Bwog is pleased to present the following tidbit from 40 Days:
Student: Well, I’m a 3-2 at Barnard and SEAS, so I’m a Barnard senior but a SEAS junior.
Official: You’re not on the list.
Student: But I’m a senior.
Official: So, come back with a copy of your transcript.
Student: I need a transcript for this?
Official: Or a letter from your advising dean.
Prospective student (gesturing at the assembled students drinking): What’s this?
Tour guide: Um, this is Low Library. You’ll never go in there.
A photo essay by Bwog shutterbug Kate Linthicum will appear later today after the jump.
45 Comments
@Amusing I haven’t seen that many GS students who don’t exhibit good hygiene, but I’ll take your word for it.
@#42 Again Then either you’re lucky, or I’m unlucky, because I’ve been subjected to some downright unsavory things at GS mixers. (I notice, too, that you don’t dispute the socially maladjusted part.)
@witness Have you ever been to a frat party…?
Anyhow, not sure what “downright unsavory things” you’ve experienced at GS mixers, but I think I must have been missing out on the real fun. How do I get invited to the unsavory-friendly events?
@Interesting I was just looking at the 40 Days Facebook event listing, and on the wall Amy Lin writes that the GSSC was invited to join 40 Days but decided not to, thus precluding all of us GSers from attending. (For the record, I planned on going, until my friend, another GSer, called and told me he, much like our quoted BC/SEASer, was turned away at the gate.)
As a graduating GS senior, this pisses me off beyond words. This just highlights yet another problem with the GSSC (see also: a ton of other Bwog posts this week). The council clearly does not have a clue what its students want. Or, if it knows, it doesn’t care. I’d rather they throw in some money to let us participate in an event, really a school tradition co-opted by the admins, that the other three undergraduate schools will attend, rather than throw another lame mixer that will only be attended by the GSSC and their closest cronies. I remember around the time of the GS Gala when the idiot social chair resigned over a dispute about giving umbrellas away as party gifts. I remember thinking the money spent on umbrellas would be better spent on lowering the cost of tickets so more students could/would attend.
This lack of regard for the GS community beyond those on the council is the reason why the GSSC is currently imploding.
And before the Bwog commenters start in on the “shut up, creepy old geezer, we didn’t want you at our party anyways!!”, let me point out two things. A) Don’t forget the JTS students are a part of GS, too. They’re the same age as you, and should get applauded for pursuing two wholly separate degrees simultaneously, not punished for being a part of the school perceived to be full of creepy old losers. B) There are more of us than most of you probably realize who are only a few years older than you guys. My first year here, I was the same age as most of the CCers who were then juniors. It’s only now, in my final year, that the age gap is starting to feel noticeable. I can pretty much guarantee you that if you’ve had a class with me, you didn’t know I was GS until I told you. There are plenty of us here who act more mature than our other GS classmates but who blend with the CCers, who are socially adjusted and exhibit good hygiene. I’ve separated myself from the GS community not because I’m ashamed of my age, but because I’m ashamed of the way our most visible element comports itself in public. Can you blame me?
@junior i don’t know, that whole thing kinda looked sad. here sit in this fence and drink beer. next year let’s all just skip this thing and drink real 40s on the steps without fences around us on another day. i do it all the time now anyway.
@Student So, I was one of those kids on the tour today. Everybody in the pen looked like they were having a great time, as did everyone outside the pen. What’s the real story?
@... The real story is that those people were just like you, once.
@Duh They had a list because it was a GRADUATION celebration . .paid for by the SENIOR class councils. They don’t share with the underclass pipsqueaks.
@Pipsqueaks? Pipsqueaks? Was that list taken off the AARP database?
@witness That… was _good_, and this geezer happily bows down before you whippersnapper.
“AARP database”… I must use that one in cocktail party conversation, alongside the “wrinklyfacebook” meme.
@Anonymous I might be dating myself, but during my freshman year in 1996, people just drank out on the steps whenever the hell they wanted to! Yeah, yeah, different era, but I’m not surprised to see the administration take away the students’ fun. They always tried to when I was there.
@yo bwog I don’t feel like sending in a tip, but Obama Girl is gonna be in eisenbach’s class tomorrow, and maybe that’s something you’d like to post. There will be cameras there.
@GS Senior You mean the guy with the self-proclaimed 14 inch shlong more interested in writing about his twisted masturbation obsession than doing the work of a class representative?
Why wouldn’t the GSSC co-sponsor an annual event like this, one where there’s potential to unify all undergraduate divisions? Instead, we come off looking like foreign crap again.
@GS Senior Why didn’t the GSSC notify students about this? Is there nobody on the council that can inform the student body about these kinds of events?
@Well It’s not sponsored by the GSSC…I would imagine because most GS students are well over 21, and might get a little peeved if subjected to the ridiculous search/id process just to be given 4 cups of beer?
@GS Senior Was it therefore not even open to graduating GS students?
@... if there’s anything that “life experience” teaches you, it’s that free beer is to be sought out, and never, ever, turned down.
that said… this backyard bbq thing needs to be transformed into backyard pub-b-q. (if it isn’t already.. is it? will there be beer?) i want to sit at a picnic table with a ton of people, on a nice shady lawn, in nice weather, drinking beer… and i don’t want to travel on multiple trains to make it happen…
@witness “…” says:
“if there’s anything that ‘life experience’ teaches you, it’s that free beer is to be sought out, and never, ever, turned down.”
