University of Dysfunction
Over a century of scandals, crimes, and disturbing events Columbia University would rather us forget
The Societal Good Guys
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say New York City is considered to be the cultural and financial capital of the world. As Alicia Keys sang in a song, it’s a concrete jungle where dreams are made of. It’s only fitting that one of the top universities in the world is located in New York City.
Tens of thousands of hopefuls apply to Columbia University every year. The lucky ones who are accepted become a part of a respectable academic community. This is the environment where productive members of society are made. Whether it be famous entertainers, politicians, writers, scientists, or an all-around good person, Columbia University is a place where they can be produced. If a person is in New York City going about their day and randomly walks by someone wearing a Columbia University sweatshirt, they more than likely will think to themselves, “Ah, there goes a person who has a bright future.”
Not just Columbia University but the realm of academia presents itself as the helpers or do-gooders of society. This is a venue where sensible discourse occurs and where people strive for the greater good. Is it inconceivable that unsavory events took place at Columbia University? Would it be absurd to wonder if there’s a secret well-oiled machine that quickly extinguishes scandalous happenings as they arise? A person could chalk it up to Columbia University being a centuries-old institution, and things would inevitably happen. The passing of time, compounded with the fast-moving nature of how contemporary news captivates its audience briefly and then it’s on to the next headline, makes it difficult for an average citizen to keep track.
We have to reexamine the perception of a wholesome image and the progressive direction that Columbia University is allegedly heading in. We must look at Columbia University’s history from a moralistic standpoint. Columbia University dictates conversations and often condemns societal dysfunction. Does Columbia University have the right to do this when this institution manufactured dysfunction and caused harm over the years? Shocking events and disturbing history will be discussed.
The Move Uptown
King George II of England chartered Kings College in 1754. For years, this educational institution was located in downtown Manhattan. These are the early years of what we now know as Columbia University. In 1857, Columbia University made a pit stop on 49th Street and Madison Avenue before calling Morningside Heights home in the 1890s.
The locality of Morningside Heights is also where Manhattan Valley is located, and before Columbia University made its way uptown, this area had its sinister history. It’s not a secret that during this period, the mentally ill were treated as criminals and often abused at the asylums they were confined to.
116th Street and Broadway became Columbia University’s new headquarters. Previously, Bloomingdale Insane Asylum occupied this space. The abuse patients endured was so brutal that many of the patients found their only way out was suicide, and some died from injuries from their abuse. Much of the asylum was demolished, but structures that are now known as Buell Hall, also known as Maison Française, are what remains of this cruel time in history.
The new location of Columbia University constructed facilities across the street for Barnard College. Barnard College was established in 1889 in response to Columbia University’s refusal to admit women. The college was named after Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, who was a former Columbia University president. He was a deaf educator with ties to southern universities.
While an educator at the University of Alabama, he had enslaved people working in his labs, and a woman he enslaved was sexually assaulted by one of his students. Additionally, Barnard allegedly sexually abused enslaved women while his colleagues looked the other way.
At one time, Barnard expressed loyalty to The Confederacy and supported the practice of chattel slavery. He returned to the north during The Civil War. This is when he wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln expressing his allegiance and claimed his previous statement about supporting The Confederacy as a political strategy. No mention or acknowledgment of him enslaving people.
Memories of Bloomingdale Insane Asylum faded over the years, and many students are unaware of what once stood before Columbia University moved uptown. There are eerie reminders as many suicides of students and faculty — dating back to 1898 — occurred. The news outlets report on suicide waves at Columbia University, and several years back, some mental health experts alluded that Columbia University could be better equipped to curtail and address suicide.
As for what we know about Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, it's rather disturbing that Barnard College — which spent years cultivating a progressive persona and postures itself as a safe space for women to get an education — is named after a man who had sexual abuse allegations against him and undeniable ties to slavery. The Columbia and Slavery initiative technically addresses the dark past of Barnard, but it’s kind of a closed-door discussion — even though it’s posted on the internet. Only a certain kind of person would know where to look.
