Table of Contents Welcome to the Disorientation Guide!............................................................................................................................... 3 Zine FAQ................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 The Rundown......................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Columbia: A Brief Colonialist History................................................................................................................................ 6 The Columbia Student Strike of 1968................................................................................................................................. 8 The Core............................................................................................................................................................................... 10 WelcomeToBarnard............................................................................................................................................................. 11 Admin*................................................................................................................................................................................. 12 Manhattan House................................................................................................................................................................ 14 Native American Council................................................................................................................................................... 15 Columbia Queer Alliance................................................................................................................................................... 16 What is AllSex?.................................................................................................................................................................... 18 No Red Tape......................................................................................................................................................................... 19 A Lot More Deadly: A radical woc/non binary/queer organization............................................................................ 20 Black Students’ Organization............................................................................................................................................. 21 South Asian Feminism(s) Alliance.................................................................................................................................... 22 LUCHA................................................................................................................................................................................. 23 Asian Pacific Islander American Organizing................................................................................................................... 24 Student Organization of Latinos....................................................................................................................................... 30 Divest Barnard’s Guide to Moving Money....................................................................................................................... 32 Columbia Divest for Climate Justice................................................................................................................................. 34 Jewish Voice for Peace......................................................................................................................................................... 36 Students for Justice in Palestine......................................................................................................................................... 37 Columbia, Capitalism, and You!........................................................................................................................................ 38 Student Worker Solidarity.................................................................................................................................................. 39 Graduate Workers of Columbia University...................................................................................................................... 40 Barnard Contingent Faculty Union.................................................................................................................................. 41 WKCR................................................................................................................................................................................... 42 The Columbia Marching Band and U............................................................................................................................... 43 Barnard Outdoor Adventure Team (BOAT).................................................................................................................... 44 Potluck House...................................................................................................................................................................... 45 re:CLAIM Magazine........................................................................................................................................................... 46 The Harlem Raids................................................................................................................................................................ 48 What Is Corporate Feminism?........................................................................................................................................... 50 Barnard Columbia Solidarity Network............................................................................................................................. 51
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Welcome to the Disorientation Guide!
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This pamphlet exists to provide you (a new Barnumbia student) with an alternative perspective and understanding of what Barnard/Columbia is, what Barnard/Columbia does, and what it means to be a student located at an institution of such deep-rooted global power. This is a guide for everyone who is curious about the ways you may experience oppression at this school, and ways in which being a student here forces you to participate in oppressive systems.
Being a dissenting student is a compromising position. Even while we protest for humane treatment of workers on campus, we still benefit from Barnard/Columbia’s abusive employment of that labor; Even while we consider our own questions of justice and equality, we are standing on a campus built on land stolen from indigenous people in buildings where cleaning, plumbing, gardening, security, maintenance and reconstruction are done almost entirely by people who cannot afford to attend this University. For many of us, this dissonance is a catalyst to take action and use our privilege to undo the systems that we object to, including the ones that our privilege is built on. We believe that injustice cannot be undone using the same tools that create injustice. While we have gained many hard-won victories from the Barnard/Columbia administrations, we know that these administrations do not prioritize our well-being unless they have been pushed to do so. However, the administration frequently takes credit for championing social justice concerns. For example, in the wake of campus-wide protests against Columbia’s failure to support survivors of sexual assault, Columbia and Barnard now offer extensive sexual-violence prevention training. Remember that the University only created this program (and other’s like it) as a response to student protest. Be wary of the values that the University claims to promote, and carefully observe the actions that it takes. As students we are committed to learning together, and as the group Asians for Black Lives states, “we don’t have it all figured out, but we are committed to taking a stand, and learning as we go. We will not wait to be perfect, because we believe the time is now and we would rather be held accountable for our mistakes than forgiven for our inaction.” We believe that as we learn together and work together we are stronger than the sum of our parts. We invite you to peruse this guide and get in contact with the groups mentioned. We hope it will encourage you to evaluate Barnard and Columbia more critically, empower you to speak up against the injustices you encounter, and offer give you a community where you belong. We are extremely excited to meet you and work with you! Welcome! Solidarity, The Disorientation Guide Team
*While each author in the guide may not agree with the words of every other author, we all stand behind this guide as a whole.
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LeFrak!
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In the early 1920’s many Ivy League schools began instituting “unofficial quotas” to limit admitance of Jewish students. Columbia’s was the most severe and slashed the Jewish population from 40% of students in 1920 to 22% in 1922 with particular discrimination against Sephardic and Eastern European Jews. Quotas like these remained at Yale, for example, until the 1960’s.
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In 1985, the SAS won their fight for divestment from South African Apartheid. Barnard and Columbia both divested their respective endowments from corporations doing business in South Africa, including IBM, CBS, General Motors, Ford Motors, Coca Cola, Chevron, Mobil Oil, Honeywell, and the Washington Post.
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They Said it Could Never Happen at Columbia…
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ADMIN*
your guide to who to complain to and who to go to for money The bureaucracy runs deep at Columbia University – if you want to get anything done, be it a protest or a teach-in, it helps to know who to talk to and who to press for money. This guide will help you understand who’s in charge of what, and who to ask/yell at/complain to for what.
