Be strong and beautiful, Barnard

When I joined Spectator as a first-year, everyone asked the same questions: Where are you from? What are you studying? What school are you in? Sometimes, when I answered that I go to Barnard, I would get a surprised, “Really? But you don’t seem like a typical Barnard girl.” This has always confused me—I don’t know what a “typical Barnard girl” is. Examining this concept and deconstructing the “strong, beautiful Barnard woman” identity would take more time than this column would allow. However, I want to use this column to briefly discuss my Barnard experience.
I attend Barnard College: a (1) women’s, (2) liberal arts college, (3) located in New York City, (4) affiliated with Columbia University. I chose Barnard because of the combination of these four aspects. However, throughout my four years here, I’ve felt that Barnard truly succeeds at only two of these tenets: being located in New York City and being affiliated with Columbia University. I love attending this school—almost in spite of itself.

The reasons why Barnard succeeds at these latter two are fairly obvious. New York City offers so many opportunities in almost every career, and Barnard facilitates this by offering a variety of funding opportunities and a well-connected alumnae network. Additionally, the city offers a variety of cultural and other activities which, combined with the lack of community on campus, promotes exploration of this amazing city.

Combining the resources of the Barnard and Columbia campuses is not only beneficial to Barnard women, but to the entire community as well. Certainly, it is beneficial to be able to utilize Butler, Lerner, and the amazing faculty at Columbia. However, Columbia students also benefit from the Diana, academic programs that only exist at Barnard, and the equally amazing (if less well-known) faculty.

Despite these benefits, Barnard has its faults. It is both easy and difficult to criticize Barnard. Attacking Barnard is something that is so pervasive in campus culture that it is difficult to be critical without worrying about coming off as menacing. The fact that Barnard has to fight for its identity makes internal review a neglected process.

Even though I’m a scientist, I wanted to attend a liberal arts institution. Barnard was my top choice because of the Nine Ways of Knowing. In theory, the Nine Ways offer a broad range of disciplines with a slight structure. It even has a laboratory science requirement! However, there are many problems with the implementation of the Nine Ways. The laboratory requirement that I enjoy so much is highly contested within the school’s non-science population. Additionally, for science majors, there is hardly any overlap between major classes and Nine Ways classes. For most other majors, this is not the case, and students in those majors can take more elective classes or, potentially, fewer courses overall.

Also, three of the humanities Ways are not clearly articulated by their titles: Reason and Value, Cultures in Comparison, and Social Analysis. Sometimes, when looking at the courses that satisfy each requirement, especially those three, it seems as though there hasn’t been an overhaul in five years. This is a problem, as new courses are not being added to the list while courses that are no longer offered remain. Additionally, there are other knowledge areas that should be added to the Nine Ways—specifically, there should be a new Way that emphasizes that Barnard is a women’s college.

I believe in women’s colleges. I believe that there will be a need for women’s colleges as long as there is a need for safe spaces, as long as women still make 70 cents to every dollar that a man does, as long as people—despite continued inequality—refuse to identify as feminists, and as long as feminism has not reconciled internal issues with race, sexuality, identity, and privilege. There will be women’s colleges until women stop wanting to attend them.

But most of the time, Barnard doesn’t feel like a women’s college. Perhaps part of this is due to the affiliation with Columbia, but that doesn’t explain it entirely. As one of my friends says, “Barnard is misogyny by women.” I was recently tech-ing an admissions event when one of the prospies asked about the differences between Barnard and Columbia girls. One of the panelists answered, “Well, Barnard girls get to make themselves up before going out and seeing Columbia boys, whereas since Columbia girls have to live with the boys, the boys have to see them when they aren’t made up.” That comment made me want to turn off her microphone. I wasn’t the only one who was shocked. Here this panelist was, defining the women of Barnard and Columbia in terms of men.

There are certainly isolated incidences in which I’ve experienced what I feel a women’s college should be like, but these are always isolated from Barnard as an institution. Maybe because there is no course requirement on gender or sexuality or power dynamics, these conversations that should be started in the classroom hardly ever make it out of the women’s studies department.

All in all, I love Barnard, and I just want the institution that I love to evolve and improve. I’ve enjoyed my college experience, thought it hasn’t been without its faults. I just want to thank everyone, especially the Speccies that made it such a memorable experience (there are too many to name, but you know who you are).

The author is a Barnard senior majoring in neuroscience and behavior. She served as an associate/deputy production editor on the 131st board, the production editor on the 132nd board, senior Eye designer on the 133rd board, and senior staff photographer on the 132nd-134th boards. She is also a member of the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal, the Columbia Political Review, and the Common Cents Project.