Memories tagged “Dorm life”

1968: Year of Decision I am a Vietnam Veteran, a college graduate of the Vietnam Era, and a professional journalist. That should establish either some kind of credibility or culpability. The Vietnam War began when I was l7 years old...

Columbia College 1967

1979 I was a freshmen the fall of 1979 in Carmen Hall. During that time the upperclassmen would yell up to us: “Four more years!” I didn’t quite get what they meant at first, but I soon understood.

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1983

9/11/2001 September 11, 2001 will go down in American history as one of its most tragic days. But despite the all the horrors witnessed, the tears shed, and the fears we felt that day, I witnessed a moment that will...

Columbia College 2003

A Civilian Freshman in Hartley Hall (June 1944) Graduating high school in early June 1944, I entered Columbia College to begin my freshman year the 2nd week of June. We freshman were on the fourth floor of the dorm, and...

Columbia College 1949

A Just Education When I was a freshman I led a panty raid on Barnard. We had at least 100 guys storming the Barnard dorm in search of underwear. (What trophy could be more valuable?) In the pandemonium I hit...

Columbia College 1958

A Perfect Columbia Day Of all the days that linger in my memory, one from my graduate study at Columbia stands out in particular. It was my doctoral defense with visiting professors from Michigan, Yale and Columbia P&S. I could...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1974

A Perfect Match Made in the Dormitory Back in 1960, the Carman Hall dormitory had just opened and was still known as New Hall. The college and the dormitories were all male and the rules did not allow unchaperoned women...

Columbia College 1964, College of Physicians and Surgeons 1968

A Season in Ruggles I arrived at Columbia in September of 1971. My room was in Ruggles Hall, behind John Jay Hall, across 114th St. from Butler Library. I had contracted for the cheapest room available. It was 9 feet...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1980

Adversaries, Old and New In 1964, I was a staff announcer at WKCR and was assigned to do the halftime newscast at the Columbia-Princeton basketball game. For some reason, I could not do the newscast from the WKCR studios in...

Columbia College 1965

Ani DiFranco, Neil Young A high school buddy came from out of town for a few days and saw posters on campus for an Ani DiFranco concert in Wollman Auditorium (may it rest in asbestos-abated peace). Needless to say, having...

Columbia College 1994

Armageddon In early September, 1952, I arrived on campus as a sophomore, a transfer from the University of Oklahoma. It was my first visit to New York. It was the Saturday before the Monday that Orientation of New Students would...

Columbia College 1955

Arriving Early In the fall of 1956, a fellow student and I arrived at Colubmai as the first two students to attend engineering school on the Combined Plan from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. Neither of us had been out...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1958

Beauty Beneath No one would dare call Earl Hall a beauty. It may actually be among campus’s bleakest buildings; ironically, it is the geographical mirror counterpart–if memory serves–to the Maison Francaise, one of the loveliest. Neither I nor anyone I...

Columbia College 1978

Beethoven’s Fifth I lived in a John Jay single my first year, on the fifth floor. My room was in the middle of the hallway, and on one end was Ben Middleman’s. Ben had great and varied musical tastes he...

Columbia College 1997

Best Sports Event Seen Actually, this was an event heard and not seen. The momentous occasion when Columbia College’s soccer team made it to the finals of the NCAA championships in my final year at CC. It was a game...

Columbia College 1986

Calling Cambridge One day in the late 1960s the folks in Carman Hall, Suite 604–the suite right behind the open area in front of the elevators–got a private phone connected. Later that day someone came to use the campus phone,...

Columbia College 1969

Carman 3 “Campus Side” Having visited campus twice before entering the College, I was quite ready to move into Carman for the complete co-ed experience. When I got my room assignment for 304B Carman, I was disappointed with the low...

