"President Bollinger Cancels Barnard"

This was the headline on an April Fool's addition of a student-run publication on Columbia's campus (a publication which I do not reccomend that you read). I thought it was hillarious.

Now, maybe that's because I go to Columbia and maybe it's because I really don't see much of a purpose in Barnard since Columbia has been co-ed for over 20 years (which is admittedly a paltry amount of time, but that's a different discussion), but I also did talk to at least one Barnard girl who agreed that it was funny. I did, however, find myself in a very long discussion with another Barnard girl about whether or not said article was offensive. I maintain that it's funny, she says it's not.

Though I admit that as a Columbia student I spend a fair amount of time making fun of Barnard, the question raised in our discussion ran at least a little deeper: the Barnard girl suggested that we shouldn't make fun of anything. That doing so is offensive and insults people and is just wrong.

I maintain that life is hard and sometimes we just have to step back and laugh at the sorry state of affairs we find ourselves in. It's only healthy. And, for my part, I think the proposed cancellation of Barnard is hillarious.