Bollinger: Columbia ROTC Open for Debate

"Whether to have ROTC on the [Columbia University] campus...is an issue that's been debated in the University...and it's always open for debate," said Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, as he was interviewed by Alex Lowther immediately following the event.

The Teeming Masses Watch Obama and McCain

Click for larger slideshow.

Live Blogging on the ServiceNation Summit by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism

9:38 p.m.
Final thoughts, I was surprised by how much politics was hit upon during this ServiceNation forum, but then again, it is an election year. All in all, Todd and I thought McCain was stronger in this setting than Obama because he seemed more comfortable during the discussion.

To all who were out there wondering, the J-School Student Center is hotter at night than during day. And I'm channeling legendary rapper Big Daddy Kane with this one: blogging ain't easy. This was my first time blogging, thanks to Todd and the OMC911 for all your help.

9:21 p.m.
The J-School student center is pretty full right now, and the powers that be have not turned on the air conditioning. Some students are not happy with the situation. When Obama came on there was some applause --there was none for McCain. I thought we were supposed to be unbiased journalists. Oh and there's a blogger from the gossip site IvyGate hanging out in the student center with us. I wonder what she's going to write about us. Todd and I pretty much think Obama's not coming off as well as McCain and he's being vague on policy issues. We've heard a lot of this a million times. He is going to need to be specific in the debates.

9:05 p.m.
Spotted by Greg Bocquet: During the commercial break, audience members were crowding to the front of of the aisles to snap pictures of Obama, completely ignoring superstars Usher, Queen Noor of Jordan, Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio.

8:57 p.m.
Final thoughts on McCain appearance: Todd, the former Marine I'm sitting with, thought McCain came off well and agreed with his observations on the devotion of recent American immigrants to the ideals of America. He pointed out that some of the Marines he served with weren't even citizens yet.

8:50 p.m.
Habiba Nosheen, who is watching the speeches outside, got this quote from Columbia Alum Shelly Bendavid: "If McCain went last, everyone would have left by now."

8:36 p.m.
McCain was just asked about lowered military recruiting standards and the increased reliance on poor minorities to fill the ranks of the US military. Todd pointed out that actually the majority of people engaged in ground combat are white, and that many minorities in the Corps are in support roles. e.g fixing helicopters and machinery, roles translatable to civilian life. (ed. note: we don't have stats to support this assertion)

Todd thinks it's good that a lot of minorities use the military to uplift themselves, but Todd also thinks the more privileged of our society should serve in the military and he's on board with McCain's policy on allowing military recruiters at universities like Columbia. Todd also thinks that there should be some sort of required national service, military or non-military, because it's good for our national character and would foster a common bond between the rich, poor, middle class, whites, blacks, Latinos , Asians etc...

8:30 p.m.
A note from the press pit: "A gentleman just came around and asked us if any of the press would be interested in interviewing the organizers of Service Nation if they were made available to us. I felt bad, but most of us did not seem very interested."

8:21 p.m.
In McCain's words: "The busiest people are the busiest, and the busier they get the busier they get."

8:15 p.m.
Todd and I were talking about McCain's hypothetical presidential response to 9/11; Todd would not be a fan of McCain's community watch group proposal. He thinks the groups would have probably morphed into goon squads. But he's on board with the rest of McCain's proposals.

8:04 p.m.
McCain is about to give his speech and Todd respects his service, but disagrees with McCain's re-definition of torture. He believes McCain backtracked on the issue.

7:49 p.m.
Toby Maguire just spoke. Todd does not like actors. One wonders how appropriate it is to have Spiderman speaking at such an event.

7:45 p.m.
NY Governor David Paterson just began his speech and is thanking Sens. Obama, McCain, Clinton and Mayor Bloomberg and the other high profile speakers at this week's event. By the way, Todd doesn't know much about Gov. Paterson but really likes him.

7:28 p.m.
Just got an update from Habiba Nosheen, a fellow classmate who is with the other members of the press who did not get into the auditorium. "They are serving us dinner in nicely packed boxes which consist of a variety of sandwiches with a bag of pretzels, Oreo brownie, and an apple. Though no coffee. I am sitting behind ET camera crew who just turned around and asked: 'Who is speaking tonight?' "

7:08 p.m.
Todd and I were just talking about about the scene on campus for today's event and he's pretty surprised by the difference between this morning and right now. Columbia is packed with people, protesters and students outside watching the event on the steps of Low Library.

6:55 p.m.
We are eagerly awaiting word from the candidates...

6:48 p.m.
Hi, I’m Karn Dhingra, a New Media student at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. I'll be live blogging tonight's event with Todd Murphy, a fellow Houstonian and former Marine who served in Iraq in 2004. He's currently pursuing a bachelor of arts in Archaeology at Columbia's College of General studies. We're going to get his take on Obama and McCain's speeches on national service.

Them's fightin' words

Richard Stengel: Columbia will invite Ahmadinejad on campus but not ROTC?