Heil Butler!
Butler Library is a popular place for visitors and a venue that students frequent the most — when they’re not sitting on the “Low Steps” on a sunny day. This neo-classical structure was completed in 1934 as a response to expanding the library system. In 1922, Nicholas Murray Butler made the first proposal for a new library. Butler Library was ultimately named after him. He was president of Columbia University from 1902 to 1945 — the longest-acting president in Columbia University’s history. He was lauded for his expansion efforts of Columbia University's presence uptown.
His political alliances and attitudes towards students who were an ethnic and religious minority aren’t openly discussed in a public forum or even known to the average Columbia University student. In 1919, Nicholas Murray Butler was accused of being anti-Semitic, as he amended an admission policy limiting the number of Jewish students.
More trouble soon followed as Casa Italiana was built in the 1920s, supposedly to promote Italian culture. The head of the Italian Fascist Party, Benito Mussolini, was enthusiastic before the first brick was laid. He learned about the project from Columbia University faculty member and General Secretary of the Institute of Italian Culture, Peter Riccio. Nicholas Murray Butler was an admirer of Benito Mussolini. Prominent Italian anti-fascist, Luigi Criscuolo, raised the alarm that every lecturer scheduled to visit Casa Italiana had fascist sympathies. Such a visitor included an Italian Fascist Party Official, Guglielmo Marconi. In a written statement, Butler denied Columbia University being a facilitator of fascist propaganda.
Butler found himself in another fascist debacle as he was accused of being a Nazi sympathizer. Months after the Nazi Party organized book burnings at German universities and expelled Jewish faculty members from academia, he said nothing and continued sending students to Germany and accepting Nazi-approved students.
Famed Columbia University anthropologist, Franz Boas, had his work burned and banned. Butler said not a word to condemn these actions as an attack on intellectual freedom. To further cement his unspoken allegiance to Nazism, he welcomed a Nazi Ambassador to Columbia University. Students who protested against Nazism were punished harshly, and faculty were met with the same treatment. It’s said that Butler ended the careers of two faculty members for their stance against Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.
Seemingly, some students began to adopt Nicholas Murray Butler’s anti-Semitism and Nazi sympathies, as it was reported during a Purim Dance the Jewish Student Society organized in 1934, members of a fraternity threw Swastikas from a balcony and shouted “down with the Jews”, before fleeing the scene.
Jewish students weren’t the only demographic of marginalized students to be met with discrimination or bigotry. Famed poet and writer Langston Hughes had to drop out of Columbia University after one academic year due to rampant anti-Black racism. When he arrived for the autumn semester in 1921, he was initially denied entry to the dormitory he had reserved for himself far in advance.
Also, Langston Hughes was excluded from social events as he recalled a wealthy dorm-mate would use him to get help for his French homework but never extended an invitation to interact socially. The excruciating irony of what Langston Hughes experienced at Columbia University is that if it hadn’t happened, he would never have fallen in love with Harlem and given the world his literary genius. In April of 1924, Frederick Wells — a Black law student — was living in the dorms and was met with racist aggression from white students who were unhappy with his presence. This unhinged rage led to threats of violence and a cross burning.
Racism, War-Mongering, and Student Dissent — oh my!
The Counterculture of the 1960s is a mesmerizing time in history. Not only the music, fashion, and a shift in societal norms, but the Anti-War and Civil Rights movements riled up the American status quo of those times. College campuses across the country were involved in many causes. The Columbia University student uprising in 1968 was a pivotal moment in history. Two issues that displeased students came to a boil.
A member of Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, at Columbia University, named Bob Feldman uncovered documents at the International Law Library that showed an institutional affiliation with the Institute for Defense Analyses. This was a research think tank with the Department of Defense. This angered many on campus because of Columbia University’s lack of transparency and the university being a cog in the war machine. Additionally, Columbia University had plans to build a gym in Morningside Park, which is owned by New York City. The upper floor would be only for Columbia University, and the lower part would be a community center for Harlem residents.