Administrators: Names to Know
President Lee Bolinger (PrezBo) – Responsible for the whole university, but mostly for buying land, broadening corporate projects, and gentrifying Harlem (and hence, well liked by administrators.) Nigh-impossible to get a meeting with. Barnard President Deborah Spar (DSpar) – Corporate feminist. Much easier to get a meeting with. “Directly concerned” with student interests, has a (limited) history of caving to and appeasing them. Suzanne Goldberg, Rules administrator – Also EVP of Student Life and Presidential Advisor on Sexual Assault. Arguably the most hated figure among the campus left, also mostly a figurehead for PrezBo. She’s often responsible for halting or delaying most student progress. All complaints for breaking of university rules of conduct go through her office, as do most larger student issues. John Coatsworth, Provost – Responsible for the university budget and function. His office plays a role in determining wages of students and other workers. Cristen Kromm, Dean of Student Life – New in her role as of last year. Has claimed to be very interested in talking to students; still, often unhelpful in acting towards progress. Go to for larger issues of student life. Josh Lucas, Director of Student Engagement – Oversees almost all student clubs & advisors at CU. Very concerned for student interests. Go to for serious conflicts over student groups. Alina Wong, Dean of Barnard Student Life – Oversees activities and clubs at Barnard. A lovely human being who will stay up late to help you with logistical emergencies if you know her. Come to her with any issues over broader club function at Barnard. Melinda Aquino, Head of Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) – Huge student ally. Will fight for your rights against discrimination. The OMA oversees a number of cultural, identity, and LGBT groups. Chris Woods, head of LGBTQ+ @Columbia – Arguably the single most proactive student ally on campus. Will help you start initiatives and fight for you in cases of discrimination.
Governing Boards
Columbia and Barnard clubs are overseen by a set of student-led governing boards. If your club is under them, or your project aligns with their goals, you can go to these boards for a co-sponsorship (i.e. they will give you money for events.) Also email them for help finding funding.
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The Student Governing Board (SGB) deals with most activist, political, identity-conscious, humanitarian, and religious groups at CU. Their primary concern is free speech – they will go to lengths to protect your rights to put on whatever kind of action you want, so long as you follow university rules (and possibly even when you don’t, in certain circumstances.) Keep in mind, however, that they have to defend people of all political views. Representation is most often by those with no connection to the issues, to avoid bias. (columbia.edu/cu/SGB; sgb@columbia.edu) The Activities Board at Columbia (ABC) governs more activity-based groups, including cultural groups. This is a fine line shared with SGB, but ABC governs groups like BSO (the Black Students Organization,) AAA (Asian American Alliance,) Chicanx Caucus – but not all cultural groups. Their concerns are often technical, and there have been recent complaints by cultural groups that they are poorly represented and wish to move to SGB. The question & process are still underway. (http://abc-columbia.squarespace.com/, abc@columbia.edu) The Governing Board at Barnard (GBB) is the newest governing board and has perhaps the least resources and connections. They’re technically an arm of SGA, Barnard’s student council. GBB Groups don’t often encounter trouble, since Barnard Student Life is generally supportive. (http://tinyurl.com/BarnardGBB; gbb@barnard.edu)
Funding
Outside funding is often necessary to bring together an event. Some funds and offices that cosponsor on-campus events are: • • • •
LGBTQ@Columbia • The Gatsby Foundation (good for performances) • Cosponsorships from other groups • Governing Boards
**The Chaplain’s Fund (funds almost anything) The Office of Multicultural Affairs The President’s & Provost Fund (for 1st time events)
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**Capital Investment Fund (for buying long-term gear) Columbia Student Life **The Kraft Family Fund (for anything “multi-cultural”)
**funds that have lots of money and aren’t often used
Hot Tips
Professors often feel they have very little leverage in the university at large and rarely come to direct aid, but some will speak out on behalf of students or help you with other advice. Samuel Roberts of IRAAS, Nadia Abu El-haj and Neferti Tadiar of Anthropology, and Joseph Messad of MESAAS are some examples of professors who have been helpful to activists in the past.
Additional funding for events & even going to conferences can be obtained by contacting academic departments. Departments have limited funding for the year (so contact early in the academic year!) and are most likely to sponsor projects by majors or concentrators. Try emailing the department administrator, chair, or a professor you’re close to in the department. If you’re on a club e-board, stay in contact with your club advisor & governing board rep. They will help you out in tricky situations and help you to navigate this ridiculous bureaucracy. If there isn’t a club for something yet – but ought to be – start one! Use friends in another club to help you book space and get funds. You can be recognized by a governing board after one year.
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Manhattan House Manhattan House
Manhattan House
Manhattan House is an on-campusresidence residencewhere where Indigenous Indigenous students maintain their comManhattan House is an on-campus studentsand andfriends friends maintain their communal identities, host events, and relieve the pressures of university and city life. The house was founded munal identities, host events, and relieve the pressures of university and city life. The house was founded in 2012 as a Special Interest Community by a group of NAC members already living together who wantin 2012 as a Special Interest Community by a group of NAC members already living together who wanted to secure a home for Indigenous Columbians for years to come. As the only physical space on campus ed to secure a home for Indigenous Columbians for years to come. As the only physical space on campus dedicated to Indigenous students, Manhattan House is a hub of social life and a refuge from the prejudice, dedicated to Indigenous Manhattan House is students a hub ofoften social life and a refuge from the prejudice, misunderstanding, andstudents, homesickness that Indigenous experience. misunderstanding, and homesickness that Indigenous students often experience. Retaining Manhattan House as an Indigenous student space has proved challenging since its founding.
Retaining House an Indigenous student has proved challenging since its founding. While Manhattan there are more than as enough students eager to fillspace the space yearly, the financial inaccessibility of While are in more than enough eager to fillwith the space financial inaccessibility of thethere building which it is housedstudents (like most buildings Specialyearly, Interestthe spaces) has hindered students’ the building which is retain housed most Interest has hindered students’ ability to in live there.itTo the(like house, the buildings communitywith has Special even been subjectspaces) to “resolutions” such as assigning students the space randomtowithout notifyingsuch the as ability to live non-Indigenous there. To retainand thenon-allied house, thetransfer community hastoeven beenatsubject “resolutions” Housenon-Indigenous or the transfer placements. This has resulted in the Manhattan House community enduring racistthe assigning and non-allied transfer students to the space at random without notifying speech, cultural insensitivity, and thein need expend undue emotional labor enduring to mediateracist exHouse or themanipulation, transfer placements. This has resulted thetoManhattan House community ternal conflicts in our own home. We are advocating continuously for Columbia Housing to differentiate speech, manipulation, cultural insensitivity, and the need to expend undue emotional labor to mediate exfinancial andincommunal policiesWe between residentialcontinuously communities rightfully labelled as ‘Special Interest’ ternal conflicts our own home. are advocating for Columbia Housing to differentiate and communities that require support for culture and marginalized identity. financial and communal policies between residential communities rightfully labelled as ‘Special Interest’ and communities that require support for culture and marginalized identity.
