New York Magazine got help from students at Columbia Daily Spectator, the university’s independent newspaper, for a cover story on the pro-Palestine demonstrations at Columbia University.
“Columbia University President Minouche Shafik was set to address Congress about antisemitism on campus on Wednesday, April 17,” a post about the collaboration began. “However, in the early morning, pro-Palestinian students started to occupy the school’s South Lawn. What followed over the next 14 days — protests, counter-protests, the takeover of Hamilton Hall, and an NYPD crackdown authorized by Shafik herself — shook the Columbia community and college campuses nationwide.”
“We teamed up with the Columbia Daily Spectator for our latest cover story, using student reporters, writers, editors, and photographers who were heavily involved in covering the protests to revisit the events that sparked it all,” the caption continued.
The joint effort from the two publications includes three pieces from the students: oral historyOur Campus. Our Crisis,” portrait series “Listen Up, Columbia” and student poll “Should Columbia’s President Resign?” In each, the student journalists reflect on the protests at Columbia and how the university has dealt with the outcomes.
Isabella Ramírez, the editor-in-chief, explained the decision to collaborate with the magazine, saying, “The staff of the Columbia Daily Spectator, the nearly 150-year-old undergraduate newspaper, has been covering every minute of this story. Recently, New York Magazine asked us to create this report, using our deep understanding of the university and its people to tell the story from the inside.”
“Our reporters, writers, editors, and photographers surveyed over 700 Columbians to gain insight into the events, took over 100 portraits of community members, and put together this oral history of the two weeks that forever changed our university.”
The coverage in the magazine comes amidst the ongoing conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas and the challenging situation faced by civilians in Gaza, although reports suggest a potential temporary ceasefire agreement is in the works.
The Columbia Daily Spectator achieved financial independence from the university in 1962 and has operated as an independent news source for Columbia and the surrounding community since then. The students publish content five days a week, and the paper is the second-oldest college daily newspaper in the United States.
