qualifying that it was the best he could have done. Natalie Portman’s Nina, the emotional center of “Black Swan,” was easy to identify with despite her idiosyncrasies: Even while being horrified by the places it led her, it was easy to sympathize with her perfectionism. Given the opportunity to create a character from scratch, writers tend to offer us tragically flawed heroes who suffer from hubris and are damned by circumstances beyond their control, or the bildungsroman in all its incarnations. Ayn Rand attempted a third prototype with dynamic and self-driven individuals who had firm internal standards that they enforced on others and were able to satisfy by virtue of being perfect. She answered the protest that the people she wrote about were unrealistic with the unsteady defense that the publication and popularity of her novels proved they did exist. As a culture we tend to worship what is perfect even while describing it as unrealistic. It can be a challenge to distinguish when perfectionism inhibits directed behavior from when perfectionism motivates it. Relaxation and meditation techniques, breaking tasks into manageable pieces, affirming and celebrating successes, and having in mind a concrete, achievable ideal tailored both to the task and oneself are as effective as they are common. While outside standards can have a disheartening and almost tyrannical effect on our self-concepts, we can protect ourselves with internal standards we cultivate and abide by. Zeba Ahmad is a Barnard College junior majoring in psychology and philosophy. Any Road Will Take You There runs alternate Thursdays.
APRIL 14, 2011
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GRADUATION PARTY, class seminar, laid back social, or any other special event, Rent out Haakon’s Hall accommodations 50-185 persons please contact Haakon or James (212) 300-4166. james@haakonshallny.com LOOKING FOR WITNESSES to a pedestrian being struck by a motorcycle on November 17, 2010 at B’way & 116 St, especially a woman who assisted the pedestrian to the curb and later spoke with the police. Please email rkass@sierraclaim.com or call (201) 207-3004. FREE PIANO RECYCLING and moving. All NYC and vicinity. Free removal of all unwanted, used pianos in working condition. Non-working pianos and junk pianos removed and recycled as low as $150. Pianos in 5-floor walk-ups are no problem. Your unwanted piano is our business. Grand pianos, baby grands, upright pianos, spinets and organs accepted. Fully equipped and experienced. Call Jay Fernando (646) 316-4442 direct. Also, estimates for other clean-outs of home and offices are available upon request. PROFESSIONAL PAINTING by experienced Painter call Jay at (212) 529-5293. Experienced painter available to work on small or large paint jobs. I can paint your whole apartment, 1 room or even just one wall. Fix up your, bedroom, living room, kitchen or bath with a fresh paint job and enjoy your place even more. Reasonable prices. Estimates and references available upon request (or can work by the hour).
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Aaron Tveit stars in ‘Catch Me If You Can’ MUSICAL from page 3
COURTESY OF THE HARTMAN GROUP
FAUX FLASHINESS
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Aaron Tveit stars as con man Frank Abagnale, Jr., in “Catch Me If You Can.”
Me If You Can” was too obvious for the producers and creators, but with so much exposition included to move the storyline along, the show would have benefitted from a central musical theme to stay with the audience as they leave the theater. “Live in Living Color,” the opening number, was reprised twice during the production, is enjoyable enough to bring the audience into the show but remains forgettable. “Catch Me If You Can” is old-school musical theater: fantastical numbers with bright colors and bodacious dancers, charming dialogue with just enough self-referential winks to diffuse its saccharine nature, and a plot that is at first compelling but in retrospect unmemorable. In that sense, the audience may be conned into loving this musical, but they will be smitten during the experience nonetheless.
APRIL 14, 2011
Real Estate and The Crystal Ark headline WBAR festival WBAR-B-Q from page 3 “They’re stoked to be playing, and I’m stoked, too,” lead singer and guitarist Martin Courtney said. This year’s show seems more enticing than the last, with a stronger lineup and better indoor options (the Diana Event Oval is also the event’s rain location). Last year, WBAR-B-Q was held in LeFrak Gymnasium, and Barnard’s staff required that all lights remain on for the duration of the show. “The Diana’s a much better space than LeFrak, and the acoustics are better,” Wald said. “It’s a major step up. It’s more cozy, the décor is better, and we have control over the lights, so we can dim them so it feels like a concert.” The Crystal Ark is working with a team of visual artists to create a light show in the Diana, which goes with Russom’s vision to fuse together dance and art. In the future, Russom hopes that the Crystal Ark will produce a live show with dancers and a visual component, but for this show the band will put on a smaller version.
WBAR beefed up its advertising for tomorrow’s show, including postings in Brooklyn Vegan and Time Out New York. While the organization has been trying to draw people from around the city, it remains focused on increasing awareness on campus.
“I think that’s the best thing you can hope for making music—to take someone to some imaginary world.” —Julianna Barwick, WBAR-B-Q performer
“This will be like our coming out-party,” Albert said. “If we put good vibes out, then we can have a new wave of enthusiasm come fall.”
APRIL 14, 2011
SPORTS
PAGE 7
Competition in gym classes outlet for stress release CLEARY from back page because I was good, but because running helped keep me sane. When I decided not to run outdoor track in the spring of my senior year, I still ran or went to the gym every day after school. When I got to college, though, my whole schedule was thrown out of whack, and my exercising routine fell by the wayside. Freshman year, I managed to work out quasi-regularly, but by the time sophomore year rolled around, I was getting winded walking up the two flights of stairs at the Spec office. To try and remedy that, I signed up for Cardio Fitness in spring of 2010, hoping that if I were forced to exercise twice a week, it would be easier to get back into the swing of things.
Though I had very little to do with the actual victory, it felt good to get all of my aggression out in a meaningless way. That didn’t really pan out, but I was still exercising two times more each week than I had been previously. The benefits of exercise— health, stress release, weight loss—are only part of why I think the gym requirement is a good thing. Part of the reason why I loathed gym so much in high school was that I was already involved in varsity sports programs (field hockey, cross country, and track). Not only did I not need the exercise, I also already had a competitive sports outlet. Now that I’m in college, though, I no longer have that competitive outlet. Or, at least, I didn’t—until I signed up for floor hockey this semester. I’ve always been a very, very competitive person,
but usually only about things that don’t actually matter. For example, I never really get competitive about my grades, but if you beat me in Scrabble, I will scratch your eyes out. Spec doesn’t allow me much time for board games, though, so I had to figure out another way to release my pent-up desire to destroy others in trivial competition, and floor hockey has been perfect for that. Just last week, I got to be a captain for one of the teams, which meant that I wanted to win even more than usual. The other captain? None other than my predecessor, former Spectator managing editor Thomas Rhiel. It was on. So after we picked out teams (I had former publisher Akhil Mehta and current associate editorial page editor Leo Schwartz on mine), the game began. I don’t have much technical floor hockey skill, but I can be intense when I want to be, and that day, I wanted to be. To be honest, I don’t remember that much about the actual game, except that it was very close. What I do remember is that I was having a very bad Monday, and it was only going to get worse as I had a global econ exam later that day, and that it felt so great to be intensely focusing my energy on something else. After 45 minutes of battling it out in the Blue Gym, my team emerged victorious. Though I had very little to do with the actual victory, it felt good to get all of my aggression out in a meaningless way. After rubbing it in Thomas’ face a little bit, I left class feeling slightly less stressed out and upset than I was before. Columbians are already an intense bunch. If it weren’t for the gym requirement, who knows how tightly wound we’d be. . Michele Cleary is a Columbia College junior majoring in history. She is the managing editor of Spectator. sports@columbiaspectator.com
HENRY WILLSON / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
TAX DAY
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Freshman Zack Tax has made an immediate impact on a veteran pitching staff, striking out 10 batters this season.