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Native American Council of Columbia Universityof Columbia University Native American Council
The presence of Native American and Indigenous students at Columbia University invokes a rich and complex history. However, our narratives often remain unknown or undermined, and so we aim to offer a piece of them here. The Native American Council of Columbia University (NAC) was founded in 1996 by students at Barnard and Columbia College to support the academic, political, and social needs of the university’s Indigenous student body. In NAC’s 20th year, the organization consists of students from many Indigenous nations across the Americas, Pacific islands, and beyond, as well as allies and friends from around the world. Our community celebrates the diverse intersectional identities and experiences of its members, and embraces all Indigenous students irrespective of enrollment, status, blood quantum, etc. We find it important for our allies to understand that our community and Indigenous peoples at large are not a monolith with regard to national affiliations (read: tribe, band, people, community), language, academic interests, or politics. Furthermore, the NAC community prioritizes a strong and increasingly service-oriented relationship to Native folks beyond the university who live in and/or hold indigenous affiliation to the New York area; we make an active promise to not speak for them. Our major annual events include Indigenous Peoples’ Day (a counter-celebration to Columbus Day), a powwow in the late spring (the only annual powwow in Manhattan), and Native American Heritage Month in November. All are welcome at these events. This Indigenous Peoples’ Day (10 October 2016) will celebrate a plaque’s installment on South Campus that recognizes the Lenape as the original people of Manhattan. Moving forward, our community will continue to focus on Indigenous faculty and staff representation and improving the scope and nature of Columbia’s Indigenous-student recruitment. As our community expands, we seek to achieve adequate resources targeted to Indigenous student experiences at Columbia University. NAC Contact Information: E-mail: nac.columbia@gmail.com (listserv available) Facebook: Native American Council at Columbia University (follow for updated meeting locations/times) Meetings: Wednesdays @ 8:00 p.m., 420 Hamilton Hall
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The Columbia Queer Alliance (CQA) is a student organization for queer and trans students. CQA recognizes the diverse intersections of identities, backgrounds and needs of our community, and remains committed queer and trans liberation hand-in-hand with anti-racism, anti-sexism and anti-imperialism. [image description: the CQA logo. the letters 'cqa' in curly font, filled in with rainbow colors, with a Columbia crown on top of the 'q' and a heart after the 'a']
cqaboard@columbia.edu 16
CQA is proud to serve as a safer space for queer and trans students to share, grow, learn and heal. Some events we've held in the past include a performance of 'Coming Out Muslim', patch and zine-making workshops, Queer and Trans Consent 101, and a screening of 'Tangerine'. We meet Sundays at 2pm in the Steven Donaldson Lounge, a queer/trans (physically accessible!) space in the basement of Furnald. [image description: Students for Justice in Palestine's mock apartheid wall from spring 2016. CQA's logo is visible on the right]
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We are a grassroots organization working to end sexual + domestic violence in our campus communities because we envision a world free of violence + oppression. We recognize that sexual violence is a manifestation of systemic gender oppression which cannot be separated from all other forms of oppression. Therefore, the fight to end sexual + domestic violence cannot be won without eradicating all other forms of oppression including but not limited to racism, classism, ableism, colonialism, homophobia, + transphobia. We seek to foster transparency around issues of sexual violence because we believe that a bottom up approach to building power is the only way to achieve justice. Our current campaign demands more support, accessibility, accountability, funding, + enforcement (SAAFE) to ensure that Columbia University is an inclusive educational environment where survivors can thrive, regardless of their identity (including but not limited to race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, immigration status, + religion). A major demand of our campaign is for the creation of a rape crisis center that is physically open 24/7 + staffed with professional advocates trained in cultural competency. We believe that these changes will improve the quality of resources for all survivors, especially for survivors whose experiences don’t match traditional narratives and who come from marginalized communities. Want to get involved? Sign up for our listserv @ http://noredtapecu.org/newpage/ or email noredtapecu@gmail.com! Our weekly meetings are on Sundays from 7PM8PM. Go to www.NoRedTapeCU.org to learn more about our work + for info on resources.
