Posted on 11/26/2006 8:24:57 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
Famed as a hotbed of debate over academic freedom, New York's most elite school is also a playpen for sexual hijinks, sophomoric antics and the wacky indulgences of the children of the rich.
While their parents shell out $33,246 a year in tuition, Columbia University students doff their clothes at naked parties, flock to sex toys workshops, broadcast porn on campus TV, bake anatomically correct pies for the "Erotic Cake-Baking Contest" and heat up the steps of the Low Library in a mass makeout session called the "Big Kiss."
And of course, there's always the stimulating game, "Guess the Number of Condoms in the Jelly-Bean Jar."
Others volunteer for the bullwhip at Conversio Virium, the university-sanctioned S&M club that means "exchange of power" in Latin. It calls itself a "discussion group" that provides "education and peer support" and promotes "safe, sane and consensual play." But the club doesn't just talk.
Late on the night of Nov. 13, a Daily News reporter sat in room 303 of Hamilton Hall, a venerable classroom building where Columbia students have studied Poe, Plato and Plutarch for nearly 100 years.
As a female student volunteer stood facing the blackboard, and two dozen Columbians watched, a lecturer who identified himself only as Dov flogged her repeatedly with leather whips, rubber hoses - and a cat-o'-nine-tails.
"I'm Dov, and these are my toys," he said, and for the next 14 minutes he demonstrated lashing techniques. The activity was consensual, but the squeals of delight mingled with the occasional yelps of pain.
Columbia would make no specific comment on the club or the flogging incident. Ivy Leaguers were unaware the reporter was in attendance. Dov is not employed by the school, which doesn't police or censor club activities.
Referring only to student organizations generally, spokesman Robert Hornsby said the "university has a limited role in regulating student speech or private conduct."
The result: Columbia Gone Wild.
New York's Smartest still dream of winning a Nobel Prize. And bookworms still pull all-nighters in the Butler Library. But the 2 million-volume monument to the mind, which stays open 24 hours a day, doubles as a temple of earthier desires.
"Having sex in the stacks of Butler Library is one of the ultimate Columbia experiences," said Miriam Datskovsky, the sex columnist for The Spectator, the student newspaper.
"There's very little dating. It's predominately a hookup scene," said the 21-year-old, a senior from an Orthodox Jewish background who writes the "Sexplorations" column.
"Everything is so much easier and so much quicker - you go to dinner and then have sex," she added.
Consider the party scene. But it's no reason to get dressed up. In fact, there's no reason to get dressed at all: The merrymakers of Morningside Heights host naked parties, lingerie-only parties - and the more bourgeois "clothing-optional parties with naked rooms."
And taxpayers indirectly foot a chunk of the tab because bond offerings and loans from the state Dormitory Authority and federal Department of Education partially fund the renovation of dorms where naked frolickers muster.
Columbia wouldn't comment on this use of university space. Lee Bollinger, the school's $779,673-a-year president and a world-class expert on free speech, wasn't available.
The soirees aren't exactly orgies: "It's more like naked students sitting around drinking martinis, defying societal conventions and trying to act nonchalant at the same time," said Birk Oxholm, a religion major who graduated last year.
"They're trying to act like it's not about sex. But they're not really succeeding," he added.
One hostess, who staged a Halloween-themed "Naked Witches & Warlocks Party" last month, called it a "great unshackling from the clothing that so defines and imprisons us." But it was a "sex-neutral event," she said.
The same cannot be said of several X-rated campus happenings:
# "Sex Toys 101." The university's Health Services division teamed up with Toys in Babeland, a SoHo sex shop, to host a sex toys workshop in John Jay Hall on Feb. 15.
Though it was part of "Safer Sex Week," the playthings on display on W. 114th St. included bondage and S&M tools like whips, paddles, "floggers" and "slappers."
# "Sexhibition." The annual campus sex fair, held in April, featured phallic ring toss games, orgasm-for-beginners workshops and discreet liaisons in the "Tent of Consent."
# "Thug Play with Princess Wendy." Another session of the S&M club, taking place Oct. 30 in Hamilton Hall, was advertised as "beating, punching and slamming boys into lockers, and why bullies are so so so much fun!"
The speaker discussed "boot service," the "fine art of humiliation" and how a $5 meat mallet can be used as a toy. But "Princess Wendy" also provided safety tips, counseling students to avoid kicking one another in the kidneys and spine.
"I like to hurt people," she said. "I don't like to send them to the hospital."