Columbia College 1988

Carman and the Freshman Line The first memory that I have of Columbia is getting into a long, snakelike line on the sidewalk of 114th Street outside Carman Hall with my parents after grabbing a parking spot somewhere in the...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1988

Carman’s Wall of Sound As a freshman member of Columbia College’s last class to be admitted as an all-men cohort (women transfers graduated with us), we who lived in Carman Hall were likely also the last to experience a certain...

Columbia College 1986

Civil War Draft Riots - Prof. Shenton Professor James Shenton’s lecture on the Civil War draft riots that took place in New York City in 1863 was an exceptional experience for the several generations of Columbia students who heard it...

Columbia College 1982

Co-ed Bathrooms I remember moving into Furnald dorm for my junior year and realizing for the first time that not only was the floor co-ed, but the bathrooms were, too. I noticed that in the stall next to me the...

Columbia College 1994

Columbia Universtiy and Orhan Pamuk Columbia University and Orhan Pamuk October 24, 2006 Columbia Universtiy in New York City became home to two new Nobel Laureates early in October this year when Prof. Edmund Phelps won the prize in economic...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1964, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation 1970

Commuting at High Speed The dorms were full of midshipmen and v-12ers, and I lived in Hempstead, whence I commuted every day, running for the 7:20 train on the LIRR, then fighting my way into the B’way train that took...

Columbia College 1945

Compare and Contrast I was a sophomore, taking the Art Humanities course, and had little prior exposure to great paintings. Halfway through the semester, we were assigned papers and given an instruction sheet. The sheet gave us some points to...

Columbia College 1966

Declaiming in Johnson I remember well the day I moved into Johnson Hall (now Wien). It was a Sunday morning, one of those blue-sky days you just about never see in the city, and everything about the campus looked magnificent....

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1977

Divine Intervention in Hamilton Hall The construction of the International Affairs Building involved heavy blasting, which was supposed to be scheduled to coincide with intervals between classes. Frequently, the blasts came early. Given the religious and philosophical themes in CC...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1976, Columbia College 1970

“Don’t go there” When I attended Columbia, my core Catholicism after 13 years of Catholic schooling was weakish, but still strong enough to send me into the arms of the Newman Club, and to keep me attending Mass on Sundays...

Columbia College 1967

Dorm Life It was a warm, beautiful, late-spring day, and we were studying for finals. As I looked out of my Livingston Hall 2nd floor window, a pretty co-ed walking by caught my eye. I yelled a hello to her....

Columbia College 1958

Dormitories then, apartments now Furnald, in the early 1960’s, had the wood panelling, the fireplace, the overstuffed lounge chairs, and the red brick elegance of McKim, Mead, and White, along with a view of resident comfort which is absolutely stark...

Columbia College 1966

Dormitory Life After a period of commuting, my parents changed our apartment and my brother opened a dental office in my bedroom. It was a good reason to move into the dormitory. I shared my room with a classmate who...

Columbia College 1951

Experimental Art at Prentis Hall One memory sticks out beyond others in my Columbia experience: a series of crazed, semi-unofficial parties in Prentis Hall on 125th St. Home to Columbia’s world-class computer music center as well as the industrial sculpture...

Columbia College 1995

Facilities Manager I spent my first and only summer on campus after completing my freshman year. I had decided not to return to Cleveland, so as to avoid working in the mall or at a restaurant waiting tables. Of course,...

Columbia College 1998

Favorite Place (Not) to Study My favorite place to relax was the gardens at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. I would bring my books along to seek some solace in the serene greenery of the gardens, the occasional...

Columbia College 1990

FBeeOtch My freshman year, 1995/96, I began deejaying at WKCR the last year that the radio studio was located in Ferris Booth Hall. I did one of the overnight time slots, and the hour from three until four am was...

Columbia College 1999

Financial Aid: Thanks, `55 Without substantial financial aid, I would not have been able to attend college. About a third of my education was underwritten by a most generous scholarship sponsored by the Class of 1955. Whenever I meet a...

