Taking a cue from PrezBo, SEAS hosted its own “fireside” chat Monday night to address students’ concerns on a broad range of topics. 

The digs were markedly less than splendiforous than 60 Morningside Drive – the Carleton Lounge on the first floor of Mudd is less than inviting, as its occupants often feel like they’re inside some sort of fishbowl with large windows looking outside at ground level.

And it was not a solo show. From SEAS, Interim Dean Geri Navratil hosted with Vice Dean Mort Friedman, who began teaching at Columbia in 1956.  Three deans from Student Affairs were also present.  Though Navratil chose questioners and commented, Friedman did most of the talking.

From the beginning, Friedman’s passion was evident.  He was quite interested in student life at SEAS and about their opinions as to the SEAS curriculum, which he oversees.  The evening’s questions covered a broad range of topics, though Friedman managed to each of them back to his broad vision for SEAS in the twenty-first century.  Navratil even used Friedman’s now-famous quotation that graces every SEAS bulletin: “Engineering is the liberal art of the twenty-first century.”  Friedman was always quick to assure the attendees that Columbia engineers would graduate as the most well-rounded engineers.  Indeed, he is responsible for implementing the now twenty-some minors available to SEAS students over the last ten years.
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A smattering of students and a sea of empty chairs confronted Deans Quigley, Colombo, and Friedman (SEAS) about the noose incident at an event this afternoon sponsored by the Columbia Queer Alliance.

The small showing was probably due to the time – noon on a Thursday – and also because the admins agreed to show up on short notice. Bwog itself received a statement announcing the event at 1:23 a.m. this morning.

Organizers decided to merge their scheduled event to unveil a new “safe-zone” campaign with a session of firmly posed questions from the few students present– and mostly plain vanilla answers from the administrators.

Students wanted to know specifics — in what kind of time frame they could expect to hear from administrators with progress reports on the hate crime front, what tangible things administrators now realize they could have done better to create safe spaces for students. Administrators had palpably reassuring, but vague responses.

In his germane way, Quigley acknowledged that administrators should have let students know about the incident sooner, and that Columbia’s policy on hate crimes should be more widely known. In his less-germane way, Colombo said he would like to better “demonstrate to the community we are here to support them.” And Friedman, SEAS’s Quigley, said the three men in collared shirts and ties behind the panel ran “an open shop.”

When students asked why they heard about the noose from student groups and listsevs and not from administrators, Colombo stumbled, explaining he may wear his Blackberry on his belt at all hours, but that not everyone in the administration does. “You guys start your days at a variety of hours,” he said.

But perhaps they are learning. After office hours today when news of the anti-Semetic graffiti in Lewisohn hit, Quigley sent his delicate prose response merely minutes after President Bollinger –
who is himself feeling the heat of student criticism on this point.

At the end of the hour, students had a few commitments to transparency, tolerance, and inclusion to hold on to, and a new symbol to plaster around the school to signify safe-spaces, and perhaps the goal to blanket the campus in one large safe-space symbol.

-SEV

Statement by the CQA after the jump…

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