60 Comments
Earlier today, Spectrum noticed that anti-frat fliers were posted around campus in response to yesterday’s announcement that several frats—including two involved in Operation Ivy League—are finalists in a competition to get a 114th Street brownstone.
Turns out that B@B decided to extend their trolling from the Internet to IRL in what user Geordi La Forge has titled “Operation Recall.”
Loading …
60 Comments
@WTF are you talking about We did not get along in middle school brother. You pushed me into the slide and dunked my head in the toilet and gave me a wedge. I’ll never forget that Pete!
@RR [reading from paper] I wish we could all get along like we used to in middle school… I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy…
@Anonymous How about we have a huge dodgeball/snowball fight between all greeks and greek participants and everyone who hates frats. If greeks win, no one makes fun of them anymore, and if the others win, they get to say whatever they want. I bet the greeks will win hands down though haha
@Anonymous god knows the frats play dirty. this is totally acceptable.
@I'm going to hold you accountable Defend this statement. What do you mean “the frats play dirty” and how does this justify a direct attack against all of Greek life?
@b@b isn't just trolling it is a community.
@SEAS '15 This has been one of the things that has consistently confused me since I first came to Columbia. Why is there such a large rift between the Greek and non-Greek communities on campus, and why do people see the events and the allocation of resources as a zero-sum game where one party (in this case, Greek life) gaining something is at the cost of another community (apparently according to people at b@b – SEAS, non-drinkers, and those recovering from substance abuse)? As much as I think all three of these groups deserve more resources and time devoted to them, I think that the brownstones going back to the Greek community is a larger net gain than their current use, mainly as stopgap housing (which is its own problem and unconnected to the issue – people saying that they should go into general selection are missing the point because such a move would further fracture Greek life with no tangible benefits to those outside it). If your problem is that this move would pressure people into drinking and partying, there is a good amount of non-alcholic programming on and around campus that goes unnoticed, such as SIC/LLC events (which people openly mock), club events, and a multitude of (free) shows through that stand at Lerner. Meanwhile, for those who do want to drink/party, the few non-brownstone parties consistently get shut down, incentivizing bar drinking (where they’re MORE likely to get date raped/hospitalized/whatever people have been saying frat houses promote).
This misperception is one of the reasons the Student Life Fee should be transparent. If more people see where the money is going in terms of non-alcholic programs, and people had more of a say in how it’s spent, then that would be a huge improvement, and in turn, maybe there wouldn’t be such a backlash at fraternities when their state
@TL; DR -Just because frats gain brownstones, doesn’t mean the student body as a whole loses.
-This is not a housing issue, since the total number remains the same.
-Fraternities are better able to use the space than it is currently.
-Fraternities having more of a presence on 114th St. improves the situation for partiers because it centralizes social life and provides an alternative over bars.
-At the same time, non-partiers should be made more aware of the non-alcoholic events around campus and have more resources devoted to them, with more transparency and democracy.
@Frankenstorm The existence of this campaign and flyer is yet another example of why the brownstones need to go to the Greek community. There have been multiple comments stating that the Greek community is just a tiny piece of the Columbia community and therefore it does not matter. Since when has such a principle ever been respected?
Just because it is a small portion of the larger community does not make it insignificant. It is a shame that to this day, certain individuals still find it okay to target, ridicule, and exploit various aspects of the Greek community and its history in order to make a statement.
I am proud that 4 of 6 of the candidates for brownstones are Greek. I think the committee is doing the right thing.
Mutual respect brings harmony and strengthens communities. These attack ads are no better than political mudslinging, and I hope we will learn to view them as a step away, not towards, the closer community we seek here at Columbia.
@Uhh “Just because it is a small portion of the larger community does not make it insignificant.”
Doesn’t this apply more so to Manhattan House? Columbia’s Native community is small, so they are far more often forgotten about than fraternities.
@Van Owen Blatantly gay.
@Appointed to care Regardless of your stance on Greek life and housing policies, it is NEVER okay to ostracize your peers in this way. I don’t care if you hate frats. I understand if you feel that property is unfairly distributed on this campus. But these people are your classmates. They’re in the dorms with you, in the dining halls, along the distribution curve, and in Butler. To slander them for letters is petty. And to post their photos on intentionally spiteful fliers that are laden with misleading imagery is downright sad.
@the diana Nothing about the imagery is misleading. All of those things actually did happen, and CU deserves to know why the fuck frats who violated housing policy to the nth degree deserve their brownstones back. What have they done to prove their value to the community (besides maybe one half-hearted, self-congratulating ‘charity’ event)?
@Anonymous @Appointed to care: Please, it’s the same shit politicians do. Its effective and it raises a point. It certainly got you slightly butthurt.