She also advised some 30 devotees, "If you're new to kicking and trampling, start out slow."
Conversio Virium's officers declined to address questions. Columbia's student activities coordinator, a university employee who advises the club, didn't respond to an e-mail.
But the Baltimore-based National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, which advocates for S&M groups, contacted The News at the request of the students.
"Educating people about the safest flogging techniques so they don't accidentally strike the kidneys is responsible behavior," said spokeswoman Susan Wright. "Basically, what they're doing is S&M 101."
# "Smut TV." CTV, Columbia's in-house, student-run TV station, has a faculty adviser, uses school equipment and space, gets $5,021 a year in student activity fees - and is hungry for new viewers.
So at 10 p.m. on Oct. 17, it entered the hard-core porn business: Broadcasting into scores of dorms and lounges, it aired a five-minute clip, downloaded from the Internet, of a naked couple engaged in sex.
The footage ran during a sex advice show called "Sexiled" - which is student slang for getting kicked out of one's room so a roommate can have sex - and even some jaded Columbians who'd tuned in said they were offended.
CTV, which isn't edited, censored or monitored by the administration, said in a statement that airing porn was a "lapse of judgment." It was "inconsistent with broadcast standards" and won't happen again, said Alisa Gross and Nihar Shah, CTV's student co-presidents.
# "The Naked Run." In the chill of November, at the stroke of midnight, a group of exhibitionists, led by the track team, dons running sneakers - and nothing else - for a sprint down College Walk and up Broadway.
So does anything go at Columbia? Actually, no. Flogging and bondage are accepted, but the school apparently draws the line at another form of communication between the sexes: love letters.
They were good enough for Cleopatra, who sent them to Mark Antony, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who exchanged them with his wife, Zelda. But Columbia University Health Services lists love letters as a form of nonphysical sexual harassment, according to its Web site.
"What's next for Columbia? Objecting to a little ankle?" said Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonpartisan free speech watchdog group that examines academia.
These canine antics do not suggest a lack of inhibition--and certainly not daring innovation! Rather, they appear to demonstrate a need to seek attention in a way that can only appeal to those totally lacking in confidence in any ability to achieve recognition in a more constructive manner.
As for Columbia frowning on traditional love letters? Dean Swift understood the Administration there, very well, three centuries ago. They were called Yahoos--a very fit term for the refuse of the two legged species.
William Flax
True, and frightening, observation.
Freepmail wagglebee or little jeremiah to subscribe or unsubscribe from the homosexual agenda or moral absolutes ping lists.
FreeRepublic homosexual agenda keyword search
[ Add keyword homosexual agenda to flag FR articles to this ping list ]
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
[ Add keyword moral absolutes to flag FR articles to this ping list ]
Sounds like the whole place needs an exorcism.
GOOD!
I hope the course Title shows up on these idiots transcripts when they apply for a job!
Another revolting display of liberalism.
This is bad, but frankly I'm not surprised (and I know firsthand, mind you)...
I know Columbia is a rotten, er, sewage pit teeming with the absolute worst of liberalism (and proving that yes, liberalism is at its core a mental disorder). But still--this is just freakin' sick, man...
Though thankfully, this doesn't go on at my campus--yet. And the key word here being yet. Sure, both student rags have sex columns, but fortunately, that's about it.
(Oh, and for the record, my FRiends, the rags are only good for the weekly Sudoku...) 8^)
forgot to add you guys in my orig. post...
you have mail.
Hmmmmm....so I guess "C"'s get disease as well as degrees??
Someone once said, "Diversity is Perversity." I thought it was a funny exaggeration. Now, it's reality.
Is it? I could have sworn when I was there they told me the Low Library which is now the administrative building started to sink on account of the books. Of course I was talking to wrestlers so the history of the school probably wasn't their strong point. :)
Oh, wow! I was asking myself how much darker is this stuff than a ouija board? Same difference.
I feel like I need a shower.
You hit the nail smack on the head.
Oh, man!! It's not fair! All the good schools are out of state. LOL!
I'm sure there are plenty of deviants in Missouri, you just need to broaden your horizons!
But christmas is obscene.
but using the word father is obscene
but using the word mother is obscene
marriage is evil
America is evil
however sexual gratification in front of the rest of the class is ok. It used to be even a professor would lose tenure for screwing a sheep in class. Now it seems Columbia GIVES tenure for screwing a sheep in class.
is there a bi or hot lesbian ping list?
id like to see who's on it
Voyeur! :D
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.