
Columbia Silences Its Marching Band - vo2maxer
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/sports/columbia-silences-its-marching-band.html
======
lordleft
Current Columbia Student. Columbia's administration is absolutely terrible at
cultivating any sense of school spirit. Some of this is a function of the fact
that we're in NYC, but some of this can be laid at the hands of decisions like
this, which are utterly tone-deaf. I love going here but I've had to work hard
to create a sense of community.

~~~
jeremysalwen
Columbia '15 here, the existence of the marching band was the only thing that
made me feel any sense of school spirit in my time there.

~~~
haldean
'12, same

~~~
ciabattabread
‘08, same

~~~
china
‘11, same

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souterrain
I hope some absurdly rich alumnus tightens the vice on Columbia over this
behavior, as they are likely the only constituency with any power over the
matter.

~~~
sverige
No one has that kind of influence on Ivy League schools now. They all have
multi-billion dollar endowments.

~~~
notadoc
Except outrage mobs, you mean?

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thebiglebrewski
Wow, what a sad state of affairs. Being a geeky band kid myself and drum major
growing up, what can ex-marching band kids around the nation do to stop the
scourge of this power-tripping athletic coach?! Just as at my high school, it
looks like the football team itself hasn't won a championship in years. When
the team sucks go ahead and blame the band, because you're not busy building a
winning team. Go figure!

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electricslpnsld
As a Columbia grad I'm not surprised at all... the Columbia Administration is
insanely conservative. I have never experienced as entrenched of a bureaucracy
as I did at Columbia!

~~~
vo2maxer
I attended Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in the
late seventies and early eighties, and two groups who stood out were the Bard
Hall Players and Columbia University Marching Band. They were made up of
talented, creative and hilariously irreverent students. Come on, has the
administration lost the ability to laugh? Who wrote Plato’s Republic? is pure
gold just as Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?

~~~
citywide-fondue
What are the two pieces you reference?

~~~
vo2maxer
To Columbia alumni, these two are well known and special:

1\. Bard Hall Players: [https://www.ps.columbia.edu/education/academic-
programs/md-p...](https://www.ps.columbia.edu/education/academic-programs/md-
program/md-student-resources/office-student-affairs/p-s-club/clubs-12)

2\. Columbia University Marching Band:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University_Marching_B...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University_Marching_Band?wprov=sfti1)

Edit: After replying, I realized you may have meant the last sentence with the
questions. The “Who wrote Plato’s Republic?” is at the end of the New York
Times piece. As to the other one, Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?, here:
[https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/07/grants-
tomb/492647...](https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/07/grants-tomb/492647/)

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onetimemanytime
Looks like the money is not an issue, $25k a year. They'll raise that much
but...
[https://www.columbiaspectator.com/sports/2019/10/04/marching...](https://www.columbiaspectator.com/sports/2019/10/04/marching-
band-to-continue-to-travel-to-away-games-after-raising-7k-of-travel-funds-in-
just-two-days/)

~~~
cm2187
What I don't get by reading the article is the link between (not) receiving
funding from university and not being allowed to play on campus.

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pjene
> Joe Schwartz, a 1992 graduate and former lawyer, said of his band
> experience, which began by playing a blowtorch, “It’s probably not a
> coincidence that I’m in the chair asking the dean for one more chance and
> then I’m the one in front of the judge asking for one more chance.”

Nice.

While the administration's disingenuous rulebook-throwing is fooling no one
and tarnishing the university's reputation, it is healthy to have an
occasional reminder that the government/administration is not your friend, and
a movement of the people, which a scramble band is, would do well to find its
way as independent citizens.

Columbia University football team sues for divorce from the band? My bet is on
the band coming out on top.

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pnutjam
No paywall [https://deadspin.com/columbia-university-wipes-out-its-
delig...](https://deadspin.com/columbia-university-wipes-out-its-
delightfully-) chaotic-1838467749

~~~
Stratoscope
Corrected link:

[https://deadspin.com/columbia-university-wipes-out-its-
delig...](https://deadspin.com/columbia-university-wipes-out-its-delightfully-
chaotic-1838467749)

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jancsika
> The band manager, Cameron Danesh-Pajou, a senior chemical engineering
> student, acknowledged the missed March 9 deadline, but said it was never
> presented as an ultimatum.

As a maintainer of realtime DSP/audio software I am forced to agree with the
University in this case. If they let it slide even this once these kids would
spend the rest of their lives making block calls and only ever measuring
average performance to gauge their self worth.

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neonate
[http://archive.is/tBMqS](http://archive.is/tBMqS)

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remarkEon
I didn't attend Columbia, but can confirm that us tenor sax players can get a
bit rowdy.

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ethagknight
Reading the article, it sounds like nothing prevents the band from doing all
the things they used to do except perform at the football games. It also
sounds like they are funded by the university to run around and prank others,
which seems legitimate for the university to not shed any tears when the band
drops the ball on its funding request. I’m sure it’s a fun tradition, but it
also sounds potentially quite annoying depending on who the target of the joke
is, and you can still have fun/ be annoying on campus without direct
university funding.

~~~
p_rude
Performing at games is the main point of marching bands. Who wants to be in a
band that can't perform?

~~~
maxerickson
It probably says a lot more about me than I want it to, but I was in a Big 10
marching band and didn't really care about the performances. I mean, it was
enjoyable, but I might have done it even if we did all the same long
rehearsals of the performances (we memorized the drill and music for ~7 shows
a season) and then just went to the games as a pep band.

