skipsmom. i personally don't know how relevant the information about how generous you and your family are as donors - it is very off-putting to read. i mean just as you may make assumptions about me and others, reading that makes me form an assumption about you and your comments that in fact minimizes the importance of your post because beyond that part that upset me i really sympathize with how you feel and certainly have had my days being turned off at alma. columbia is not the perfect looker - she has some unnecessary curves, some blotches i think are worth cleaning, and the colder you get into winter the less she likes to clean up after herself, but in the end of the day she has a sterling beauty that radiates in the summer when the cherry blossoms are out and the vines throughout.
nevertheless i apologize that columbia didn't meet your liking, i mean it is no annie orphanage, but i know the university does a swell job to keep things rather tidy (as a former new yorker, i am sure you've seen other parts of the city that truly are vile looking - the bowery anyone?). echoing concoll - it is often a very subjective experience completely based on the day you visited. i am surprised about the info session and tour guide, but alas not everyone can have a good day.
but let us put your visit in perspective: columbia probably gets 40,000 visitors a year and a handful of people probably do not like the campus for some of your reasons or other ones. i think though that most people are absolutely impressed by the campus. don't ask me, ask the people that gave columbia an award for best groundswork for an urban campus:
Columbia News ::: Columbia Wins Best Urban Campus Grounds Prize
the general consensus (not fact, but some Rousseau-ish General Majority) is that the campus is an impressive, beautiful, and wonderful urban and academic space whose neoclassical architecture and groundswork is striking, inviting and memorable. think about the first time you walked through college walk and saw low library standing in front of you. the traditional campus lacks some modern amenities including easy opportunity to quickly clean or store trash, but it is more than anything a 'timeless' aesthetic that attracts far more people than it detracts.
fyi - columbia sits above a mini water basin that is located underneath campus and actually is the cause of why college walk has become undulated as the water expands with cold weather and pushes upward. it is something that facilities are slowly trying to think about how to fix, but they have done a pretty solid job with the center road that they repaved 3 years ago, i am curious when they will start work on the sides.
if skipsmom came in winter - um, yes the dirty snow mixed with salt makes the carpet and floors less appealing.
as an aside: i remember giving tours and having SO many parents acting rude and talking amongst themselves and pulling me off my A-game. sometimes the mere appearance of a disgruntled person is enough to make a tour guide feel as if they are not communicating with the crowd. i think people forget that tour guides are like any other performers and they require feedback to let them feel comfortable. and that their behavior (answering phones, talking, pestering, pushing) is something they have to deal with. life is always a push-pull.