Columbia College 1965

Financial Aid Quite simply, I could not have even considered coming to Columbia but for having qualified for a Ford Foundation grant in 1952. The program sought high school juniors a year or more younger than their classmates (I had...

Columbia College 1956

Finding Furnald During my first year at Columbia, my home was 929 Livingston, a double with a view across the John Jay airshaft. If you got really close to the window and moved over to one side, you could see...

Columbia College 1965

Flashy New Dorms The new East Campus facility was a great living experience with suites and a nice kitchen and communal area. We had great parties (who didn’t?) and romantic adventures (who said college wasn’t a learning experience?). But most...

Columbia College 1983

Fluffy Little Clouds . . . So I’m living in Furnald Hall during my sophomore through senior years (which was a feat in itself, since everyone seemed to want the large rooms in Furnald!) between 1989-1992, and typically had a...

Columbia College 1992

Forging Friendships on the Road to Columbia Being a part-time graduate student from the business community in New Jersey, my Columbia “social life” consisted of long, afternoon commutes into the city and somewhat shorter drives back home. The many hours...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1987

Freshman Dorm Life Lessons My religious experience at Columbia began from my first day moving in to John Jay hall as a Freshman, where I lived adjacent to an Orthodox Jewish student, a Muslim, a Buddhist and an atheist! I...

Columbia College 1989

Freshman Orientation in Furnald Hall Coming from an extremely conservative immigrant family, I was not allowed to live in the dorms my freshman year. My parents claimed that it was an unreasonable expense, given that we lived just across the...

Columbia College 1992

Freshman Week Hosting: Opening a Door At the start of my senior year, my Freshman Week host duties mainly involved meeting each night with several dozen fresh-faced denizens of an upper floor of Carman Hall. At 11:30 p.m. they were...

Columbia College 1972, School of Law 1977

Freshman Year 1968 We formed a terrific group of friends in Hartley Hall in 1968, a time when we slept on bunk beds, doors had to be open when a girl was in the room, and the hallway floors were...

Columbia College 1972, Graduate School of Business 1976

From MSW to MRS While a second year student at the School of Social Work, I was living in Johnson Hall. I would do my laundry once a week, & on a particular day while I was folding clothes, a...

School of Social Work 1974

Furnald Fun Who doesn’t have a story about the dorms? I remember trekking up all those flights of stairs in my Columbia boxers to move into Carman 13, the band that practiced down the hall and only seemed to know...

Columbia College 1995

Furnald Hall: The Jewel of Broadway Say what you will about the less-than-sanitary shared kitchen and co-ed bathrooms in Furnald Hall: it was still a jewel to me and a fabulous place to live during junior and senior years. Finally,...

Teachers College 1990, Columbia College 1989

Furnald Snowball Fight - 8th takes on 7th If I’m not mistaken, it was one of the President’s holidays in February of my senior year. I was the 8th floor residence counselor with a room right across from the TV...

Columbia College 1978

Geiger Counters One moment from my four years in the Columbia dormitories that I will never forget was during my freshman year (1986-1987 academic year). Campus security, who had discovered that radioactive material had been stolen from the physics department,...

Columbia College 1990

Ghana Be Good During my junior year (Spring 2003), I left for what would eventually become a life changing experience. I had originally been scheduled to study in South Africa, but at the suggestion of a couple of friends, I...

Columbia College 2004

Greatest Sports Moment The greatest sports moment that I witnessed on campus was last seasons Men’s Basketball victory over Princeton at the buzzer on 2/18/06. This came after beating Penn the night before and on the induction night for the...

Columbia College 1994

Hartley Hall 1958 This is the beautiful room of Andy Kubishen and Frank Zmorzenski. It was only like this for the picture (to show our parents). We were roommates for sophomore and junior years. There were a few problems with...

