You know what will make Columbia University undergraduates more insane than rumors about Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadenijad being invited to speak on campus? The confirmation that President Barack Obama, Columbia College Class of 1983, will speak at Barnard College's commencement. Here's a sample comment from Columbia's student newspaper: "What a dbag. Romney 2012."
The White House contacted Barnard College to offer Obama as a speaker last week and the school eagerly accepted (this also meant bumping the previously announced keynote speaker, NY Times executive editor Jill Abramson) and announced the news on Saturday. This led to numerous comments on the website of student newspaper, The Columbia Spectator, as well as the student blog, Bwog (which short for Blue and White, non-Columbia people). The NY Times reports that the "online exchanges [are] as nasty as any hair-pulling, eye-gouging schoolyard brawl.. To sum up: Either Barnard College is academically inferior to Columbia, or those who say so are misguided or misogynist; either Mr. Obama has snubbed Columbia, or this is great news and everyone in Morningside Heights should revel in it." (On Bwog: "Why would we want to lower the implied standard of our education by saying that Barnard is part of Columbia?") But, but, but compare these rates!!!
Naturally, Obama's decision to speak at Barnard, an all-women's school, is timed to tap into the Republicans' alleged "War on Women." Of course, some Columbia College students point out that Obama didn't have a great experience as a transfer student (he went to Occidental for his first two years), "As an alum that had a shitty experience at Columbia, I support Barack Obama’s attempt to spite them. let this be a warning to all the self-import bureaucrats, it’s the students that make Columbia what it is, not you." On the other hand, some people are annoyed that Abramson was pre-empted or would rather a woman, like, say, Michelle Obama, speak.
A 2005 Columbia College alumni magazine feature noted that Obama has said of his Columbia experience, "Mostly, my years at Columbia were an intense period of study. When I transferred, I decided to buckle down and get serious. I spent a lot of time in the library. I didn’t socialize that much. I was like a monk."