Gov. Paterson on serving while at Columbia U

Governor Paterson to J-School Student Greg B: "I wish I had taken advantage of more opportunities to serve while I was here [Columbia]."
Greg: "Was it a lack of availability or a lack of motivation?"
Gov: "Lack of motivation."

Affordable education

Obama just said he would give a $4,000 tuition credit to those who serve.

Columbia Journalism School's estimated tuition this year? $41,000.

Old and rich?

They've been telling us at J-school that you can identify the audience by the ads that run.

So:
AARP
American Express
Mass Mutual Financial Group
China "All you can imagine"
and Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) nude in Equus???

Just in time for Judy Woodruff's baby boomer questions.

ROTC at Columbia

McCain criticizes Columbia's ban on ROTC programs on campus. It seems he's right: Columbia students who want to do ROTC must go to Fordham or Manhattan College.

History of ROTC at Columbia.
From Advocates for ROTC:
"Currently cadets must travel to host institutions in the Bronx weekly to take part in ROTC classes and labs. Yet, despite this extensive time commitment, Columbia does little to support its cadets or assist them with the inevitable scheduling conflicts and administrative issues. Furthermore, Columbia neither grants credit for ROTC courses nor recognizes them as an official part of the students curriculum. It is our aim to change this, and thereby return to Columbia its proud status as a source of great military leadership. change this, and thereby return to Columbia its proud status as a source of great military leadership."

"National Service" = "Military Draft"?

Frank White, a member the Progressive Labor Party, a Communist party in the U.S., was standing outside the Columbia University gates yesterday, handing out flyers reading, "Don't Be a Sucker for 'National Service'! Candidates, ServiceNation Use Patriotism & Nationalism to Pave Way for the Draft."
"I'm here to swim against the tide," said White, 33, of Flatbush. "People have been fooled about what national service is. They view it as something innocuous. We view it as patriotism building in order to build more war."
McCain told "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" reporter Judy Woodruff that service cannot be compulsory.
White's flyers read, in part, Ultimately, the shortfall in troop numbers will be filled through a draft, promoted as 'national service, and sold as 'volunteerism.'
"It may be difficult to get the public behind an unpopular war," White said, "but if military service can be equated with grassroots community service, it might not be so unpopular."

Student Gathering on the Low Library Steps

Audio-Slideshow: People Show Support

Jimmy Breslin on volunteering

The legendary writer Jimmy Breslin, who came to lecture at Professor Dick Wald's Critical Issues in Journalism class tonight, was figuring out how to navigate the closed-off campus yesterday when I spotted him on Broadway near the 116th St. entrance.

Breslin, 77, doesn't think too much of ServiceNation's initiative to round up 100 million annual part-time volunteers by 2020. The group has declared Sept.27 a national Day of Action and is urging citizens across the country to hold community service rallies and events.

"I don't volunteer too good," Breslin said. "I like pay."

Despite the tough security, Breslin didn't need a Columbia ID to get in. Those NYPD-issued press passes can get you anywhere and Breslin walked right in the main gate.

As I escorted him toward the Journalism School building, a woman at a second checkpoint asked if he was with me — as if Jimmy Breslin needs a Columbia student to get past barricades.

"I'm with myself!" he snapped back.

AP Photo/Jim Cooper

What do Columbia students want to hear tonight? Funny enough, no one really mentions service

Outside on the steps of Columbia library, students and visitors share their thoughts leading up to tonight's ServiceNation Summit talk.

Who is ServiceNation?

Exactly who is ServiceNation and what are they about?
According to their mission statement, they are a grassroots organization "building a national movement to inspire a new era of citizen service in America" and today's Sept. 11 Summit at Columbia University, featuring Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, is being held to launch the group.
ServiceNation is a sort of umbrella group of several well-established public-interest organizations including Be the Change, City Year, Civic Enterprises and the Points of Light Institute.
Look closer at the ServiceNation Leadership Council and you'll find some big (Glenn Close) and not-so-big (Kal Penn?) Hollywood names as well as a slew of politicians and people connected to Wall Street, banking, oil and the military, as this Christian libertarian blog has traced.
ServiceNation Leadership Council members include:
-Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota governor and recently on the short-list to be McCain's VP
-Joshua Bekenstein, managing director of Bain Capital, which was founded by Mitt Romney
-Neil Bush, younger brother of President George W. Bush, Chair of the Points of Light Institute's Executive Committee
-Al From, founder and CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council
-Michael Bloomberg, Republican mayor of New York, billionaire
-William Cohen, former Secretary of Defense; former U.S. Senator; groomsman at John McCain's second marriage
-Gary Hart, former U.S. Senator; another groomsman at McCain's second marriage
-Mike Huckabee, former Gov. of Arkansas; also-ran 2008 Republican presidential candidate.
-Sam Nunn: former U.S. Senator; board member for Chevron, Coca-Cola, Dell and General Electric
Other members include:
-Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church and author of "A Purpose-Driven Life"
-Samantha Power, Harvard University's Anna Lindh Professor of Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy; married to legal scholar Cass Sunstein
-Cory Booker, Democratic mayor of Newark
-Silda Wall, founder of Children For Children; jilted wife of ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer
-Martin Luther King III
-Queen Noor of Jordan

Inside the Auditorium

Snippets of interviews by our man inside Greg Bocquet:

Kevin F. F. Quigley, Director of the Peace Corps:
"Young Americans today have a comparable inclination to service as those in the 60s, and I think they are going about it in a much smarter way."

