We continue to respect our heritage/amorous affair with our mother-magazine, The Blue & White by posting each issue of the magazine online. The latest issue, available this week around campus, is a cornucopia of delights: a harrowing (and fictional) account of the muscles that guard the cheeses at Westside , a strikingly beautiful account of a trek into Pennsylvania coal country. This month staff writer Claire Heyison recounts the history of an age when Barnard’s Greek Games were sincere.

Illustration by Stephen Davan

A group of women, barefoot and draped in cheesecloth togas, enters LeFrak Gymnasium wielding torches. Two priestesses, one first-year and one sophomore, light a fire atop an altar honoring the patron deity, and the sophomore priestess recites a Greek invocation, blessing and celebrating the day. Suddenly, one of the sophomores springs up, issuing a challenge of skills in Greek to the first-year class, who answer. The first-year and sophomore classes then compete in a series of athletic and artistic competitions, presided over by a high priestess from the senior class, a panel of judges, and thousands of spectators. The winning athletes and aesthetes are crowned with laurel wreaths as their classmates celebrate their victory with cries of “Nike! Nike!”

This elaborate ceremony used to take place at Barnard every spring. The Greek Games began in 1903, when the class of 1906 challenged the first-year class to feats of strength loosely based on ancient Greek competitions. The earlier games were informal, and the audience was restricted to students and faculty. Men were forbidden from watching, lending the Games a mysterious, Eleusinian intrigue and thereby instituting the grand Columbia tradition of sneaking into LeFrak to watch the proceedings from the balcony.

Slowly, the Games evolved. In 1908 the categories of song and dance were introduced, by 1909 the students began dedicating each Game to a specific patron deity, and in 1913 men and members of the outside community were invited to watch and judge. As the Games grew in popularity, they attracted guests ranging from Christopher Morley to W. H. Auden (who judged the lyric poetry competition in 1947), and even piqued the curiosity of the Columbia community. As the Spectator put it in 1959: “We came to mock; we stayed to cheer.”

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Our very own Barnard went viral this week when a student got particularly expressive via a laundry room note to a strong, beautiful peer who stole a pair of SPANX. For those of you who are male or have naturally flat stomachs—note to the latter: we hate you—SPANX are spandex that one may wear underneath clothing to give the appearance of a smooth, firm stomach and/or butt. The following image is the original note (it’s pretty gross), which was later posted to Reddit and Jezebel:

Speaking of going viral, how 'bout those certain contagious skin diseases?

Ahoy, thar!

For those of you who (a) didn’t know or (b) were all grumpy-dumpy, today is Barnard Spirit Day! Though events have already gotten underway, there’s still fun to be had.

Until 4 pm, perky people will serve free ice cream in the 2nd floor dining room of the Diana.

And, tonight from 4:30 to 7 pm, head to the James Room on the 4th floor of Barnard Hall for free Build-A-Bear. Free fucking Build-A-Bear, people.

“Can I get that on a t-shirt?” via barnard.edu

Soon she will be frolicking among the colleges, thinkin' 'bout black holes, hummin' some tunes

We’d like to extend some big fat congratulations to Erin Kara, BC ’11, who has just won the Gates scholarship.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarship, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, offers full rides to non-UK students for graduate work at the University of Cambridge. The scholarship is awarded based on “intellectual ability, leadership capacity and desire to use their knowledge to contribute to society.”

Hailing from Bethlehem (PA!), Erin majors in Physics with a minor in Art History. In her spare time she researches Active Galactic Nuclei, and hopes to continue research in high-energy astrophysics at Cambridge, focusing on the mysterious accretion disks that physicists believe power black holes. Erin will pursue an MPhil in Physics from the Institute of Astronomy there, which she plans on following up with a PhD in physics, with a view to a career in research and teaching.

She may be more familiar to you as the music director of Uptown Vocal, a jazz a cappella group on campus, who perform new arrangements of classic standards. She adds that they have a concert on campus next Wednesday evening with a British all-male group (aww!). We wish her the very best of luck next year!

