The Empire State Building lit up New York City in Columbia's royal blue two weekends ago in honor of the bicentennial of the Columbia College Charter, but many students said they felt little urge to participate in the events the school planned.
For the weekend, Columbia planned a parade, with some students dressed up as such famous alumni as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, a champagne breakfast, and a formal ball.
Columbia was originally founded in 1754 as King's College, under England's King George II. After it was forced to close during the Revolutionary War, it was reopened under state control in 1784, and was finally chartered as Columbia College on April 13, 1787.
"It's not our bicentennial. Our bicentennial was in 1954," said sophomore Andrew Cadel. "I think the whole thing's a big hype for our alumni, and it's not for me at all," he told The Columbia Spectator.
"I guess it's necessary for morale and for people to pat themselves on the back--especially the deans," said senior Mridula Chakravartty of the celebration.
"It gives the university publicity. If it's not this then it would be something else," Chakravartty told The Spectator. BROWN
SAT Referendum Barely Defeated
High school students across the country dread that nerve-wracking rite of passage, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). But if some students at Brown University have their way, the test may become a thing of the past.
Almost half of the voting Brown students last week gave the thumbs up on a non-binding referendum that called for their school to eliminate the SAT as a requirement for admission.
When the votes were tallied, the initiative failed by a margin of 14 votes, or less than one percent, of the 1500 cast, but it did manage to focus attention on the SAT issue.
"People have to become aware that the test just doesn't measure scholastic aptitude--what it is supposed to do," said Brown senior Michael H. Spalter, the director of Students Against Testing, the campus organization that sponsored the referendum.
Data released by Educational Testing Service (ETS), the company that writes and grades the SAT, indicates that average scores vary depending on the test-taker's sex, race and wealth, Spalter said.
"For example," Spalter said, "Black women have a national average of 705 points, and white males average 969" of the 1600 possible points.
Spalter said his 100-member organization is not focusing on Brown alone, but has sent more than 100 letters to student organizations at colleges across the country in recent months.
At a meeting of the student government presidents of the Ivy League schools next month, the student politicos will discuss the SAT issue, Spalter said.
Spalter will appear on NBC's Today show next week to debate with the president of ETS. BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Activists Protest Baboon Research
More than 70 activists yesterday protested hypothermia research conducted on baboons at the Boston University Medical Center.
Protesting the research, which is government-funded, protesters waved banners and gathered in front of the center, where the Naval Blood Research Laboratory conducts research on baboons and monkeys, said Evelyn Kimber, vice president of the Coalition to End Animal Suffering and Exploitation.
The lab is attempting to construct a life vest tha would prevent Navy pilots from becoming hypothermic when their planes land in water, a center spokesman said.