By parallel construction, then, might one then say:
“if there’s anything that ‘life experience’ teaches you, it’s that free sex is to be sought out, and never, ever, turned down… no matter the insult to one’s own self-respect and jeopardy to one’s willy that entails…”?
Just sayin’.
@William That was a stupid thing to say.
@witness Still waiting with bated breath for the, er, witty component of that worthy rejoinder.
@... i suppose…
one may also say that “parallel construction” might be the quickest way to get something up to keep the crows away.
@witness “Well” is correct: subjecting one’s self unnecessarily to the indignity of a gauntlet of ID scrutiny, checklist lookup, and other silliness reminiscent of airport TSA wand-rape by federalized civil service monkeys is not this GS geezer’s idea of fun.
I’m reminded of an event I attended on the urging of friends at the cusp of semesters recently, the promising-sounding “Lerner Rocks.” Lots of side venues with funky little performances, e.g. belly dance, done very well by very talented people, and some rather impressive displays of hip hop dance on the ramps – who *doesn’t* enjoy a nice ass, well shaken? – but the dispensing of booze, well… those of us over the arbitrarily silly drinking age of 21 were given the equivalent of a wartime ration card metering us to (drumroll please)… one. beer. per. hour.
One _watery_ lite beer. Per hour.
One beer best characterized by the punchline in that “Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl” gag by ersatz Canadians (RCMP played by Englishmen):
“American beer is like having sex in a canoe: fucking close to water.”
Having the watery swill dispensed by functionaries who pressed us to _prove_ we’d not exceeded our hourly allotment of the conveniently pre-conditioned kidney filtrate was just too much: blocs of us left for real bars with real bartenders genuinely happy to sell us real beers ad libitum without recourse to parenting tactics.
So please excuse us, but I for one am not feeling the acute sense of exclusion for having been denied today’s character-building horse piss giveaway.
@haha hahaha GS
@witness You’re kidding, right? Have you missed out on the silly little GSSC Punch and Judy show?
Oh, wait… yeah, there is a person who should have kept up with these things on your behalf: Chikodi Chima, “your” GS Senior class rep, who absented himself early from last night’s meeting.
You elected a self-aggrandizing political hack who didn’t do his job on your behalf. Enjoy the fruits of your electoral labor.
@@witness As annoying as it is to agree with you on this, you’re right.
This is my first year here and I knew about it.
I’ve had about as much as I can take from the self serving members of GSSC.
With that said, let’s not let this degrade any further. At least the CC seniors were able to have some fun.
@tour guide see those fences… they’re here to prime you for your experience here at columbia. on one side of the fence is you, on the other side is fun. the only way to cross the fence is to graduate or try to hop it and get kicked out. welcome to the next four years of your life!
@stop whining it was a fun event, they were pretty lax about checking bags, there were empty bottles of liquor strewn around the steps within the fenced area, nobody cared, and the weather was fantastic.
@kenneth parcell why was there a list?
it’s cause prezbo himself said, don’t let no one in who’s not on the list because this mess is gonna get raw, like sushi. so haters to the left
@stop complaining everyone i saw was having a lot of fun and obviously they’re going to have a list.
@CC08 Got there after class, picked up a bottle of water since that was the only thing left. Went out, sat on the steps and sunned, noted compatriots actually drinking 40s and having fun mocking the playpen.
Conclusion: the admin is lame, the cool kids know it. Were the people who got free beer actually going to get 40s anyway?
@.............. This is lunacy. It’s one thing to enforce the law and make sure that only people 21+ receive alcoholic beverages, but quite another to make sure that only seniors on a “list” do.
@well the list is to keep out juniors, even if they are 21+
@Don't Like It? HUNGER STRIKE
@Tour Guide cont. “See the fences? That’s so that students can’t get in. They’ve been there since the protests.”
@senior mad fun and im drunk
@transcript she’d better bring four forms of ID, too. that’ll be CUID, driver’s license, passport, and birth certificate. and then she’ll get up to four beers.
this is even lamer than last year’s first incarnation of 40 days. at least the CC’07s were able to drink to their hearts’ content, fenced-in-ness notwithstanding.
@zomg brainssss
@seriously folks, it’s free beer…just drink it
@jesus This is the most godawful, asinine, condescending, reprehensible, antiseptic, querulous, paranoid, cynical, backasswards thing I have ever heard of. In whose warped, puritanical, fun-hating mind was this a wise and sensible idea? A TRANSCRIPT? Eat shit.
@crucify yourself She wasn’t CC/SEAS senior. Obviously most students didn’t bring transcripts.
@Hmmph Barnard seniors get to drink, too, so she’s as eligible as anyone else.
@hmmm Well if someone is doing a 5-year joint degree, they are a senior in one school now. And all of the people they have been in a “class” with since freshmen year are seniors now, so it seems kind of lame/unfair to exclude them.
@cc 09 this is terrible. i can only hope that we do something that actually resembles 40s on 40 next year.
@lament for 40s on 40 http://www.wikicu.com/40_Days
@alexw This whole event is demeaning.