I remember when I got admitted to Barnard. I was sitting with my sister in her living room in Harlem. I had just visited Bryn Mawr and Smith, but when I saw “Gmail: Barnard Admissions…. Congratulations...” pop up on my phone I could barely contain my excitement. I had been deferred during the early decision process and had written off my number one choice. I was so surprised I got in, all the other schools evaporated at that moment! I knew that Barnard would be the place for me. I basically started screaming like a maniac and ran around my sister’s living room and cried tears of joy and did the absolute most.
When I got on campus I discovered that Barnard was not the perfect college. The college that preaches diversity and 48% women of color, at times isn’t well versed in how to be inclusive or understanding of race outside of the race and ethnicity studies departments. The “trans-policy” is not as inclusive as I would want it to be and it ignores groups of folk who I feel would be excellent Barnard Students. And there are many things I could find to critique about Barnard, but let's be real even more things about Columbia. But what I know and what most Barnard students know is that even though we are vocal about our dislikes of Barnard, we still love the education we are getting and we love the general Barnard community. But sometimes that isn’t portrayed when we complain. New York City is the land of debbie downers and complainers, I’ve heard people complain about 75 degree weather and free ice cream. And while we are complaining about the institution we love to prospective students, those students might not get the whole picture of Barnard.
I get it, Hewitt’s meals are repetitive, you have to get on the subway to get to any club that’s actually worth your presence, and administration with their white corporate feminism basically wants me to pull my afro out by the roots. But this is also the time when admitted students with their gleaming faces flood Barnard’s campus trying to decide between everybody’s favorite dancing Barnard bear or another school’s subpar mascot.
The best way to talk to prospective students about Barnard is to be real. It is tough being a Barnard student, but Barnard has so many academic resources for students and so many opportunities, why would you go anywhere else? So when bashing Barnard in front of admitted students also remember those things that made you want to come here, and those things that make you stay here and make sure to also talk about those aspects to the admitted students as well.
It is important to note that also for all these things that we dislike about Barnard, the administration and student government is working to change it! Our administration might not know how to make big changes, but at least they listen to student concerns. There are so many groups and committees on campus that are all geared toward making Barnard a better place that we have gotten so much accomplished for students in these last few months. We have gotten winter housing, more dining options, THE DIANA WILL SERVE DINNER! And a raise of the minimum wage on campus to 15$ an hour! It is obviously important to be critical of Barnard, but what we can’t forget is that Barnard is changing so quickly that the problems we are facing now may not exist for the class of 2020 or class of 2021.
