By Andrew Pagano
The student body of Columbia University has received its fair share of criticism—much of it self-criticism—over its supposed lack of unity and its inability to forge a true sense of school spirit.* Several reasons are given for this: the distractions of New York City; the rigorous academic burdens; and disenchantment with administrators and their actions. The list goes on and on.T
But whatever the reasons are, and no matter how valid or unfounded they all turn out to be, the student body of this university desperately needs to change this attitude. I should know.T
For the last four years, I have commuted to school from my family's home in Queens —the only way this local boy could afford to attend an Ivy League university. The trip takes about an hour each way—a little longer when you add in the constant problems with the 1/9 trains. From Days on Campus, to orientation week, all the way up until the day that diploma finally rests in my hands, commuting has been an alienating experience. As everyone else slept over during Days on Campus, surveying their future living environment, I took the subway home. As orientation week festivities continued into the night, with activities, parties, or time spent in the lounges and hallways getting to know floor-mates and making new friends, the ''commuter boy'' again found himself on the subway, heading home. After finals, when seniors anxiously hang around campus, trying to enjoy their final days before graduation, I will be preparing to take the subway to campus, cap and gown in hand, feeling like a visitor to a graduation that is supposed to belong in part to me.T
While part of this alienation has come from the nature of living a commuter life at a primarily live-in campus, much of it has come from decisions that I have made to isolate myself from any sense of a campus life.* Upon realizing that most extracurricular activities on campus took place at night, I chose to go home and concentrate on schoolwork in the comforts of my bedroom. After all, I was not making the sacrifice of commuting to school in order to neglect the educational Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm). experience that Columbia had to offer.* T
The Columbia course load and an active campus life seemed like conflicting priorities—one would only cause the other to suffer.* And how could one justify riding the subway for two hours a day to attend classes—how could one justify watching his parents work hard to afford the steep expenses of this school—and not deem the schoolwork to be his one and only priority?* T
It was not until the summer after junior year, when there was no workload and there was free time to spare, that a friend convinced me to take that first step of getting involved on campus by writing for the Spectator. It would require no more than spending one evening every two weeks at the Spectator office, but it provided me with a voice on campus. It made me feel, in a small but meaningful way, a part of the Columbia community. T
It was this feeling that made me question the response that fellow students would give me when I told them that I was a commuter. ''That's not all that bad,'' they would say. ''At least you get to concentrate on your work. The campus and dorm life can be really distracting.''T
Maybe they did not get it. Maybe they did not realize that the ''distractions'' that kept them from their work constituted a valuable part of campus life. Whether they chose to hang out in the lounge with their friends watching a big sporting event or award show; spent a Friday evening at the movies, a restaurant, a bar, or a club with friends; decided to forego some schoolwork to catch a performance by Six Milks; or chose to Take Back the Night, they were involved in a community. The everyday routine that a dorm resident takes for granted represents the very things that should make every student feel like a part of a greater community.T
The school spirit of the student body exists. It exists when you get together in the lounge, somewhere in the city, at a campus performance, or in other campus activities, marches, or protests. You may spend more time downtown than you do on campus. You may spend plenty of late nights in the library, concentrating on that heavy workload. But you almost never do it alone. You should never do it alone. Remember the unity and the sense of community that develops from doing things together—doing anything together—in your everyday campus life. And if you do go at it alone on campus, doing nothing more than studying with your earplugs on, then think about what you are missing. It took me almost four years of self-reflection on the 7 train to figure this out. It should not take your four whole years of living on campus to realize the same thing. Please make sure you do not leave this university with any regrets. Because, believe it or not, the spirit of CUnity is all around you.T
forge: to form, build
rigorous: difficult, rough
disenchantment: 不抱幻想
valid: 正确的；有确实根据的
Queens: 皇后区[美国纽约市区名]
lounge: 休息室，娱乐室
extracurricular: 课外的
deem: to regard
Spectator: a student newspaper of Columbia University
forego: to give up or do without
Six Milks: 一个由哥伦比亚学生组成的即兴戏剧演出小组
Take Back the Night: 一个反对针对女性暴力行为的年度游行活动
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