36 CommentsSpectator‘s orientation issue hits first-year suite floors today. Welcome back, mainstream media! Bwog missed you.
Spectator Editor-in-Chief imparts sage advice, predicts the future
List advocates sex, drinking, plaigiarism, theft, dropping out, skipping class, almost failing
Jake Olson fights the good fight
How do you like your Spec articles…Spicy or Mild?
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36 Comments
@yeah man... spec really sucks. it sucks so much that last year’s editor just got a full-time job at the washington post at age 22. man, what kind of operation are they running over there?
@hmm i’m beginning to wonder if the same two people are the ones complaining about the site. seriously though, it’s NOT that bad. give it a rest.
@or.. better idea: go back to whatever system worked fine before. it wasn’t broke, but spec had to fix it…
@New Spec Site? I’m really not a big fan of the having to click through multiple pages to read entire articles (meaning I’m forced to sit through extremely slow page/process loading, and more advertisements). The e-mail format somewhat saves that, but ugh, I hope this isn’t some cheap ploy to make me pick up a hard copy of that toilet paper. If that’s the case, the ramps of Lerner are going to be covered with Specs.
Seriously though, why not host it in-house, bypassing this College Publisher nonsense. Can’t some SEASer custom design a bandwidth and process friendly website for you guys? Or maybe Tony Fu?
@wtf what’s the deal with the spec website? The font is blurry and way too small.
@whatever I have a feeling the people complaining on here about the orientation Spec would have done so regardless – if it was straight-edge “read the Iliad”-type advice you would characterize it as boring and unhelpful, but when the articles take a snarkier tone you call them childlike rants.
Personally, I found the “Columbia Oversimplified” piece to be pretty entertaining. I mean, something has to balance against all the “Columbia is wonderful” advice these kids get through NSOP. Plus there is actually a lot of useful information in this issue. And you have to admit the game board is kind of amazing…
@whatever I have a feeling the people complaining on here about the orientation Spec would have done so regardless – if it was straight-edge “read the Iliad”-type advice you would characterize it as boring and unhelpful, but when the articles take a snarkier tone you call them childlike rants.
Personally, I found the “Columbia Oversimplified” piece to be pretty entertaining. I mean, something has to balance against all the “Columbia is wonderful” advice these kids get through NSOP. Plus there is actually a lot of useful information in this issue. And you have to admit the game board is kind of amazing…
@i liked the issue, actually. the board game looks really good. and i’m a freshman so maybe my opinion counts more.
@guys traipsing back late from the other 116th street stop is a seminal columbia experience we ought not be depriving the freshmen of. let them make their mistakes. let them nervously dash out of harlem. let them thank zeus that a hundred foot cliff protects us from the barbarians below.
@IRT Well, for one, the (3) doesn’t run late-night. The (2) always runs local late-night service, including weeknights.
@2/3 It’s only running local on the weekends for a couple more weeks, and then it’ll be back to normal. Other than construction, the only time it runs local is late night on the weekends.
@Hello Lions Well, the 2/3 is running local on weekends right now as there’s some ongoing construction along the express tracks taking place at the time. Spec didn’t totally screw that one up.
http://www.mta.info/nyct/service/pdf_f/36_23tr.pdf
Not sure when it’ll be back to normal, but probably pretty soon.
@well As a Spec (as well as B&W) alum, I can tell you that the Orientation issue is always recycled.
Also, I love how the information, in some cases, is simply factually incorrect. I.e. “Be forewarned. The 2/3 runs local like the 1 on weekends and does not follow the 1 track past 96th Street.”
@huh? It doesnt? The 2/3 doesnt go on the 1 track past 96th though..
@Where is the love? Did anyone else find this year’s Orientation Spec to be a recycled copy of last year’s Orientation Spec? (almost, word for word in some cases).
@Anonymous Orientation Spec was decent. They provided a good amount of insider information that voraciously eager first-years couldn’t easily find on Wikipedia or Google. And can you really blame them for trying to recruit first-years? Every club on campus counts orientation week and the activities fair as the primary sources of replenishing their ranks.
Except B&W and its various sub-entities, which is so exclusive that you have to be tapped Skull-and-Bones style in a occultish midnight ceremony involving Avi Zenilman and a goat.
