“Columbia students pride themselves on being politically active, yet there was a period of time when dozens of Columbia Crushes posts fetishized different ethnicities and races. … The less we talk about the ways in which our bodies are fetishized, the less people will recognize it as an issue, and the more people, including our classmates, will continue to fetishize our bodies.”

“Contrary to popular belief, minority students do not exist on this campus to simply explain intersectionality to those who don’t understand, analyze a Toni Morrison quote for them, or stroke their white savior ego. We have passions, frustrations, and voices that deserve to be acknowledged and addressed.”

“My identity is not your stepping stone toward an elected position. There is an overwhelming problem of trivializing the FGLI identity at Columbia. It is easy to ignore that identity when the norm here is being upper middle class and conversations center around the assumption that most students have had similar experiences. As an FGLI student, I am constantly erased. I am implicitly told to be satisfied with what I am given because it is so much more than I ever had before coming to this school.”

“The frat brothers’ unwillingness to do anything seemed to reflect fears of grappling with the organization’s own position in conversations about gender-based misconduct on campus, as well as a simple lack of care for those in the Columbia community that were not their white frat brothers.”

“Whisper networks function to fill in the gaps. They are protective and preventive, informal Band-Aids on a much larger systemic issue. And, I imagine, they have probably saved lives.”

“While minority students are held unjustifiably responsible for the actions of others, how can CUCR actively do harm and expect to remain innocent? How can a group of people on this campus take an active role in inviting ideologically and physically violent speakers and expect to bear no culpability?”

“CUCR reflects what Charlie Sykes, who spent decades hosting an archconservative talk show in Wisconsin, says about the Trump-era Republican Party: It is ‘a party dedicated to liberal tears,” not “a movement based on ideas or centered on principles.’”

“I know why students were present and protesting. Of course I do. Tommy Robinson offends and threatens many black and brown bodies with his rhetoric. But if you don’t understand how someone begins to think like this, you will never understand how to stop it and how to make sure political parties do not arise out of such rhetoric.”

“Yet will CUCR defend Drexel University Professor George Ciccariello-Maher’s right to freedom of speech or the right of his students to a critical education? Would they invite him to Columbia so that they can fulfil their stated goal of hearing different viewpoints? If Ciccariello-Maher is eventually fired, I can only assume that an emboldened ‘alt-right’ will soon turn its sights on outspoken Columbia University professors as well.”

“Without providing these kinds of opportunities, you are continuing to perpetuate the common error of paying lip service to the General Studies community. We appreciate your positive sentiments, but the students of General Studies would much rather have your collaboration. Please bring back the editorial board and do better to recruit students from the School of General Studies.”

“For student-parents, their children’s well-being and future is immediately dependent on their success. What could be more motivating than that? Don’t parents deserve a chance at a great education? GS provides an amazing opportunity, but college is still inaccessible to many prospective students with children; simply accepting our applications is not enough.”

“Columbia and GS have sought to reach out to the non-elites of society—myself included—to provide us with an elite education. As part of the nontraditional student body, I know there are some of us who start this journey but are not able to finish it. Not necessarily because we do not have the will, the strength, the heart, or the intelligence, but because life can bring complexities that force us out of our programs. I believe that we can make the support system even stronger for nontraditional students at Columbia by incorporating accredited online classes into our programs so that more of us can complete our degrees.”

“The ‘outside agitators’ story imagines a community unified around a common interest until a third party sneaks in to spoil things, like a snake in the garden. Yet the successful unionization campaign itself showed that that story was untrue; regardless of what administrators believe, the reasons we had for forming this union were our own. For example, during that campaign we argued that graduate students’ interest in a workplace free of sexual harassment could easily come into conflict with the University’s interest in protecting powerful employees.”

“Graduate workers want to teach students, conduct their research, and facilitate academic inquiry on campus. Collective bargaining would provide them with recourse to begin to address pressing workplace issues such as low and late pay, inadequate benefits, a lack of clear workload expectations, alleged sexual harassment and discrimination, and an array of other issues.”

“When we, as faculty, support unionization for graduate student workers, we are protecting the dignity of work and the agency and well-being of all our students and of our present and future colleagues. We ask that the University do the same by following the law and beginning the bargaining process now.”

“Suddenly that part of the alumni base is listening. More than listening, though, people are actually threatening to pull funding from the school and putting together efforts to organize against the student vote… Where were those people when communities made up of people of color, of trans people, of survivors of sexual violence were literally screaming out and asking for their help? Where were they when we were asking for alumni support? They were certainly not threatening to pull funding then.”

“There exists at Columbia a faux-liberal atmosphere of commodified activism, one in which being ‘woke’ can gain you social status. In this way, many students deem themselves activists through hollow conversations, social media posts, and boisterous tweets surrounding current political issues.”

“Fellow undergrads, I’m not trying to convince you to camp outside the provost’s office or chant into a megaphone or even to bring coffee to the picket line—I’m trying to tell you that you have power to shape this University.”

“Yes, divestment at Barnard is a divisive issue, and yes, BDS at Barnard makes people uncomfortable....It is divisive precisely because it poses a simple—and yes, it is that simple—question: if you stand against injustice, will you stand with Palestine?”

“BDS is a one-sided, misleading movement that does not delve deep enough into the complexities of this incredibly nuanced conflict. Its leaders advocate not for peace, compromise, or a two-state solution, but for division and the destruction of the only Jewish state.”

“We want to be honest and direct: There are some students and alumni of Barnard, and many strangers to our campus, who do not like that SGA chose to hold a referendum, who take issue with its phrasing, with its process, and with what it represents. But our primary responsibility as SGA is to represent the student body, and we are better able to do so now that we know the votes of the 1,153 Barnard students who participated in the referendum. We believe in the power of referendums, and think that they are the best tool for student governments to transparently represent the interests of their constituents.”

“A common misconception is that supporting the referendum automatically makes one ‘pro-Palestine’ or ‘anti-Israel.’ This is not the case. Supporting the equal rights of human beings means denouncing the actions of an oppressor, not the oppressor itself.”