No, We’re Not Bitter About Gossip Girl
But the Senior Fund Committee apparently is. In their latest fundraising prayer request, the Fundraisers have decided to invoke a little Yale hatred to get those cheap holdouts amongst the 09ers opening their wallets. “Yale’s Class of 2009 already hit 86% Senior Fund participation,” they inform readers, “are you really going to let New Haven beat New York?” Why, we feel the strains of “Roar Lion Roar” stirring in our hearts.
Sadly, the propaganda stops there (the hoped-for history of Yale’s beginnings as a community of coke addicts, for example, fails to materialize). For the rest of the email, the committee instead prostrates itself to its fellow classmates. In fact, “a senior on Senior Fund Committee will drop by your room to pick up your $1 at any time that’s convenient for you!”
Sure, seniors, you may be doubting the wisdom of giving, but how else will Columbia fund watching over you? Full email after the jump.
Yale’s Class of 2009 already hit 86% Senior Fund participation… are you really going to let New Haven beat New York?
Almost 70% of our class has already donated, so now we really need your help. By making your gift to Financial Aid or Internship Stipends, your gift can directly impact another student. So what’s stopping you?
We’re only asking for $1 from every senior – please make your donation today!
CREDIT CARD | www.college.columbia.edu/seniorfund
FLEX | email seniorfund2009@gmail.com
CASH | email seniorfund2009@gmail.com – a senior on Senior Fund Committee will drop by your room to pick up your $1 at any time that’s convenient for you!
7 April 2009 @ 7:11 PM · 19 comments
on 
Not donating; see Senior Playpen.
Why are they trying to play up a Yale rivalry lately? Columbia’s traditional rival is Brown. I’m afraid we are setting ourselves up for ridicule when we pretend our rival’s in New Haven.
but even donating just $1 increases “participation” which is seen by companies and organizations who are looking to give grants and things like that. it ultimately helps columbia way more than inconveniences an individual.
of course, then you can’t voice your dissatisfaction with the administration and the way they handle student affairs. then again, not donating could just as easily be seen as apathy rather than protest.
i’d rather just give the money and find other venues through which to complain to the administration.
a member of the senior fund committee or some shit like that.
nor am i even a senior
i’m just saying. as much as i hate this school sometimes, i am lucky that generous alumni have made it possible for me to attend – if it weren’t for the grants i’m receiving, i wouldn’t be here right now. that $1 (or more) that you spend has ramifications far beyond your reach that could allow another student like me to go here. kind of dramatic, i admit, but it’s the choice between that and a bag of chips at the vending machine. think about it.
I’ve given ~$160,000 to this University already. It does not deserve a penny more.
I am not a member of the senior fund committee, nor am I poster 3. I’ll even admit that I was pretty fucking irritated by the senior fund committee butting into every event this semester. However, I have come around for the exact reasons poster 3 mentions. That $1, no hassle (I mean, send an email and have it picked up from your dorm room at any time, come on!) donation is not a gift to Columbia but an investment in yourself and that degree you paid so much to get.
I thought we were all smarter than this! That dollar will repay in future prestige a hundred-fold without you ever having to return to this campus. Don’t let your degree get devalued because you think you have something to prove. Columbia is on the up and up. Let’s keep it that way!
are what is wrong with people at this school.
Agreed with #7 about poster 6, 4, and 1. I donated money to the fund, and I plan on donating to Columbia on an even larger scale in the future. So what if you didn’t get to drink 40 oz. of malt liquor out of a paper bag on the steps. You received a world class education, made lasting friendships with your fellow classmates, and probably altered your worldview as a result. Who gives a damn about the “war on fun?” I know I would be a completely different person had I gone to my state school, and I think Columbia has helped shape me for the better. The fact that the administration did not hold my hand was something that I was prepared for, and I think it’s a valuable lesson to understand that in the real world you have to take the initiative to get something done.
So please, stop griping. Honestly, the Columbia vitriol here is disgusting sometimes. I never understood how you guys chose to come here if you really didn’t know what you were getting into. And no, I am in no way involved with the senior fund.
I thought your post was interesting and got me a bit riled up. I’m an alumnus and was fairly upset about the way Columbia acted for the four years I was there. They have one of the most uncaring bureaucracies of any university I’ve ever seen, and frankly it’s not about hand-holding, but about common courtesy. The two departments I was a part of were extraordinarily rude places and not nice to be in. For one of my majors I came close to not completing and went to have a chat with one of the advisers in the department. She cleared a class to count towards the major and signed off on it (a high-ranking, well-known, tenured member of the department). Lo and behold one week prior to graduation I get an e-mail from one of the rudest professors I have ever had to deal with along with the arsehole DA who runs the department. They accused me of not-completing the major (and not having a major at all, as they didn’t know I had already finished a previous one). Story short, I had to have a screaming match wit these two arses to simply get the major I had earned. It was a lovely way to end four years of crap bureaucracy at the “Angriest College on Earth (TM)”
I now am a grad student at my state’s very well-regarded public school. I look around me at the rolling greens, happy students, warm weather, good food, and general friendly atmosphere and I really question why I didn’t come here. I think the ‘name’ of Columbia swayed me and I wish I hadn’t concentrated so much on name at that point. The education the students get here is just as good (if not better for the more attentive attention professors give) as Columbia and a much better environment. The students have just as much ‘freedom’ and frankly I don’t know what you are talking about. What has Columbia stopped you from doing during undergrad? The only thing I can say is that the ridiculous antics of the Study-Abroad office almost kept me from going abroad and it took a tenured professor in my department to call up the dean and have words with her to get her to allow me to go. Columbia is run by a bunch of lumbering apes and there are reasons that many of the departments are beginning to hemorrhage professors…
one dollar does not buy prestige…
if you wanted it, or cared about it, you would either donate lots more, or gone somewhere else.