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“And struggle is at the heart of it all”
—from the BSO History as found by Omoyeni Clement and Dorian Barnwell 02/20/2012
Disregard what you may have gleaned about Columbia from the myriad of recruitment material. Columbia is not the progressive, forward-thinking picture of diversity that it claims to be; no, rather it is anti-Black to the core, in every sense of the term. How so? Columbia is an institution that functions – but even more so thrives -- on the exploitation of Black labor and Black communities; directly aids and contributes to the displacement of Black communities; benefits from the destruction of Black communities; invests in industries -fossil fuels for one -- that directly lead to the disproportionate mortality rates of Black people; engages in capitalist enterprises that put profit over Black life; works with the state to violently police Blackness; co-opts Black organizing to uphold its “progressive” image -- i.e. South African and prison divestment; produces, proliferates, and perpetuates antiBlack ideology; disrespects, disregards, and denies Black life. As an anti-Black institution Columbia’s actions include, but are not limited to: holding a slave auction the day the first trustees were sworn in; financing plantations as a slave bank; robbing Black burial grounds and trading Black slave’s bodies to experiment on in the medical school throughout the 19th century; refusal to even acknowledge the demands of Harlem community members before, during, and since ‘68; divesting from apartheid South Africa to “strengthen their financial portfolio,” but refusing to contribute it to the organizing of Coalition for a Free South Africa; in 1987, taking no action in the wake of yt (white) football players assaulting Black students, yt students planting “[yt] power -- KKK” signs on campus, and bringing KKK literature to campus; refusing to establish the Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS) until 1993; displacing mass numbers of Black and Brown residents from West Harlem to make room for their expansion plans; promising to provide community benefits but failing to follow up; working with NYPD for years to survey and then raid the Manhattanville and Grant housing projects to arrest over 100 Black youths based on social media surveillance; continuing to invest in fossil fuel companies despite the many ways in which climate change have already had on Black communities -- just to name a few things. As an extension of its anti-Black foundations, Columbia tries desperately to stifle and delegitimize collective organizing, especially Black collective organizing. From curriculum to the campus codes of conduct, Columbia establishes a guise of control, attempts to antagonize activism. However, student-activists’ organization and movements have the potentiality for change. Think: halting of the Morningside Park gym, forcing divestment from South Africa, eventual founding of IRAAS, creation of the OMA, the addition of Toni Morrison to the Lit Hum curriculum, and divestment from private prisons -all the work of students’ collective organization. Even still, Columbia would like you to imagine that the world that has been constructed in front of and all around you is untouchable, incapable of deconstruction -- this is true, but only if you try to do things on your own. For us to forge the freedom that we deserve requires a collective organization of resistance, a mobilized effort that operates on our terms, an effort that does not fear the university, an effort that positions us as the object of our own freedom rather than the subject of another’s. The Black Students’ Organization (BSO) bso@columbia.edu Meeting: Thursdays, 9-11pm in the Malcolm X Lounge
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SOUTH SAFA’s mission is to encourage dialogue and mobilize leadership and community action against patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism in the South Asian community. Our goal is to provide a space for us to come together and find strength in our similarities and our differences, to learn about ourselves as well as others, and to find solace in each other when the rest of the world fails to accept us. ASIAN SAFA is a group for those who have dealt with misogyny rampant in their homes, families, and communities. For those who have felt like their skin was too dark, their arms too hairy, their voices too opinionated. For those who are queer, trans, or do not conform to the binary altogether. For those who are not ablebodied or thin. For those who are not on a track to becoming doctors, engineers, lawyers. This is a group for everyone who wishes to challenge South Asian gender norms and think critically about the intersection of one’s multiple identities. FEMINISM(S) Through group discussions, film screenings, mentorship programs and more, SAFA aims to cultivate awareness of struggles faced by so many members of the South Asian diaspora, as well as to foster partnership and solidarity between SAFA and other activist and minority groups on campus. We urge anyone who identifies with our mission to come to a meeting and join us in making this campus a more inclusive place. ALLIANCE
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A BRIEF RUNDOWN ON APIA ORGANIZING AT COLUMBIA & BARNARD Although Columbia and Barnard’s APIA community has rarely rallied around a single issue, Asian American students, working in solidarity with other students of color, have nevertheless made tremendous impact on the University’s trajectory. Most notably, the Center for Ethnicity and Race Studies (CSER) was created in 1996 only after Black, Asian, Latinx, and Indigenous students united to organize a hunger strike that brought the university to a grinding halt. CSER now houses the undergraduate Asian American Studies, Latino Studies, Native American/Indigenous Studies, Comparative Ethnic Studies, and Individualized Study programs (all of which are lumped into an “Ethnicity and Race Studies” major on a diploma). Though CSER has yet to receive department standing or offer any courses on Southeast Asia, the center stands as a testament to the power of student of color organizing.
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Since then, APIA students have continued to make their mark, although rarely as a single unified contingent given the diversity Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Rather, a variety of Asian student organizations have worked to serve their respective constituents, coming together to coauthor or cosign statements or cohost relevant programming. Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage month, for example, boasts a roster of events every single night in April, each organized by different APIA cultural and political groups. APIA groups seem also to come together in moments of crisis. Last spring, when Black Student Organization held Columbia College Student Council accountable for failing to consult students of color in a “race and diversity proposal” to deans of the college, 25
representatives from Asian American Alliance, Club Zamana, and Korean Students Association joined BSO and other student of color groups to revise CCSC’s proposal. Efforts like these, along with the rise of the Students of Color Coalition, which formed last winter alongside the BCSN, offer glimpses at more coordinated movements in the future. In the meantime, APIA students are also working as individuals, contributing to movements big and small both at Columbia/Barnard and in the city of New York. In spring 2016, for example, over a year after Akai Gurley was shot in a Brooklyn housing project, the sentencing of killer cop Peter Liang mobilized thousands of Chinese Americans (many funded and organized by rightwing police organizations) to march in support of Liang. Many Asian American students at Columbia joined members of CAAAV and other NYC organizations to pack the courts in support of Akai Gurley, taking a stance against antiBlack racism that runs deep in many Asian communities. SOME APIA ORGS THAT CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE & THEIR HISTORIES: Founded in 1995, Asian American Alliance (AAA) is one of Columbia’s oldest APIA student organizations. As a student group “recognized” by the Columbia administration and student council boards, AAA has the ability to leverage 26
student club funding, space, and grants in order to put on universitywide events. This advantage allows AAA to reach a broad audience on a consistent basis. AAA’s coremember group typically consists of students who have had varying levels of experience with politicization and radicalization. This means some members may be very comfortable navigating conversations about colonization and antiracist work, while others may be just beginning to identify what discrimination and prejudice feel like. Given this spectrum of exposure to different issues, AAA’s goal is to learn and unlearn as a community while working in tandem with off campus organizations and oncampus student groups. Founded in the 1970s as the Indian Students Association, Club Zamana is the umbrella organization for all South Asian interest groups on Barnard/Columbia's campus. This commitment to South Asian solidarity and acknowledging the relationships of peoples throughout the subcontinent despite drawn boundaries kindled the movement to rename the club "Club Zamana" in 1987. Club Zamana has fostered close relationships with many different clubs focused on different facets of the South Asian identity, be it religion, nationality, music or dance. This commitment to providing a space for those who identify as South Asian to engage with what that means can be seen in the large variety of events which Club Zamana board members organize, from social service to political to something as simple as a study break, and culminates in Club Zamana's largest event of the academic year, Tamasha, the largest cultural showcase on campus, where each South Asian performance group is given a platform to show the Columbia/Barnard community the artistic side of the what it means to be South Asian. 27