"If you want to make an impact on the world, being at Columbia is a great start. I was here from 79 to 81 in the school for international affairs and the most significant experiences I had was the service work I did while I was in school here."

Jeffery Sachs - Director of Earth Institute at Columbia University:
"I think McCain sees things in a more militarized way, and that scares me."

"I think the whole question for us as a country is whether we will approach the world with a military mindset or a humanitarian one. We talk about this so little in our country, I wish we talked about it more."

"I hope the candidates don't see [volunteer service] as a substitute for a proper nationally funded development effort."

"Yes We Can College" Comes to Columbia

Just a few hours remain before Obama and McCain make their first joint appearance since the major party conventions, and the star power about campus is palatable. Several of the silver screen's finest are in town for the Service Nation forum, and Hollywood talent from both sides of the camera have arrived to make their voices heard.

Among those voices are Qasim "Q" Basir, 27, and Mike Lynch, 26, the producers of the "Yes We Can College" video series, who were on hand to promote a showing of the seven film shorts showcasing the Obama campaign's message.

"We're filmmakers, and we thought about how we could make a difference, " said Lynch. "We both felt the urgency of now, and here we are." The two producers, both natives of Los Angeles, posted their first short on YouTube. It became a huge success online, racking up 50,000 views in a single week.

"After people started watching our videos, we were contacted by will.i.am [of the Black Eyed Peas]," said Basir, who has since written about his production on the Huffington Post.

Basir and Lynch's videos will premiere in their entirety on Friday, Sept. 12 at Tribeca Cinemas at 7:30pm.

Protestors outside Columbia

Volunteers Gear Up For the Night

Warren Hamilton, 44, is just one of dozens of volunteers helping at the Service Nation event today. Dressed in blue shirts with “Service Nation” embroidered in yellow, they will be helping guide traffic, field questions and talk about service.

Volunteers, who received several hours of training earlier in the day, come from all around the country. Some knew about the event only days ago, others a month in advance.

“I live and breathe service,” said Hamilton, who took an Amtrak from Albany this morning in order to volunteer at the event. Volunteers were pulled from more than 114 Service Nation coalition organizations from around the country, according to Tim Zimmerman.

“I just want people to remember, it’s not about the candidates, it’s about service,” Hamilton said.

Not just Columbia students

Brian Dugdale isn’t a student at Columbia, but he’s one of 100 young leaders with a coveted seat for tonight’s speeches by Obama and McCain.

Dugdale is a law student at Georgetown University who was nominated to be a “young leader” at the two-day event for his work in New Orleans. Dugdale worked at the Katrina Clinic at Loyola Marymount helping with health care and community service.

When he was selected to come to the Service Nation event here, it wasn’t to see Obama and McCain. “When I signed up, I didn’t know the candidates were coming here,” Dugdale said, waiting in a line near Alfred Learner Hall at 4 p.m. for clearance by the Secret Service for tickets. “It’s like a bonus.”

Media Shows Up at Columbia

The broadcast establishment showed up in full force for the Obama McCain ServiceNation event tonight. Two entire blocks of Broadway between West 114th and West 116th streets are flanked with news vans from national news channels and local affiliates.

Fox News, Fox 5, CBS 2, NBC 4, and ABC 7 were among the channels holed up in their broadcast vans since as early as 5 a.m. this morning.

"It's long but it's easy work because we're not doing a lot," said Jay, a photographer and cameraman for Channel 2, the local CBS affiliate. He anticipated that the news teams will be on campus until 11 p.m or midnight tonight.

None of these stations are allowed inside Lerner Auditorium for the speeches from the candidates; they will all rely on pool video provided by All Mobile Video, a national video and audio provider, for footage of the actual event.

Jim Sebastian, 59, a photojournalist for Fox 5, said that the majority of his station's coverage will focus on the 9/11 anniversary and Columbia student reaction to the two senators on campus. "In their eyes, McCain is just as bad as Ahmadinejad," joked Sebastian, alluding to the speech made by the Iranian president last year at Columbia.

Sebastian and coworker David Dipuma, 37, were typical of the media here thus far: mostly cameramen and tech staff — few on-air reporters — sitting in their vans, reading newspapers and sipping coffee. The Fox van was unmarked and black, leading Sebastian to remark, "Rupert Murdoch didn't want to spend the money to put a logo on here."