@QuickShots I seem to be in agreement with most of you. These articles are an embarrassment and offer absolutely nothing to incoming frosh (other than to avoid joining SpecCult). Why all the attempts at dry humor? Why all the inside jokes? Where in the world is the news? Instead, you all come off as whiney little typists with no sense of journalism. Who in the world allows this (or that excuse of a website)?
I really wish some wealthy alumnus would finally agree and donate the money necessary to establish a second campus daily.
@"Where is the news?" It’s Orientation Week. There is no news. Get your head out of your ass. Let’s see what they have planned for their web features before we pass judgment.
@"Where is the news?" It’s Orientation Week. There is no news. Get your head out of your ass. Let’s see what they have planned for their web features before we pass judgment.
@"Where is the news?" It’s Orientation Week. There is no news. Get your head out of your ass. Let’s see what they have planned for their web features before we pass judgment.
@i like to eat pig intestines.
@new barnard dorm in the NY times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/30/realestate/30barnard.html
@interesting the bit about the professors got me thinking. how many professors in residence type things exist in Columbia dorms? Theres one in EC, one in Shapiro. They basically have their own apartments. Where else?
@not the same the barnard professors are going to be sharing common rooms, laundry rooms…basically living among their students. I never see these columbia faculty in residence.
for the record, there’s at least one in the LLC as well. and broadway has a “caretaker”. and then there’s nussbaum…what sort of creature doesn’t inhabit that bizarro building?
@barnard dorm is way cool. columbia could take some notes on how to expand into the community while benefiting BOTH students/faculty AND community residents. kudos!!
@honestly spec the website is an embarrassment…it’s not like you have to design a whole new one, just use the old templates. anything that was up before was far, far better. or will your new masters at collegepublisher not let you?
@have 6% of poll respondents really felt the nsop events were the highlight of their week?
@coincidentally i just started up a columbia ff league yesterday. Its draft is the day before the second week’s game so there’s some time in between. it’s on espn.
email me if you’re interested at columbiaff@gmail.com
@ugh I’m shocked and embarrassed by orientation spec. these are the editors of our campus newspaper this year? their articles remind me of the petulant, childlike rants I submitted- and had rejected by my high school newspaper. we have a lot, apparently, to look forward to. I especially love the “don’t read or go to class” advice…hofstadter would be proud of such an intellectual culture at his longtime home.
@yeah no wonder the website looks like goforsaken shit
@wait are you just complaining about the list? or an actual article? because the list is clearly a joke, and you haven’t given an example of a “petulant, childlike rant.” i think it’s because there aren’t any, actually.
@the columbia oversimplified article is pretty petulant ranty. I know it was meant to be tongue in cheek, but “oversimplified” and “put a negative spin on everything here, no matter what ridiculous degree of hyperbole is required” do not correlate.
@hmm “put a negative spin on everything here, no matter what ridiculous degree of hyperbole is required”…
sounds a little bit like the students here, don’t you think?
@the columbia oversimplified article is pretty petulant ranty. I know it was meant to be tongue in cheek, but “oversimplified” and “put a negative spin on everything here, no matter what ridiculous degree of hyperbole is required” do not correlate.
@don't forget http://www.columbiaspectator.com/media/storage/paper865/news/2006/08/29/Orientation2006/How-I.Learned.To.Stop.Worrying.And.Love.Columbia-2250525.shtml?norewrite200608300023&sourcedomain=www.columbiaspectator.com
they made a BOARD GAME. the pdf looks pretty cool.
@im sorry steve may be a great guy, but that column felt like warmed over under cooked nostalgia. be honest, Lerner Hall does suck. if you don’t knwo why yet, wait another 2 year, eventually you’ll find something to hate about its pointless irrationality.
also, ”
It’s an almost entirely optional program that brings you together for a short period of time before you’re on your own for four years.”
thats actually the biggest underlying problem at columbia that few people can put their fingers on. being left alone unless you seek out any of the optional and largely useless help (academic advising? i’m up to my 5th in 3 years. i like it when my advisors have no idea who I am. really.) is a large part of the problem.