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Days on Campus propaganda ft. flow chart arrows from the GSET Facebook page
Dean Awn’s announcement today of a very last-minute date change to the 2012 GS Class Day didn’t go over so well—now, a couple of GS students are planning to do something about it. Acronyms abound.
The self-described “new and self-explanatory activist movement” GS Equal Treatment (aka GSET) has made an announcement of their own:
“Due to the urgent renewed need to support GS seniors, GSET has decided to reveal the GS Equality Fund in advance of its expected summer launch. The GS Equality Fund is a senior fundraising campaign in the spirit of the Columbia College Fund, dedicated to leveraging the collective donation power of as much of the graduating class as possible. The GS Equality Fund will finance projects for GSET, GSSC and other groups that aim to reduce the unwarranted disparity between GS and other schools at Columbia. At least one of these small projects will take place before the end of the spring semester.”
Attempts to further investigate what exactly we can expect from the GSEF have thus far been fruitless—GSET’s Facebook page was launched on April 15 and their website is nearly bare, but for a graphic of Alma smoking a cigarette and drinking what looks suspiciously like a Cisco—but we’re nonetheless titillated, as always, by the prospect of sticking it to the man. And/or by the possibility of free tee-shirts, ’cause you never know.
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29 Comments
@Truth GS is not an extension school for adults. You’re getting confused with the School of Continuing Education, which is a professional/extension school — not a college.
GS is an official undergraduate liberal arts college of Columbia University, just like Columbia College. GS offers the same classes, the same faculty, and the same degree as all other Columbia undergraduates.
I know many people who enrolled at GS when they were 19 or 20 after taking just a year or two off from school. One person I know graduated high school early and took time off before coming to Columbia. He’s 17. These people are not even eligible to apply to Columbia College.
@Anonymous Don’t GS/JTS have to take GS UWriting classes, too?
@GS/JTS '13 nope. we take CC/SEAS UWriting for whatever reason
@Anonymous You guys can’t petition to get into CC/SEAS sections of LitHum and CC?
@Anonymous Firstly, My gs friends Have really good looking girlfriends, which in my book is the only
Honest metric for achievement. Seriously though if gs students were less competent academically and couldn’t do the same level of work as the average seas/cc kids, then all their graduation seats would be empty because everyone would have failed out. Considering gs students support themselves and their education more often than not, actually graduating in good standing from gs is much more objectively impressive than making it through any of the other schools – SEAS applied physics student with a bomb ass
GPA and the financial support of his family
@GS '12 Thanks for your support- you’re awesome! Although I would just like to say as a female hetero GS student, I would appreciate that women not be used as status objects in this discussion…though I am pretty sure you were being facetious, no?
@same dude Yes, I was being flippant for the sake of pointing out the absurdity of some 19 year old with zero life experience, tangible accomplishments, financial responsibility, etc using their ability to follow a traditional life path, then get lucky enough to squeeze under a low acceptance rate limbo bar as a way to feel superior. Check your professor’s CV’s for their high school accomplishments…wait they are absent because high school was a fucking joke. I laugh at any Columbia student who thinks good high school grades truly makes a scholar/man/woman. But it is okay because (assuming they don’t go to graduate school), until the age of 22 all they will have known in life has been school…sad credentials for passing any judgement really. But perhaps one day they will learn how little any of that shit matters… something I wish of Columbia students on many many many more issues than just this.
(But really they do have good looking girlfriends)
@a lot of these concerns can be remediated by concerned students who would like to petition for funds and create similar events for GSers in the future.
@Anonymous Fuck GS. Columbia already has a problem of not giving a shit about its actual undergraduate schools and focusing on grad programs. CC/SEAS needs much more attention, and the adults in GS who are lucky enough to get a second shot at college are just diverting attention away from it because of a mere change in schedule.
No matter what anyone says, Columbia College/SEAS IS Columbia’s traditional undergraduate school and as such it should be given much more attention. Why do adults need the same attention as kids just getting out of high school being thrown into a high pressure academic environment?
@GS '13 You, good sir, are an a douche bag. As lucky as GS kids are at “get[ing] a second shot at college,” which of course, excludes JTS students, so are you to be at a school with an incredibly low acceptance rate.
@GS '12 You seem upset.
@Hello You do realize what a privileged snot you sound like, right? The truth is that Columbia fails to pay proper attention to all of its undergraduate schools. Unfortunately, GS usually gets the short end of an already short stick.
Also, FYI, first shot at college here, thank you very much, as is the case for many GS students. Taking an alternative approach to higher education doesn’t make us inferior, jackass.
So much for our so-called liberal, progressive, forward-thinking institution.