Image via Wikimedia

Barnard students just received an e-mail announcing the resurrection of Greek Games, one of “its oldest and most beloved traditions.” An contest of “beauty, myth and rhythm” whose events included chariot and torch racing and literary competitions, the Games have not been held since annually since 1968, although they have been sporadically revived a handful of times. It may sound like a ridiculously wonderful renaissance (we highly recommend you check out the references from WikiCU), but let’s not forget that chariot racing and absurd classics events have been standard fare even in recent years.

Strong beautiful women in slow motion:

Full e-mail below!

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Despite the rain, this sign was displayed prominently outside of Campo this evening, in order to coincide with the SGA Townhall meeting.

Bwog’s Conspicuous Presence of Testosterone Mark Hay crossed the street with his wand last night.

Barnard women: President Spar has a problem with you. Or rather, with your sense of identity. As she told her cowed subjects amassed in Sulzberger Parlor for last night’s Fireside Chat, over the last year she was disturbed to hear bright and outgoing students tell her that, “Barnard had less of a sense of community than [they] would have liked.”

Initially DSpar dismissed this as a problem of construction obstruction and, like so many, placed her faith in the infinite wellspring of hope that is The Diana. But niggling doubts led her into a deeper investigation, talking with anyone from students to board members, by which she concludes this: There is a strong Barnard identity, but it is tied mainly to the individual aspirations and post-graduation success of the strong, independent Barnard students. And any identities formed while on campus? Well, they’re formed in niche clubs, exclusive organizations, and typically those that are “across the street.”

It is identity, but it is not what DSpar refers to as “rah-rah” identity – the kind of total school bonding she associates with sports attendance at her alma Georgetown. But “Barnard doesn’t have a football team … and probably will not for some time,” and alumni giving is down to 30 percent, and it would be impossible to revive such things as the Barnard Greek Games (because, Spar says, “they’re too 1920s”), so Spar has set out to devise a new way of forming a sense of Barnard community – of uniting 570 incoming students under the Barnard banner without a football team, a forced camping trip (in the style of Dartmouth).

Well, DSpar has mulled it over and now has a proposal – still in the early stages, but she is rather excited about it and it shows. Her new system, based on experiences with creating devoted and enduring communities among the “pretty homogenous” population of Harvard’s Business School, would create societies (example: the Margaret Mead Society) with eighty or so incoming students being arbitrarily assigned to a society. Friendly competition and association with designated alumni (possibly to be involved in regular dinners and/or outings with their affiliated society) would serve to foster a close, inclusive sense of Barnard community both among lost, sheepish freshmen and across class lines. Or as Dean Denburg so elegantly puts it, “It’s what happens at Hogwarts.” Read more…

In our latest installment of “In Defense Of…”, Nikhita Mahtani takes on the haters of The Nexus/Vagelos Center/Diana’s new color scheme.

Barnard’s new student center has been in the making for a long time now. Every semester, Barnard students wait for the incessant banging in the Quad to stop and the walkway between Altschul and Milbank to open, so they can sleep in for five more minutes every morning. Finally, the wait is over, and the inappropriately nicknamed Vag has started showing some signs of completion. But Barnard students are far from happy. 

Unlike the picturesque Alfred Lerner Hall, with its big glass windows and neutral colors, the Vag decides to be a bit more… well, unique in its approach. According to the renderings on Barnard’s website, the Vag will have dull peach/orange colored windows, and the inside will have a multitude of red and orange chairs to ‘complement’ the outside. A mixture of dull and bright reds, coupled with the bright yellow tube lights they have decided to put in, will definitely give all Barnard students the vision of entering the 70’s, complete with hip colors and groovy disco ball themed effects. Not something you want when entering a student center… or is it?

Yes, the colors might be too much and the lighting might be too strong, but the Vag has something that Lerner doesn’t – a personality. For students trying to study at the Vag, falling asleep will be just about impossible; there’s simply no way you could drift into dreamland with those bright lights and colors staring at you in the face.  Imagine how much money you’ll save on coffee and Red Bull! Read more…

Barnard cowgirls and uh, cowgirls, will be treated to a host of Wild West-themed free food and fun today, available for whole campus. Today’s Spirit Day includes free Krispy Kreme donuts in all Barnard dorms, followed by the third consecutive day of BBQ in a row at Lehman Lawn. The Nexus will finally be named during “Celebrity Scoops” at 3, when deans give out ice cream to students. There’s also a class carnival beginning at 7:30.

