After Barnard Gets Obama for Speech, Tensions With Columbia Bubble Up

Ivy League schools usually cloak their jealousies in politesse, but President Obama’s decision to give the commencement speech at Barnard, and not Columbia, his alma mater across the street, has unleashed online exchanges as nasty as any hair-pulling, eye-gouging schoolyard brawl.

Since the president’s address was announced on Saturday, students have deluged popular forums — notably the Web sites of The Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper, and Bwog, a student-run blog — with hundreds of anonymous comments, which range from gracious acceptance to gratuitous venom.

To sum up: Either Barnard College is academically inferior to Columbia, or those who say so are misguided or misogynist; either Mr. Obama has snubbed Columbia, or this is great news and everyone in Morningside Heights should revel in it.

Of course, this is sibling rivalry, where spats are less about the disputes at hand than about a lifetime’s worth of collected slights. Barnard is an independent women’s college with its own trustees and president, but it is closely affiliated with its bigger, more famous neighbor. Students can take classes across school boundaries, and Barnard diplomas are conferred by Columbia University and signed by the presidents of both institutions.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/nyregion/with-obama-to-speak-at-barnard-strong-emotions-at-columbia.html