@Anonymous What exactly is an “actual” undergrad school? I’m pretty sure I go to class every day, my life as a student doesn’t exactly exist in a parallel universe.
@Anonymous GS people, stop complaining. You could have applied to CC or SEAS if you wanted to. No need to put them down. Columbia actually does a pretty good job of integrating an extension school for adults only into their undergraduate campus.
@Anonymous You can’t apply to CC or SEAS once you age out. Even if you’ve only taken a year or two off after starting undergrad at another institution, you have to apply to GS.
@seas I’m really pissed about the whole “moving graduation over” debacle, but I don’t think people should try to use this as an opportunity to “integrate GS into CC/SEAS.” I broke my ass in high school to get in here, and I feel getting into GS is way easier (sorta like a barnard thing) than into cc/seas. so, yeah, i still dont think they should get the same privileges i do, but they shouldnt get slapped in the face with moving graduation.
@All right... .. I see your point. However, the last time I checked, you don’t receive your degree from Columbia based on your high school GPA. I’m not trying to belittle the effort you put in while you were in high school, but, it’s important to recognize that once we all get here, we’re all in the same metaphorical boat. I don’t expect equal treatment because I got here by one route or another, I expect equal treatment because I’m expected to do the same work as everyone else.
@Space Cadette Really? Getting into GS is easier? I would argue that in some ways it’s harder. Sure, you can pull out some bullshit statistics of acceptance rates, but if you compare the name recognition between CC and GS and then factor in how many HS seniors are entering universities each year versus the minority of applicants that already graduated high school, and that alone weakens the claim that CC is sooooo much harder to get into. Now consider the fact that GS students are required to have just as high SATs, ACTs, and GPAs as CC applicants, except many of those GPAs were earned in COLLEGE (in case you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s a little harder than high school), quite often while holding down jobs and paying rent. And then on top of all that, they still want the same demonstration of extracurriculars and accomplishments. A good example is one of my friends who built and sold his own company from the ground up without outside assistance before entering GS. And still we have to plead our case to the administration to convince them why we’re a good fit, but instead of simply drawing from all our good “book learning” of high school, we have to go above and beyond by sharing our work history, our life experience, our worldliness. This is essentially our first telling of our “GS story”. I understand that you had to write an admissions essay too, but please, tell me what your “CC story” looks like and then convince me that CC is a harder fucking school to get into.
@Anonymous You’re right, SEAS, you do enjoy privilege. You have enjoyed privilege for far too long if you ask me. If you believe you got yourself here on your own accord, you are not that smart after all. So you chose which zip code/country you were born, your family circumstances, the schools you went to growing up, AND worked all that time to get good grades and engage in extra-curricular activities? You must be tired from having done all that yourself!
Come introduce yourself to some of us who made it on our own, fought for our country, traveled through myriad countries, seen adversity and overcome the worst of tragedies. You might learn something outside your bubble of privilege.
@Truth GS is not an extension school for adults. You’re getting confused with the School of Continuing Education, which is a professional/extension school — not a college.
GS is an official undergraduate liberal arts college of Columbia University, just like Columbia College. GS offers the same classes, the same faculty, and the same degree as all other Columbia undergraduates.
I know many people who enrolled at GS when they were 19 or 20 after taking just a year or two off from school. One person I know graduated high school early and took time off before coming to Columbia. He’s 17. These people are not even eligible to apply to Columbia College.
@CC'14 I feel bad that it takes something like this whole commencement debacle to get this problem with GS equality the recognition it deserves. There should be a serious move to better incorporate GS with CC and SEAS- y’all do the same work, so why shouldn’t you be given the same credit?
Good luck and best wishes to the seniors!
CC’14
@cc 14 for one–can we have integrated UWriting classes? no separate but equal bullshit
@even worse? GS/JTS take CC section UWriting classes, but LitHum or CC? Nope.
@Anonymous Don’t GS/JTS have to take GS UWriting, too?
@Anonymous The Alma graphic on their page completely undermines what seems to be a legit attempt to equal the playing field between the four schools and create a sincere discussion on the inequalities that GS students face.
@GS Equal Treatment Heard it before. Point taken. Does the new image work in the meantime?
@lets just hate each other, pretend to be the most snobbery. love the grassroots tag. thats what the core has taught you: be ready for the classism, better start prepare when you still in school.
why not? gs is a worthless anyways
@GS '14 You keep trying, honey. I’m sure there’s a coherent bit of hatred (or sarcasm?) in there somewhere.
@graduating senior with all due respect, what language did you write this in? are you using google translate? in any event, i have no idea of what you are trying to say here.