CU rotation led by two seniors, Ivy Pitcher of the Year BY MOLLY TOW Spectator Staff Writer As the late sportscaster Harry Kalas once preached, “High hopes.” The Columbia baseball team’s pitching staff has yet to shy away from the raised bar set for them this season. From the moment spring training began, Light Blue pitchers have faced exceedingly high expectations. Last year, the Columbia hurlers set a school record of 293 strikeouts and led the Ivy League in team ERA. The team has gotten off to a shaky start this year, but there is little fault to find with the men on the mound. So far, the pitching staff has a collective ERA of 3.70 and an impressive 170 total strikeouts. Seniors Dan Bracey and Geoff Whitaker, along with junior and 2010 Ivy League Pitcher of the Year Pat Lowery, may lead the team in experience and veteran status, but they aren’t the only ones responsible for limiting opponent batting averages to a mere .247. Enter sophomore standouts Stefan Olson and Tim Giel. The two righties have dominated the mound this season, boasting the lowest and second-lowest ERAs, respectively, on the roster. Olson
has moved his way up in the starting rotation this year, while Giel has mostly seen time out of the bullpen. These younger throwers have been fortunate to train with such a strong core of veterans. Pitching coach Pete Maki noted that the upperclassmen’s presence has been beneficial in many ways. “They lead by example in terms of their work ethic,” he said. “All the veteran pitchers have been a good extension of the coaching staff, helping the younger guys learn the right way to go about their everyday business at the field.” With Bracey and Whitaker set to graduate in just over a month, the Light Blue needs to develop a solid group of underclassmen to inherit the rotation responsibilities. The age distribution of both starters and relievers can only help make this goal a reality. “I think the young guys can take a lot away from seeing how the vets get their outs,” Maki said. Olson leads the team in ERA with an impressive 1.55, has limited opponents to a .170 batting average, and is third in strikeouts on Columbia’s roster, with 23 so far this season. Although the sophomore leads the team in walks as well, with 14, head coach Brett
LACROSSE
Lions double season-win total in close matchup on the road against Lafayette The Columbia lacrosse team was on the road again and came back with something quite unexpected. The Light Blue picked up its second win of the season in Easton, Pa., against Lafayette yesterday’ evening. Before Wednesday’s game, the Lions’ record stood at 1-8 and 0-4 in the Ivy League. Their other win came against Iona, another away match. This bodes
well for the remainder of the season, which features just one more home game against Yale this Friday at 4 p.m before finishing on the road. Columbia picked up an early lead after scoring four unanswered goals in the opening 15 minutes. The Leopards managed to find their way onto the scoreboard, but sophomore attacker Kacie Johnson, who eventually recorded four goals,
responded with another tally for the Lions. The end of the first half saw Lafayette sneak itself to within one of the Light Blue, but senior attacker Gabrielle Geronimos netted the ball with 22 seconds remaining to leave the score at 7-5 going into halftime. The Leopards again threatened the Lions’ lead after scoring in the opening minute of the second half, but Columbia
midfielders Kelly Buechel and Johnson both scored to keep the Light Blue on top. At one point, the Lions led 136, but the Leopards managed to score five unanswered goals in the final 10 minutes of the game to chip away at Columbia’s lead. However, when regulation ended, it was the Lions who ended up on top, 13-11, for just the second time this season. —Rebeka Cohan
Three homers help end Manhattan’s 10-game win streak BASEBALL from back page infield to end the threat. Manhattan wouldn’t have to wait long for another basesloaded opportunity, though, and in the third inning, they capitalized. Two leadoff walks were enough for head coach Brett Boretti to pull Speer from the game in favor of freshman reliever Zack Tax, who has seen the most innings in relief of any Columbia pitcher this year and boasts a 3.95 ERA. Tax struck out his first hitter, but, after a double steal, hit a batter to once again fill the bases for the Jaspers. Columbia kept the middle infield at doubleplay depth, and Tax induced a ground ball to shortstop. The Lions could only get the force at second, though, and Manhattan got a run on the board. One more run crossed the plate on a double-steal play by the Jaspers. Despite adding two in the seventh and one in the eighth— and limiting the Lions to only two runs on a Crucet RBI triple and the Banos solo shot after their four-run first—Manhattan fell just short of a comeback. Tim Giel pitched the last inning and a third to get the save, getting out of another jam in the ninth. With a strong record against
out-of-conference opponents but struggling in league games this year, Columbia will look to extend its success to matchups with Ancient Eight foes, where
its potential NCAA fate is set. The cellar-dwelling Cornell comes to town this weekend for a fourgame series. A double-digit win streak may not be in their future,
but chances are the Lions could have six straight Ws to their name come next Monday, and with it— perhaps—a refreshed opportunity to conquer the Ivy League.
KATE SCARBROUGH / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
PIZZANO DELIVERY | Freshman Dario Pizzano came through early for the Light Blue with a first-inning two-run home run, setting a tone for the club on the day that carried the Lions to victory.
Boretti is not too concerned. “He had some command issues at the beginning of the season and has put them behind him,” Boretti said. Olson’s most recent outing was this past Saturday in Columbia’s second game of its doubleheader at Brown. Despite the Lions’ inability to hold their three-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, Olson had his best performance of the season, pitching a career-high eight innings. The righty allowed only five hits and one earned run, and fanned a batter for each hit that he surrendered. In addition, he did not allow any walks, showing that his control struggles are far behind him. “He has an above-average changeup and an ability to put his fastball where he wants more often than not,” Maki said. Giel’s statistics are a mixed bag. The righty’s record is 0-2, but he has appeared in nine games, more than any other Lion, and has the second-lowest ERA on the team at 2.63. It is also significant that half of the team’s four saves can be credited to Giel. Whether he continues to work exclusively out of the bullpen or transitions into the occasional starting role when the upperclassmen graduate, his
talent for late-inning pitching in close games has and will continue to be key to Columbia’s success. An honorable mention for the Lions’ success on the mound goes to freshman David Speer, who has taken on the role of late-inning reliever in stride. The rookie southpaw has showed promise out of the bullpen with a 3.52 ERA and 11 strikeouts. His last outing was the first game of Columbia’s doubleheader at Yale on Sunday, in which he limited the damage following a shaky five-inning start by Bracey. Speer tossed two scoreless innings, throwing just 24 pitches. Whether the younger pitchers have been emulating the vets or focusing on developing their own styles, there is only so much variation that can be achieved. “There’s no secret formula for any of them,” Maki said. “Use your fastball to both sides of the plate and have at least one secondary pitch you can throw for a strike when you want to.” It is a simple formula, but not necessarily so simple to execute. Luckily for the Light Blue, if the improvements Olson, Giel, and Speer have made since the beginning of the season are any indication of what’s to come, a very bright future lies ahead for this Columbia squad.
CU’s number one going strong in second year BARTNIK from back page in the extra work to get stronger and fitter and as she puts it, is ‘the epitome of health.’” Bartnik started this spring on a tear, winning her first five matches without dropping a set, and running her winning streak to eight matches, including a 3-0 record against Ivy opponents from Yale, Cornell, and Dartmouth. The start of Ivy play in April didn’t bring out the best in Bartnik right away, however, as she went winless against Dartmouth and Harvard, including a loss to No. 86 Holly Cao of Harvard. “They were both on their A game, and I wasn’t for whatever reason that day,” Bartnik said. “But you really need a short-term memory. Maybe the day of those matches I was a little bit upset, because one of them I had beaten at ECACs, but then in my match against Cornell, I never once thought about them. In fact, I didn’t think about anything else except that match.” “She is really good at mentally staying in the moment, playing one point at a time, and letting the results come as an effect of her good play,” Weintraub said. But Bartnik found her game soon after, as she has gone undefeated since then and has notched impressive wins against the top players from two top-45 teams in No. 35 Yale and No. 43 Brown. “They were both outdoor matches, which made it extra difficult,” Bartnik said. “We don’t really get a chance to practice outdoors unless it’s in Riverside Park, and I think that made me focus more on my matches in the moment because there was another opponent—I was dealing with the wind and the sun, and it doesn’t sound like much but it was quite challenging.” According to Bartnik, the losses against Harvard and
Dartmouth helped her refocus her game. “I think in my first two matches, I was looking too long-term, which is maybe what hurt me,” Bartnik said. “But what I think I got out of those matches was that once I start focusing in the moment at one point at a time, that kind of brought me back to how I play my best.” In a conference with five nationally ranked teams, the competition at the top is among the best in the nation.
“She is really good at mentally staying in the moment ... letting the results come as an effect of her good play.” —Ilene Weintraub women’s tennis coach “The girls that I play in the Ivy League are definitely the strongest I play in my season,” Bartnik said. “And I personally think that the girls that play at No. 1 are some of the best in the country, even if their ranking doesn’t reflect that.” “The league is extremely competitive and her winning in the No. 1 position proves that she is one of the best,” Weintraub said. “Something I always knew from the moment I met her.” With the trajectory of her career individually, along with that of her team on the rise, the records will undoubtedly show Bartnik as not only the top player during her years at Columbia, but also as one of the best women’s players to ever don light blue.