Community organizers and like-minded people at Columbia University felt the administration was playing fast and loose with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Even though Morningside Park is public domain, the average resident of Harlem would’ve been barred access to most of the facilities. Columbia University had already evicted thousands of Black and Latinx Harlem residents from Columbia University properties. Many Harlem residents were paying rent directly to Columbia University. A prominent Harlem activist called then Columbia University president Grayson Kirk “the biggest slumlord in Harlem.”
About a week before the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., members of the Student Afro Society, or SAS, organized its first protest supporting the residents of Harlem and condemning the harm Columbia University caused. This led to another protest that turned into a confrontational stand-off in response to being turned away from protesting inside Low Library. Students from both Columbia University and Barnard College marched to the construction site of the new gym in support of SAS and ultimately clashed with the New York Police Department.
SDS was against the construction of the gym in Morningside Park and had a gripe with Columbia University over ties to the Department of Defense and punishing student dissent. SDS took part in the clash at Morningside Park and occupied Hamilton Hall with SAS.
Sharing an occupied space posed a problem for SAS, and when SDS was asked to leave, this exposed a racial divide between the two student-led organizations. SAS wanted to keep the focus on Columbia University’s oppressive encroachment on Harlem and felt SDS had an agenda that would impede their overall goal. This led to each organization occupying separate sides of the building.
The first spark of dissent at Columbia University during the Counterculture era was when Bob Feldman uncovered important documents at the International Law Library. However, it was the tenacity of the members of SAS and their unwavering support of Black Harlem residents that started the Columbia University student uprising of 1968. Decades after these historical events took place, former members of SAS expressed disappointment in their important role in starting the uprising, being pushed to the side to uplift the white students of SDS.
Former SAS members also spoke candidly about the racism they faced while students at Columbia University, while former members of SDS revealed they felt conflicted about being asked to leave the space, SAS was occupying. SDS was made the face of the Columbia University student uprising for years and had a movie centering them in the uprisings. For whatever reason, members of the SAS asking them to leave their space back in 1968 was still on their minds. The common enemy of both student organizations was Columbia University’s implicit loyalty to perpetuating oppressive realities.
A lesser-known one-man protest took place in 1969 when Bruce Mayrock — a 20-year-old student at The School of General Studies — set himself on fire in front of the United Nations. He was protesting the Nigerian aggression against the people of Biafra. His death was seen as an ultimate sacrifice. Mayrock signed petitions, wrote to Congress, and wired the president of the United States on behalf of the Biafrans. Perhaps, hopelessness and desperation led him to self-immolation.
The fiftieth anniversary of the 1968 student-led protests at Columbia University was promoted and celebrated by the administration. Also, the anniversary was utilized as a redemption arc. Columbia University wanted to divorce itself from a less progressive time and show how changes were made for the better. But did Columbia University change for the better since the student uprising of 1968? Is there a sincere effort from administrators, faculty, and current students to usher in a new era?
There’s more diversification of the student body and faculty and a more progressive approach to curricula. Racism on campus is still an issue, as a white student made headlines in December of 2018 for going on a racist drunk tirade and harassing Black students. In November 2018, a Jewish professor had Swastikas spray-painted all over her office.
Another issue that never left is Columbia University’s encroachment on Harlem. Current Columbia University president, Lee Bollinger, used his authority to rapidly gentrify areas that surround Columbia University. There was pushback, and the fight was over as the New York State Court of Appeals sided with Columbia University’s so-called right to expand. Columbia University worked under the guise of eminent domain to displace residents and businesses.
Some viewed this course of action as an abuse of power. Columbia University claiming a neighboring area is blighted isn’t anything new, as this tactic was seen in the 1940s. Additionally, in 1947, Morningside Heights Inc. was founded to stop white flight, and in 1958, the Columbia Daily Spectator ran a series called Slums on Morningside. Whether or not the Board of Trustees and Columbia University presidents of the past and present want to admit it, poverty and marginalized living that surround Columbia University are unwanted presences to the pristine image of the Ivory Tower.
