Memories tagged “Low Library”

A New Life I was newly married and starting my studies at the graduate school of library service. Every day I took the bus and the subway from NJ, and stopped at the old Chock Full o’ Nuts coffee shop...

School of Library Service 1978

AN ORIGINAL SAM Some of you will remember Sam. When I arrived at Columbia after the spring 1970 riots, he was sitting on Low Library steps or at the Broadway Gate selling his color abstracts. They were always of fanciful...

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 1972

Beautiful Site Although many of the gardens on campus are lovely throughout the year, my family and I especially appreciate the beds of Columbia Blue iris that bloom just once each year around the base of Low Library. A long...

Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation 1990

Breaking the Tension in Low It was during the days of the Ethnic Studies protests in April 1996. Students had entered Low Library to lend support to negotiators meeting with administrators–but President Rupp took umbrage, and would not meet until...

Columbia College 1996

Heart of a Campus I arrived at Columbia as a graduate student in the fall of 1963. Though I’d visited New York a number of times, I hadn’t really experienced life in a big city and certainly not life on...

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1965, School of Library Service 1975

If I Could Find the Time to Hang Out… I din’t have much time to hang out when I was at CU. My studies were demanding (one year in journalism, followed by one year in SIPA, two master’s degrees squeezed...

School of International and Public Affairs 1993, Graduate School of Journalism 1992

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

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

Ski Jump on Low Steps After a once-in-a-decade snowstorm in the heart of New York, my teammates and I decided (brilliantly, I might add) to venture with our ski gear out to the Low library steps. After all, we weren’t...

Columbia College 2003

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

Stretch & Bobbito Moving from my hometown, Wheeling, West Virginia, to Manhattan to attend Columbia was an eye-opener in innumerable ways. But more than anything, it was the music that made me glad I had made the journey. During my...

Columbia College 1998

Surviving NY Winters The hardest part of Columbia winters was rowing on the Harlem River. Although the crew rowed in indoor tanks in the basement of Low Library during the coldest months, we would be back out on the river...

Columbia College 1960

The Columbia Riots of 1968 In the fall of 1967 I entered the School of General Studies, following a three-year stint as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia. I won’t say that the spring of 1968 was my happiest time...

School of General Studies 1974, School of Library Service 1976

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