SPORTS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14 • PAGE 8
Like any good nerd, I hated phys. ed. in high school. I dreaded going to class every single day, and looked forward to the times I MICHELE could miss gym for CLEARY chemistry lab. (Like I said, I was a nerd). I Can See Though my high Cleary school required only two years of Now P.E. to graduate, due to a series of scheduling issues and snafus, I had to take gym all four years. It was miserable. So upon my discovery that Columbia, my first choice for college, had a gym requirement, I was not pleased. While I’ve always loved watching sports, I’ve never been very good at playing them. I had no desire to continue making a fool of myself by trying to serve a volleyball or hit a Wiffle ball. Of course, though, all the other things I loved about Columbia more than made up for the two semesters of gym I’d be forced to take, and I didn’t hesitate to enroll when I was accepted.
Front Line BY KUNAL GUPTA Spectator Senior Staff Writer Nicole Bartnik, the top singles player on the women’s tennis team, may be the best athlete at Columbia athyou’ve nevlete of er heard of. Bartnik, a the week sophomore, has played No. 1 singles since the moment she stepped onto campus and has gone a combined 24-10 at the top spot in her two years here, including 13-5 this spring. Bartnik has played her best against Ivy opponents this year, going 5-2 at the top spot—including winning her last three against Cornell, Yale, and Brown. Bartnik came to Columbia as the No. 5 ranked recruit in the nation and reached a career-high international girls ranking of No. 86. She scored what was called the “biggest upset of the year” in 2008, when she took down then No. 1-ranked player and 2008 Wimbledon girls’ champion Laura Robson in three sets.
I had no desire to continue making a fool of myself by trying to serve a volleyball or hit a Wiffle ball. My position on the P.E. requirement has changed tremendously since I arrived in Morningside. Though I hated gym in high school, I ran cross country and two seasons of track for three years—not
Bartnik made a splash on day one, winning one tournament and reaching the finals of another and going 11-5 in singles in the spring at No. 1, but she struggled with injuries that held her back early on. “Last year, both in the fall and the spring season, I was sick frequently,” Bartnik said. “I had a few injuries— nothing too serious—but it kept me out for a while and out of some really important matches.” Bartnik used that experience to help her stay healthy more often this year. “I really focused on my health this entire school year,” Bartnik said, “whether that be getting a little bit more sleep or if I started feeling something in my arm, I would sit out and get some rest.” “Nikki spent most of last year either sick or injured, and that has motivated her this year to come back and prove herself,” head coach Ilene Weintraub said. “She put
ANGELA RADULESCU / SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
P.E. requirement strengthens the Core
SEE BARTNIK, page 7
SEE CLEARY, page 7
Baseball powers out close victory at home BY TREVOR COHEN Spectator Staff Writer The struggling Lions found something to excite their confidence yesterday: a midweek win from Manhattan College that broke that team’s 10game winning streak. Before Columbia’s victory, the Jaspers’ streak was the longest active one in NCAA Division I baseball. With the victory, the Lions (13-15, 3-5 Ivy) now have a bit of a winning streak of their own— two games. The Light Blue jumped on Manhattan immediately, going yard twice in the first inning to pick up four runs, thanks to sophomore Dario Pizzano and senior Jason Banos—and a booted ball with two outs by Jaspers second baseman Chris Kalousdian that extended the inning and gave Banos a chance to bat with a man on. Banos hit another in the sixth, a solo shot that proved to be the winning run—up 6-2 after six innings,
Columbia survived a late-game comeback to hold on with a 6-5 victory. After Tuesday’s RutgersColumbia game was rained out—along with Manhattan’s contest against Sacred Heart— the two teams arranged their matchup for yesterday afternoon at Baker Field, a week before the clubs are set to play a doubleheader at the same location. Things went well from the start for the Lions, who were coming off a 1-3 Ivy weekend that ended in a lone victory over Yale. Manhattan starter Kevin Bonanni—who started the day with a 4.20 ERA over eight appearances—struck out the first batter he faced, but that proved to be the highlight of his outing. Sophomore third baseman Nick Crucet got things started for the Light Blue with a single to right. First-pitch swinging, Pizzano hit one over the wall in right-center to give Columbia an early lead from which
COLUMBIA
6
MANHATTAN
5
Manhattan could not recover. The Jaspers didn’t endure their first loss in nearly four weeks without a fight, though. Columbia starter freshman David Speer held the opposition scoreless through the first and second innings, narrowly escaping danger in the second and leaving the bases loaded. A single and walk put two on for Manhattan with nobody out. The Jaspers tried to get their two men into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt, but Speer scooped up the attempt and beat Manhattan’s Austin Sheffield to third base with his throw. After a fly out to left, Speer walked another, loading the bases with two outs for leadoff hitting Mark Onorati. Onorati squandered the opportunity, though, popping the first pitch in the SEE BASEBALL, page 7
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT:
Sexual Violence THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011 • PAGE B1
Discipline in the dark A survivor of sexual assault says discipline process stressful, rewarding BY LEAH GREENBAUM Spectator Senior Staff Writer Eve, CC ’11, had doubts about filing a complaint with the University against one of her closest friends, a student who sexually assaulted her one night while she was sleeping. She said she was confused by what happened and the last thing she wanted was to ruin someone’s life. When she went to the Office for Disciplinary Procedures for Sexual Assault to ask about how the disciplinary process worked, she was told her case was airtight—she couldn’t lose. Nevertheless she said she was warned repeatedly that no one had ever been expelled from Columbia for violating the University’s policies on sexual assault. She heard that cases were usually dismissed due to procedural errors. Between the office’s founding in 2002 and the spring of 2010, DPSA has conducted 22 hearings, during which one student accuses another of sexual misconduct before a hearing panel of two deans and one student.
Although administrators said they would not release information about sanctions incurred during these proceedings, students involved in the Sexual Violence Response Program recently said they were excited to hear through the grapevine that the DPSA process resulted in a student’s expulsion last semester, around the time Eve filed her complaint. Because of a confidentiality agreement with the University, Eve— whose name has been changed for privacy reasons—cannot share the outcome of her hearing. But looking back at the fall semester, a time when she had trouble eating, sleeping, and getting to class, Eve said the stress of the hearing was worth it. “I just wanted to speak to somebody who had gone through DPSA and could tell me, ‘Hey, it’s gonna suck and you’re gonna hate it, but at the end you will feel so much better for it,’” she said from her bedroom in EC, where her friends were downstairs waiting for her with pizza. “I swear to God, if I hadn’t done this I SEE DISCIPLINE, page B2
JASPER L. CLYATT / SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
University acknowledges admins need response training BY ANA BARIC Columbia Daily Spectator When a student disclosed sexual assault to an administrator in years past, there was no protocol in place, according to Dr. Karen Singleton, director of the University’s Sexual Violence Response Program. “They just had no idea what to do with the information,” she said. In the wake of statistics showing that universities nationwide aren’t doing enough to prevent or report sexual violence on campus, there are some signs that Columbia is responding by increasing training and programming. “For the summer, we are planning to do a required training for all of our frontline staff members around sexual assault and how we can support students who might come forward with that,” Dean of Community Development and Multicultural Affairs Terry Martinez said. new training Dean Martinez said that administrators would be receiving specialized training that had previously been mandated only for Residential Life staff. “We heard students’ concerns last year, and one of the things that Dean Shollenberger committed to was making sure we look at how frontline administrators—and that includes everyone from the receptionist at the front desk to the graduate assistants to ResLife staff and our advising
staff—are trained with issues around sex assault and violence,” she said. Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger said that the University hopes to cast a wide net when reaching out to students who have experienced sexual violence, and added that students may have relationships with a number of different administrators.
“There are all these resources in place and if people don’t know about them, they can’t use them.”
present, and give them the resources on how to assist the students,” he added. That training more closely resembles what Dr. Samuel Seward, the assistant vice president and medical director of health services, says all of the first-responder professional staff members go through. “It’s a lot about sensitivity and making people feel safe and protected and supported in interactions related to issues of violence, and a little bit too of identifying in specific ways if they have needs that need to be met,” Seward said. Dean Shollenberger echoed the desire to develop a similarly systematic way of working with survivors of sexual violence. “We have offered these things before as issues came up, but we are realizing it needs to be institutionalized,” he said.
