Memories tagged “John Jay”

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

An Arizona Columbia Wedding Several of my undergraduate friends, including people I lived with Freshman year in John Jay 15, will be attending my Phoenix wedding. Guests include Veru Narula, Dimitri Christopolous and Rasheq Zarif. I am currently a student...

Graduate School of Business 2007, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 2003

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

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

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

Bunk Bed in John Jay We had three people in two rooms on the 6th floor of John Jay for the first semester of our freshman year. Our furniture consisted of a double decker bunk bed and a cot. Marvin...

Columbia College 1959

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

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

Freshman Arrival After having attended a rather conservative and traditional high school, I was immediately excited and electrified by the freedom of my first semester at Columbia…the variety of intelligent classmates from all over the world made my first year...

Columbia College 1989

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

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

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

John Jay More Rooms than the Tombs Roaches the Size of Rats (& Rats the Size of Dogs) Common Crapper Bathrooms With sirens blaring near St. Luke’s And the Everpresent Aroma of Mold. The FIT girls Still thought us Good...

Columbia College 1978

Laundry Here’s a glamorous and exciting memory. When I think of relaxing on Saturday night at Columbia, I remember doing my laundry and then watching “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” on the TV in John Jay. (It was the only...

Columbia College 1977

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

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 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

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

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

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

The 1001 Nights of John Jay 1am on a weeknight will find most working people either asleep, preparing to go to sleep, or wanting to go to sleep. For the people of John Jay 7 it was different: 1am or...

Columbia College 2004

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 great flood of ‘92 Who would have thought that living on the 12th floor of John Jay would require flood insurance? One day a standpipe broke on the 14th floor, and a foot of water flooded the 14th and...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1992

The Pub Relaxing in the basement of John Jay in the Pub was a frequent activity. Of course, back then, the Pub was a real pub. When another graduate and I recently visited campus, how things have evolved – having...

Graduate School of Business 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