Columbia College 1960

How Did I Ever Graduate?! In grad school, I fell in with the wrong crowd. Well, it wasn’t exactly a crowd–let’s say, the wrong tiny little group of misfits. Cockroach-fashion, we made minimal appearances during daylight but prowled around endlessly...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1977

How I Kept Warm During my first year at Columbia I lived in Ruggles Hall. The main steam pipe went right through my room. It was so warm that I had to keep the window cracked open all winter long....

School of Law 1983

Howard I spent thirty minutes a week with Professor Howard Stein in his Dodge Hall office, where he taught me as much about life as about playwriting. Thank you, Howard.

School of the Arts 1990

Hudson View After transferring from a school with cinderblock housing, metal bunk beds, and views of the nothingness of the middle of Indiana, I found myself in an end room of Maxwell Hall overlooking the Hudson. It was 1971. Not...

School of Public Health 1973, Teachers College 1982, School of Nursing 1972

Hunan Heat in NYC Ah, the powers of the Dumplings in Red Hot Oil at the small, dark, rather dingy Hunan restaurant at the corner of 96th Street and Broadway! They’d call to my roommate and me late at night...

School of Library Service 1971

I Remember I remember blasting David Bowie and Aerosmith to get pumped up before a wrestling meet. I remember the sounds of James Taylor and Jorma Kokonen during those intimate moments at Hartley Hall, and the beat of NYC’s own...

Columbia College 1979

ISLAMIC EXPERIENCE Earl Hall was the hub of Friday noon congregation (JUMMAH) for the small group of Muslim students, Faculty and staff. Muslim worship requires ablution (WUDU cleaning of body parts with water) before attendance. The small crimpy restroom was...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1981

IT’S SNOWING I experienced snow “for the first time again” when, at my freshman dorm (John Jay), the whole floor went out to baptize my next door roommate (who was from India) with a good old fashioned snowball fight. We...

Columbia College 1989

James Farmer and the Cable Guy In senior year I arranged for James Farmer, head of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), to speak at Columbia. I reserved a large corner room in Hamilton Hall, infomed “Spectator” and WKCR, and...

Columbia College 1963

Jet Lagged When I first arrived in Paris, I was tired from my long trip from New York to Reykjavik to Luxembourg, then a train ride to the Gare du Nord. At Reid Hall I was told I couldn’t check...

School of General Studies 1975

JJ7 24/7 365 420 Ask Class of 2004 residents of the seventh floor of John Jay Hall about JJ7 and a wry smile will quickly adorn their faces. JJ7, as we affectionately called it, was our introduction to Columbia–and what...

Columbia College 2004, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 2004

John Jay Allegiance I began my Columbia tutelage on John Jay 11, room 1127, to be exact. I will always remember move-in day - maneuvering those bulky, orange moving bins from the elevator to my little slice of Columbia. My...

Columbia College 2003

Life at Johnson Hall I arrived at Columbia University and Johnson Hall in August/September of 1975. This was the first academic year that Johnson Hall was coed. Previously it had been a women’s graduate dorm. I believe two or three...

Graduate School of Business 1975

Live Jazz Memories Among the memorable jazz moments that still resonate are hearing John Coltrane from point blank range at Birdland, Randy Weston and Mose Allison at the Five Spot, Herbie Mann at the Village Gate, Ella Fitzgerald at Lewisohn...

Columbia College 1966

Livingston Hall: All Three Varieties As a NYC freshman in the (in)famous Dudley’s Follies class, my parents and I thought that living away from home made sense. Rather than live in the almost brand new NEW HALL (nu?), for whatever...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1968, Columbia College 1964

Livingston Hall Freshman year I opted for the cheapest room I could find, which as I recall was $190/semester. It was a double with bunk beds in Livingston Hall. At left is a picture of the room with my roommate....

College of Physicians and Surgeons 1973, Columbia College 1969

Love Letter to Alma Mater Columbia is indeed a special place. Every time I walk across College Walk, a feeling of family comes across my heart and a sense of opportunity comes to mind. I first set foot on 116th...

