Famed as a hotbed of debate over academic freedom, New York’s most elite school is also a playpen for sexual hijinks, sophomoric antics and the wacky indulgences of the children of the rich.
While their parents shell out $33,246 a year in tuition, Columbia University students doff their clothes at naked parties, flock to sex toys workshops, broadcast porn on campus TV, bake anatomically correct pies for the “Erotic Cake-Baking Contest” and heat up the steps of the Low Library in a mass makeout session called the “Big Kiss.”
And of course, there’s always the stimulating game, “Guess the Number of Condoms in the Jelly-Bean Jar.”
Others volunteer for the bullwhip at Conversio Virium, the university-sanctioned S&M club that means “exchange of power” in Latin. It calls itself a “discussion group” that provides “education and peer support” and promotes “safe, sane and consensual play.” But the club doesn’t just talk.
Late on the night of Nov. 13, a Daily News reporter sat in room 303 of Hamilton Hall, a venerable classroom building where Columbia students have studied Poe, Plato and Plutarch for nearly 100 years.
Late on the night of Nov. 13, a Daily News reporter sat in room 303 of Hamilton Hall, a venerable classroom building where Columbia students have studied Poe, Plato and Plutarch for nearly 100 years.
As a female student volunteer stood facing the blackboard, and two dozen Columbians watched, a lecturer who identified himself only as Dov flogged her repeatedly with leather whips, rubber hoses – and a cat-o’-nine-tails.
“I’m Dov, and these are my toys,” he said, and for the next 14 minutes he demonstrated lashing techniques. The activity was consensual, but the squeals of delight mingled with the occasional yelps of pain.
Columbia would make no specific comment on the club or the flogging incident. Ivy Leaguers were unaware the reporter was in attendance. Dov is not employed by the school, which doesn’t police or censor club activities.
Referring only to student organizations generally, spokesman Robert Hornsby said the “university has a limited role in regulating student speech or private conduct.”
The result: Columbia Gone Wild.
New York’s Smartest still dream of winning a Nobel Prize. And bookworms still pull all-nighters in the Butler Library. But the 2 million-volume monument to the mind, which stays open 24 hours a day, doubles as a temple of earthier desires.
“Having sex in the stacks of Butler Library is one of the ultimate Columbia experiences,” said Miriam Datskovsky, the sex columnist for The Spectator, the student newspaper.
“There’s very little dating. It’s predominately a hookup scene,” said the 21-year-old, a senior from an Orthodox Jewish background who writes the “Sexplorations” column.
“Everything is so much easier and so much quicker – you go to dinner and then have sex,” she added.
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER, Read more (much more) at the NYDailyNews
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