they should let people donate to facilities… columbia is falling apart! and we probably have the shittiest facilities in the ivy league.
i’m so poor that I am on a full ride, but i know that getting that class participation up is important so I donated. i’m hoping everyone else does, apparently the donation will be matched if we hit a certain rate, so I hope everyone donates. that means more money for the school and more money for the students.
you weren’t aware, you can get a “world class” education at a number of schools that take much better care of their students. If you’re really a senior, you should realize that Columbia has changed for the worse in regards to student affairs over the past four years. I don’t care if you’re some sort of masochist who feels like you’ve benefited from the poor way Columbia treats its students–don’t belittle those who have a life. Some of us actually see college as something more than a diploma.
There’s always a bit of a response bias in these comments, so let the record note that I also feel strongly enough to point out that I am:
- A senior
- Not a member of senior fund
- Really fucking proud of this school
- Deeply satisfied with my education, friendships, and experience here
- Able to spare a dollar, and most importantly
- Not petty about all the times I’ve been dicked over by the administration.
I’ve had my share of run-ins with Housing, disciplinary bullshit, unfair policies, not fun events, facilities issues in historic buildings, maddening requirements, scant advising, and tuition expenses. But you know what? None of that shit matters. Most of us learned a long time ago that large institutions are aggregates; in a place the size of Columbia, you’ll get a wide range of people working in the administration. And for every grievance, I can cite a dozen inspiring professors, mentors, and yes even administrators who work hard every day trying to make Columbia a better place. I hope that my fellow classmates, after four years here, are mature enough to recognize that Columbia is, in many respects, part of the “real world”, and that means that it’s not going to be perfect. If Columbia wasn’t right for you, fine, that’s too bad. But to act like there’s some kind of higher principle in being miserly about a dollar is really disgusting. Grow up.
For those of you making arguments about how Columbia doesn’t hold our hands, think about what Senior Playpen, Lerner Pub, and most other student activities represent: increasingly prevalent control.
You’re right, Columbia doesn’t hold our hands when it comes to advising. Instead it ties them to regulations that limit our personal and social lives. Anyone here who has ever tried to run an event by the administration’s rules will agree with that statement. Heck, even anyone who’s tried to enjoy some measure of privacy in their dorms will note that, or did everyone miss the announcement that CU can and will search rooms during fire drills?
Part of what I loved about Columbia, back when I first got here, was the social and personal freedoms I enjoyed here, something many of my friends at other schools did not enjoy. Those freedoms have to various evaporated. I don’t think this direction is right, and so I won’t donate to a fund in support of the institution that continues to accept only those freedoms of which it approves.
ffuuccckkk the senior fund.
yeah i got an ok education, but this place treats us like shit. what better way to protest the way columbia has treated us? if only a small percentage of us gave, they would be forced to think.
not giving isn’t going to show them anything. neither is giving, really, so complaints with the administration should be taken through other avenues. the only thing a low participation rate shows is laziness on the part of the students. i mean it’s not like you can denote whether it’s a “no, i’m lazy” or “no, i’m angry at student life”.
that the senior fund monies go into a general pool. If you could designate specific departments you can donate to, I’d gladly donate.
I think people need to make a distinction between academics and Student Life at Columbia. I think academics at this university are great; advisors are helpful (although they don’t hold your hand) and in general the quality of faculty, research, and your access to opportunity to further your studies/research/jobs are pretty decent at this University.
Student Affairs on the other hand is complete shit. When you’re donating to senior fund, you aren’t really subsidizing anything in Student Affairs (or you can choose not to). So as tempted as I was not to donate, I would rather improve the aspects of the school I care about, like Financial aid, student services, etc. because they are separate from Student Affairs.
I think what we really need to acknowledge however is that if you elect jackass populists to student council (Mark Johnson? George Krebs?) and allow ESC’s leadership to elect themselves in some sort of twisted autocracy, you will end up losing the war with Student Affairs.
Anyway, if Student Affairs has dicked you over enough that you don’t want to subsidize ANY aspect of the University (no matter how unrelated to student affairs), I guess that’s ok, but not really productive in any way.