@disgusted so just to be clear you can self-aggrandizingly marginalize anyone you deem unworthy of your organization’s membership by not accepting them but you want everyone to tread lightly on *your* feelings for being a part of that marginalizing organization. I am not sympathetic.
@Anon@mous Bwog omitted a shitload of posts on b@b in order to make this look like it was a trolling project. Yes, he joked about trolling but it was clear from the beginning that he was sincere in his desire to fight against frats getting brownstones. Basically you picked two posts that made him look like a troll, left out — literally — dozens of others in which he was totally sincere on this, and decided it was funnier if he was a troll so you would ignore everything else and leave it at that. Dishonest at best, Bwog.
@Anonymous I’m sorry, but when you say things like “come on my fellow /b/tards”, you lose all credibility as a non-troll. Bwog didn’t cherry pick shit.
@broken_symlink I thought this said b@b campaigns against farts.
@sigh Btw, Geordi, I want to get involved with your campaign. What can I do for you?
@MD come on boredatbutler and help design/distribute the next generation of fliers
@sigh Well, it seems like indubitably the frats will get housing. Campus will become more unfriendly. Geeky people will feel more pressured to drink/party on weekdays/weeknights. Drunk text will supplant actual conversations and nothing will change. I can’t wait to leave this place.
@Twitch The frats have a higher average GPA than CC in general. These guys are pretty geeky too. Remember, they were accepted here before they joined frats.
How is it possible that there’s such a large population of students that hates another segment of the student body–one that they clearly don’t know– this vehemently?
People who complain about the student stress situation and then try to shut down the social organizations should really think their positions through better.
If you can’t wait to leave this place, you’re doing something wrong and it’s your own damn fault.
@Anonymous Last night I went to a frat party at Sig Ep. As one girl threw up in a trash can, another girl fell to the floor. At the same time, two more girls were passionately making out on a chair while six or seven fraternity brothers watched. Across the room, two boys kneeled on the floor while their frat brothers poured Nikolai down their throats.
Nothing of this is untrue or exaggerated. I have never seen this behavior at Columbia outside a frat house. This is not the type of environment Columbia deserves or needs.
@SEAS '14 I don’t what you’re talking about, that sounds like a pretty fun party
@Anonymous Are you kidding me? Crawl back into your cave and have fun being an angry misanthrope who hates people who happen to have different ways of having fun. I would much rather like to think that the Columbian our campus needs is brilliant at not just their schoolwork but also being able to chill out and have a social life. Not being a judgmental dick would be nice, too.
@Please explain How Fraternities that earn their house back would contribute to people feeling pressured to drink and drunk text? I thought that fraternities were so closed that they have no influence on campus anyway? What is your real point?
@Anonymous Greeks are some of the most involved people on campus. Being Greek and being a geek (in the sense that you’re studious, intelligent, and involved) are not mutually exclusive. People join Greek life because the campus is unfriendly, they don’t make it unfriendly.
@cc'14 I agree in principle with Geordi Too bad this is coming way too late. Did any of the org.’s that you said would benefit from the space apply for the brownstones?
Because unless you can show/detail how the application process was flawed, I don’t understand what your complaint is. There was an application process, and it seems that Solar Splash and Co. didn’t participate in it. Thoughts?
@science @Geordi La Forge:
What would an engineering club do with a brownstone? There is not much usable space for what I assume a robotics/engineering lab would want in most of the brownstones up for review. Why not try to get Columbia to open up some NoCo space on the floors that are still being built? That would probably be ideal, with the nice walkway that connects all the buildings, and science specific amenities.
Besides, if the fraternity gets a brownstone, that’s less housing in other dorms that need to be used. While the community loses out on the communal space in the brownstone, its not like the space is being wasted.
The whole point of the committee is for everyone to present their proof that they deserve the brownstone. Engineering clubs were welcome to apply. I agree science and engineering does a lot for our school.
@wow PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD:
keep the brownstones in general selection!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/columbiabrownstones/
@wow this is not “trolling”. this is someone expressing legitimate concern
@The Honourably Based FILGB ‘Extend their trolling’. As usual Bwog completely misinterprets the facts. Georgi is simply expressing his belief that the Brownstones should go towards some other organisation/cause (such as a halfway house for students who have suffered substance abuse) then just another frat. What exactly is wrong with this?
@Ummm It might have been the part where that argument is substituted for an ad hominem attack on the people in the organizations.
I don’t want the fratsters to waste space either, but this was definitely trolling (and really funny).
@Anonymous how do you know it’s a he.. gender neutrality plz
@Judy Geordi’s a cis-male. I’m all for gender neutrality and all that, but we’ve actually got some context here. Anyone who’s familiar with Geordi/bothered to read his post history knows how he identifies.
