For some Barnard first-years, navigating Barnard/Columbia divide difficult

This story is part of a special issue examining the Barnard-Columbia relationship, 30 years after Columbia College decided to go coed and Barnard decided not to merge with Columbia. Check out the rest of the issue here.

“Where do you go to school?” It might seem like a simple question, but for Barnard students, it can be a difficult one to answer.

Columbia and Barnard have a contractual relationship allowing for students from both schools to live, eat, and take classes on either side of the street. Barnard has its own budget, president, and board of trustees, but Columbia confers Barnard’s degrees.

For many students, though—especially first-years at Barnard—the distinctions between the two schools are murky at best.

Sophie Lewis, BC ’15, said that being asked where she goes to school “starts a conversation.” But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, she added.

“It’s not just an easy answer,” Lewis said. “And that’s something I like about Barnard, because you can’t just put a sticker on it and say, ‘I go to this school,’ and everyone has associations about it. Rather, you can define it.”

For some students, though, Barnard’s difficult-to-define identity can be a concern. Julia Feld, BC ’12, said that regardless of whether she says she goes to Columbia or Barnard, the responses can be negative.

“If you say ‘Barnard,’ it can definitely pigeonhole you into, ‘Oh, you go to a women’s college,’ or they just have no idea what it is,” Feld said. “But if you say Columbia, people know what it is, but then they judge you” for going to an Ivy League school.

“It makes me uncomfortable because I think it creates a status divide,” she added.

The uncertainty of the Barnard-Columbia relationship can be most significant for first-years. Joanie Atkinson, BC ’12, said that freshman year is the time when Barnard students try to figure out how they fit into the University.

“When I was a freshman there was a lot more pointless stress about the whole thing—girls getting used to the dynamic, and just hearing rumors, and going out to frats, and trying to find themselves in the whole community and get situated,” Atkinson said.

Some Columbia students, too, must confront questions about the Barnard-Columbia divide. Sarah Zimmerman, CC ’15 and a member of the Undergraduate Recruitment Committee, said that if she is asked about the Barnard-Columbia relationship while giving a tour of Columbia, she is supposed to respond with lines from her script.

"Columbia University and Barnard College are independently affiliated schools," the script reads. "Barnard is an all-female liberal arts college. Columbia and Barnard students may cross register for as many classes as they wish. Socially, things are all mixed up. You would not really know who is a Barnard student and who is a Columbia student unless you directly asked them."

"For first-year students, the New Student Orientation Program (NSOP) lasts eight days before classes start," the script continues. "We have a joint Orientation with Barnard, so everyone is mixed and we have the opportunity to meet and interact with Barnard students. However, they are separate institutions, with separate presidents, provost, and admissions processes.”

Zimmerman said that she finds the relationship to be “very codependent,” and that she agrees with the way it is defined by the URC.

“The fact that we have different registration processes and we live in different places, they seem like different undergraduate institutions,” she said. “Although definitely the lines are blurred.”

Barnard First-Year Class Dean Lisa Hollibaugh believes that the difficulty in understanding Barnard’s relationship with Columbia stems from the fact that Barnard never wanted to be fully incorporated in to Columbia.

“We are in partnership with Columbia but we are also independent. So while Columbia is a part of our identity, it is only a part,” Hollibaugh said. “Since it takes some time at any institution to learn about its identity and its culture, it makes sense that Barnard first-years will need to some time to learn how the partnership between the schools works and how it shapes their experiences.”

Additionally, Lewis said, first-years at both Columbia and Barnard tend to place more importance on their college than upperclassmen do.

“I think when you start college in a place where everyone has an extraordinary story to tell, it suddenly becomes very important to try to define yourself in a context, to make yourself feel a little important because you’re at the bottom of the food chain at a new school and it’s really difficult,” Lewis said.

Sometimes, the differences between the two schools can lead to problems for students. Many Barnard students say they have been ridiculed and stereotyped for going to Barnard, with Columbia students sometimes referring to Barnard as being a “backdoor” in to Columbia.

Sudha Rao, BC ’12, said she often heard “backdoor school” bandied around during her freshman year, although she hasn’t heard it much since. Feld said that derogatory comments about Barnard have never fazed her.

“You’ve got to have enough guts, enough internal strength to disregard what people say,” she said. “And side comments like that are just kind of whatever.”

Lewis said she has become ambivalent about any tension that exists between Barnard and Columbia.

“Schools become arbitrary in the grand scheme of learning,” Lewis said. “Stereotypes are based on real things to some level, but I think, honestly, in the end these distinctions are arbitrary, as far as our universal learning experience within the school.”

emma.goss@columbiaspectator.com

Check out the rest of the coeducation special issue here.