Barnard College

Barnard College is a single-sex, all-women educational institution in New York City. It was founded in 1889 and is affiliated with Columbia University via an intercorporate agreement negotiated between the two institutions. Barnard students can take classes with Columbia students and officially their degrees are granted by the trustees of Columbia University. Barnard's is one of the Seven Sisters Colleges. Its campus is located between West 116th to 120th street.

Issues

Several issues surround Barnard's relationship to the Columbia undergraduate schools.

Single-sex admissions

Barnard's single-sex admissions policy is an issue of some controversy on Columbia's campus. Some consider it to be outmoded and even sexist. The Barnard administration, as well as the Barnard student population, believe that its single-sex policy is necessary to the educational mission and general college environment. Generally they point to both the continual existence of sexism within society as well as data that suggests that at least some women work better and are more likely to succeed in general when they are educated at all female colleges. Barnard has a unique relationship with its parent Ivy compared to the other Seven Sisters colleges. For example, before Harvard went coed, Radcliffe College was a separate college affiliated with Harvard. Soon after Harvard began accepting women, Radcliffe was subsumed into Harvard College. Barnard has long been concerned about losing its individual identity as a college, as Radcliffe did, and as it most certainly would if it integrated with Columbia.

Columbia University privileges

• Barnard college degrees are officially granted by Columbia University, despite Barnard's status as an affiliate rather than as a fully integrated undergraduate school.

• Barnard students are given email address at both barnard.edu and columbia.edu. There are some who believe this is unfair because Barnard students are only affiliates of the school. However, most would point out this is policy is for academic simplicity. This way, teachers can just email all their students at their Columbia email addresses using Courseworks, instead of having to figure out which students have Columbia email addresses and which have Barnard email addresses.

Residence hall swipe access

Barnard and CC/SEAS undergrads have historically not had swipe access to each others residence halls. Students on both sides of the street have varying opinions on this policy. Some Barnard students believe they should have access to Columbia undergraduate dorms, but CC/SEAS undergraduates should not have access to the Barnard dorms because only girls (or mostly girls) live in these dorms and thus Barnard dorms have extra security risks. Other students from both CC/SEAS and Barnard believe that neither of the two undergraduate populations should have access to the other's dorms. The two student populations belong separate schools, these students argue, and thus each should only have access to their own dorms and the resources therein. Finally there are students, both from Barnard and CC/SEAS, who believe that all the undergraduates within Columbia university should have access to each others dorms. Students of this view generally argue that the two student populations are not really separate and that it is inconvenient for both Barnard and CC/SEAS students to not be able to swipe into each others dorms. Recently there was a campaign for "Flash Access" in which Barnard/CC/SEAS undergraduates would be able to sign a special security contract and then would be able to themselves sign into the other schools dorm. Barnard and Columbia do give swipe access to students who chose their housing through the Barnard/Columbia room selection process.

Map

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