This is what my dad saw when he saw Butler

While Columbia has Greek life, Staff Writer Alicia Benis knows all too well about actual Greek life. In the spirit of Family Weekend, and her actual Greek dad visiting, she explains why Butler is absolutely every Greek dad’s dream.

If you haven’t noticed by now, I seem to have a special affinity towards Butler. I don’t mind studying there, I think it’s really pretty, and has a lot of important books. But, I think there’s someone who loves Butler even more than I do: my dad.

Yes, you read correctly. My dad LOVES BUTLER. He hasn’t even stepped foot inside this grand library, but for him, it was love at first sight. It all started when I decided to give my parents a tour of Columbia’s campus during Family Weekend, since they had already seen plenty of Barnard’s campus. We were walking along College Walk in order to get to a cafe on Amsterdam for breakfast. I acted like a tour guide, and when I pointed to Butler, my dad stopped DEAD in his tracks. I can remember clearly as he looked at the But, squinted and read over and over again, the names etched across the top of it. “Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Cicero, Vergil.” He was awestruck.

“You see Alicia, I told you the Greeks were important! The names of some of the greatest Greeks are on the face of the library at the best college in the world, the one that you go to!” You see, my dad is one of those Greek dads who goes around proudly saying “the Greeks invented this,” “insert random word here comes from the Greek word…” “If it wasn’t for us Greeks y’all would be nowhere!” The names on Butler only further validated his point. They didn’t put the names of thinkers from other countries, they put the names of Greek thinkers there.

So, in honor of my dad falling in love with Butler, here are a few more reasons why Butler is the dream for every Greek dad out there.

1. It looks like the Parthenon itself. I mean, have you seen the thing? Butler and the Parthenon have the same exact Greek columns and dark spaces in between. Heck, some would say that whoever designed Butler stole the idea from the architects of the Parthenon themselves.
2. It’s a library. Greeks created libraries. The Library of Alexandria, anyone? (R.I.P.)
3. Because it’s a library, it contains books by all of the amazing Greek thinkers. That definitely puts Greek dads at ease knowing that their children are receiving a quality education and are learning only the best from those thinkers. Like, people who take LitHum probably got their Iliads and Odysseys from Butler (shout out to Homer!)
4. Butler is actually of Greek origin. It comes from the word “bibliotheke” which means library!
5. In the words of my dad, “Butler, along with the rest of this campus, looks like a Greek academy. THANK GOD you decided to come here!” For those Greek dads who couldn’t send their children to Athens Polytechnic or the Kapodistrian University, at least Columbia looks like one of those. So if the name COLUMBIA didn’t assure them that their children were getting a superior education, at least the look of it makes them feel comfortable with their children’s choices.
6. Students spend late late nights in Butler. That’s pretty much the American college student equivalent of Greek party culture, where Greeks will LITERALLY celebrate, dance, eat and drink until the sun comes up. And hey, it’s not partying, it’s studying, which makes it all that much better!
7. There’s a cafe inside of Butler? Greeks are literally the epitome of a culture that survives off of coffee and water, and probably consumes more coffee than their actual body weights. Although, Greek dads would be a little disappointed that they don’t serve Greek coffee in demi-tasse cups like the do at the kafenia (coffee shops) in Greece.
8. The marble-y staircases. Can we take a moment to discuss the fact that Greeks created marble? Ah marble, like the marble statues England stole and now houses at the British Museum (still salty about that.) Are we sure that Columbia didn’t steal those marbles from England and made them into Butler’s stairs???
9. Butler represents a typical space in academia. Again, Greeks created academia. It’s all in the word!
10. Finally, Greek dads can use all of this to brag to their friends back in Greece about how their children attend the Greekest institution in America with the Greekest library, and it happens to be an Ivy League school.

So if you have a Greek dad like I do, make sure to show them Butler. They’re sure to fall in love with it just like my dad did. Shout out to our baba, who will continue to embarrass us, lecture us, and make us proud to be Greek and proud to be at Barnumbia.

Visit the Parthenon here