During the last CCSC event, students got to see a part of the Core that is often overlooked in general classroom discussions. On Friday, October 28 the Campus Life Committee created a Haunted House that took students through the darker, more horrific scenes of Lit Hum/CC (besides the monstrous reading load…).

The tours of the haunted house were led by our old alum, Alexander Hamilton. He first led students through the Core graveyard where you could find the likes of Homer, Jane Austen and Immanuel Kant–along with books from the last year’s classes. From there students entered the panopticon: a world of terror and complete psychosis.

Students were able to have a moment of relief when they visited the wicked witches of Macbeth but were then thrust into more horror as they encountered the Cyclops in his cave. After moving past the blood and disjointed body parts, students entered the hall of murderers to greet some of our favorite characters. They met Medea, who tried really hard to convince them that killing your babies is obviously a sign of love; Raskolnikov, holding his axe in his usual state of melancholy and despair; and of course, wife of the year, Clytemnestra.

One always wonders how these types of characters develop into the troubled individuals we know and love (to fear) and the next scene, the Origin of Species, perhaps gave the best explanation: something went horribly wrong in the development of man (we aren’t assigned those pages during CC). The tour ended when students received some parting wisdom from the “dead people panel” of Dante’s Inferno. Their take away message: “If you work for Goldman Sachs beware! You could end up like us….”

The Columbia Glee Club was able to brighten the mood a bit with an awesome performance! They were dressed in a variety of costumes and had so much energy that students couldn’t help but sing along and even do a little bit of dancing to songs like “Monster Mash”.