School of Law 1990

Lunch Date The day I’d like to relive is the day I had lunch with my wife on the top floor of Hamilton Hall. I was in my third year of law school. We were newlyweds, having married at the...

School of Law 1998

Meeting the President’s Wife I arrived on campus in the fall of 1952 as a scholarship student. I waited on tables at Johnson Hall for meals and took extra jobs for income. One of my first jobs was to wait...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1957, Graduate School of Business 1970, Columbia College 1956

Moving In Day at Carman My first year at Columbia, I lived in Carman, which was a brand new dorm. Moving in went smoothly until the door to the room got stuck closed - with my mother inside. We spent...

Columbia College 1990

My “Artsy” Experience In my 7 years at Columbia, my “artsy” experience both on and off campus was significant. On campus, I had a memorable classes in art history, music and in Shakespeare. I also took a class in textile...

Graduate School of Business 1974, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1971

My Dorms My first dorm room was in John Jay. It was not so cold during the winter break compared to my friend’s room behind the FBH building. JJ is very private environment. Not much chance to bump into others....

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1997

My Favorite Campus My favorite times to hang out on the Columbia campus were in the summers. From the times when the South Field was slippery with the dew of the humid mornings to the times when the night sky...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1978

My Favorite Place When I was at Columbia, I was on the Health Science Campus at 168th St. which is not known for it’s “beauty.” At that time, the School of Nursing was located in Maxwell Hall, and we had...

School of Nursing 1980

My First Day Commuting to Columbia My life is now a fast paced blur of events as I run though the treadmill of life with work, family, and the kids, however, first memories of Columbia are still sharp and forever...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1989

My Other Life: A Journey When I hear someone say “I wish I were in 21 again; life was so easy,” I always respond: “You can take 19-23. I’ll stay who I am now!” I came to Columbia-SEAS at the...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 2001

My Roommate? What Roommate? My first semster living in a Columbia dorm was also the first time I’d ever had to share a room (other than bunking with my older brother at home as a kid). Naturally, before arriving on...

Columbia College 1969

My Thesis or My Life During graduate school, I lived on the 29th floor of Haven Tower 2 at the Health Sciences campus. One winter morning, around 4am, one of my three apartment-mates burst into my bedroom and told me...

School of Public Health 1997

Never Mess with a Football Player In my Sophomore year, I was assigned to Ferris Booth Hall. My next door neighbor was a member of the football team and quite large. Ferris Booth was still being renovated, and there were...

Columbia College 1962

Nu? Hall In those glorious days of yesteryear when New Hall was unfinanced and therefore unnamed, women were prohibited from the dorm. Surprisingly, this even applied to Vassar women, as I discovered one rainy day when I smuggled such contraband...

Columbia College 1964

Oddly Collegial In the fall of 1986 I somewhat reluctantly entered the School of Library Service. In the five years since graduating college, I had considered law, theater, journalism, wildlife ecology and clown school. I’d worked in libraries through college...

School of Library Service 1987

Oh, those wonderful dorms Gosh, how do I miss them? What do I miss most? One of the best things was the view from East Campus. I liked staying up late and socializing in Carman: playing spades and hearts, chess,...

Columbia College 1999

On Broadway My most “artsy experience” was in the summer before my senior year, when I ended up taking a class called “The New York Theater Experience.” I was hoping that it would be an easy way to see free...

School of General Studies 2003

Opera in Hartley Hall My sophomore Arts Humanities professor described van Gogh as “passion nearly out of control.” I took that line to bed with me in my Hartley dorm and had the following dream: I’m on the stage of...

Columbia College 1961

Opus Dei at Columbia I was intrigued that you would want to know about our religious experiences. During my four years there, I remember Columbia University feeling like the most God-forsaken patch of pagan indifference on the planet. Perhaps I...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1976

Pains and Pleasures of Dorm Life It was painfully obvious from the first day that I met my first-year roommate that we were different. She had a shaved head, had piercings and tatoos all over, and drank out of a...

