11 CommentsIn today’s (admittedly bad-ass) Spec “University Space” supplement, an article on the lack of student group space pointed out:
[T]he Science Fiction Society, for example, keeps its library of 20,000 novels in the Student Government Office on the fifth floor of Lerner.
To recap: Ad Hoc, The Columbia Current, The Columbia Political Review, The Columbia Review, Tablet, The Columbia Citadel (that’s the conservative magazine), The Birch, Helvidius, and The Blue and White do not have a computer to their name, much less a cubicle or an office. There’s no space, apparently. Maybe that’s because we need to maintain our library of 20,000 science fiction novels.
The article also notes that, other than the Spectator, “the only two groups with a physical office are the Fed and the yearbook.”
First, insert a cheap joke about the Fed. Then, raise your hand if you knew about — or know anyone who bought — the yearbook.
Plus, their offices in Lerner are pretty swanky.
(Writer gnashes teeth, ends rant, braces for vulgar taunting in next issue of the Fed.)
We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.
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11 Comments
@Anna The Sci. Fi. Soci. has a shelf that’s about 6′ x 12′ x 1′. So unless they have some kind of magical stargate behind the shelf (glaven) there’s no way there are 20,000 books in there.
@wait what do you mean the bwog editorializes? doesn’t it always?
@moph i’ve looked at the old blueprints and video of the space. the old offices were worse than useless (no computer equipment, couldn’t be used for storage); hence the new design.
which also sucks.
i tried to steal the yearbook office one year and got shot down. apparently it’s columbia’s only official record of certain shit, according to sda.
argh.
-matthew
@invisible_hand i may be making it worse, but the philolexian society, columbia’s oldest student org. (founded in 1802 by pals of hamilton) shares space with said library of nerd lit. our library consists of artifacts of the society and books written by members such as robert giroux, alfred joyce kilmer, jacques barzun and others.
@can we make the external links still reveal their urls? while being links? that would be amazing.
@M.R. My favorite space related “No Shit Sherlock” comment regarding Lerner:
“For the first time, we are looking for the students to tell us what they’d like,” Fiske said. “Maybe that wasn’t done before.”
-5 Years after Lerner opened. Way to go Columbia.
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/26/417de7885b504?in_archive=1
@M.R. A few years back spec ran an article about the 5th floor getting reconfigured into its current layout, giving SDA a bigger office (don’t tell me you’ve never the one about a columbia bureaucracy expanding into student space before? oh ho ho) and converting ridiculously small student club ‘offices’ aka cubicles with doors into a ‘communal’ space. Robert Taylor noted that two groups were makign good use of the space- CUSFS and the Philolexian Society which both share half of the walk in closet nect to the Fed’s room. Ironically both clubs feel that the space is hopelessly inadequate for their needs.
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2001/12/06/3c0f36ba13a49?in_archive=1 – Groups Unhappy with Lerner Club Space
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/06/28/3d1c600daf8ad?in_archive=1 – Lerner Fifth Floor Overhaul Under Way
@spec didn’t the supplement also mention that blue and white was getting space in prentis hall on 125th street?
anyway, you guys better start advocating the manhattanville expansion if you want your spatial dreams to come true.
@curious anyone know how much the Spec pays for its offices?
@Erf That number is surely in error. Even if the books were fairly small (say .75 x 4 x 6 inches) and stacked perfectly, they’d take up 2500 cubic feet. Stacked 10 feet high in a huge brick, that’d take up 250 square feet.
Great job, Spec.
@website Well, they claim only 10,000 as of whenever the website was last updated, but it sounds like there may be more that is available digitally. 0.75 is actually pretty damn big. I imagine a number of these are comic books.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cusfs/organization.html