Columbia-Barnard relationship
Columbia University and Barnard College are two independent institutions with a long shared history and a close, somewhat unique, relationship that often leads to misconceptions and misinformation. The relationship between the institutions has been governed since 1900 by intercorporate agreement that is periodically renegotiaed or renewed. Columbia College began admitting female students in 1983, creating a potential redundancy between the schools. The agreement has been amended and renewed every certain number of years.
Despite the ambiguity, which has prompted endless rumination from all quarters, both informed and (more often than not) uninformed, Barnard is for all intents and purposes part of the same college life as the Columbia schools, despite not being a Columbia school. In day-to-day affairs the lines between the schools, endlessly argued over in theory, are in fact almost non-existent, they they do have some practical consequences.
Most often the students most sensitive about Barnard's relationship are female Columbia College students, who feel a certain sense of accomplishment having been admitted to Columbia, and not Barnard, and take umbrage at Barnard students' appropriation of "Columbia" to describe themselves. But really, if you think a Barnard student saying they went to Columbia on their resume somehow devalues your education and degree, that just reveals how insecure you are. Kinda sad.
Contents
The Agreement
There have been a number of Intercorporate agreements between Columbia and Barnard in their shared history. The last major negotiated agreement was in 1973 when Columbia was recovering from a financial free fall, with a major amendment in 1983- Barnard's forfeiture of the monopoly on women's undergraduate education.
The principal points of the current relationship are as follows:
Course Registration
Columbia and Barnard students are allowed extensive cross-registration, with the only exceptions applying to certain Core requirements at both schools. This was originally a Columbia proposal in 1973, when the cash-strapped University expected Barnard to pay a fee for the net imbalance of credit flow. Columbia expected more Barnard students to enroll on Columbia courses than vice versa, thus creating a new revenue stream. This was initially the case though in recent years the trend has been reversed, and Columbia has had to pay Barnard for the imbalance of Columbia students taking Barnard courses. This can be partially attributed to Barnard's deliberate decision to develop departments that have no counterpart across the street, such as Urban Studies, and the undergraduate Theater and Dance programs.
Libraries
Barnard does not have a major research library, though Barnard College Library serves as the school's collection. Instead, it's students and faculty have access to the world caliber research library resources of Columbia (and Columbians have access to Barnard's collections). Because Barnard had access to Columbia's library, it never had incentive to invest much in it's own. In 1973 Columbia demanded payment for that access, based on an estimate of what Barnard would have had to pay to maintain a library equal to that of one of its Seven Sisters peers. Barnard still pays a fee for that access.
Faculty Appointments
Though Barnard College has its own faculty, the tenuring process requires that Barnard faculty appointees be reviewed by an ad hoc committee consisting of equal numbers of Barnard faculty and Columbia faculty, with a fifth member from the outside. In 1973 Columbia demanded and received full control over tenure, with the president of Columbia making the final decision to hire. The incorporation of Barnard faculty into the tenuring process was negotiated into the agreement in 1983 as compensation for Columbia College going co-ed. In 1973, both schools also agreed to cooperate in order to avoid redundancies in appointments and programs. This went hand-in-hand with the greater cross-registration agreement.
Diplomas
One of the more contentious points of the agreement between the school, Barnard college degrees are officially granted by the Trustees of Columbia University, the same body that grants degrees to all Columbia students. This is despite Barnard's status as an affiliate as opposed to an undergraduate school of the university itself. This is often the thing used by Barnard students to justify sometimes claiming that they are "Columbia students", when it's just part of the agreement between the schools.
Utilities
Barnard pays Columbia for access to power and utilities and access to other facilities that it otherwise would have to provide for itself.
Practical Consequences
As mentioned before, in day-to-day life the lines between the schools are blurred to the point that it all appears like one big student body.
Registration
The schools have nearly complete cross-registration, Registration for Columbia students is almost seamless, with Barnard departments courses listed on the Columbia Course Directory, and registrable through the same process as Columbia courses on SSOL.
Housing
Barnard and Columbia College/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 to 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.
The most recent attempt to enact swipe access between schools was scuttled by CCSC in 2001. Additionally, the excuse that Barnard and Columbia have separate security offices and separate swipe access systems, integrating would be too difficult and costly. Recently there was an SGA campaign for a compromised "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.
Students from each school have the option live in the others dorms (they get swipe access to that building). Columbia students can opt to live in Barnard housing (usually Plimpton), and some students opt to Summer Transfer into Plimpton to get out of a bad Columbia housing choices if they have a really bad lottery number. Similarly, Barnard students can live with their Columbia friends in group housing (they cannot register by themselves for the Columbia lottery, but must register as a group with Columbia students). However, the number of Barnard students allowed to live in Columbia housing is limited, and cannot exceed the number of Columbia students who opt to live in Barnard housing.
Other Aspects
Athletics
As part of an NCAA approved consortium, Barnard does not maintain an athletics program of its own, but instead women athletes from Barnard compete on University-wide (i.e. "Columbia") athletic teams. There are 3 such consortiums in the nation (such as the one between the 5 colleges of Claremont Mckenna), and Columbia-Barnard's is the only one in Division I. Barnard athletes figure prominently on a number of teams, including Archery.
'Ivy League'
Whether or not Barnard is an 'Ivy League' school depends on the interpretation of the term. The Ivy League is an NCAA Division I athletics conference with 8 member schools. Though Barnard itself is not affiliated with the league, as per the consortium agreement, Barnard athletes play on Columbia teams. As such, Barnard is essentially a league member, though only through its connection to Columbia.
As an academic institution, the claim is more tenuous, especially since Barnard is traditionally held to be a member of the 'Seven Sisters' colleges.
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.
E-Mail Addresses
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.
A related issue is Barnards presence on Facebook. Specifically, that it doesn't have one. Rather than create overlapping 'networks' like they did for the Claremont Colleges, the facebook programmers decided to create only one network. Since facebook networks are largely based on e-mail domains (the @yourschool.edu part of your address), there's really nothing to do.
However, it is indicative of a certain hypocritical complacency on the part of Barnard. Typically Barnard's administration is fiercely territorial when it comes to getting equal billing with Columbia (for example, NSOP is the "Barnard-Columbia Orientation Program." Past NSOP coordinators have reported getting shit for failing to make sure Barnard appeared alongside Columbia in all instances.) Where's the agitation for Barnard's "identity" on facebook?
The arguements regarding email addresses are similar. For a school that insists on having its own "identity", there's no issue about getting "columbia" addresses. A possible solution would be to grant barnard students "@barnard.columbia.edu" domain addresses to differentiate barnard email addresses. Other divisions of the University do similar things for their students or faculty (@gsb.columbia.edu for the B-School, @law.columbia.edu for Law faculty, etc.)