Asian Political Collective (APC) is a nonhierarchical consensusbased group of Asian Americans at Columbia. Founded in the spring of 2014 by a group of former AAAmembers, APC formed to address a lack of overtly political space for Asian Americans on campus after a tumultuous year that saw the use of yellowface in a Barnard College theater production, as well as the beginnings of Columbia’s prison divestment campaign. Seeking to avoid the bureaucracy and hierarchy of other Asian American student organizations, APC does not have official university standing and remains small and
community/consensusdriven, aimed at supporting the immediate political goals of its members. APC has thus been able to take a more confrontational stance than other Asian student organizations. In the past two years, APC has held Columbia Musical Theater Society accountable for its use of yellowface in a production of The Drowsy Chaperone; sent groups of volunteers to support CAAAV, a grassroots Asian organization fighting gentrification in New York City; hosted a biweekly reading group for political education; and shown out to pack the courts of Akai Gurley in the Peter Liang trials. 28
Q&A, short for Queer & Asian, is a new Asian American organization founded in November 2015 for LGBTQIA+ Asian students at Columbia. Q&A sprouted out of a AAAhosted panel which called for a space of solidarity and support on campus for this particular intersection of identities. For the last two semesters, Q&A has been working on building its family and figuring out the roles it wants to serve in its community(ies). This year, Q&A will be seeking official club standing to be able to obtain funding and access to spaces on campus in order to host events that highlight the work of queer Asian creators, and to provide a more nurturing space for its members. Q&A strives to be an organization that empowers those who share queer and Asian identities to come together, heal, and grow, as well as to work towards broader goals of education, political activism, and queer liberation. CONTACT INFO aaa@columbia.edu zamana@columbia.edu apcreadinggroup@googlegroups.com qanda.columbia@gmail.com Image credits: All images from Barnard Digital Collections in order: Asian Women’s Coalition & DAAWN, 1986 Grace Lee Boggs Asian Women’s Coalition, 1990s Club Zamana, 1991 Asian Students’ Association, 1980s Asian American Alliance, 1990s Yuri Kochiyama
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The Columbia University Student Organization of Latinos (SOL) seeks to foster and empower the existing Latinx/Latin American identities on campus in an effort to celebrate and strengthen the Latinx Community at Columbia University. As a blanket organization, SOL connects the Latinx Constituency on campus: Alumni Organizations ● Latino Alumni Association of Columbia University Cultural Organizations ● Chicano Caucus ● Grupo Quisqueyano ● Por Colombia ● Organization of Latin American Students ● Sabor ● MexCU MultiCultural Greek Life Organizations ● Sigma Lambda Gamma National Sorority, Inc. ● Sigma Lambda Beta International Fraternity, Inc. ● Omega Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. ● Phi Iota Alpha Fraternity, Inc. ● Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, Inc. Preprofessional Organizations ● Latinx Professional and Educational Network (formerly HSF) ● Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers ● Columbia Quest Scholars Social Justice/Identity Organizations ● Mujeres ● Casa Latina ● LUCHA ● Columbia Firstgeneration LowIncome Partnership
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In addition to cosponsoring events, SOL hosts many of its own events throughout the year, often the result of collaboration across several organizations. On the night of Friday April 15th, Columbia University's Latinx community celebrated their annual "Latinx Awards: Una Noche de Gala" with dinner, an award ceremony, raffles, a live salsa band, and dancing. CU Latinxs came together to honor the individuals and organizations that work tirelessly to foster and empower the Latinx and Latin American identities on campus; to celebrate achievement, culture, resilience, one another.
Latinx Awards: Una Noche de Gala, involved Student Organization of Latinos (SOL), Chicanx Caucus, Grupo Quisqueyano, Lambda Pi Chi, Latino Alumni Association of Columbia University, Latinx Heritage Month, Latinx Professional and Educational Network (formerly HSF), Phi Iota Alpha, Sabor, Society of Hispanic Engineers, and more!
Follow us! http://www.columbia.edu/cu/sol/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/SOL.Columbia Instagram: cu_sol Snapchat: cu_sol
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Facebook: facebook.com/ColumbiaDivestforClimateJustice Website: columbiaclimatejustice.com Email: columbiadivest@gmail.com Cool Divest Zine! bit.ly/CDCJWhydivest
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Columbia Divest for Climate Justice Who Are We?
We are a student group pushing Columbia’s administration to divest the university’s holdings in the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies from our $9.6 billion endowment. We also ask that they reinvest these funds into sustainable community projects that benefit communities in Harlem that continue to be impacted by Columbia’s relentless expansion.
Climate Justice v. Environmentalism
Our organizing is based in the concept of climate justice which is a way of viewing climate change as a social justice issue. Classic environmentalism tends to be motivated by white, upper-middle class individuals and often ignores the ways that climate change does and will affect us differently based on our gender, racial, and economic backgrounds. We believe that climate change presents an opportunity to undermine capitalism and create a system that benefits everyone, particularly lowincome communities of color that are considered disposable by the fossil fuel industry.
Our Power
As students at an elite university we have incredible power to affect social change. Our actions draw national and international attention, as demonstrated by our April 2016 sit-in, and we must use this privileged platform to uplift the voices of those most affected by climate change and environmental injustice. 35
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For 67 years, the Palestinian people have carried on their struggle for liberation, resisting Zionist erasure, ethnic cleansing, and settler colonization. Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine stand with the Palestinian people and all those who struggle for their autonomy and freedom. We, Students for Justice in Palestine, are a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, and community members at Columbia University in the City of New York, organized on democratic principles to promote justice, human rights, liberation, and self-determination for the Palestinian people. We organize around the principles of the Palestinian Civil Society call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel which are 1) selfdetermination of the Palestinian people 2) Right of Return for all refugees and 3) full equality for all citizens regardless of ethnic or religious backgrounds. In partnership with our ally, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), we launched our Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign Apartheid Divest in February 2016. We have taken the BDS movement as our tool to support the Palestinian people in their struggle for self-determination, not only because the Palestinian people have called upon us to do so, but because it is a way to address our own complicity in Israel’s settler colonial project. Where does our responsibility lie and why do we do this work? The United States funds the Israeli war machine with over 3 billion dollars annually in military and foreign aid. Our university has extensive ties with Israeli institutions and organizations. Our tuition dollars fund the stewards of apartheid through investments in our endowment. Our location in the US and, specifically, as students at Columbia University, furthers our own complicity in apartheid and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Above all, we work to support the Palestinian people because we are first and foremost, students who organize around democratic principles, at the core of which is the principle of justice. While the platitudes may be numerous, the message remains true; an injustice anywhere remains a threat to justice everywhere. We, as SJP, stand against all forms of oppression and discrimination- racism, gender and sexual oppression, capitalism, colorism, ableism, et al.
