Liveblogging the Community Forum
From 8:00-10:00 p.m., new students of all Columbia’s schools will gather on Low Steps for a community forum. We’ll be liveblogging it, assuming our Internet connection holds up on the Steps.
So, interested upperclassmen (or freshmen who want to be able to convincingly claim that you attended this “mandatory event”), stay tuned. Updates will begin at around 8 p.m. and continue until it’s over — plus maybe a few more minutes to find out what this “surprise celebration” is all about.
9:28 p.m. The surprise celebration is glow sticks and music. Liveblog over.
9:26 p.m. I think it’s over. The celebration is beginning now. I am sorry for inflicting this on you guys. What a boring event to liveblog. Good lord. At least we’ll find out what the special celebration is.
9:22 p.m. People step to the mic to tell short, inter-connected personal stories about the difficult circumstances they overcame on their journeys to Columbia.
9:15 p.m. GS OLs say their section is going to the Lions Head Tavern at 109th and Amsterdam after this shin-dig is over. Meanwhile, the stand-up sit-down exercise continues. “Please stand if you consider yourself spiritual but not religious.” “Please stand if you are left-handed.” “Please stand if you have a tattoo.”
9:06 p.m. Perhaps it’s because I never attended a real NSOP (I started in the spring), but I thought this would be more of a forum, with people talking and asking questions and what-not. Right now they’re doing some sit-down stand-up exercise, and more people are discreetly ducking out.
8:57 p.m. Barnard comes back strong in the loudness sweeps during a video of Columbia’s history, cheering for the founding of BC. GS matches them when their school’s founding is mentioned. Hilariously, SEAS did not cheer for the founding of their own school. The only conclusion I can think of is that they were the ones who were smart enough to leave after 50 minutes of waiting around for this thing to start.
8:51 p.m. The winners of the loudness contest are either CC or GS. Losers are definitely SEAS, who didn’t seem to be too interested in screaming when their school name was said.
8:50 p.m. Someone from the NSOP Committee is speaking. Encouraging students to seek assistance if they are saddened by the death of CC freshman Martha Corey-Ochoa. Welcoming new classes to Columbia.
8:48 p.m. Nearly an hour late, the event is beginning.
8:43 p.m. People are starting to leave in noticeable numbers. So if you’re still in your dorm because you didn’t think you’d be able to get a seat, come on out! But now the screen’s turned back on so it might be about to start.
8:39 p.m. I don’t know which class is the most spirited/loudest yet, but among OLs the prize definitely goes to GS. Their Orientation Leaders were just singing “My Girl” and now they’ve segued into “Call Me Maybe.”
8:35 p.m. The guy who said he was leaving if the event didn’t start in two minutes has not left. He was all talk.
8:30 p.m. An OL just told her section that the forum is running late because of “technical difficulties.”
8:27 p.m. One of the OLs is encouraging the GS section to start chanting “Medicare” and “prune juice.” They did not go along with it, for some reason.
8:22 p.m. 22 minutes past the 8 p.m. start time and nothing has started. This is, without doubt, the most interesting liveblog you have ever read.
8:16 p.m. GS section started chanting “GS” and then cheering. Now some of them are chanting “Dollar drafts.” Now they’re chanting “Apple juice.” Really not sure what everything after the “GS” chant was about but I guess it’s good that they have spirit.
8:11 p.m. Random student: “If this thing doesn’t start in two minutes I’m going home.”
8:05 p.m. Still haven’t quite gotten started, but OLs are wandering around telling each school’s group to scream as loud as they can when their school name is mentioned. Bets on which school’s freshmen are the loudest?
7:58 p.m. An anti-Manhattanville group is handing out fliers to students, inviting them to attend a walking tour of the expansion on Sept. 9. The tour will start at 1 p.m. at the Broadway gates.
By the way, the internet connection here is working but spotty. Sorry if updates are slow in coming!
7:41 p.m.: Lots of people are already here. 50 Cent’s “Window Shopper” music video is being shown, sans sound, on a big screen near the bottom of the steps.
I think you missed the point. This is the basically the same event every year, with the schools history, a video by the committee, etc. its never been advertised as an open mic of any sort. The personal experiences are actually direct excerpts from the admissions essays of this years incoming class. I’m not all rah-rah about this school, but I do think this is an awesome event and the new students do have a good time, sucks that you couldnt sit back and enjoy it too.
I definitely missed the point. I’m not saying it was a bad event (although it started almost an hour late and about 25% of the audience left well before it was over), I’m just saying it was not an event that was worth liveblogging. As I mention in the post, I never attended an NSOP so I was expecting an actual forum. You have to admit the name is a little misleading. Anyway as a random NSOP event, minus the technical difficulties, it was fine. The responsibility for the boring liveblog is entirely on me, since had I done a little more research I would have known not to bother. Apologies if I offended you!
It definitely sucks that it started so late. Thanks for the apology! Tomorrow’s big event would probably be a fun one to liveblog or at least cover, I think it’s at the zoo.
I have been having an ononigg discussion with Brian Doyle about the relationship of institutional support and conference attendance to participation in and diversity of SAA. One part of the conversation has been trying to figure out ways for people who cannot attend the annual conference, for one reason or another, to participate in as meaningful way as possible. Some ideas have included streaming the session audio, some sort of video conferencing, etc. But the idea of live blogging of sessions is great. It would allow both realtime attendance at the conference sessions and even allow remote questions. It wouldn’t replace being there (and seeing all the happy, smiling people) but it would be a lot closer than reading reports days (or months in my case) later. And all it would require would be a commitment on SAA’s part to require free internet access throughout the conference site as part of its contract.