Dear Lee,

Morningside Heights has changed considerably over the past thirty years or so. Change is part of the human condition, and it would be dangerous to cling to the past for its own sake; life cannot be preserved like a daguerreotype.

On the other hand, we can choose how things will change.

I'm writing about one particular decision, to force Morningside Bookstore out of business -- but I am also writing about every decision you make and its impact on our community.

Morningside Heights is more than just the home of Columbia the University; it is also home to Columbia the Community; thousands of alumni, teachers and intellectuals, attracted by the diversity, the climate of ferment and discussion, the availability of bookstores, cafes, and cheap eateries frequented by others of their kind.

But Columbia is transforming Morningside Heights from a vibrant neighborhood where students, teachers, alumni and local residents can mingle in establishments as varied as the late and lamented La Rosita and the West End, into a Noah's Ark of commercial establishments hand-picked by the University for their ability to contribute to the University's very short-term bottom line.

There is nothing inevitable about this kind of change. The University doesn't have to wring every possible cent from each of its assets for the Trustees to be performing their fiduciary duty. Its Trustees must take more than a profit and loss statement into account when considering its policies, and it should not allow the spirit of the community to be crushed in the name of expediency.

The University should also take care to protect the legacy of its name.

You may not see this, Lee, but Columbia has a responsibility to maintain the fabric of this neighborhood. Columbia did not spring up thanks to the efforts any single individual, but thanks to the collective will of all New Yorkers, and it has grown thanks to the love and affection for which its alumni and all New Yorkers hold the University.

I am among many alumni who have defended Columbia's expansion into Harlem because I chose to believe that Columbia would never abuse its power, and because I believed that what was good for Columbia would be good for the city. I realize that I was wrong, and that Columbia has become like HAL 9000, a computer run amok, seeking its own good to the detriment of everything around it.

If you are unmoved by appeals on behalf of the greater good, then please consider the damage to the University's treasury as alumni hold back their donations, and as the appeal of the College diminishes in direct proportion to the growth of its reputation as a heartless and harmful institution.

Morningside Heights has changed over the past thirty years, as I said earlier, and nothing is immutable. Columbia is powerful today, but it may not always be so. The political and economic tides of the City may change in unpredictable ways, and the University may one day regret having sowed so much ill will, and regret having ignored the pleas of its neighbors. Nothing lasts forever, least of all the rule of those whose power is derived from might alone.

Michael Hickins
CC '83, SOA '86