Lee Bollinger claimed that his vision for expansion would create jobs and affordable housing. Columbia University vowed to work with community members of Manhattanville. In 2013, Columbia University claimed there was a pledge of $10 million in escrow for an affordable housing fund. Columbia University is also known for buying rent-stabilized buildings, only to rehabilitate the property and transform the units into condominiums. Disturbingly, in January of 2021, the vice president for Manhattanville Development was arrested for aggravated sexual assault on a child.
What happened in 1968 was kicked off because of anger about how Columbia University was aiding in the oppressive realities of Black and Latinx people living in Harlem. This is still happening. Some present-day students vocalized their disapproval of what happened in the past and what’s continuing today. That’s where it ends. No action or organizing efforts with Harlem-based activists or residents.
The Unspoken Criminal Underbelly
When envisioning people who commit criminal acts, devilishly heinous people who are a danger to the public usually come to mind. A person with an Ivy League affiliation more than likely wouldn’t be on someone’s radar. Societal notions of respectability and measuring a person’s morality to how much social capital they may have could lead to situations being overlooked or disregarded.
Beat Generation icon Jack Kerouac and Columbia University dropout found himself smack dab in the middle of a murder investigation when Lucien Carr murdered a man and dumped the body in the Hudson River. Carr would later claim self-defense. Allegedly, he was physically assaulted when he repeatedly warded off unwanted sexual advances. He infamously went to the apartment of William Burroughs and handed him a bloodied pack of cigarettes belonging to the dead man, and the rest is history.
Before two students were arrested in 2005 for vandalism of a common area in Ruggles Hall and later charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief via hate crime, a likable and hard-working student's life ended in the same building at the hands of her boyfriend. Kathleen Roskot was a talented athlete and rather popular. The disturbing and fiendish nature of the murder-suicide that took place at Ruggles Hall in 2000 was something that’s not supposed to happen at Columbia University.
Thomas Nelford was once a promising athlete before he became addicted to drugs. He was kicked out of Columbia University. Many people urged her to end things with him. After Nelford murdered Roskot, he went to the 181st Street #1 Train station and jumped in front of an oncoming train. An investigator was quoted saying, “You send your little girl off to Columbia thinking she’ll be in a safe environment — and she meets a murderer.”
A perfect segue into another valid question to ask, is Columbia University, a safe environment for women? Murder is the most extreme situation of gender-based violence, but there are psychologically scarring incidences of rape, physical and sexual assault, harassment, etc. These are indeed problems women at Columbia University faced over the years. The situations mentioned are prosecutorial offenses in the eyes of the law. However, when it happens at Columbia University, it’s met with closed-door hearings, FERPA regulations, and exhausting processes that leave survivors retraumatized and invalidated.
In 2014, there was an anti-rape revolution that took place at Columbia University. Unlike the student uprising that took place in 1968, these are a series of events Columbia University administrators would like to forget. Rape survivor and Columbia University student, Emma Sulkowicz, carried her infamous mattress during her graduation ceremony, where Lee Bollinger refused to shake her hand. Of course, the Columbia University administration claimed this wasn’t purposely done. Before that, flyers of a “rapist list” began to circulate on campus to warn women. An anonymous student took it a step further when they etched a sexual offenders list with a marker on a bathroom wall.
Professor Enrichetta Ravina was sexually harassed by a colleague, and when she tried to resolve the matter bureaucratically, she was slandered and retaliated against. She took it to federal court and filed a lawsuit. She was awarded over $1 million in damages. This isn’t the first time a Columbia University professor was accused of some form of sexual violation. In 2010, a political science professor was charged with incest.