Barnard College 1998, School of Public Health 2002

Paul Tillich: The Ameba While an undergraduate, I lived off campus with my parents, but I came to many of the Earl Hall events. I was very excited to attend an informal gathering with Dr. Tillich. I really don’t rememember...

College of Physicians and Surgeons 1964, Columbia College 1959

Perfect Columbia Day Submitted by Rod Allee, GSAS ‘97, American Studies A gorgeous early summer day in 1992. There was a breeze, slow and thorough, that afternoon. The brown haze had been blown clean beyond memory, leaving a shocking azure,...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1997

Porpoises and Philosophy It was the first lecture in a graduate course on German philosophy between Kant and Hegel. Dieter Henrich, a visiting professor from Germany, was giving the packed lecture hall an introduction to the subject, when a person...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1976

Proust on the Lawn One of my favorite recollections from my freshman year is going out onto the (great) lawn in front of Furnald Hall in late spring (finally warm weather!) with my copy of Proust’s “A la Recherche du...

Columbia College 1971

Quentin Anderson Ruminating on St. Augustine’s Confessions, the great Professor Quentin Anderson sat at the head of the boardroom table, we twelve or so sophomores tucked around in confidence of his sage and gentle pronouncements on the humanity lessons of...

Columbia College 1980

Religion at Columbia I was a graduate student in sociology in the 1960’s. My wife and I, both white, lived in Woodbridge Hall at 115th and Riverside. Before we met, she had joined Church of the Master, a largely African-American...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1969

Roar Lion Roar Beyond question, my favorite day/night at Columbia was Saturday January 18, 1964. I was a member of legendary coach Jack Rohan’s first recruiting class and after playing freshmen basketball I moved up to the varsity as a...

Columbia College 1965

Rolled-up Carpet Freshman Year, Carmen Hall, 8th floor (1983) Jon, John, & Steve find a rolled up carpet in a dumpster and say, “Hey, that would look great in our dorm room.” They get in the elevator and try to...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1987, Graduate School of Business 1991

Running for Warmth Coming to Columbia from Cleveland in 1984, I was pleasantly surprised to find the temperature relatively balmy in New York, with the buildings trapping heat and generally knocking down the wind. So after growing up on the...

Columbia College 1988

Scowl (A Lament, with Apologies to Allen Ginsberg) Scowl (A Lament, with Apologies to Allen Ginsberg) I. I’ve seen the best minds of my generation silenced by manufactured fear, Banalized by materialist want, marginalized by a creeping sense of anomie,...

Columbia College 1975, School of International and Public Affairs 1991

Securing a Seat at Commencement 1980 Desmond Tutu was to have been the Commencement speaker in 1980, but he was unavoidably detained, apparently assisting the police with their inquiries back in South Africa. I forget who spoke in his place....

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1980

Sex and the Switchboard I lived in John Jay and Hartley when I was attending Columbia. In those days, there were telephones in the hall on each floor of the dorms, and they were connected to the outside world through...

Columbia College 1956

Shivering at Columbia Arriving at JFK in January of my first year at Columbia, just back from the winter holidays, the flight attendant announced that it was -35 degrees with the wind chill in New York. At first, I hoped...

Columbia College 2003

Shooting Stars I still vividly remember the freezing November morning that I spent on the steps in front of Alma Mater. It was around 4 a.m., and we were still working at Avery Hall, researching and designing. By 5 a.m.,...

Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation 2003

SILENCE & LIGHT I remember two experiences which happened before, and after my graduation at Columbia. Although both were secular events I remember them as profound and at least for me religious experiences. The first experience was an individual one....

Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation 1993

Snapshot of Paris My semester at Reid Hall in Paris seems like a fog, with twinges of red wine and cafe cremes. The short five months blur together in my memory. All that remains are fleeting images of dinners with...