Sexual assault on college campuses
60% of sexual assaults go unreported to the police
1 4 in
15 16
women will be the victim of a sexual assault during her academic career
of
rapists never spend a day in jail
—Rape Crisis Center volunteer
“They might have a close relationship with their financial aid officer or their academic advisor, so we want staff to be sensitive to those issues and know about the resources and the process,” he said. “In many cases for the advising staff or financial aid staff, counseling is not their background and that’s really not the role we expect people to take. We expect people to understand the process.” “It’s not a three-week training, but a couple of hours to get an overview, an understanding of issues that a student might
new programs This year, the office of Sexual Violence Response has been working to implement two new programs—Talk20 and Peer Talk. Talk20, which started last September, presents workshops by SVRP staff and volunteers to administrators and faculty, teaching them how to respond to student disclosures of sexual assault. Dr. Singleton said that she and her staff have already offered workshops to staff in the chaplain’s office, athletics, Public Safety, Residential Life at Barnard and Columbia, and Student
every
of college students’ sexual assaults, on average, are associated with alcohol
(212) 854-HELP 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) (212) 523-4728 (212) 854-7777
40%
of sexual assaults reported by college women occur on a date
6% of male undergraduates will be victims of attempted or actual sexual assault
SOURCE: RAPE, ABUSE, AND INCEST NATIONAL NETWORK GRAPHIC BY REBECCA SCHWARZ
NEWS, PAGE B2
A&E, PAGE B3
OPINION, PAGE B4
EVENTS
Men get involved with advocacy efforts
Tonight is the night to Take Back the Night
Break the silence
Take Back The Night March
Stop blaming the victim
Christopher Crawford shares his story of being repeatedly raped and abused as a child—and how, in spite of it all, he learned to see the good in life.
Take Back The Night Speak Out
At St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, men and women serve as victims advocates, and awareness of male victims’ issues is increasing.
A tradition started at Barnard in 1988 evolves to include all genders. An A&E column discusses why some rape victims never report the crime to the police.
2
minutes an American is sexually assaulted
SEE RESOURCES, page B2
Resources Rape Crisis/Anti-Violence Support Center Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network Helpline St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Crime Victims Treatment Center Nightline (Columbia-Barnard peer counseling hotline)
50%
Head to Barnard’s gates to join the march to rally against all forms of sexual violence. Barnard Gates, 8 p.m. As part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, students will join in a speak-out against sexual violence. LeFrak Gymnasium, 10 p.m.
PAGE B2
NEWS
To the Reader— Living in an enormous university in a huge metropolis, we’re blessed with the constant opportunity to choose—what do to, where to go, with whom to associate ourselves. But tonight, Columbia and Barnard students will march in support of a group that nobody chooses to join. Take Back the Night is an annual demonstration of solidarity with the victims of sexual violence. In today’s special issue, we take an unblinking look at abuse and assault at Columbia, from disciplinary implications to cultural reflections to first-person accounts. If you don’t know anyone who’s been the victim of a sexual crime, now you will. If you’re not the kind of person to get mixed up in that sort of thing, neither were they. It can, it does, happen here. Tonight, and every night, it’s an issue we can’t choose to ignore. Sincerely, Michele Cleary Managing Editor
Rape Crisis Center trains students for new outreach programs RESOURCES from front page Affairs, as well as Teachers College deans. Like the training model Shollenberger outlined, the programs seem designed to fit into small windows of time. “We will come to you, only stay for 20 minutes, and we’ll specifically talk about how to respond to disclosure of sexual assault and what resources are on campus,” Singleton said, emphasizing that the brevity served a purpose. “We are not interested in training faculty and administrators on how to become counselors, but we want them to know that their role is to respond appropriately to the initial procedure and to refer students to the various appropriate resources.” Peer Talk, which began this semester as part of a student initiative that grew from Talk20, tailors similar workshops about sexual violence to student groups. The workshops, designed to educate students about sexual violence and equip them to respond to disclosures of
assault, are run by student volunteers who are trained by the Rape Crisis Center. “Students have had quite a lot of requests and peer educators feel like they have had a lot of activity,” Singleton said, declining to say how many of the workshops had taken place so far. Singleton said that the center is also working on restructuring the NSOP Consent Educator Training program by allowing students who already participated in the consent educator training to take on leadership positions during the academic year. campus resources The Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Program with the Rape Crisis/ Anti-Violence Support Center, are the primary first-response resources available on campus for survivors of sexual violence, offering peer counseling and peer advocacy. A volunteer at the Rape Crisis Center, who asked to remain anonymous when talking about the program, said that a key part of the University’s procedure is laying out all of the options for survivors,
letting them know about medical services, disciplinary processes through the police or on-campus avenues like the Disciplinary Procedure for Sexual Assault, and counseling and psychological services. However, she also said that many students remain unaware of the Rape Crisis Center.
“We have offered these things before as issues came up, but we are realizing it needs to be institutionalized.” —Kevin Shollenberger, Dean of Student Affairs “I’ve definitely seen improvement in terms of center awareness, but I think we have a long way to go,” she said. “I think there are tons of people
who don’t know there is a rape crisis center and sexual violence program on campus, and that’s really sad because there are all these resources in place and if people don’t know about them, they can’t use them.” Other resources for assault survivors include Health Services, Columbia University EMS, and the Student Affairs office. CU EMS Director Alex Harstrick, CC ’12, explained that sexual assault calls to CU EMS are rare, with less than 10 of their 800 to 900 yearly calls relating to any form of physical assault. He also stressed that the CU EMS program provides a transport and not a treatment unit, and any treatment is most likely to be handled by St. Luke’s Hospital. “One thing we do learn is proper care and interaction. Part of that is understanding that regardless of the incident, sexual assault or not, the patient feels vulnerable at the time and so we always tailor our patient care to be extremely sensitive to the patient,” Harstrick said. news@columbiaspectator.com
Men increasingly involved in victims advocacy programs BY JACKIE CARRERO Spectator Staff Writer Sexual assault victims advocacy programs are increasingly working with men as survivors and allies—including in Morningside Heights. Unlike many programs that deal with sexual assault victims, the Crime Victims Treatment Center of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital on 114th Street is completely gender-neutral. Maria Lantigua, CC ’12 and a victims advocate with CVTC, said she took a volunteer training class with both male and female advocates. “My class in October had three or four male volunteers,” Lantigua said. When asked if victims ever felt uncomfortable with a male volunteer, Lantigua said no. “That was a concern for some of the male volunteers during their training, but it’s not always the case that women might not want to talk to a man,” Lantigua said, adding that the center’s other services, including long-term therapy, are available to men as well. The victims advocate program is one part of the CVTC, which was established in 1977 after a woman was raped on Columbia’s campus. That woman was put in St. Luke’s psychiatric ward after she arrived in the emergency room, where there was no protocol for dealing with sexual assault survivors. Today, advocates provide support for victims in the emergency room by ensuring they receive the appropriate attention from medical personnel and police if the victim decides to file a report. Sally Clayton, a therapist with the St. Luke’s program, said that the CVTC’s program was one of the first of its kind to take a gender-neutral approach. “We used to have men called only for male survivors,
but that was changed 10 years ago. We have not had one issue about that. Some people had a preference, but it’s rare,” she said. Clayton also emphasized that men can play an important process in the healing process. “We began to think about how profoundly healing it is for a woman of domestic violence to come into the emergency room to be told by another man, ‘This is wrong what happened to you, it wasn’t your fault and there’s nothing to be ashamed about,’ the shame goes to the person who did this to you,” she said. “To hear that from a man, moments after a man has just been abusive toward a woman, it shifts the world in a profound way.” on-campus activism For Jonathan Ricketts, SEAS ’12, talking about sexual consent isn’t just for girls. He attends Columbia’s Men’s Peer Education Program meetings, a discussion group which addresses issues like homophobia, pornography, and sexual violence. “It’s an open space for men to discuss their feelings,” he said. Ricketts also volunteers as a consent educator with the University’s Sexual Violence Response Program—one example of increased male involvement in both sexual assault education and victims’ advocacy programs. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, men constitute 10 percent of the victims of sexually violent acts in the United States. However, true figures may be even higher, since men are less likely to report acts of sexual violence. On Columbia’s campus, the effort to engage men in social justice work around sexual violence issues has focused around Men’s Peer Education, which was formed in 2004.
