Posted on 09/15/2020 8:29:19 AM PDT by TigerClaws
The self-proclaimed “cleverest band in the world” voted to disband the organization on Saturday evening after 116 years of performing music, making controversial jokes, and disputing with both Columbia’s administration and the student body.
In a statement provided to Spectator by band leadership, the club’s leadership, known as the Bored, wrote, “The Band has unanimously and enthusiastically decided to dissolve. The Columbia University Marching Band will not continue to exist in any capacity and will no longer serve as a Columbia spirit group.”
This announcement came after a year of transition for the CUMB. Three days before Columbia football’s 2019 home opener, Columbia Athletics stripped the band of the remainder of its University funding. One year prior, Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science withdrew their portion of the CUMB’s funding in response to the band storming Butler Library during Orgo Night in December 2017. The athletic department informed the band that in order to maintain the band’s funding from the department, it must become a recognized group. The marching band did not submit its paperwork for recognition and was subsequently financially cut off from the University and prohibited from performing or bringing instruments to any official athletic events.
The marching band protested this decision by holding weekly field shows on Low Steps and starting a GoFundMe, which raised over $25,000 in less than a week. The marching band and the athletic department agreed that the CUMB would play at Homecoming, putting to rest the latest iteration of a decades-long struggle between the band, the University, Columbia Athletics, and the student body.
The internal movement to disband the CUMB began when five former and current members wrote a letter to the remaining members of the Bored. The members called to dissolve the band in all capacities, arguing that alleged traditions of misconduct were too steeped into the band’s culture and reformation could not remove the traces of the harm those practices caused.
In response to those confessions, the Bored released a statement on Sept. 2, writing, “The CUMB has very serious problems when it comes to racism, sexual assault, and alcohol culture.” The statement was followed by multiple Bored member resignations and repeated calls to dissolve the organization.
It remains up in the air whether the marching band will lose its funding through dissolution. Ultimately, the decision of whether or not an official marching band exists is up to the discretion of Columbia Athletics, which has not responded to a request for comment. Without sporting events until at least January, the CUMB cannot play this fall.
“The current Band hopes that the Band’s dissolution will provide relief to the present suffering of the Columbia community and time to heal from the decades of harm caused by this organization. We also hope that the CUMB’s disbandment can create a space that allows for the formation of a new spirit group that will provide a safe and inclusive outlet for students to play music at Columbia,” the Bored wrote in a statement.
However, the band's acknowledgment of its troubling past has struck a negative chord with some. Steve Greenfield, CC ’82, a former drum major for the band, expressed his disdain for this shift in opinion on the band’s Sept. 2 statement condemning its actions. Greenfield claimed that any new iteration of the band would not have the same “irreverent” spirit of the version that has existed for the past century.“The band is gone, and if and when it returns, it will be exactly what the corporations bankrolling Ivy League sports specifically because Ivy League sports is an essential establishment power identification and training system, want it to be.”
This is a breaking news story; please check back for updates.
Some iconoclast and independent-thinking student should now declare he/she intends to form a new Marching Band at Columbia University.
Reading this story almost makes me wish I had played a musical instrument and attended Columbia!
What were they, Delta Tau Chi House of bands?
You could NEVER make Animal House today. But watch someone try to make a remake starring ludi-crous and jaden smith.
It’s impossible
Ask a woke twit to survive it’s just impossible!
columbia has the record for the longest football losing streak in college history
What atrocities did they commit ?
Get woked...go broke.
Maybe Columbia should dissolve itself and turn its endowment over to LaBron James because, if he were white, he’d be rich.
If they got Tim Currey to play Dean Warner....
One of the more entertaining ones had a big gal with some kind of device in her cleavage which made a "whoopie" type sound when she squeezed them together.
The men in the audience gave a hearty laugh in response. Their wives gave a disgusted face. It was almost as fun watching the audience as the act.
The horns were sourced from blood-brass!
All hail Mattress Girl!
She’s carrying a mattress.
Maybe that’s her work equipment................
Poor thing. She didn’t react well to being dumped. I hope she’s moved on.
Curry uses a wheelchair after suffering a major stroke in July 2012.................
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Curry
That think we can be pretty sure that sometime in the distant past they played the music of John Phillip Souza, a well known white composer. That cannot be tolerated. I'm surprised every marching band with any history has not been disbanded. (That's a pun and sarcasm all in one sentence.)
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