<p>That’s a funny question. And funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha.</p>
<p>The easy response is, “Columbia has no school spirit. Absolutely nobody cares about the games, our football and basketball teams are a laughingstock, and few people openly proclaim their love or allegiance to the school. People routinely go off-campus, for both entertainment and housing, and there is no strong sense of community.”</p>
<p>That would be at least partially correct. The football and basketball teams have a long, storied history of suck, and they’ve worked hard to get to this epitome of suck. For a while they held the NCAA record for suck (44-game football losing streak, spanning 5 seasons, all without a win). And very few people go to the games, except some alums and the marching band.</p>
<p>A note on that marching band: they’re an absolutely crazy bunch of looney toons. And they are the only organization on campus that actually has some by-gosh school spirit. The administration thus ‘protects’ them in various subtle ways, and funds the alcohol for their parties through a slush fund for uniforms, etc.</p>
<p>But anyway, you could see that on the surface and assume there is no community to be had. Certainly in most parts of America - or at many peer schools, Harvard, Dartmouth, Stanford, etc come to mind - the school’s football and basketball programs are the source of a lot of alumni-student togetherness and tribalism. It’s fun. But Columbia has a different kind of school spirit, one that isn’t as obvious or photogenic. Essentially everybody on campus loves the school, and the campus experience, and makes a ton of friends. People get enthusiastic about the school’s academics, and will sit around and talk about it a little self-consciously like the bunch of dorks we all are. Sure, people go off-campus, but it’s often with a group of friends they met on-campus. Almost nobody transfers out. And most people who move away after graduation miss the place distinctly and wish they were still around. I personally know dozens in that last category. Years later, you may meet a Columbia alum from another generation, and find you have tons of things to talk about, and you’ll greet them and be greeted warmly. In all those senses, Columbia has plenty of school spirit.</p>
<p>When I first visited the school, in 2001, the jock-y tour guide who gave my tour brought up the story of the epic losing streak, and lamented the lack of sports success. But I took the exact opposite attitude from hearing all that, and thought to myself: “So this is truly a University that is a place for knowledge and thought first, and phony and shallow marketability second. Here is a place where non-athletes are not second-class citizens, as I know to be true at places like BC or, god forbid, Ohio State. I know tuition dollars and administrators’ attention are going to us first, and not to a big show to please the alums. This is great! This is what college should be.” I don’t know many others who share that attitude - many go here in spite of the lack of sports culture, not because of it - but I think it’s a fair argument in the school’s favor.</p>
<p>Some of our other non-glamour-sport teams also are very good. Fencing is fantastic, our sailing team wins a bunch of stuff; I was on our ultimate frisbee team and we were pretty good too (not as good as Brown or Harvard but we kicked Princeton’s buttocks soundly a few times). You’ll find Columbia students are much more interested in DOING sports than they are in WATCHING sports - even their own school’s teams.</p>
<p>So that’s a complicated answer to a simple question. Hope I’ve given you the right flavor of things.</p>