APRIL 14, 2011
Changes surround CU’s sexual assault disciplinary process
A Letter from the Editors
Sam Roth Editor in Chief
“The Men’s Peer Education Program was created to reimagine men as allies to survivors and to develop their ability to change the underlying culture of masculinity,” SVRP Director Karen Singleton said in a statement. Specifically, participants said that the program provides men-only discussions of coercion and consent and plans workshops for student groups like sports teams and fraternities.
“We used to have men called only for male survivors, but that was changed 10 years ago.” —Sally Clayton, therapist for St. Luke’s CVTC
“We’re working with the students specifically about their behavior,” said Gaurav Jashnani, the program’s director. “We’re talking about how they understand consent, defining sexual assault, and power dynamics, how they understand power dynamics in intimate settings.” It is unclear how many students are involved in the program. Jashnani would only say that the program has increased in popularity since its inception. Besides Men’s Peer Education, “There isn’t a group on campus that openly has discussions to cater to just men,” Ricketts said. other survivors According to CVTC volunteer coordinator Christopher Bromson, there has also been
an increase in services specifically for male victims of sexual assault. After the center received a grant from the City Council in 2005, it was able to hire a male social worker and expand its programming geared toward men. “It was really a matter of expanding outreach to men— it’s a really difficult demographic to get in touch with. There’s a lot of stigma when it happens to men, so the brochures we created are easy for men to pick up without feeling stigmatized,” Bromsen sad. Male survivors have access to the same services as female survivors at the center, and Lantigua said that she sees male survivors as advocates as well. “At the beginning we think the survivors don’t want us there, but after a while you realize they appreciate that you’re there listening,” she said. Some of the resources that the center provides are also attractive to men. Clayton, who practices complementary therapy techniques like hypnosis and shamanic journeys, said that many of those therapies are attractive to men because they don’t involve prescription medication. Ultimately, sexual assault awareness isn’t divided between on and off campus, with St. Luke’s operating across the street and the CVTC employing dozens of Columbia volunteers to serve as advocates in the ER. “After we’re called we’re supposed to be there within 20 minutes; as a student I can be there in five minutes,” Lantigua said. But for Lantigua, getting involved with sexual violence issues also has personal value. “I wanted to work with survivors because I identify with them personally and have a lot of family and friends who have been affected by it,” she said. jackie.carrero @columbiaspectator.com
DISCIPLINE from front page would be a totally different person right now.” ‘i couldn’t do that’ As Eve started speaking to friends about what had happened that night, she began to realize she wasn’t alone. Over coffee, an acquaintance, Lisa, CC ’11, told her the same thing had happened to her with the same guy two years earlier. Lisa had asked him to get help from the Men’s Peer Education Program and didn’t file a complaint. At first, Eve was tempted to do the same. “I didn’t want to make him suffer. It was literally like I want him to get help and stop doing this to people,” she said. “But I also saw what not filing did to her,” referring to Lisa. Lisa lived on the same floor as the student who assaulted her during their sophomore year, shortly after the incident. Eve decided that she couldn’t run into him at parties or be on campus with him anymore. “It was hard for me, so I couldn’t imagine this girl having to go through years of standing in the same elevator as him,” she said. “I realized I couldn’t do that.” 12-page policy Eve’s friend Spencer said he read the 12-page DPSA policy every night of the six weeks that Eve’s hearing lasted. She and her friends said they felt lost from day one. Hearings take place on the fifth floor of Lerner Hall, in a set of three rooms pegged for student group space. Two deans and a student, who have received a two-day training and are not part of the respondents’ or complaints’ schools, sit in the middle room. The two parties sit in the adjoining rooms with television screens of the panel. The respondent, complainant and their respective witnesses take turns giving testimony before the panel. After both students and their witnesses present testimony and answer questions, the panel submits a recommendation to the dean of Student Affairs at the respondent’s school and the dean issues a sanction if the student is found to be in violation of the University’s policy on sexual assault. Similar closed disciplinary hearings have come under fire recently, following an investigation by the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity, which found that students found to be in violation of university policies on sexual conduct are often given light sanctions. But DPSA manager Melissa Tihinen said that universities require these special procedures for adjudicating sex crimes. “DPSA exists to give students a type of recourse that exists on campus. If a student is concerned about their immediate environment, that’s why DPSA exists,” she said, adding that bringing a case to the police is not always convenient or realistic. new developments Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger said that students have asked him to take a more involved role in resolving conflicts that come about directly after a student files a complaint. “Where we have asked to be more involved is the front end, of being notified if when a complaint has been brought, in case we need to take any kind of interim action. Meaning, students could live on the same floor, and for the well-being of both students we might decide that we want to move them,” he said. In January, Health Services brought in Tihenen, who worked in Residential Life at New York University, to take over managing DPSA from her longtime predecessor Helen Arnold. Kate, a volunteer at the University’s Rape Crisis/AntiViolence Support Center, said she’s heard DPSA is starting to shed its bad rap. “They’re taking it more seriously now. The new director at DPSA is a lot more capable of implementing the system and she’s more committed to obtaining justice for people who go through these things,” said Kate, who requested that her name be changed because Rape Crisis
Center volunteers had been asked not to speak to Spectator. ‘teachable moments’ The University’s Sexual Violence Prevention Program has historically had a conflicted relationship with DPSA. Another Rape Crisis Center counselor said it has been difficult to encourage students to file complaints when sanctions have been so light in the past. She added that many students have been “very unhappy with the results” of their hearings. One student close to SVP said Columbia has hesitated in the past to discipline students to the fullest extent after they have violated policy. “Campuses don’t want to admit that they have all these rapists running around. They consider a lot of cases ‘teachable moments’ so they don’t want to turn people out on the streets when they think they can fix it,” she said. In May 2010, Spectator published an anonymous op-ed from a student who said she filed a claim with DPSA, participated in a hearing and was happy to learn that her assailant had been found in violation of Columbia’s policies and expelled. Shortly after, she said, she learned he had been readmitted to Columbia, with minimal sanctions, after he appealed his case to his dean. Eve said that it’s unfortunate that so many students only recognize DPSA from that op-ed. “That’s the information that’s out there about DPSA. That’s the article that everyone’s read about DPSA and that’s so wrong ... There are flaws in DPSA, but it’s getting better,” she said. Singleton agreed that the op-ed was not representative of DPSA procedure. “We’re not really in a position to comment on individual cases. But I’d certainly remind you … you can’t assume that everything that is said in certain editorials is true,” she said. The University cites the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in declining to provide information about DPSA cases. Although Singleton releases the number of cases that have gone through the DPSA to the University Senate every year, Columbia does not provide information about the results of those cases. Tihenen said most colleges decline to release statistics on judicial sanctions. “I’m on a lot of listservs. I go to a lot of conferences with our peer institutions and that’s not a practice that’s widely used at their institutions either,” she said, adding that the University strives to follow best practices set forth by the government. turning point Christmas lights are draped across the walls of Eve’s living room, where she and her suitemates have always keep their front door open—except for last semester. “The whole time the hearing was happening we locked our door,” she said. “We didn’t know if he would get really drunk and come in and try to hurt us. That’s the thing—when someone you think you know does something like this, it completely changes how you view people ... When somebody’s done something so out of the realm of what you ever thought could have happened, you have no idea what’s going to happen next,” she said. On a recent Saturday, Eve and five friends are talking about her assailant—someone they were all close to just a year ago. “I do believe in my heart that, maybe not now, but years from now he will look back at this moment in his life—and I wouldn’t go so far as to say he would ever be thankful—but I do cling to this idea that on some level he will look back at this and think of the hearing as a turning point in his life,” she said. Her friend Lucy looks a little incredulous but not surprised. “And that’s what blows my mind about you, is that some of the reason you chose to file was to help him in some way. You just said, ‘OK, I’ve got to do something for him.’ The idea that the best thing you could do for him was to file and show that this is serious, is a mindfuck ... but it’s also just so right,” Lucy said. leah.greenbaum @columbiaspectator.com
APRIL 14, 2011
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
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Rape victims feel pressure not to tell BY VALERIA SAFRONOVA Spectator Staff Writer
MARIA CASTEX / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
MEANINGFUL MARCH | Banners are set up in preparation for the annual Take Back the Night event, to take place Thursday, April 14. The march, which is now a national event that was started at Barnard in 1988, leaves from the Barnard gates and invites all genders to take part in reclaiming the streets.