A Columbia University gynecologist, Dr. Robert Hadden, sexually abused his patients — including a minor — for over two decades. Through documentation, the public learned that Columbia University has been aware of his sexual misconduct since 1994. The Biden Administration appointed Suzanne Goldberg as acting assistant secretary for the Office for Civil Rights. Her position would be dealing with Title IX. This posed a problem for advocates and many survivors at Columbia University, as it was claimed she violated Title IX regulations repeatedly and often acted dismissive toward survivors.
Unfortunately, student organizations at Columbia University appear also to have a problem with sexual predators and overall immoral behavior. Phi Gamma Delta — FIJI — had private racist, sexist, and misogynistic GroupMe messages leaked to the public. There was even a petition created on Change.org to disband the fraternity over allegations of sexual assault, drugging women, and stalking. Donald Trump's first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, is a former member of FIJI. Even back then, the fraternity had a horrible reputation. Anecdotally, drug dealing was another form of criminality that was seen on Columbia University’s infamous “frat row”. The New York Police Department launched Operation Ivy League, which uncovered a secret drug ring taking place in fraternity housing.
The Columbia University Marching Band was dissolved in 2020 after being one of the oldest student organizations on campus. Submissions to Columbia Confessions regarding the marching band’s misconduct — which included sexual assault, racism, anti-Semitism, bullying, theft, and harassment — began to appear. Another notable incident which included an administrative reprimand, occurred when members distributed flyers featuring racist misogyny toward women living in Gaza. This was about a month after the Israeli Defense Force dropped bombs on Gaza.
The Columbia Daily Spectator and BWOG are two student organizations where one can get news on campus happenings, gossip, or anything that would be in the realm of standard journalism. Just as it seems with other student organizations at Columbia University, sexual misconduct and allegations of perpetuating a toxic environment are issues that have yet to be formally addressed by leadership at the Columbia Daily Spectator and BWOG.
From time to time, confessions are submitted anonymously, calling out BWOG, and a former staff member who waited until she graduated bravely addressed the Columbia Daily Spectator in a public Facebook post. Besides a secret history of alleged sexual abuse, Columbia Daily Spectator relied on the contributions of a student from The School of General Studies named Joel Davis. He cultivated a presence in establishment Democrat circles and gave a TedTalk on ending sexual violence. This made him an “administration darling”. He was arrested by the FBI for possession of child pornography and attempted child exploitation.
Shockingly, this wasn’t the first federal takedown of a student enrolled at The School of General Studies. Esther Elizabeth Reed was admitted as a student using the stolen identity of a missing woman from South Carolina. She was featured on America’s Most Wanted and was on the United States Secret Service's 10 most-wanted fugitive list. Before she made her way to Columbia University, she had a career in fraud and identity theft.
Poison Ivy
After taking a deep dive into Columbia University’s history, a person may feel like they watched a season of American Horror Story, or a person could still believe the prestige and societal good-standing Columbia University earned should be unchallenged.
A potential argument one could bring up is this historical compilation doesn’t fully represent the good Columbia University participated in. An opposing argument could state that this narrative is indeed troubling. The culture of silence, antiquated bureaucratic processes, the superficiality of tackling important issues, and lack of accountability will continue to cause more harm. How Columbia University’s forefathers engaged in violent behavior, parroted harmful rhetoric, and upheld oppressive policies, can’t be undone. Allowing dysfunction to go on unchecked continues their legacy.
The toxicity of Columbia University is indeed generational. It appears administrators are invested in the containment of scandals and reputation-damaging events. Not holding offending parties accountable and failing to carry out effective solutions is why real change never materializes at Columbia University. To acknowledge the harm that was done to Harlem, the elitist nature of the Ivy League, along with the us vs. them mentality, many people at Columbia University can’t let go of endangered innocent people who are trying to survive.
This university is officially named Columbia University in the City of New York. This institution isn’t a sovereign nation that’s excluded from following the laws of the land and upholding morality. The administration shouldn’t sweep important matters that are a danger to the public under the rug. As the saying goes, what you allow will continue.