@What the hell is a Cis-Male?
@Judy Why downvote when you can inform? To answer your question, anon: To be cis-gendered is to identify with the gender you were assigned at birth/socialized as. As opposed to being trans*.
@Huxleynaut A halfway house for students who have had issues moderating their substance use? Stigma’s unfortunately alive and well, so let’s not. Imagine walking across campus with a friend, getting to the parting of the ways for separate dorms, getting asked your building, and either feeling like a lie is necessary or feeling pressured into revealing something very personal to someone who may be no more than an acquaintance. WTF FILGB.
@Altaic Polytheism What’s funny is that people are now going to think that Geordi is yet another immature b@b neckbeard troll when in reality he is one of the most supportive people on the site, often organizing Minecraft servers for people to play on or directing people to appropriate Columbia services if they have questions.
@Anonymous penis… also someone has been reading too much gayatri spivak
@lol reading spivak? more like I use that name when I play CS:GO. nt.
@anon But this is a dumb, immature, trollish thing to do, and potentially divisive. He totally deserves to be called out on this shit.
@Anonymous I feel like Bwog has gotten somewhat cynical in what they post. There are several times more articles about the Brownstones than they deserve – sure, whenever they announce the finalists, post something, but it seems like Bwog goes out of their way to post non-stories like this to reap another hundred comment thread shitstorm.
Meh, I say to you! Meh!
@The Dark Hand u really think someone would do that? Just post things on the internet and in fliers to get people upset? This is almost as bad as spec.
@The Light Hand That is exactly what I would expect from bwog, but not spec. Long live spec!
@Not the Light Foot?
@The Black Cock That is all.
@Anonymous The thing is that this is an actual concern for us innocent fraternities. We’d appreciate it if you didn’t kick up more shit than we need.
@CC '13 “us innocent fraternities” LOL!
@Anonymous the amount of positive support for that comment is kinda scary. i didn’t realize greek life was so hated. i can’t really grasp why. the frats that got kicked off aren’t the only frats on campus and they aren’t representative of the rest…
@CC '13 someone needs to get a life
@Geordi La Forge See, I would have a life if there where more study organizations geared towards me and my academics. The burden of proof is on the frats, they must explain why they are such a valuable piece of the community that they deserve our non-existant space.
Let me tell you about space at Columbia. We had a team that ran in Solar Splash (http://www.wikicu.com/Solar_Splash) and did well every year. With enough work, we can turn those brownstones into a workshop. They shutdown because they where out of space. Many engineering clubs are also in that same danger.
The burden of proof is on you, why do you deserve housing that you control. Why can’t you have parties in the party space and how are you increasing the reputation and power of the school more then our engineering club which are getting top scores in technical reports.
@Thing Is... Psi U has only a few brothers who aren’t in engineering or computer science.
@Anonymous That’s no longer the case. Calling them an “engineering club” is grossly inaccurate and is typical of the type of people who characterize all fraternities as drug dealers. While I have my own reasons for believing that they should get their brownstone back, none of them include their supposed engineering affiliation.
@The Person You Replied To I didn’t call them an engineering club; that’s not what I believe Psi U to be, and I’m confused that you think anyone refers to that fraternity as an engineering club. Psi U IS still mostly engineers and computer science majors. And they study together. That’s all I’m saying, troll.
@Me well said. why can’t frats host their events in party spaces?
@A moderate The general war on frats is futile and shows how little understanding you have of Greek Life. That being said, I (and probably many others) would be disgusted if either two of the removed frats were given a new brownstone. Geordi La Forge, focus your efforts on removing those two organizations from the race. You’ll see better results with a more specific campaign.
@If the Fraternities earn their houses back then that means they earned them as decided by a board of their peers, various school administrators, and Dean Schollenberger himself. Surely you don’t think that Dean Martinez or the Dean of housing secretely want Greeks to earn these houses unless they absolutely deserve them back?
@anon I think that the brownstones were taken away for PR reasons, so Martinez and the dean of Housing couldn’t give less of a shit who the brownstones end up with. Which is pretty unfortunate and renders the selection process moot.
@WTF What the fuck does MUDD not having enough space have to do with the brownstones? You are comparing lab/work space or whatever space you need to dorm space. Your argument is flawed. It would be like me complaining that my classroom is too crowded so Columbia should not guarantee housing all 4 years. They have nothing to do with each other you are an idiot.
Furthermore as a SEAS student and a member of the greek life (just like many people are) maybe you should ask around and find out who exactly you are hating on because the actions of 5 people do not represent the 10-15% of the student body who are members of the greek community. A bunch of us are varsity athletes, TA’s, and just regular day to day students.