Columbia College 2004

Snowed In If I could relive one day in my experience at Columbia it would be a day in February 2003 when school was cancelled because of a heavy snow storm. I think the central campus was more active that...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 2007

So THAT’S What Life Is About! I came to Columbia largely sheltered from the real world, with little experience other than sitting on a stoop with my friends or immersing myself in books. As a freshman, I was assigned to...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1956, Columbia College 1954

Southern Californian Not Ready for Real Cold My reaction to the first cold days I experienced in Morningside Heights were a little like Dorothy’s initial response to being in Oz: “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” In fact, I...

Columbia College 1962

Stakes Is High to the Red Headed Stranger The first thing I heard when I stepped into my suite at Carman Hall was the album Stakes Is High by De La Soul. The last thing I heard at Columbia, leaving...

Columbia College 2001

Suite Accident In my final year of residence, I was entitled to live in the suites located on 113th street. The hallway of my suite was too narrow for a closet door to open completely and be placed back against...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1997

Sunday mornings at Columbia Chapel An Episcopalian friend of mine, whom I had already known as an undergraduate at Ohio State and who was getting her masters in English Lit at Columbia, sang in the choir of the Columbia Chapel....

School of Library Service 1957

Surviving the Winter Growing up in California, my father was a fresh air fanatic. He insisted that you should always sleep with a window slightly ajar for some fresh air. That worked fine in California, but it created some problems...

Columbia College 1988, Teachers College 1992

Talking Back to the TV (and the Movies at the Nemo) I lived on the ninth floor of Livingston Hall in my freshman year (1958-59) and on the second floor for a few months at the start of my sophomore...

Columbia College 1962

Taps Columbia was probably more interesting than other university campuses musically not just because it was in the middle of a thriving musical marketplace but because musical things happened so serendipitously and had such unexpectedly pleasant consequences. As a freshman,...

Columbia College 1967

T.E.R. Singer’s Class It was a very hot day in June, 1959. We all were seated in Butler Hall, on the top floor, waiting for the professor to arrive. There was no air conditioning, and no fan in the room....

School of Library Service 1962

Thank You Ford Hall I was ecstatic when I was accepted into the Fall 1985 class of Arts Administration students studying for MFA degrees in the School of the Arts. The only problem–no on campus housing available for students who...

School of the Arts 1988

The Anabaptist Vision One of the more momentous, though still little-known, lectures ever given at Columbia was delivered by Harold S. Bender on December 28, 1943, in the Men’s Faculty Club. The occasion was the annual meeting of the American...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1980

The Big Chill Are you kidding? “Big Chill??” I came to the College from Minnesota, where men are men and only whooses put on parkas when the temp drops below zero (Fahrenheit). Winters in New York City were a tropical...

Columbia College 1965

The Casuals The Casuals were a New Wave band c. 1980 who often performed in the crowded front room of that wacked-out fraternity on 114th St that kept having spectacular drug busts. Band members were all Columbia College undergraduates, though...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1980

The Chopped Liver Malted When WKCR was located in Hamilton Hall Annex in the 1950s, there was a coffee shop across Amsterdam Avenue called Columbia Chemists. Every afternoon, the WKCR regulars would repair there for a cup of coffee and...

Columbia College 1959, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1961

The Closing of the Ring Although I am now a New Yorker again, I have lived and worked on six of the seven continents. I was a commuter, a subway student, for the first three years of my Columbia experience...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1950

The Gate During the spring of my sophomore year I moved into a room on the 2nd floor of Hartley, a forced exile from my beloved McBain that I did not take too well. I took it even less well...

Columbia College 1996

The Hogan Life I was studying in Russia when I got the news that I and my friends had managed to snatch a suite in Hogan Hall. Ah Hogan, the King of Dorms and lucky Seniors’ pride! My own room...

