Tommy Barton

In any direction from 116th Street, a near-continuous stretch of chain stores, mom and pop shops, markets, and restaurants line the street. Everything you need—and everyone you want to share it with—is within a few blocks of campus. It’s easy, comfortable, and exactly where the problem lies. What starts as comfort gradually becomes repetition as we encounter increasingly familiar faces and places.

At a place like Columbia, where exceptionalism is the standard, standing out becomes an act of survival. As an outlier in small-town Indiana, I came to Barnard believing that I might’ve been the only person in the world who contained multitudes. There, I defined myself as the witty party girl who was also well-involved—I mean, who else could explain Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism is a Humanism, preside over four clubs, and have a bustling social life? Apparently, that was light work.

The detention of Ellie Aghayeva, GS ’26, from her University apartment sent shockwaves through the Columbia community, New York City, and the entire nation.