COLLEGE NOTEBOOK
This Band Plays Some Mean Tunes

   Mayor-elect Rudolph Giuliani need not 
look to the Columbia University Marching 
band as he pursues his post-election 
attempts to reconcile the bitter racial and 
ethnic animousity of the past campaign.
   The band paraded its politics in a 
routine before Columbia's game against 
Dartmouth last Saturday, likening  
Giuliani's election to a Nazi takeover and 
goose-stepping onto the field. In the 
routine, including a public-address 
monologue, band formations and music, the 
band took jabs at the mayor-elect's plans 
for dealing with the homeless, saying the
Social Services Department could be renamed 
the SS.
   Although the band's membership generally 
turns over every four years, it has a 
reputation that endures.  Part of its renown 
is for having as many members who don't play 
musical instruments as those who do. The 
rest is for its oft-controvertial routines.
   The band was banned from performing at 
West Point in the 1970s because it planned 
an anti-military routine. In the 1980s, it 
performed a halftime routine at Villanova 
that dealt entirely with the topic of birth 
control. One highlight was a condom-shaped 
formation accompanied by "I hear you 
knocking, but you can't come in."
   Administration sources said the 
Anti-Defamation League already has called to 
complain about Saturday's performance. In 
the past, the band has been admonished when 
it has presented offensive material, but it 
is only partially to blame. Every band 
script is supposed to be reviewed by a 
high-ranking university officer.
   "When things like this happen, you wonder 
if they followed the correct procedures." 
said Bill Steinman, director of sports 
information.

Columbia U. Skit Rapped

   A spokesman for Mayor-elect Rudolph 
Giuliani has condemned a Columbia University 
band skit that compared Giuliani to Adolf 
Hitler before a football game last weekend.
   Some 30 members of the university's 
marching band participated in a skit before 
Saturday's Columbia-Dartmouth football game 
in which they appeared to goose-step on 
Baker Field. They accused Giuliani of 
planning "a final solution" for the city's 
homeless.
   Cristyne Lategano, a spokeswoman for 
Giuliani, said, "It is unfortunate that the 
band members in question are so misinformed 
about Giuliani's policies.
   "The goose-step invokes tragic images of 
the Holocaust," said a statement issued 
yesterday by the Anti-Defamation League of 
B'Nai Brith's regional chairman Robert 
Machleder and ADL regional director Harriet 
Bogard.

   Members of the Columbia University 
Marching Band kicked up a storm over the 
weekend when they goose-stepped on Baker 
Field in a bid to liken Mayor-elect Rudy 
Giuliani to the Nazis.
   Band co-manager Patrick Lambert, a 
20-year-old junior, said "We were drawing a 
humorous paralell" by "suggesting changes
Giuliani might make in his new 
administration."
   "We said he might rename the Social 
Services [Department] the SS inorder to 
impose his final solution on the homeless 
population," the Fort Worth, Texas, student 
said.
   Giuliani responded: "Clearly Mr. Lambert 
is misinformed about our homeless policy, 
which will force... city agencies to help 
them more quickly.
   His spokeswoman, Christyne Lategano, 
blasted the bit as "not only insensitive, 
but cruel."
   There's nothing funny about the 
goose-stepping, or any image of Nazi 
behavior. A university noted for such high 
standards should be ashamed of such 
outrageous actions," she said.
   The dozen band members performed their 
controversial routine just before the start 
of Saturday's Columbia-Dartmouth football 
game.