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COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
In working on this issue’s special section celebrating the 75th
anniversary of Literature Humanities, I discovered something
interesting: I actually got more out of the course that I
took 45 (yikes!) years ago than I ever thought.
I always believed that because I could not walk around a
cocktail party reciting lines from St. Augustine’s Confessions
or conjuring images from Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
I hadn’t gotten what I should have from
Lit Hum. It took me this long to realize that
enabling me to become the most pretentious
guy in the room was not the course’s primary
(or secondary, or tertiary) goal.
There is a saying that youth is wasted on
the young; I thought the same applied to Lit
Hum and me, and that I simply had not been
ready for it at 18.
My freshman year was spent in the Engineering
School. It seemed like a good idea
at the time, as my dad was an accountant, I
always had a head for numbers and I had
aced my math SAT. It took a summer job at
a civil engineering firm, combined with a
blossoming love affair with sports writing
largely courtesy of Spectator, to convince me
to switch to the College and an eventual career
in journalism.
The point is that during my freshman
year, I was just taking the first steps toward
finding my way. It was not the optimal time for me to be exposed
to the great works of Western literature. I had my hands full with
chemistry, physics and calculus, plus living away from home for
the first time, trying to adjust socially and putting in long hours
at Spec. Add the fact that freshmen took both CC and Lit Hum in
those days, and my plate seemed to be overflowing.
As a result, I did not give the Lit Hum readings the attention
they deserved. I read some texts, but not all. On occasion I took
shortcuts, whether it was a used Lit Hum book that already had
key (at least, I hoped they were key) passages highlighted or a
CliffsNotes version that substituted for the real thing. The bottom
line was I didn’t do the work, at least not fully.
My first-year studies came to an abrupt end in April 1968,
when demonstrators occupied six campus buildings and set
in motion events that would lead to the early termination of
the Spring semester. While the buildings were occupied, some
classes continued in faculty apartments, coffee shops or on
campus lawns, but most just faded away. As I tried to wrap my
18-year-old brain around the campus chaos, I took my “pass”
grade and went home.
W I T H I N T H E F A M I L Y
Reevaluating My
Lit Hum Experience
PHOTO: EILEEN BARROSO
Since then, I always felt I had missed out on something. I’ve
heard countless alumni wax poetic about the experience of reading
a classic and then discussing it in a classroom filled with
bright cohorts under the guidance of a brilliant faculty member,
and I envied them. I wished I had found the time and the drive
to do what David Denby ’65, ’66J did in middle age — go back
and retake CC and Lit Hum. (See Columbia
Forum in this issue for more on Denby’s
retaking of the Core.) Experiencing those
great works after having spent a couple of
decades in the so-called real world seemed
like an ideal solution to the “youth is wasted
on the young” dilemma.
But in working on this issue’s special section,
I realized that I had underestimated
how much I had gotten from Lit Hum. To
this day I love reading, especially old-school
words on paper, and surely I can thank my
exposure to the great works in Lit Hum for
nurturing that love.
When asked to picture my happy place,
I go to a thatched hut on a beach in Aruba,
where I lie on a chaise lounge and alternately
look at the azure sea and read the book
that is in my hand. I’ve been doing that for
30 years and hope to be blessed to do it for
many more. I’m sure that Lit Hum is at least
partially responsible for the fact that while
I’m lying there, I never feel restless or a need to “do something”
beyond reading.
The Lit Hum website says the course encourages students “to
become critical readers of the literary past we have inherited. Although
most of our Lit Hum works (and the cultures they represent)
are remote from us, we nonetheless learn something about
ourselves in struggling to appreciate and understand them.”
Surely, I realized, I had done the same from the countless books I
had read since Spring ’68. If instilling the ability to think critically
is a measure of the course’s success, then I was an A student.
That we are now celebrating Literature Humanities’ 75th anniversary
is ample evidence that for a majority of College first-year
students, its canon is not wasted on the young. After reconsidering
the course’s impact and discovering its true lifelong lessons,
I’m happy to say it was not wasted on me, either.
What was your Lit Hum experience like What impact did the
course have on you Share your memories of Lit Hum with us at
ccalumni@columbia.edu.
AROUND
Fourteen classes will gather this
spring for the College’s biggest
event of the year, Alumni Reunion
Weekend. The four-day
celebration, Thursday, May 30–
Sunday, June 2, offers the chance for
alumni to connect with old friends and
make new ones, and to rediscover the
campus and the city where they spent
so much of their time. Celebrating are
alumni from classes ending in 3 and 8,
from 1943–2008. Reunion and Dean’s
Day events (the latter take place on Saturday,
June 1, and are open to all alumni)
will occur on campus and throughout
New York City all four days.
Highlights of the weekend will include
n class-specific events planned by
each class’ Reunion Committee;
n cultural options such as the New
York Philharmonic, New York City
Ballet, Broadway theatre and art
gallery tours;
THE
n the Young Alumni Party aboard
the U.S.S. Intrepid, featuring a
champagne salute to veterans and
alumni on active duty;
n Dean’s Day Public Intellectual
Lectures and “Back on Campus”
sessions featuring some of Columbia’s
best-known faculty and
alumni;
n the presentation of the Society of
Columbia Graduates’ 64th Annual
Great Teacher Awards;
n all-alumni Affinity Receptions for
the Columbia Alumni Singers,
Columbia Daily Spectator, varsity
athletics, and veterans and alumni
on active duty;
QUADS
n the new and improved Camp
Columbia for young Columbians,
ages 3–17; and
n the all-class Wine Tasting and Starlight
Reception with dancing on
Low Plaza.
This year’s reunion activities and lectures
will build on last year’s concept of
innovation by exploring the “Wonders of
Discovery.” Columbia’s world-renowned
faculty and prominent alumni will present
the latest thought-provoking research
and understandings, demonstrating how
discoveries in fields both old and new
have changed our historical perspective.
“Reunion and Dean’s Day are venues
for generations of College students to
come together to renew friendships, extend
their intellectual connections to Columbia
and revisit the campus that they
remember so fondly,” says Dean James J.
Valentini. “I look forward to seeing many
of you then, particularly on Dean’s Day,
Two attendees get into the swing of things at the Starlight Reception; members of the Class of 1962 share a laugh at their 50th reunion
class dinner.
PHOTOS: EILEEN BARROSO
Alumni Reunion Weekend
and Dean’s Day 2013
B y Lisa Palladino
Thursday, May 30–Sunday, June 2
reunion.college.columbia.edu
ccreunion@columbia.edu
212-851-7488
SPRING 2013
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SPRING 2013
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