Columbia prides itself on being different. On being the school that offers things no others can. Columbia strives to bring multiple groups together through their artistic passion. While they say these things and have these lofty ideals, it may be difficult for the school to show off this mentality. One place where this is on full display is at the Student Organization Expo. Held on February 4th at the Office of Student Engagement’s office on the 4th Floor of the 916 S. Wabash Building, a space aptly named “The Loft”. (For the purposes of full disclosure, I was at the Expo as the vice president of Student Athletics and am thus a quasi-employee of the Office of Student Engagement.)
The Student Organizations Expo is a chance for the over 60 student run clubs and organizations on campus to come together and meet new and perspective members.
A lot of Columbia’s ideals on who we are as artists angers me, especially when they seemingly love to bring up the fact that Columbia hosts no Homecoming sporting events. In the face of these personal beliefs on the campus atmosphere, going to things like this Expo are why Columbia is what it is. Seeing these ethnically, religiously, and culturally diverse groups all together in one room, recruiting new members, really brings to life the beliefs that I believe Columbia is striving for.
The following is a very short list of a few of the clubs that were at the Expo:
Student Government Association
"The Student Government Association of Columbia College Chicago represents the student voice and endeavors to construct a more perfect union."
“This Columbia College Student Organization works to improve Latino student life by creating a supportive atmosphere through empowerment”
It is the unified goal of Common Ground to create an environment on campus that allows students to fully express themselves without fear of ridicule or judgment based on sexual orientation and identity.
"E.P.I.C. strives to promote change and increase awareness of environmental issues for our members, our campus and our communities."
"Columbia NORML is an organization attempting to educate students on the actual effects of smoking cannabis, leading discussion away from propaganda and the deep-hearted hatred that came as a result."
Check out the full list of Student Organizations.
Walking around the Expo Columbia’s true colors come to light. Hispanic Journalists of Columbia sitting next to To Write Love On Your Arms or Athletics (aka me) sitting next to the FEMMES (Feminism: Equality Matters).
This event is different then an art exhibition or a play, yet it can still be reviewed because of its importance to the artistic environment of Columbia. The Office of Student Engagement acts as an extension of the liberal arts curriculum of the school. While we may not host any Homecoming games or be the home to any fraternities or sororities, through the dozens of student organizations there is a club or organization for nearly every interest or passion. If the organization you want doesn’t already exist, get 10 of your friends together and start your own.
For this second blog post I tried to remove myself from the review, using less "I". I don't think I did a great job of that, but at least I tried. From the piece we read last week made me think about including the reviewer in the review itself and how it shouldn't be done until your famous. But my personal belief is that the reviewer can never completely remove himself or herself from the review, nor should they. A review is not only an account of an event, exhibition, performance, or play, but its also the reviewers perception of the what they saw and experienced. If the reviewer was to completely remove themselves from the review then I feel a very major part of the review would be missing. Because of that I will continue to write myself into all of the reviews going forward.
ReplyDeleteSomething I definitely feel like I did better of giving the basics of where and when the reviewed event occurred, something I totally forgot to do in my first blog. I also felt like I did a better job of filling my post with links allowing readers to learn more about the topics I write about.
Kevin, i know we went over yours in class so you kind of already know what you should work on. However, I will say again good job on writing a review for something different.
ReplyDeleteI like how it was informative and that you provided a lot of links that supported your research.
Since you are talking about clubs in a creative environment it would have been nice to here about some of the events that the clubs have to offer. I know you described and put up links but for the sake of a review you could have taken one club and used it as an example of Columbia's "school spirit."
But I did enjoy the read. (And I think it's good you put yourself in the blog, it makes it more personal instead of an informative blog.)
good job.
I hope you got a lot out of our discussion of your post in class. I was glad we had a chance to talk about it, because it straddles the lines between reviewing, reporting, and promoting in some very interesting ways. For my money, the first-person helps you here, because you do kind of have a stake in what you're discussing, and to suppress that info could seem dishonest. Again, not entirely sure it's a review, but it is a well-written, interesting, informative, and well-connected piece.
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