The posters encourage you to saddle up and see how the Upper West Side was won. Yee-haw, etc. 

Yesterday, Barnard admissions email-blasted all 2,389 strong, beautiful women with a request:  help convince high school seniors that Morningside Heights is the place to be!

Barnard’s luring ladies in with the promise of “a coupon for a free surprise gift” and hoping that they’ll either participate in a phone-a-thon evening or jot down an encouraging postcard to be sent to a prospective 2013.  The admissions phone-a-thon is far from an exclusively Barnard innovation; last year, Wesleyan made much of theirs, and UChicago urged 2012s not to be dismayed by the call from a student (or LOLCAT) they’d never met.

But honestly, who could keep their heart from beating faster when faced with the thought of a lovely Barnard lady on the other end of the line?  Whose pulse wouldn’t quicken at opening the mailbox to find an attractive and welcoming postcard in flowing, feminine penmanship?  Here’s to you, 2013.

   -Image via Barnard Alumnae Affairs

Barnard shutterbugs: if you have a good feel for your school’s intrinsic spirit, take some pictures of campus life for the chance to win an iTunes gift certificate and eternal glory.

BC’s Admission Office asks that you snap some “candid (real!)” photos of your life at Barnard — just in case you don’t know what candid means — that capture its essence. Carolyn Middleton, Senior Associate Director of Admissions, wants to see evidence of “community, diversity, spirit, fun” to lure next year’s batch of strong, beautiful high school seniors to Morningside Heights.

All submissions should include digital photos and a short description of why the photos encapsulate all that you love about Banard. The full email is after the jump. Go get ‘em, girls! Read more…

Exactly thirty years ago today, November 15, 1978, cultural anthropologist, women’s lib advocate, and Barnard grad, Margaret Mead died.  In 1923, a mere 85 years ago, Mead graduated from Barnard with a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and went on to receive a Ph.D from Columbia where she later served as adjunct Professor.  Today more than ever anthro majors at both CC and Barnard have reason to celebrate the contributions Mead gave to her field.  For those who are illiterate in anthro and its vagrancies, Mead’s a pretty big deal.  Breaking both scholastic and gender barriers,  Mead explored attitudes towards sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures and went on to inform and advocate the 1960s sexual revolution.  What a lady!   

If you feel in a particularly commemorative mood head to the Museum of Natural History tomorrow for the final day of the Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival!

With much pomp and circumstance, Debora L. Spar has been officially crowned Queen of Barnard.

Seriously: with this much hoopla, Spar may as well have been garbed in ermine-trimmed gown robes rather than her hot pink academic raiment. But despite the monarchical overtones, and how long it all took, Bwog enjoyed taking in the ceremony from the cheap seats. After all, it happens but once a decade, give or take. Read more…

The Barnard-Columbia Mystery, solved!

Spar’s presidential legacy, seeing as she has not in fact become president, still TBD

Bet it won’t include tripling the endowment

Barnard women need jobs too! 

In other news!

Books writer comes to terms with her snobbery

Columnist comes to terms with his yuppieness

As many of you are aware—or, you know, not at all aware—on Thursday Deborah Spar will be inaugurated as President of Barnard. Hooray! This is an exciting thing!

But did you know that in response to the Big Inauguration, Barnard is shutting down completely? It’s true! Afternoon classes on Thursday at Barnard have been canceled. Oh, and also, all student services offices besides ResLife will be closed, from 1 PM – 5 PM.

This includes Health Services, but don’t worry, there’s going to be an “on-call” number if any dissident dare chooses to have a medical emergency during the ceremony. “Should you have a medical emergency while the Inauguration is in progress, you may call 212-854-2091 and someone will return your call,” wrote Dean of the College Dorothy Denberg in an email to BC students.

And if you’re subversive enough to have planned on getting your mail on Thursday, don’t even think about it. Mail services will be open for three hours, but they’re not FedExing anything, the whole day. You can take you precious mail and your selfish medical emergencies to the FexEx in 116.

A collection of said emails after the jump.

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