PrintQ: What do you think about the smoking ban on campus?
A: Well, if Barnard’s attempt at a ban is any indication, rules preventing smoking on Columbia’s campus will be hard to enforce. In any case, if Columbia truly wants to protect public health, a campus-wide ban on children would be much more effective. Not only are toddlers crawling with bacteria, but the noise they make is abominable. I much prefer the smell of cigarette smoke to the obnoxious shrieks of some brat whose parents can’t control it, but maybe that’s just me. Another step Health Services should take if it wants to promote a more salubrious campus environment would be closing JJ’s. I have no problem with the food served at JJ’s, but, as anyone who’s walked down 114th Street near Amsterdam knows, having a giant grease pit underneath John Jay seriously damages air quality.
Q: What do you think about the Northwest Corner Building?
A: The building is a monument to PrezBo’s lack of taste and the bureaucratic mismanagement that characterizes Columbia’s administration. Even if the rumors are not true that it blocks off a substantial portion of the viewing range of the telescope on top of Pupin and that its top two floors will not be finished because the project ran far over budget, anyone with a pair of eyes can judge whether such a monstrosity belongs on campus. The Northwest Corner makes Lerner look like Fallingwater house.