15 Comments
Columbia should be post-gender…We shouldn’t just have to live with people of the same sex, they were assigned to that at birth.
Columbia should be a safe-haven for all minority groups…After this, the Republicans will demand their own lounge on campus.
Columbians, you better read up on your Gay History if you want to fight against the Reagan Revolution. Step 1, buy David Eisenbach’s book.
To all the West Coasters among you, never go home if you care about the environment. Instead, take the Bus Rapid Transit system to the Bronx!
Ivy League dating is so passe, go for a highly successful investment banker…
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15 Comments
@safe The term “safe-space” is a misnomer. Ethnic minorities are completely safe on campus. “Social” space would be more appropriate.
@opium i heard there is an opium den in the stacks.
@Being real Last year the Broadway Residence hall lounge had a wall built and was sectioned off. 100% of the time was booked by two groups. 50% of all time goes to the Res. Life staff (understandable since they manage the dorm). The other 50% goes to Multicultural groups.
Diversity is key. If these students want to be by themselves then that is their choice but they should not force the rest of us with space issues already to compromise.
Even NROTC, if it comes to campus, will not take space that groups can use away from them 24/7 like a lounge would.
And lastly, Check your facts, Fraternities and Sororities have huge minority populations, emphasis put on Sigma Phi Epsilon (about 40%), Delta Sigma Phi (about 30%) and the MGC.
@eisenbach is not a liberator. he explicitly says he chose the field cuz it would get him published due to lack of scholarship.
@actually The idea of places like the Malcolm X Lounge as a “safe space” stems from the discomfort or self-censorship that particular individuals feel or undergo when they are in the company of other groups. The establishment of a safe space dictates that free and open discourse is allowed and encouraged to take place with impunity by all individuals within the space. Anyone who’s spent a decent amount of time in the Malcolm X Lounge would know that discussions on culture far outweigh discussions on race. As someone who does spend ample amounts of time there, I can also verify that despite leaving the door open to everyone during open lounge hours the only ones who come and stay past the free food are the students of color. You can’t call cultural groups exclusionary when individuals who don’t belong to that group make the active choice not to stay and participate.
Also, in my experience, certain organizations tend to exhibit more cultural (not racial, as race isn’t the issue here) diversity than others (Spec, BWOG, and Frats not being one of them). Its only natural for individuals who have certain cultural affinities to find camaraderie with others who are familiar with them.
@nope You’re exactly right – you only feel welcome in these places if you are interested in a certain culture, or in cultural exchange, or you know people who fit the above to descriptions. This space is not welcoming to students if that is not the case. So just ‘leaving the door open’ isn’t going to accomplish anything; you have already created an image or a brand by virtue of it being the ‘latino lounge’ or whatever.
You don’t need to have your own space on campus to find camaraderie with people of certain cultural affinities. Meet in the Piano lounge, or a Residence lounge, or anywhere – just like all other students with certain cultural, political, religious, activist, and other cultural affinities – currently do.
@wait Since when is Fordham 12 minutes away? Unless we’re talking about a grad school…
@I want a lounge dedicated to heteronormative white males who believe in a patriarchal society.
@why is eisenbach so insecure that he has to “prove” his heterosexuality to a girl before telling her that he researches “gay history”?
Why does he think that intercourse (this is his implication of ‘prove’) demonstrates anything concrete about homosexuality? Is homosexuality just about sex? For a liberator, he has some pretty conservative, homophobic assumptions.
@WHY Space is precious on campus. Why would you give it to people based on ethnicity? In theory, it’s open to everybody. In practice, everybody knows that only Latinos will use it. There has been very little discrimination or antagonism towards Latinos. If anything, this call for a “safe space” will only create that. This is unbelievable and wrong. Make this space available to student groups instead; this creates a feeling of exclusivity and not inclusion.
@oh and Adil you are dead wrong if you don’t think that the result of this will be a demand for the creation of an Asian students’ lounge. And more will follow.
@cucr alum You wish you knew how many times we seriously thought about demanding our own lounge.
@... the republicans are only permitted a lounge on the condition that it be named “the george w. bush center for executive excellence”
@gross is it gay if david eisenbach wants to fuck himself?
@bwog fan SCOOP’D!
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/56391