Nineteen is an odd number. Stephen King was obsessed with it, for one thing. For another, 19 echoes 1999 and the expectant pause right before a significant numerical shift.

At 19 years of age, you might have a past self (or two) that differs significantly from yourself as you are now. You might pity, miss, or even loathe your past selves. At 19 years of age, adolescence isn’t such a distant memory, but your college identity is still in flux. At 19 years of age, you certainly haven’t peaked yet, but neither do your knees bend quite like they did at nine (and your brain certainly recognizes a “hangover”).

Volume XIX commences with this issue of The Blue and White. But the magazine is neither 19, nor 123, years old. The Blue and White was founded in 1890, un-founded in 1893, and re-founded in 1998.

A lot has happened since 1998: Lerner, for one thing, and Bwog, for another. (Which is now seven—the meaning of which we leave to the reader.) In the years since 1998, The Blue and White has changed its voice, layout, and style. But it has not changed its mission.

Former Editor Sidney Treat, CC 1893, intended for the magazine “to give bright and newsy items, which are of interest to all of us, combined with truthful comments on the same, in order to show clearly the exact tone of the College.” We still do, and at Barnard and the School of Mines, too.

So: this is Volume XIX, Issue 1. Learn how international applicants are affected by Columbia’s need-aware policy (p. 16). See what a global university really looks like (p. 18). Read a conversation with Leon Wieseltier (p. 26). If you like (or hate) what you read, or want to contribute, write us at editors@theblueandwhite.org.

— Conor Skelding