Suze Myers (1)The wisdom continues with Suze Myers – Zine clubber, librarian enthusiast, and social media expert. (Does she run the Barnlib Twitter? Does she run something even better? You’ll have to read on to find out.)

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Suze Myers, Barnard, Art History, Huntsville, AL

Claim to fame: Head cheerleader of the Barnard Zine Club, and the #1 student library worker in the tri-state area. Maybe not #1 but probably top ten. Also a graphic designer, and also a total babe.

Where are you going? I’m moving to London to study design.

What are 3 things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2020?

  1. Small things matter. I’m always going to remember all the little tokens of female friendship that I’ve received throughout my time at Barnard—all the notes my friends have given me on my birthdays, the time my best friend brought me a freshly baked loaf of bread to my dorm room for no reason at all, the phone call pep talk from my roommate when I was on my way to an important interview.
  2. Libraries have more than just books and places to study. Obviously I’m biased, but the librarians at Barnard and Columbia are literally some of the best in the world, and if everyone at this school knew how much they could help you academically, there would be lines outside their office doors like they were selling Shake Shack or that weird raindrop cake thing from Smorgasburg. Also, they always have tea and stickers and stories about getting arrested at Occupy Wall Street. Seriously though, it’s so funny to me that the stereotype of librarians is that of an old lady telling you to be quiet—our librarians are punk as fuck.
  3. Don’t be afraid to befriend upperclassmen! Likewise, to all my upperclassmen, don’t pretend you’re too cool to talk to underclassmen—my first-year pals have given me just as much sage wisdom and advice as I’ve given them. Plus, when they start a story with “last year, when I was in high school…” you get to sigh and look off wistfully in the distance.

“Back in my day…” The Eye was in print, Noah Baumbach hung out in Hewitt and his crew was super annoying, you could get e. coli at Uni Café instead of a $14 salad at Sweetgreen, the magnolia was thirty feet thataway, and Zayn was still in One Direction :-(

Justify your existence in 30 words or fewer. I pretended to be a tree on the internet for two years, during which I wrote this tweet:

What was your favorite class at Columbia? A tie between Jack McGrath’s Body Politics Since 1945 and Rosalyn Deutsche’s Institutional Critique (both at Barnard). Deutsche was McGrath’s thesis advisor when he went to Columbia 12 years ago, and McGrath was mine (#lovemybig #lovemylineage), so it was really fun to take their classes in conjunction with one another.

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? If the cheese is from Murray’s: oral sex. If the oral sex is from my first college boyfriend: also oral sex.

One thing to do before graduating: Host a potluck with all your pals. This is making me a little sad, because the best place to have a potluck used to be underneath the magnolia tree, but it doesn’t really matter where you do it—make a giant pot of pasta and invite your buds over. Food is such an important form of love and care, and my best Barnard memories are of sitting around a bunch of bread/cheese/cake/etc. and snuggling with my best friends.

Any regrets? I really, really wish I hadn’t waited until my senior year to go to surf and turf for the first time.

Is that sticker from the Library? via Suze Myers