We are SJP. We stand for justice. We stand for Palestine.
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International Socialist Organization (ISO)
, Why is it that we have all the technology and means to bia , m M produce immense wealth—enough food to feed everyone 4 meals lu S o per day, enough homes and construction materials to house C LI ! A everyone, the capacity to provide education and healthcare for T I OU all—and yet, in the U.S., the top 1% controls more than a third of P the nation’s wealth? Why is it that 66 million children still go hungry C A an d Y each year, that millions of people are homeless, and that the overwhelming majority still do not have access to quality schools and medical services?
The reason is that the system we currently live under--capitalism--is fundamentally based on exploiting the many to make profit for the few. Under capitalism, a minority ruling class directly profits off of the labor of the majority, the working class, who is forced to sell their ability to work in order to survive. Capitalism is responsible for countless wars, endless poverty, and mass exploitation and oppression for the sake of profit; and as a capitalist institution, Columbia is complicit in all of these processes. Columbia is not simply an intellectual island in which independent inquiry is allowed to flourish. Its administration directly benefits from maintaining capitalism and the inevitably racist, sexist, classist, and homophobic conditions that arise from it. Columbia is a place where students are molded into the next generation of bosses, politicians, and CEOs who have a stake in maintaining the status quo. Its primary function as a capitalist institution is far more corporate than educational: it exists to train the 1% to rule and reproduce intellectual workers and research for profit at the expense of students, workers, neighboring residents, and the global community at large. Columbia’s actions have made this evident throughout the course of its history. Columbia’s administration is currently hard at work displacing hundreds of Harlem residents for the sake of its expansion into Manhattanville; supporting the oppression of Palestinians both through its investments and by suppressing anti-Israel speech by students and faculty; funding the destruction of the planet; and worrying about its reputation rather than guaranteeing rights and resources for survivors of sexual violence (just to name a few examples). This is all in addition to what Columbia students already know--that Columbia extracts exorbitant fees well over the median family income from students, while paying its president millions of dollars per year to chastise student activists and act as Columbia’s respectable, liberal figurehead. While Bollinger gets paid an outrageous salary, it is actually the workers on this campus--from custodians to professors, support staff to TAs, most of whom are woefully underpaid--that allow Columbia to function. As students, we also occupy a unique space within the corporate institution that is Columbia, and that position gives us the power to make a real change, especially when we can collaborate with workers on campus and people in the communities around Columbia. All the issues mentioned above are embedded within contexts outside of the university, but we can still make a disproportionate impact by acting against the profit-driven motives of the administration. We’re the ones the university is meant to accommodate, we’re the ones who uphold their reputation, and we’re the ones who often pay (either through tuition and/or donations as alumni). As stakeholders in a capitalist institution, we don’t only have the power, but also the responsibility to fight against its oppressive policy. As you can see in Columbia’s own history of student activism, student movements can often lead to change on a larger scale; just think of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against apartheid South Africa, which inspired a new generation of students to push their administration to withdraw its investments from the private prison industry. Now, a new wave of students is pushing for divestment from fossil fuel companies and Israeli apartheid. We, as socialists, see that these issues of oppression are all interrelated because they all have the same roots in the foundations of the capitalist system. The fight against sexual violence is part of the fight against transphobia, which is part of the fight against prisons, which is part of the fight against racism, and so on and so forth. Moreover, this fight is global, and there are revolutionary socialists fighting for justice all over the world; from Greece to South Africa, from Egypt to Puerto Rico. Because the fight against oppression and exploitation spans so many issues and regions across the world, we must develop political principles and experience that we carry outside of the gates of Columbia and well past our graduation. We enter campus with a choice: Are we here simply to get a degree from an elite school, or are we going to actually challenge the inequality and oppression that Columbia perpetuates? We don’t look proudly at the institution of Columbia University; and yet, we have a vision of a world beyond corporatized schooling in which access to quality education is available to all, in which the students, faculty, and workers who run schools democratically design the institutions that they want to be a part of, and in which education, inquiry, and scholarship are the uninhibited governing values that drive our schools.
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Who are we? The Graduate Workers of Columbia (GWC-UAW) is the union representing teaching and research assistants at Columbia. What’s our story? We began organizing a union in 2014 and have been working to overturn a federal legal precedent called the Brown decision that prevents graduate workers at private universities from unionizing. We expect a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board very soon, which will not only allow us to hold a vote to gain recognition for our union, but will also allow votes to take place for other grad unions across the country including The University of Chicago, Cornell, Harvard, Yale, and more. Why do we want a union? Columbia RAs and TAs face insecure conditions, including inadequate pay, unmanageable cost of living increases, a lack of fair grievance procedures, and insufficient health care, family benefits, and international student services. We are seeking the right to collective bargaining so that we can improve our conditions and strengthen worker rights at Columbia. How does this affect undergraduates? Two ways: first, we are seeking to represent any student workers doing teaching or research work, including undergraduates. If you want to sign up, contact us at columbiagradunion@gmail.com Second, even if you aren’t a student worker, TAs and RAs are a major part of undergraduate instruction and do a large part of the work that goes into making Columbia a strong research institution. Our working conditions are undergraduate learning conditions -- a more secure workplace enhances our ability to do our jobs well. How can I get involved? We are always looking for more organizers who can help make our union strong. Please fill out a “Get Involved” form on our website: www.columbiagradunion.org and we’ll loop you in!
