After making a joint appearance at Ground Zero, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama will speak about service in Alfred Lerner Hall this evening. The much-anticipated joint event will draw the world’s spotlight to Columbia’s campus yet again.
Amid two tumultuous years of dramatic press attention—including coverage of the Minuteman Project stage-rushing, the appearance of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a slew of on-campus hate crimes, a $4 billion capital campaign, financial-aid reforms, and a hunger strike—this forum sets the stage for another media circus at Columbia.
But for this summit, Columbia is merely providing free space to a worthy cause, officials say.
“My first priority always is: Will this help us as a community, faculty and students,” University President Lee Bollinger said. “If the outside world wants to pay attention, there’s nothing generally wrong with that. But that’s a secondary concern.”
University spokespersons have taken pains to tilt the spotlight towards the event’s sponsor—nonpartisan group ServiceNation, an aggregate coalition of organizations that promote volunteering—rather than the University. The two-day ServiceNation Summit will commemorate the Sept. 11 attacks by conducting a nonpartisan forum dedicated to public service. Out of respect for the memory of those who died that day, both campaigns released a joint statement pledging to tone down attack ads.
But as much as the campaigns and ServiceNation organizers frame the day as a halt to partisanship, the eminence of the two presidential nominees and Columbia’s highly political climate have naturally created a buzz.
“9/11 has been politicized from the day it occurred (have you ever heard a speech by ex-mayor Giuliani?),” DeWitt Clinton Professor of History Eric Foner wrote in an e-mail. “So long as the candidates try not to be too partisan, I have no problem with the event tomorrow.”
On Wednesday, the campaign trail got particularly vitriolic as McCain and Obama quibbled over Obama’s remark that Republicans’ attempt at reform would be like “putting lipstick on a pig.”
For his part, Bollinger said that the event is significant, but must remain focused.
“It is very important for the University to remain as an institution apolitical, neutral in politics,” Bollinger said. “But that does not mean that we should never have political candidates or political figures talking about nonpolitical issues. ... There is nothing wrong with trying to provide a context in which political issues would be debated.”
While many students will be able to take part by watching a JumboTron on Low Plaza, only 100 will be in the same room as the candidates. Nonetheless, Columbia University College Democrats President Chris Daniels, CC ’09, said he knows students who would “rather be outside and have that community feel.”
Since ServiceNation is sponsoring the event, its 600 summit attendees, the campaign staffs, their traveling press corps, and the families of Sept. 11 victims will fill the bulk of the seats. Over the weekend, students throughout the University entered the ticket lottery in droves, but only a small percentage saw success.
“I sincerely hope it doesn’t embitter Columbia students,” said Tim Zimmermann, a spokesman for Be the Change Inc.,an organization in the ServiceNation coalition. “There’s limited space, the media needs tickets, the campaigns need tickets. ...We would love it if everyone could attend, but the hall is just not large enough.” Still, Michael Brown, the CEO of City Year, another of ServiceNation’s component organizations, said the school was “a natural choice” given its amenability and “tremendously strong reputation of encouraging service among its students.” It targets a demographic on which ServiceNation hopes to build its core membership: students.
“They [the members of Generation Y] have the potential,” Zimmermann said. “It’s not so much a question of creating a mentality—it’s about tapping into it.”
Yet some students who learned about their slim chances of entry into the high-profile event seemed disappointed that they would not have the opportunity to see the candidates in the flesh for their one-time campus visit.
But Columbia administrators stressed that the University is fortunate simply to host the event. Columbia has a rich history of community service, with efforts ranging from the founding of the Double Discovery Center to Community Impact, a governing board entirely devoted to service. Officials at the University with backgrounds and connections in the public-service world reached out to event organizers.
“Some of the key organizers of the ServiceNation Summit, those involved in City Year, were well acquainted with Columbia’s facilities,” Executive Vice President for Communications David Stone said. City Year held a large event at Columbia in June 2006. “When the University reached out to the summit organizers to see how Columbia could be part of ServiceNation’s agenda, among the things that were discussed was hosting the presidential forum.”
After logistics were set, the question of hosting the event landed on Bollinger’s desk.
“I had to decide whether or not this was a good thing to do,” Bollinger said. He said he was sure it was the right choice, adding that Columbia reserved as many seats for students as possible.
ServiceNation is not paying Columbia for the space. “Columbia has long been connected with service learning and a number of service initiatives,” Zimmermann said. “As a venue, it just made sense. President Lee Bollinger was very receptive and excited given Columbia’s connection to these ideas, so we tried to work it out. ... By coincidence, there are connections for both candidates at Columbia.”
And many student groups agreed that the event is a boon for Columbia.
“It’s amazing that there’s going to be this huge political event on campus that’s nonpartisan,” said Lauren Salz, BC ’11 and executive director of the College Republicans.
“This is something for unity. This is 9/11,” said Leah Martin, CC ’09 and director of Columbia’s chapter of Students for Obama. “This is not a campaign event.”
Bollinger said that the fruits of the event would last beyond Thursday if students continued to promote service at Columbia.
“This kind of common, shared debate about issues is a very, very healthy thing for the University,” he said. “If there’s a lot of interest in this, and I know there is, and expect there will be, and discussion about public service ... occurs, then I think that’s a success.”
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