TBTN supports kinship at Barnard, across genders BY ANNE BRINK Columbia Daily Spectator Today, April 14, hundreds of Columbia students will gather at the Barnard Gates to march the streets of Morningside Heights with one shared goal: to reclaim the streets as a safe place, free of sexual violence. The march, well-known to Columbia students, is Take Back the Night—a national event that has taken place on campus every April since its founding at Barnard in 1988. Over the past three years in particular, organizers have emphasized the role of women in leading TBTN over the years while also making the march increasingly inclusive of the entire University. Though the event’s goal to reclaim the streets and raise awareness of sexual violence has remained constant over the years, the basic structure of TBTN has changed. The march is currently in its fourth year of a pilot program to make the event more gender-neutral. The front group that carries the TBTN banner is still all-female, but all individuals, regardless of gender identification, are allowed to take part in the march. Beginning this
year, people of any gender will be allowed to help marshal the parade. This year’s organizers, Jennifer Levinson, BC/ JTS ’11, and Gita Deo, BC ’12, said that this year’s march is about “really engaging the community.” In the past, the march has been attended by students, professors, administrators, and Barnard’s President Debora Spar, along with other neighbors in the Morningside Heights community. This year, Levinson noted, fliers were posted in both English and Spanish to encourage more of the Morningside Heights community to attend. The challenge of maintaining a community feel, especially on a campus as diverse as Columbia, is one of the main reasons for the event, especially for Barnard students. While TBTN is aware that sexual assault affects all genders negatively, Levinson noted that it “affects primarily women,” and that for many Barnard students, a march against sexual assault is a unifying cause for its small student body. Maddie Wolberg, BC ’13 and a Spectator copy staffer, agrees that TBTN is a rallying point for Barnard students. “There’s something cool and empowering of taking over the streets, especially since we’re a women’s college,” Wolberg said.
Levinson also noted that the event is a favorite on Barnard campus. “People have come up to me and said, ‘It’s [TBTN] the one time I feel like there is a community on campus,” Levinson said. The opportunity to engage with such a large part of campus can be especially significant for first-years. Having seen the various fliers posted around campus, Leah Metcalf, BC ’14, said, “I’m ready to be empowered by the whole force of Barnard, especially after Debora Spar’s e-mail.” Di He, a visiting student to Barnard from China, also noted how inspired she felt by the publicity on campus. “I don’t think schools are solving problems like this in China,” she said. “People here are trying their best to keep the streets safe.” Levinson hopes that all participants will be able to take away a sense of empowerment, regardless of their intention for marching. One of the strengths of TBTN is that it reaches out to a variety of campus communities, in hopes that they can unite into one in the name of saying “no” to sexual assault. “The goal is to rally everyone behind the cause and to raise awareness,” Levinson said, “to empower everyone in the community to see that each person is powerful.”
‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ walks fine line between spreading sexual assualt awareness and attracting viewers As “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” reaches the close of its 12th season and its main stars’ contracts come to an end, Spectator reexamines whether the series has been helpful in spreading sexual assault awareness or has benefitted from the spectacle of sexually-based crimes. This is especially relevant considering that this season’s November 16 episode, “Gray,” opened with a Take Back the Night event at the fictional Hudson University.
pro “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” is the highest-rated of its counterparts, eclipsing even the latter seasons of the original “Law & Order” series—profiting, many would say, from exploitative depictions of scandalous sex crimes. For every episode that features a more prevalent type of sexual assault—such as “Consent,” in which a college girl is drugged and attacked at a frat party—there is a bevy of sensationalized plotlines, from pedophilic serial murderers to incestuous sexual slavery. Though it can be tempting to simply label the show itself problematic, it is more valuable to look at the context in which it’s presented—to recognize that, in the current media climate, even sober depictions of sexual violence can be interpreted, or marketed, as sexy. It seems that the show’s greatest crime is simply that it’s a TV show. It’s subject to ratings and pressure to come up with varied scenarios for its characters to investigate every week. Despite this impetus to scandalize, the show does manage to imbue even its most fantastical scenarios with critical discussion about relevant sexual issues.
An example of this is the episode “Smut,” which combines an outlandish plotline about a porn-fueled serial rapist who drugs his victims with an engaging discussion on the pervasiveness of erotic videos, all while showing the audience a petticoat-rustling amount of footage from these very videos in the process. Discourse is paired with shock value, but viewers still come out of the episode thinking seriously about the role of pornography. Even in the show’s most far-fetched scenarios, the message to viewers remains clear: Sexual assault is a serious issue that deserves to be discussed and must be reported, and whose victims should be provided with access to counseling and support. Whether these truly valuable moments of awareness are worth the number of spectacleheavy episodes is a question that requires more extensive debate regarding sex-saturated media and its penchant for catharsis through problematic images. Ultimately, if “SVU” is guilty of anything, it’s of trying to stay on the air, not of thoughtless scandal-mongering. —Anneliese Cooper
ILLUSTRATION BY THUTO DURKAC SOMO
con The popularity of “Law & Order: SVU” has without a doubt increased the visibility of sexual crimes in mainstream society, and, consequently, the social acceptability of discourse surrounding such crimes. There is a reason “SVU” has been on the air for 12 years, and Mariska Hargitay is currently the highest-paid actress on television: The characters are dedicated yet flawed, and the storylines are unexpected and full of twists. The occasional failure of “SVU” to give the viewer a happy or expected ending provides food for thought and plays into moral ambiguities surrounding the notion of justice. At times the show references a dark hopelessness behind punishment of the deviant behavior it condemns, forcing viewers to come to terms with the seedier side of humanity. However, all of the complexity, moral ambiguity, and poignant portrayal of the confusion and inner turmoil of sexual assault victims can also be taken as somewhat of an illusion. There are very few episodes of “SVU” that portray the kind of sexual violence that is most common and most in need of visibility. “SVU” tends towards the more lurid and clearly destructive forms of sexual violence: stranger rape, pedophilia, torture, obscure and uncontrollable fetishes, sex trafficking, and situations of blatant exploitation. The characters themselves are frequently morally complex: a mentally disabled hermit abducts women in his quest to create a human sex doll and then struggles intensely with his conscience and verges on mental breakdown. The viewer is empathetic yet disgusted. The viewer questions right and wrong. The viewer challenges free will and justice. It seems ambiguous and honest, but there is a problem. A majority of sexual crimes are not lurid, perverted, and committed by strangers—sexual assault is most commonly committed by people the victim knows personally and sometimes trusts. Perceptions of what is acceptable can be clouded by alcohol, social expectations, pressure to conform, and emotionally coercive relationship dynamics that may seem harmless to the passive observer. Shades of gray fill the spectrum between consent and rejection, and they’re made even grayer by lack of communication and misread signals. Sexual assault is confusing and difficult to talk about for victims because they may not even understand the events as a violation or a crime. “SVU” will offer a harrowing account into the psyche of a rape slave who fell in love with her abductor, but it does nothing for victims of the shades of gray. —Devin Briski