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The Barnard Contingent Faculty Union (BCF-UAW) In September 2015, 91.2 % of the eligible voting Barnard contingent faculty chose a union. We are now negotiating a first contract with the Barnard administration.
WHO ARE “CONTINGENT” FACULTY? & WHY HAVE THEY UNIONIZED? Contingent faculty are professors NOT on the tenure track. The “tenure track” is the classic model of professional development in American higher education, whereby a scholar is hired for a probationary period of about 7 years as an Assistant Professor. If the professor passes her 7th year tenure review, she is granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor (and perhaps later to full Professor). Such professors are granted competitive salaries, full benefits, regular raises, and a voice in the running of the college. At other elite liberal arts colleges that charge Barnard-level tuition tenure-track faculty are the norm; at Barnard they are the exception. The vast majority of teaching at Barnard is done by contingent faculty, most of whom receive povertylevel wages, have no job security from semester to semester, few opportunities for promotion, and receive no benefits. We have formed a union to address these problems and force the Barnard administration to commit to the college’s teaching and learning mission.
HOW HAS THE BARNARD ADMINISTRATION RESPONDED? In typical corporate style, President Debora Spar brought in the most notorious unionbusting law firm in the country (Jackson Lewis P.C.) to represent her in negotiations. Over the last six months of bargaining the Jackson Lewis lawyer has refused to offer improvements to benefits and job security and has proposed wages that are, on the whole, worse than today. At no point has Debora Spar sat down with unionized faculty to discuss our concerns or our ideas to improve teaching and learning conditions at Barnard. She has chosen instead to spend at least $100,000 and counting to get Jackson Lewis to attempt to crush our resolve at the bargaining table.
HOW CAN YOU HELP THE UNION? Barnard’s history of progressive activism has inspired generations of students and alumnae to fight for social and economic justice. Join us in Fall 2016 as we extend this proud tradition and escalate our campaign for fair working conditions. www.bcfuaw.org
facebook.com/bcfuaw
twitter.com/bcfuaw
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instagram.com/bcfuaw
WKCR The Original FM So I hear you like Louis Armstrong. That’s funny, because here at WKCR we also like Louis Armstrong. In fact, we like him so much that we celebrate his birthday twice a year. That’s right, one man, two birthdays. But don’t worry, if you flipped to the no-Satchmo camp that’s ok too. WKCR isn’t just a Louis Armstrong fan club. Actually, WKCR has deep roots that extend throughout the broad watershed of college radio and we have been building those roots for 75 years. Only at WKCR have we engaged, in person, the kinds of celebrities who haunt the wet dreams of Columbia students. Neoconservative who likes Ayn Rand? We have interviewed her in the studio. Jazz head who worships Dizzy? We have a red chair that he once sat in. Like the new-fangled compositional meddling of John Zorn? Well, not only does he also like the new-fangled programming sound of WKCR, we were one of the first stations to play his music. But we also have a library of thousands of LPs for those members who are scared of talking to people. What’s that? None of this sounds appealing to you? I can understand that; however, don’t sew your ears shut yet. We might still have something for you. Like news and arts? We’ve got it, and you can listen to some of the finest broadcast journalism to ever grace the airwaves of Morningside Heights. Like history? We’ve got that also. In 1968 when riots were raging and Columbia was at the heart of political change in New York Robert Siegel of NPR’s All Things Considered fame City, WKCR was there to cover the events. there in the center, covering the ’68 protests Running hundreds of feet of cables under the flagstone bricks on lower campus, WKCR provided intensive coverage for the Columbia riots and consistently broke national news stories faster than the major news networks. We have all of that on original reel-to-reel tapes in our archives.
WKCR is a place for your voice to be heard. So tune those dials to 89.9 MHz and listen! 42
the Columbia Marching Band and U TW 4 racist bs Young frosh, I write this story of woe so that you may avoid making the same mistakes I did at yr tender period. Make no mistake, there are groups at our school that do and say racist things. I’m going to tell u about the marching band: I was a person of color who tried to join the marching band. there are some really cool, nice, and caring people in it. they play cool music. but it ended up not working for me as a poc. this is why. Here are a sample of jokes they've said and condoned as a group in my presence: TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW TW What's the difference between a bench and a Mexican father? A bench can support a family of five. What did MLK get on his SATs? Barbecue Sauce. Literally WTF. These are NOT okay, and NOT what this campus needs. Ppl did try to accommodate me as a person of color but when jokes like that are written into your traditions, when a group of yt ppl openly sing the nword bc "it's in the lyrics".... It's not the place to be for some people. 2x a year the Columbia University Marching Band puts on a show called Orgo Night, in which they skewer or parody certain aspects of campus life. sometimes these topics are benign, but often they are not. they sometimes end up directed at really hard labor that activists across campus are doing. Orgo Night has become an argument about free speech, but I don’t think that’s what it is. even though the University condones it and even provides security for it, I think this is about people being able to “tell it like it is” at the expense of others’ emotional safety. the band does not make Columbia a safe space. BUT STILL…. U might hear they party hard and be drawn to that… but activists party harder ;) U may want to make music on campus. Here are some cool groups where you don’t have to deal w/ casual singing of racial slurs and put down the hard work and emotional labor of activists: Voltage!!!! CUSH!!!! Or start yr own band and try to play in the Potluck/Greenboro basement!!!! Just whatever you do, go forth, be safe, and know that the Columbia marching band can be difficult as f##k if you are a minority in any sense.
