Joelle Milman is a senior at Barnard College of Columbia University, a women’s college that prides itself on female empowerment — and she is not happy she has to shake a man’s hand during her graduation ceremony.
Milman expressed her displeasure in the Columbia school newspaper earlier this week.
“This coming May, assuming I pass my classes, I will walk across the stage of Radio City Music Hall to accept my college degree. When I do, I’d like to shake a female president’s hand,” she wrote.
This wouldn’t have been a problem if Barnard College’s President Debora Spar hadn’t resigned last fall to become the new president of Lincoln Center.
But since President Spar resigned, the position of the school’s interim president has been given to Rob Goldberg, formerly the school’s Chief Operating Officer.
During graduation ceremonies, students traditionally shake hands with the president of the college. This year, unless there are any changes, that president will be Goldberg, and Milman will have to shake that man’s hand.
Milman is not happy with that.
“I ask Barnard to uphold the same feminist standards that inspired me to apply here in the first place when it comes time to graduate. I’d like to shake a woman’s hand on stage,” she wrote.
Milman, who is studying English and creative writing, wrote that while she has “nothing personal” against him, “to state the obvious—he is a white male.”
Many students at Barnard have issues with what is perceived to be the “lack of diversity” on campus. Many students, over the past few decades, have advocated for more students, faculty, and administrators of color.
When President Spar announced her resignation, some students even went so far as to demand that her replacement be a transgender woman of color.
In her essay, Milman lamented the results of the election, and compared the “fight” to shake a woman’s hand at graduation to the “fight of feminism.”
“[The fight] is at both a peak and a starting point, relevant in every sphere. This means we must march together, using our voices to root out unfairness wherever and however we can. Here, at a women’s college, it is on the graduation stage,” she wrote.
Barnard students are known to be activists, and professors on campus often promote the lore that when only men were permitted to attend Columbia College, that Barnard women fought for Columbia to become integrated.
Milman initially responded to Red Alert’s request for more information on her views, but did not respond once questions were sent out.
She ended her essay by hoping that the administration shares her views.
“Before I graduate from my women’s college into a world vastly different than the one I thought we’d inhabit, I’d like to shake a woman’s hand for good wishes, camaraderie, and a last-ditch bit of girl power before we head outside to fight. I’d hope Barnard wants me to, too,” she said.