Columbia College 2002

The Hungarian Pastry Shop At the beginning of my sophomore year at Columbia College, in 1989, I decided to study Russian. Within a week of starting my first-year Russian class, taught by a charming graduate student whose name escapes me,...

School of Law 1996, Columbia College 1992

The Ike and I As a student at The College of Pharmacy (68th St. and Broadway), I was in my sophomore year. We had to go to Pupin Hall on the campus for physics. During a lab period, we were...

College of Pharmaceutical Sciences 1952

The Invisible Student You don’t know me. I was an invisible student, one of many who worked their way through Columbia. As the lights came on in the dorms, I left for my job as usher at Radio City Music...

Columbia College 1947, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1948

The Lows and Highs of Campus Beauty An urban university campus is not the first place in the world that comes to mind when I think of locations that have the capability to move the soul, but Columbia has these...

Columbia College 1990

The Misfit There I was: a nice southern girl (so I thought) at a nice green-campused southern university with a nice southern roommate, and I was miserable. Academically, I was happy, but socially - well, the year was 1974, and...

School of Nursing 1978

The Thrill (and Agony) of Winter at Columbia As a member of the Women’s Swim Team at Columbia from 1983-1987, I vividly recall both the thrill and agony of the arrival of wind, snow and ice on the CU campus....

Columbia College 1987

This Is a Real Fire, Folks I was head resident of Furnald Hall when I heard this one. In addition to fire drills, in which counselors would herd grumpy Furnald folk out of the building, we would occasionally have real...

Columbia College 1972, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1974

Trying to Study When I was an undergrad, a lot of my mental energy, maybe too much of it, was expended in search of the perfect place to study. As an easily distracted student, I was always looking for a...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 2001, Columbia College 1998

Unusual Memory of the Columbia Library Fresh out of West Virginia for the first time in my life, I was a twenty-two year old library school student at the School of Library Service, Columbia University, in the winter of 1945-46....

School of Library Service 1947

Up on the Roof Carman Hall was horrible: a cinderblock high-rise. But its roof was one of the finest spots in New York City, with views of the Hudson, the midtown skyline, and–on a clear day–the Statue of Liberty.

Columbia College 1973

Water in the Dorm At the beginning of February 1958, the start of my second semester at Columbia, a bed became available in a 3-bed attic room on the 10th floor of Hartley and I bid adieu to my hour...

Columbia College 1961

We Did Have Music! When I started Columbia in 1965, there was an abundance of local musical talent, both on and off campus. Folk stuff had been popular and “The Walkers” were the hottest rock band in Ferris Booth Hall....

College of Physicians and Surgeons 1973, Columbia College 1969

Wein Hall As a member of the women’s basketball team, I was required to stay on campus during Christmas Break. During my sophomore year, I lived in Wein in a single with my best friend across the hall. Campus was...

Columbia College 1995

“What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?” Among the endless forms required of first-time registrants in 1959 was one asking “Religious Preference.” I don’t know if “none” was an option, but to leave no doubt...

Columbia College 1963

Where the Heck Is It? I was the first boy in my family to go to college since my great-grandparents emigrated to this country – something that may have been true for more than a few of my classmates, I...

Columbia College 1956

Wien Hall, Tacos, and a Toilet: One Year in the 11th-floor Janitor’s Closet 86 square feet. There is really no way to understand the true meaning of the size without spending a year in my sophmore-year dorm room. During the...

Columbia College 2002

Window Stops I lived in the Schapiro residence hall the year that it first opened. It was (and I hope still is) an excellent dormitory. Perhaps the most bizarre experience of my life at Columbia was when URH had a...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1989

Winter in New York What I remember most about my first Columbia winter was how it stopped me in my tracks. Spring break 1993 became “stay-in-the-dorm, give up on travel, and sleep” time. But it fulfilled all those magical idealized...

Columbia College 1996, Graduate School of Journalism 2001