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re:CLAIM CALLING WRITERS & ARTISTS re:claim is a publication at Columbia that works to center the voices, well-being, and liberation of Black people, people of color, disabled and neurodivergent people, femme, queer, gender-non-conforming and trans people, migrants, workers, and all marginalized identities in both content and in leadership. We strive to embody values rooted in histories of activism, anti-oppression politics, creative resistance, and freedom of expression for those who have been historically silenced. We started up in the late winter/early spring of 2016 as a staff consisting predominantly of people of color, women and femmes in conversation with people doing activism of all kinds. For many of us, helping to build re:claim came in response to the hurt we have experienced at the hands of mainstream campus media, which routinely excludes Black people and people of color from its ranks, and demonizes activists groups. We do not purport to be “objective” (and remain suspicious of those who do), but instead strive to create content rooted in our own experiences and communities. re:claim publishes first-person narrative, news, creative writing, and visual art. Please reach out to reclaim.at.cu@gmail.com or any of the folks listed on reclaimmagazine.wordpress.com if you are interested in getting involved! We make decisions by consensus using a non-hierarchal structure. Recognizing that people have different capacities for and ways of contributing labor, time, and energy, we strive to make involvement as accessible and accommodating as possible. On-boarding involves a brief conversation with a couple current committee members just to make sure we’re on the same page. We’d love to have you!
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Why I’m Occupying a Building at Columbia: Love, Power, and Climate Justice "We must believe that we can change for the better and that we deserve better. In addition to symbolically taking down the fossil fuel industry and other villains of our capitalist economy, we must use this moment to redirect resources towards the creation of the beautiful." by: Iliana Salazar-Dodge Dreams and Visions "As a person born in Zimbabwe, and raised in South Africa, Ivory Coast and Tunisia, I have always had to negotiate my own identities in different racial/ethnic/national/cultural terrains and these works are about that tension." by: Thando Miambo
This Letter Will Self-Destruct [Content warning: relationship abuse, emotion-
al abuse, implied self-harm, suicidal ideation]
"And here I am, the child you always/never wanted, standing at the mirror, reaching all the way back, before empire, before sugar, before family, before nation, to a wholeness I’ll never be able to remember." by: Anonymous Unheard Voices: Interviews on Coping After Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence [Content warning: This piece discusses sexual violence, dating violence, PTSD, and panic attacks.] "Survivors need spaces to heal--in community, in sharing stories, and in relating to and validating one another.” Image Credit: ‘All Hands’ by Diane Perin Hock. Photo: Kati Turcu/Epoch Times.
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THE HARLEM RAIDS It was still early morning when residents of the Grant and Manhattanville Houses heard helicopters buzzing outside their windows. It was June 4, 2014, the day when police burst through residents’ doors in what was then the largest police raid in city history. Later, parents whose children were arrested would recall police entering their homes without permits, handcuffing innocent people, and taking their belongings as evidence. “ The police that were in my house were having a conversation in front of me about media coverage,” one parent said after the raids. “That's not a good feeling, that you're using me to get a promotion.” 103 people were indicted in the raid; that day, police arrested over 40 people. The Grant and Manhattanville Houses are New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) buildings located about ten blocks from Columbia’s Morningside campus, and across the street from the rapidly developing Manhattanville campus. The NYPD’s justification for the raid was the same as what Columbia students heard from their own administration: safety. An email went out the day after the raids informing students that it would “make our city and community safer.” The reality, however, is that a persistent lack of resources for youth in the community is the reason for the violence there, and that services, not incarceration, are necessary if the situation is to improve. What’s more, it has become clear that although promises of community investment were made to Grant and Manhattanville residents when Columbia won approval to build a new campus across the street from their homes, the expansion has brought them only band-aid solutions and increased police violence. There had been violence among youth at the Houses off-and-on over the past 40 years, but tensions had quieted in 2011, when Tayshanna “Chicken” Murphy, a nationally ranked high school basketball player, was shot at Grant. In light of the resulting tumult, community activists stepped up their efforts to bring resources to youth in the area, ideally in the form of a building between the Houses that could provide emergency services, after school activities, and employment training to young residents of Grant and
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Manhattanville. The Community Benefits Agreement promised $3 million specifically to residents of Manhattanville and Grant, but the West Harlem Development Corporation— the group responsible giving out grants from that pool of money--has been slow to act. The WHDC, mired in controversy since its director stepped down in 2014 when a large grant went to his sister’s nonprofit, has been more willing to give money to outside groups that run small-scale arts or sports programming for kids. These programs aren’t bad, but they keep the money away from organizers who are actually from the Houses, and they don’t provide the core services--employment and crisis response--that would actually stop the cycle of violence at the Houses. Now, many of those arrested in the raids are coming back to a situation that has largely remained the same, and in many ways has worsened. NYCHA decided in 2015 to permanently exclude residents convicted of crimes, which means whole families may lose their homes as a result of the raid. If they decide they want to continue living with their children when they return from prison, NYCHA will take away their homes. What’s more, the NYPD announced at the beginning of this summer that they would be carrying out dozens of raids. The 2014 raid of Grant and Manhattanville is no longer the biggest in city history: That title now belongs to a raid in the Bronx that indicted 120 people, arresting 88 in one day. As students, we can’t accept the argument that raids keep us safe. They represent the worst possible response to an issue of systemic racism and inequality. Far from contributing to safe communities, police raids are the last resort of a city that chronically under-services Black and Latino neighborhoods. As our University expands to literally become the neighbor of the Grant and Manhattanville Houses, it is in the University’s interest to heighten surveillance in the surrounding communities. It is trying to create a campus bubble in a place where real people have lived--and, in the case of Grant and Manhattanville, been ignored--for years. It is far easier to cast prior residents as criminals who must be removed than to include them in the “development” that Columbia promises to the community. Mass incarceration is just one aspect of Columbia’s broader effect on the neighborhood: dispossession and displacement. The University’s outright support for the raids, coupled with its lack of follow-up on the promises made to Manhattanville and Grant, sends a clear message to residents: Columbia is coming to your neighborhood, but it is not here for you.
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Wanna uncover Barnumbia’s dirty little secrets? *passion area: social justice
Wed 8.31.16 10pm 606 W. 114th
*activist meet & greet
Fri 9.2.16 1pm Furnald Lawn
*activist tours of campus
Sat 9.3.16 2, 2:30, 3pm Sun Dial
*civil disobedience training Sun 9.4.16 2pm Sun Dial
More events coming soon! www.facebook.com/BCDisguide2016/