Four Pillars of Barnard: The Columbia Partnership
I’m a Barnard student, which means that I’m also a Columbia student and I live in Barnard housing. Sometimes I take Columbia classes and my ID says Barnard College. The overlap may seem confusing, but stick with me.
Barnard is an undergraduate college of Columbia University, just like Columbia College, SEAS (School of Engineering and Applied Sciences), or GS (School of General Studies). That being said, Barnard is a completely autonomous institution, with a separate endowment, curriculum, and faculty. All Barnard students graduate with a degree that says “Barnard College of Columbia University” and has signatures from both Barnard and Columbia presidents. So, all Barnard students are technically Columbia students, but the extent to which you embrace that connection is entirely up to you.
Barnard students have access to every library in Morningside Heights. I usually like to get my work done in Milstein, sitting in a cozy green chair in a patch of sunlight streaming through a large window. However, when Milstein closes at 2 am and an essay isn’t done, I know that I can cross the street to Butler Library. There, I can find a desk deep in the library stacks and get grinding in a room with no windows so that I don’t have to know that I’m pulling an all-nighter. I’ve often found myself at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library perusing medieval facsimiles or the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library getting scans of gothic church blueprints.
As a Barnard student, I have access to the 3,000+ courses offered at both Barnard and Columbia. I’m a Medieval & Renaissance studies major, which is a small major at an already small school. This means that during course registration, I often use Columbia courses to fill out my schedule. During most semesters, I’m frequently crossing Broadway, from an acting class in the Diana Center to a language course on the upper floors of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall. The ease of a blended academic environment means that I’m never the only Barnard student in any class. In this way, all classes across our joint campus have the potential to feel distinctly Barnard, even if it doesn’t have a BC code in the registrar.
One of my favorite classes of my college career was Art & Architecture of Medieval Germany through the Columbia Art History Department. The Spring semester seminar discussed Carolingian and Ottonian politics and creative practices. As part of the course, Columbia sent our cohort of 12 students and 2 professors across Bavaria to study gothic architecture and illuminated manuscripts in situ. At the beginning of the seminar, I felt some imposter syndrome: maybe this was a Columbia course intended for capital C-Columbia students. But on my first day of the class, I saw myself reflected in the course. Seven out of the twelve students were from Barnard (one of them was my sophomore-year roommate) and one of the professors, Professor Gregory Bryda, is a Barnard professor. Now, I don’t feel guilty about finding exciting academic opportunities on Columbia’s campus because they were created for me too!
Out of the several clubs I’m involved with on campus, most of them have “Columbia” in the name: Columbia Social Entrepreneurship Group, Columbia Musical Theatre Society, and Columbia University Players. Don’t be fooled by the “Columbia” in the name, every club is open to you as a Barnard student. In fact, it’s statistically proven that if a club has “Columbia” in the name, it likely has a Barnard president (I’m the co-Editor in Chief of the Columbia Federalist satire newspaper). Extracurricular involvement is extremely blended, and you’ll find Barnard students anywhere you go.
For better or for worse, Barnard and Columbia's students have access to each other’s anything: if you can use their late-night dining hall underneath John Jay, there may be some Columbia students in line ahead of you in Hewitt. I think it’s for the better. Columbia’s resources have contributed immensely to my college experience and I treasure the relationships I’ve made with friends and faculty at Columbia just as much as I do with mine from Barnard (because they might have also been Barnard students and faculty, just hanging out across the street).