The Center for Disease Control states that in a 2008 study, 20 percent to 25 percent of women in college reported experiencing an attempted or completed rape. To give a geographically narrower view of the prevalence of rape, the Police Department has released that during the first quarter of 2011 there was a 24 percent increase in reported rape cases. An even more troubling statistic arose out of a recent report commissioned by the White House Council on Women and Girls. Between 2004 and 2008, 54 percent of females who affirmed having been raped said the police were never notified. Rape is a crime—so why do more than half of women who are victimized not contact the police? Last year, Spectator published an opinion piece written by a rape survivor who explained the process she went through at Columbia in order to attempt to bring her violator to justice. After a university panel wrote a 30-page verdict that ruled in the victim’s favor, Dean Michele Moody-Adams signed off on a decision to discount the results of the hearing due to a procedural error. The defendant also appealed, and the victim was not notified. The printing of the article was followed by controversy and a slew of comments, some of which questioned the writer’s choice to seek justice through the university rather than through the NYPD. “Why not call police? This completely escapes me, since she will be protected of her identity regardless, and will most likely bring justice to the rapist by doing so,” one responder wrote. “Was she afraid to interact with police department for some reason not listed in her writing above?” In light of the statistics released by the White House, the answer should not be left unexamined. In November 2006, Mary,* a Barnard student, was raped by a man she met at Henry’s, a local bar. She maintains that she was drugged, as she can clearly remember the sequence of events leading up to the man’s arrival at the bar but only flashes of what occurred after. “I remember lying on the carpet, not being able to move anything but my eyelids,” Mary said. “I remember telling him to stop, repeatedly.” It was not until she arrived back at her dorm, where the guard on duty noticed that something was wrong, that Mary understood the full extent of what had transpired. “I had blood on my faces and bruises. There was blood in my underwear. I was in shock. It didn’t register that I’d just been raped,” she said. In the months following the rape, Mary was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and atypical depression. She couldn’t sleep at night and kept reliving the harrowing experience she had lived through. “I tried so many times to go back to school, and it didn’t work out. My friends were shocked. They didn’t know what to say,” she said. Mary’s rapist was never convicted. In fact, he was not punished at all. Mary mistrusts the NYPD because of her experience. “They treated me like I was the alleged rapist,” Mary said. She later discovered that the man who had raped her was friendly with a number of cops. Despite her parents’ numerous complaints to the police, nothing was done. Reflecting on the entire experience, Mary said, “I can see why victims wouldn’t come out. A lot of victims don’t want it to go public. It was a really stressful situation. I cried through all of the interviews.” Regarding the general response, she said, “I knew some friends would be a little more judgmental—that whole ‘don’t dress slutty if you don’t want to be hit on’ thing.” According to Jennifer Levinson, BC ’11 and JTS ’11, one of the Take Back the Night organizers, other colleges perceive Columbia as being particularly active in dealing with instances of sexual assault. But Levinson said that there is still plenty of work to be done. “There’s a need for Take Back the Night because there are so many impediments to reporting sexual assault,” Levinson said. “If you get to trial, your entire sexual history will be trotted out against you, and it will become very much a character thing. But it’s not about who you are, where you were, or what you were wearing.” Her fellow TBTN organizer, Gita Deo, BC ’12, said, “A lot of times, when survivors speak out and say that they were sexually assaulted, a lot of people don’t believe them.” Mary’s story is an example of how the police can make a victim feel like the defendant. Unfortunately, her experience is far from singular. In a 2010 series titled “The NYPD Tapes,” The Village Voice explored many flaws in the NYPD’s methodology, including in the investigation of sexual assault. In one article, the Voice interviewed Carole Sher, director of Beth Israel Medical Center’s Rape Crisis & Domestic Violence Intervention Program. She said many detectives interrogate victims of rape by asking questions that, according to the article, “are in a way disbelieving, or almost trying to prove that it didn’t happen.” The series also discussed the story of an NYPD detective who revealed that “the downgrading of crimes to manipulate statistics allowed a man to commit six sexual assaults in a Washington Heights neighborhood in 2002 before he was finally caught after his seventh attack.” A third story focused on the NYPD’s attempt to downgrade a felony sexual assault to a misdemeanor. The problem has become grave enough to warrant reforms. Last December, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly created a task force to work on changing some of the NYPD’s policies and procedures regarding sex crimes. *name changed
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OPINION
Sexual Assault Awareness Entertaining violence BY WALKER HARRISON A quick glance at a sports section from this past weekend would most likely reveal headlines on the upcoming NBA playoffs, the threat of an NFL lockout, and the revival of legendary golfer Tiger Woods. The subjects of these articles are all incredible athletes performing at the height of their profession. But another more disturbing, less-acknowledged common denominator for many of these individuals is alleged sexual assault and domestic violence. Yet even the most alarming of these allegations, charges, and convictions tend to be ignored in the larger-than-life world of popular culture. Two of basketball’s best teams, the Lakers and the Mavericks, will be led by their star players Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd. Bryant was accused of raping a 19-year-old during a rehabilitation trip in 2003. Kidd has been accused of multiple counts of sexual assault and domestic violence with multiple women, including his ex-wife. People afraid that
APRIL 14, 2011
Christopher Crawford speaks out on being a male survivor of repeated sexual abuse as a child, an anonymous contributor retells the story of her younger sister’s scarring encounter with a stepfather, Walker Harrison discusses how we try to forget that even celebrities can commit sexual assault, and the Editorial Board reminds us that we should fight rape not just one night but every night.
the NFL is facing a lockout next year will fondly remember its last game, Super Bowl XLV between the Packers and the Steelers. Last summer, seven Packers were investigated in a sexual assault case, of which one was charged, while Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been acccused with not one but two cases of sexual assault in the last 20 months. Lastly, Woods was at the center of a highly publicized case of possible domestic violence between him and his supermodel wife, Elin Nordegren, which elucidated his countless sexual transgressions. The pattern is also apparent in the equally influential music industry. The top music videos on iTunes feature Chris Brown, who beat then-girlfriend and pop star Rihanna (whose song, ironically named “S&M,” tops Brown’s by four spots in a slight instance of poetic justice). Also on the list is a song by Lil Wayne, whose crew was accused of sexual assault during one of Weezy’s recording sessions just a few weeks ago. Further down the list are the artists Snoop Dogg, who was accused of rape in 2003; Eminem, who was charged with domestic violence and whose songs often allude to physically harming females; and Waka Flocka Flame, who was investigated for sexual assault in 2010.
The point isn’t to shine light upon the rampant cases of sexual assault and domestic violence in our favorite forms of entertainment, but to show how easily and quickly we brush off these charges and allegations. With some backward calculus, we forgive perpetrators because of their hit singles and three-pointers, as if professional feats balanced out criminal tendencies. I myself turned a blind eye to my beloved New York Jets’ sexual harassment case—the victim of which, female reporter Ines Sainz, was later labeled as “asking for it” by Fox sportscaster Brian Baldinger—when they began winning game after game. And do not think that the prestigious Ivy League is above these occurrences. Pledges from the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon at Yale marched on Old Campus last October, chanting, “No means yes, yes means anal.” Two months later, a Columbia professor was charged with sleeping with his own daughter. Our inclination to dismiss cases of sexual assault and domestic violence calls for a better, smarter effort when it comes to Columbia and Barnard’s Take Back The Night. The reality is that the members of the community will not understand the gravity of the issue unless it’s brought
to them. Marches, speeches, and movie showings are attended by the people—mostly women—who already recognize the prevalence of sexual assault and domestic violence on college campuses. But the people who need to be informed are the potential victims and offenders, who will most likely only consider these initiatives as nuisances. So, instead, target sexual assault at its source. These incidents often take place during socializing hours, late at night and on the weekends, when alcohol is involved. Thus, the best way to combat sexual assault and domestic violence is to declare a safe, sober weekend. Ask fraternities to postpone parties, or request that local bars hold off on special events. Have students sign up to sacrifice one of their precious weekends and pledge not to consume. The result—quiet Friday and Saturday nights—would pack more potency and remind more students of the issues at stake than noisy marches through campus—because in our fast-paced universe, where the roar of a crowd at a game or a concert drowns out the reality of sexual assault, calm silence might be the ultimate reminder of our better selves.
