Barnard College

See also Wikipedia's article about "Barnard College".

Barnard College
Established	1889
President	Deborah Spar
Dean	Avis Hinkson '84
Degrees	BA
Enrollment	2,389 students
Website	www.barnard.edu

Barnard College is a women's college across Broadway from Columbia's Morningside Heights campus. It is part of the prestigious Seven Sisters Colleges (the other members being Radcliffe, Smith, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Vassar, and Mount Holyoke). It was founded in 1889 for female undergraduate students at a time when Columbia College accepted men only (it would become co-ed in 1983).

Barnard is an independent institution affiliated with the University via an intercorporate agreement negotiated between the two institutions. Barnard students can take classes at the University. Barnard degrees are conferred by Columbia University. Barnard has an intricate and historical relationship with Columbia.

For many years Barnard College was headed by a dean, but in the 1950s, Barnard decided to transition to a president. The current president is Debora Spar.

History

Barnard Class of 1913 students celebrate Ivy Day outside Brooks Hall

Barnard was incorporated into Columbia's educational system in 1890, prompting the following response: On October 23, 1890, the Spec welcomed Barnard with this editorial:

"With this issue Barnard College makes her bow--we beg the young ladies' pardon, her courtesy [curtsy]--to our readers. It is, for the present at least, our intention to make the news of our sister school a regular--and of course a pretty--department of our paper.

In if the course of time, however, we find that our sister students, prepossessing and spirituelle though they be, are not interesting and alert, we shall indeed feel obliged to sacrifice their publicity to more pressing news!

We shall, therefore, anxiously await from our correspondent the account of something 'real naughty and shocking' to keep alive interest. We should not like to suggest a love affair with a tutor; but if such an event came to pass spontaneously in the course of time, nothing could be further from our profession of impartiality than to restrain the news of it."

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Barnard is financially independent from Columbia, with its own Trustees, Faculty, Dean, and endowment. It shares facilities, the instruction, the libraries, and the degree with Columbia University.

Campus

Main article: Barnard campus

Barnard's four acre campus lies across Broadway from Columbia's main Morningside Heights spread on the half-block between Broadway, Claremont Avenue, 116th Street and 120th Street.

The heart of Barnard's campus is Barnard Hall, aligned with the Barnard gates and the main east-west axis of the Columbia campus. It was built in the style of Columbia's academic buildings across the street and houses the college's athletic facilities, including LeFrak Gymnasium and the Barnard pool. Milbank Hall is the oldest building; it was the original building when Barnard moved to Morningside Heights with Columbia in 1897. In between are a number of academic buildings, including Altschul Hall, Lehman Hall (home of the Barnard Library), and the new Diana student center, completed in February 2010.

Over 1000 Barnard students live in the The Quad dorms immediately south of Barnard Hall. The rest live in Barnard dorms within the Morningside Heights neighborhood (though some, like Cathedral Gardens, are very far-flung). Hewitt, the main dining facility for Barnard students, is located mostly below street level underneath these dorms.

The Barnard campus is connected by open-access tunnels, which make traversing campus easy in inclement weather, which is more than can be said for Columbia's tunnels, which require virtual spelunking skills to access in some cases.

Academics

Barnard students, unlike their Columbia College counterparts, do not have a Core Curriculum, but rather engage in an elaborate distribution requirement known as the Nine Ways of Knowing, which includes a tailor-made First Year Seminar and a number of electives within a given number of categories.

Notable Alumnae

There are many notable Barnard alumnae including Anna Quindlen, '74, Martha Stewart, '62, and Jhumpa Lahiri, '89.

Trivia

Recent Commencement speakers have included President Barack Obama, CC '83, in 2012, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, in 2011, Meryl Streep in 2010, and Hillary Clinton in 2009.

When it was announced in March 2012 that President Obama would be speaking at the 2012 Barnard Commencement, the Internet (i.e. BWOG and Spec comment sections) had a hissy fit, inciting what is now popularly known as "Obamanard," with students from both sides of the street engaging in intense and anonymous conversation online.

Dining locations

• Hewitt Dining Hall
• The Diana Center

Housing

The Quad

• Sulzberger Tower
• Reid
• Brooks
• Hewitt
• Sulzberger

116th St.

• 600 W 116th
• 616 W 116th
• 620 W 116th

Other

• 601 W 110th
• Elliott
• Plimpton
• Cathedral Gardens

Map

<googlemap lat="40.809717" lon="-73.963373" type="map" zoom="16" width="500" height="300" controls="small">

1. 758bc5

40.808442, -73.964767 40.808149, -73.964038 40.810545, -73.962289 40.810862, -73.963019 40.808442, -73.964767 </googlemap>

External links

• Barnard College website