Support Spectator Today! Sponsor a Spection Program Launch
Interested in supporting Spec? Want to contribute to a specific section? With Spectator’s new “Sponsor a Spection” program launch, now you can. The “Sponsor a Spection” program allows you to contribute to the production, technology, and working environment of Spectator’s twelve sections, including News, Opinion, Arts & Entertainment, Sports, The Eye, Spectrum, Photo, Multimedia, Design, Copy, Online, and Business. With a donation of $100 or more to any of these sections, you will receive permanent recognition for your generous support: all donors receive nameplate recognition, in the form an engraved plaque, that will be prominently displayed in each section’s room. This is a unique opportunity to leave a lasting impact on the paper’s legacy, while also contributing to Spec’s growth as a twenty-first century non-profit newsroom.For a virtual tour of Spectator’s virtual spaces, click here!
To support one of Spectator’s sections, you can visit our donation page to make an online contribution, or mail a check to “Spectator Publishing Company, Inc.” at 2875 Broadway, Suite 303, New York, NY 10025. Please email alumni@columbiaspectator.com indicating the section that you would like to support: News, Opinion, Arts & Entertainment, Sports, The Eye, Spectrum, Photo, Multimedia, Design, Copy, Online, or Business.
A letter from the corporate board: Spec’s past, now online
Dear Spectator alumni and friends,
You’ve been hearing a lot from Spectator editors over the last few years about our efforts to digitize our archives. Today, we’re thrilled to announce that after three years of effort, a big portion of our shared history is accessible online for everyone to see and search as we launch the Columbia Spectator Archive, the joint project from Spectator and the Columbia University Libraries.
Almost every issue of the Spectator published from fall 1953 through spring 1985, as well as the 1991 and 1992 volumes, has been digitized and uploaded to the new site: http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu. The text in those articles, headlines, bylines, photo captions, and advertisements is now completely searchable, and each page and issue is also viewable and available for download.
As you know, those who wanted to read Spectator content published more than a decade or so ago have long resorted to the crumbling bound volumes in the Spectator office or fuzzy and incomplete microfilm rolls in the libraries. In recent years, Spectator’s single bound copy of the 1968 volume has been kept in a locked cabinet, the key to which has been passed from to each successive editor in chief.
Those days are behind us, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the work of three years of Spectator editors and Libraries staff members, and especially the significant financial contributions from Spectator alumni and friends. We thank you for your support so far, and we’re now working around the clock to raise the final $24,000 that Spectator needs to complete the archive, from our first issues in 1877 through 1953 and from 1993 to the beginning of the 21st century. If you are interested in helping us finish the job, please click here to contribute by PayPal, credit, or debit card.
Please click here or the button at the top of the Spectator site to explore the archive. Just a few seconds of searching can pull up some real gems—a moving piece about Columbia’s reaction to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, a complete history of Barnard’s decision to remain independent, a summary of Postcrypt’s first event (with “coffee and pastries”), and, of course, a day-by-day account of the 1968 campus riots.
If you have any questions about the process, you can click here to view our presentation from the event we held in June and here to view a presentation by Stephen Paul Davis, director of the Libraries’ digital program, explaining the digitization process in detail.
We hope the archive will be a useful tool for exploring the history of Spectator, of Columbia, and of Morningside Heights and Manhattanville. And if you find something especially interesting, let us know! We’ll be featuring more historical content across Spectator and Spectrum in the coming weeks, and using the archive to add context about Columbia’s past to the stories we’ll continue to write about Columbia’s future.
With gratitude,
Sarah Darville, editor in chief
Maggie Alden, managing editor
Alex Smyk, publisher
Alumni Features
Read About why Spectator Alums Ernest Brod and Bernie Nussbaum are so passionate about our Digitization Campaign:
Ernest Brod ’58: Driving Force Behind Spectator’s Digitization Campaign
Check Us Out on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!
Spectator has always strived to take advantage of new technology—whether fifty years ago, with our switch from linotype to offset printing, or this year, as we seek to digitize our archives. In keeping with this goal, Alumni & Outreach is pleased to announce an expanded social networking initiative.
You can now follow us on Twitter, join our group on Facebook, and connect with us via LinkedIn. These are excellent tools for reconnecting with former classmates and hearing about upcoming events. Questions or comments? Email us at alumni@columbiaspectator.com!
Also read about the Spectator’s brand new web services SmugMug and EventSalsa!
Annual Awards Dinner: the State of the Spectator
Columbia Daily Spectator Annual Awards Dinner
February 4, 2012
State of the Spectator
By Samuel E. Roth – As prepared for delivery
Good evening, everyone, and thank you again for joining us tonight. This is, I believe, my last official act as editor in chief emeritus—which means it’s going to be a lot harder to arrange for glowing coverage of my remarks in Monday’s paper.
Nevertheless, I sincerely appreciate that all of you could make it out this evening. It means so much that Spectator has such an active and engaged body of alumni and so many generous friends. Certainly, looking back on my time, it’s nice to know that I’ll be able to reconnect with my old Spec friends at events like these in the future. More »
Special issue: examining the Barnard-Columbia relationship
In 1982, Columbia and Barnard announced a joint agreement that allowed women to apply to Columbia College. Thirty years later, we reflect on the significance of that agreement and continue the discussion of coeducation.
News
30 years ago, admins on both sides of Broadway faced tough decisions by Madina Toure
Coeducation brings changes in curriculum byJeremy Budd
For some Barnard first-years, navigating Barnard/Columbia divide difficultby Emma Goss
First Columbia College women felt comfortable at CU, despite practical concerns by Margaret Mattes
Barnard, CU legally bound, but relationship not always certain for studentsby Jessica Stallone
Opinion
Women on College Walk by Katherine Franke
The Barnard paradox by Giselle Boresta
Strong, handsome, Barnard boys by Samuel Mickel
A symbiotic relationship by Jessica Blank
Sports
Columbia-Barnard Consortium shapes CU athletics then, now by Michele Cleary
Alumni Open House, Nov. 11
Friday, Nov. 11 was the Spectator’s first open house event of the 2011-2012 year. We were happy to welcome back a number of alumni from across the northeast region for a night of food and conversation with the current Spectator staff. After a brief greeting and tours of the office, alumni and students mingled with each other until late in the evening. Thank you all so much for coming!
If you were unable to make it to our last event, please keep in mind that we will be hosting many more social gatherings over the course of the year. We hope to see you soon!
Thanks for coming to see us!
Thanks to the more than 60 alumni who came to visit our offices on June 4. Giving tours and showing off recent copies of the paper was the highlight of our day. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Those who joined us afterwards at the alumni center heard updates from our Editor in Chief Sam Roth and Publisher Aditya Mukerjee about our efforts to grow our online readership, and the effort to digitize Spec’s archives.
For those of you who were not able to make it we’d love to show you around too. Any alum has an open invitation to come visit us on a production night during the school year. As you know we’ll be open late!