The story of my rape
accusation. To this day, I am not sure what confused me more—the fact that he did not trust his own son, or the fact that he thought a toddler really had the capacity to sexually assault someone. From then on, my Dad was never able to look at me the same way again. That confrontation was the last memory I had of him before hearing from him 12 years later. For those 12 years, I worried about what he and his side of the family thought of me. And when I consider why he left, one scenario has never left my mind—the question of sexual abuse. As if being let down by my own father was not enough, I was sexually abused again. When I was about 9, I was staying with a babysitter and her foster son, who was about 13. Her foster son not only made me perform disgusting acts of fellatio against my will but also threatened my life whenever I showed even the smallest sign of refusal to do anything. He ran away from home a few months later, and I never had to hear from him again. Even though this period of abuse was shorter, it was not any easier to deal with. I felt so ashamed of myself and what I had let happen that I kept it as one of the deepest secrets in my heart for most of my life. I spent most of my teenage years thinking, crying, physically hurting myself, punishing myself for what I could not convince myself was not really my fault. Another thing that really lowered my self-esteem was the response that I got from the few people I confided in. One person scolded me for not being strong and “manly” enough to prevent any of it from happening, saying that it never would
have happened if I had only “been more of a man” about it. A woman scolded me for having acted like a “crazy white woman,” insulting not only my race and my gender but also my integrity. Even a friend of mine from high school, my best friend until a certain point, acted peculiarly after I told him—he began to cover up his crotch defensively as he walked past me, yelling things like, “Stay away from me! I’m not gay!” or, “I don’t want to be molested!” For a very long time, these situations crushed what little self-esteem I had. No words can express how much it hurt that, even in time of trauma, people still resorted to stereotypes. To this day, I still have trouble coping with some aspects of it. In the end, it was a number of factors that helped me get through the rough times, time and perseverance being very important ones. The second was the mindset of moving beyond the stigma of being a victim and moving on to doing bigger and better things with my life. This is in no way a formula, as everyone operates differently, but it was what got me through hard times. The feelings I had at the time and the experiences of my formative years will live with me for the rest of my life, but how I respond to them and how they affect me differ greatly. If I had to give any advice to a victim of sexual assault, it would be to remember that life goes on and that there are 10 times as many aspects worth living for as there are seemingly worth dying over.
reluctant to report such incidents to campus security. Some feel that the administration will not respond in a fair and sensitive way. Furthermore, the discrepancy is nearly inevitable when for 80 percent of sexual assaults, the perpetrator is an acquaintance of the victim. Consequences need to be more severe for students who commit acts of sexual violence against their peers. Last year there was only one expulsion of a student who had committed sexual assault. If, as is likely, more than one of the reported 19 cases of sexual assault occurred, then why didn’t more than one person face serious punishment? Moreover, this is the only expulsion for sexual assault since 2002. Students who have experienced assault should not have to endure the added trauma of running into their attackers in the hallways or worrying they will pass them on College Walk. Expulsion is not an extreme punishment for sexual assault—it is a necessary one. Granted, the administration needs to be assured of a student’s guilt before dismantling his life in one stern sentence, and sexual assault cases are particularly difficult to prove given their nature, but perhaps this speaks to the need for more thorough and rigorous investigation after the school receives a report of an offense. Very little of the administration’s affairs in dealing with sexual assault are
public, so it’s possible that they are already giving the matter due attention. Nevertheless, students at this school have been vocal about the administration’s lack of resolve and effectiveness in addressing this problem, which, when coupled with the lack of visible discipline of students, suggests that something is lacking in the administration’s approach to sexual violence on campus. By increasing the stakes for students who assault their peers, the University would send the message that it is serious about doing everything in its power to stop sexual violence. Additionally, students should be attentive to the valuable message of groups like Take Back the Night, whose mission is to fight the apathy that can plague our student body. But rather than waiting for the next big case of assault or next year’s Take Back the Night march before we discuss this again, we should not let this issue fall by the wayside. Too often, students, groups, and even the Editorial Board discuss the importance of this topic only when the problem is especially pronounced or when it seems appropriate given the time of year. But the topic of sexual violence should not be confined to April. As students, we need to keep in mind the message of the brave voices of those who have spoken up about their experiences and remember that sexual violence on campus is unacceptable 12 months of the year.
The author is a Columbia College first-year.
Courage has no age When my sister Diana burst out crying to tell me something was wrong on that casual, ordinary day that I repeatedly try to erase from my memory, I thought it was probably because she had missed her favorite show or because of some trivial childish whim—at the time, she was just 9 years old. But her cries became wails and her inability to speak overturned my initial instincts. I immediately panicked and continued to press for information, and after a while of exasperated sobbing and incessant “what”s from me, one word fell out of her mouth: “Edgar.” There was no need for more. Edgar was our recently acquired stepfather, who had been living with us for about three months. I didn’t like him, and upon hearing his name, I began to feel a sentiment approximating hate. She didn’t need to explain anything as I felt the hate intensifying, knowing he had crossed some line. “I don’t feel safe,” was the next thing Diana managed to utter. I freaked out, asking her a million questions that I would finish off mid-sentence before a new one started to form in my mind. The uncertainty of what she would tell me weighed me down more than anything I had ever carried before. I knew that I would be completely crushed by the time she was through. After what seemed like an eternity suspended in chaos, common sense finally rescued me and I calmed down and listened, perhaps the hardest thing I had to do. Diana needed that from me. She began to speak with less fear and less trembling in her voice. “When I went to the bathroom to clean the juice spill off my shirt, Edgar came in and asked me to take it off so that he could clean it for me. So I took it off but I felt really uncomfortable. Instead of cleaning it, he bent down and, and, and ...” Her voice became faint and she was stuttering. So I filled in the gaps with all sorts of different endings, all wishful thinking on my part. “No, no, no, no,” she said with tears in her eyes. “And he touched me here and licked it.” She pointed to the nipple on her breast. I started jumping, screaming, agonizing over my impotence in the situation. My hate wanted direction—I wanted to kill him. Had he been in the house at that very moment, I very well might have. “I was so afraid. He asked me if it tickled. I didn’t answer and ran downstairs fast. It tickled but I felt so weird. I don’t feel good.” I reassured my sister that she had done the right thing and that none of this was her fault. I told her that he was going to pay and directed just about every dirty word possible at him. My brother Raul said nothing as the whole revelation unfolded, merely looking at me with a look of helplessness, wondering what he could do yet aware that the past could not be changed. And yet changing the past was all he wanted to do. His look will never fade from my memory. For the first time, I saw true anger in him. After suffering the impact of the horrific news, I called my mother and told her what had happened. She and my grandma came immediately home to address the situation. My mother handled Edgar. We never saw him again. My sister’s courage and bravery amazed me. She is so strong for speaking up about something so unfamiliar at such a young age, and in doing so, she saved herself from a perhaps more perilous situation with Edgar in the future. Thanks to her honesty, we were able to initiate some investigations on Edgar. Although no official indictment could take place against him for lack of forensic evidence, the inquiry will remain on his record for the rest of his life. Should he repeat such pernicious behavior in the future, there will be no doubt that a precedent took place. As the investigators made clear, his techniques were those of a repeat offender, but because no allegations were made by anyone else before, nothing concrete could be held against him other than our word against his. And the reason this is so is his other supposed victims’ silence. Silence empowers abuse. And today I can say that we have changed the past and that Raul’s eyes can rest. In speaking up and taking action, we have changed the past for someone else whose “present” might have been what my sister lived. The author is a Consent is Sexy coordinator.
RENATA MITTNACHT
BY ANONYMOUS
BY CHRISTOPHER CRAWFORD I never thought it could happen to a person so young, and it did not register until many years later what had actually happened. I recall my first encounter of being raped when I was 4 years old, and, worst of all, it was done by people I deeply trusted: family. I was raped by my father’s adopted kids, the youngest being four years older than I was. They threatened me whenever I tried to stand up for myself. Whenever I refused, they would threaten to tell my dad that I was trying to hurt them or whatever excuse they could come up with. I thought my dad hated me enough—I certainly didn’t want him to hate me more on false accounts. So if I did what they wanted, I had nothing to worry about. This strategy worked for about two years until one day, when I was visiting my father’s house. He was eerily quiet throughout the entire drive there. I wanted to ask him why, but part of me felt that would not have been a good idea. Then we entered the house, and there was a circle of family members surrounding me. I could tell something was about to happen, but I had no idea what. My father did not even look me in the eyes. My heart nearly dropped from the words that came out of his mouth next. “So, I hear you have been sexually assaulting my two boys?” I felt a surge of emotions: sadness, confusion, hurt, rage. I had no idea how to even respond to the
The author is a Columbia College sophomore. He is majoring in Slavic languages.
STAFF EDITORIAL
Assaults have consequences
T
he recent Title IX complaint against Yale University, as well as the advertising for the annual Take Back the Night march occurring tonight, has reminded Columbia that sexual violence is rampant on college campuses—our own included, though we are reluctant to admit it. Columbia reported 19 forcible sexual offenses on campus in 2009. But this number pales in comparison with the latest statistic from the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault that states that one in four women will experience sexual assault while in college. Such a discrepancy points to the truth that occurrences of sexual violence are vastly underreported. It’s horrifying to try and estimate how common assault actually is, and too often, the easier route is to settle into comfortable ignorance or apathy, tricking ourselves into thinking there is no need to be cautious when at a bar or a party, especially when we are with people we know. This gap between reported and unreported cases of assault can in large part be attributed to the fact that victims and survivors are, understandably,