David Fine

Here we have one of Bwog’s favorite green sock wearers: David Fine.

Name, Hometown, School: David Fine, Dallas, TX, CC

Claim to fame? Editor of The Current, wearer of green socks, SGB chair.

Where are you going? Working in New York, occasionally reliving the glory days with fellow CU alumni on Low Steps heckling current students.

Three things you learned at Columbia:

1. Everyone talks about a triangle with work, sleep, and socializing at each corner, saying you need to pick two points to succeed. That is the biggest load of codswallop you’ll hear here (and there’s certainly a lot of codswallop floating around, least of which is my own). Don’t make charts for how you should live your life. Instead, figure out what balance works for you and stick with it. When it stops working for you, change it—even in the same day, even in the same hour! The stuff that we call socializing here should enhance every other aspect of your time at Columbia, especially academics. In sum: fret less about how you should do Columbia, and just do it.
2. All is fair in love and war (with administrators) and finding open booths at 1020. It’s the last that you truly must perfect if you’re to have any success at all. Here’s a good story that explains all three. I love Barnard, I think it’s the best. When last semester Barnard Student Life imposed a pre-approval on student fliers, as SGB chair I knew it was my job to help fix something I love. I sat down with a Barnard administrator for over an hour trying to explain that this policy was bad and that they wouldn’t win a fight with SGB or other student groups over this. As the meeting was winding down, the administrator sincerely looked me in the eye and pleaded, “I hope I could’ve said something in this meeting that would avoid you opposing us on this.” I said something like, “suspend the policy immediately and work with us on creating a new one.” The administrator deadpanned, “we won’t do that.” We both looked at each other and kind of shrugged, shook hands, and went our separate ways. It was basically a declaration of war. Less than a week after that meeting Barnard had repealed the policy. So, if you’re keeping track, I’ve got love (for Barnard) and war (with administrators), what does this have to do with 1020 booths? The first rule of securing 1020 booths is that when you jump into a just emptied booth, you must stare down any would-be booth thieves without blinking. You must be vigilant and you must be steadfast in your commitment to the booth. I applied the same principles when faced with obstinate administrators, broken bureaucracy, and intransigent interests at Columbia. Everything I learned worth knowing, I learned at 1020. (more…)

Just a little message

After the suspicious package was found today on campus and the surrounding area was shut down by NYPD, many of us were anxious to find that, while Barnard students received multiple alerts, Columbia did not send any alerts about the event.  David Fine, CC’13, former chair of the SGB and editor emeritus of The Current, had some words to say about this.

This could be a piece about the Boston Marathon bombings and how Columbia is one of the softest targets in New York City. It could be a piece bemoaning that Public Safety hasn’t issued any statements describing their security measures, or even any public protocols for active shooter or bombing events on campus. It could be about how in my four years here I don’t recall ever being told what to do in the event of a mass emergency, or even how to conduct myself during a lockdown.

It could be a piece about the War on Fun, and how Public Safety often seems most occupied with assuring that students don’t become liabilities to the university. Or, how they constantly put in jeopardy various school traditions through their hand-wringing nannying. How so very often Public Safety seems concerned not necessarily with our “safety” but with that of the university’s reputation and rules.

Alternatively, we could talk about how Public Safety charges student groups outrageous sums of money to cover potentially controversial events on campus. How if groups don’t pay those funds then those events can’t happen. It could be a piece about all of that.

So what is this about?

Sherry

As debate continues over whether or not Sheherezade “Sherry” Jaafari,  former press aide to Bashar al-Assad, should have been granted admission to SIPA, some of our own weigh in.

David Fine, CC ’13, interviewed Columbia professors, students, and alumni in a piece published on Tablet. Interviewees include Elazar Barkan, the director of Columbia’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Richard Bulliet, a history professor and director emeritus of SIPA’s Middle East Institute,  and Jay Lefkowitz, Columbia alum and former United States’ special envoy for human rights in North Korea. There is little agreement amongst parties. A spokesperson for the Syrian Expatriates Organization, as well as SIPA’s sole Syrian member of the class of 2012 contribute to the discussion. While the piece draws no definite conclusion, Fine digests a diverse group of opinions and draws parallels between Jafaari and Rahmatullah Hashemi— a former Taliban spokesperson who attended Yale as a non-degree student.

Some excerpts:

SIPA’s lone Syrian member of the class of 2012, Haya Dwiedary, who declined comment to Tablet, told the Daily Beast that she was “disappointed” that the school admitted Assad’s aide. “I’ve been familiar with the kind of work she does for the government and the fact that she’s a supporter of the regime to this moment. And this is a regime that has killed more than 15,000 civilians.”

Some more, after the jump