The Columbia University Marching Band (CUMB) was the marching band of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. The CUMB, which was entirely student-run, had a reputation for edgy humor and was known for playing infamous pranks. In 2019, the band was officially banned from Columbia athletic events and its funding revoked. In 2020, following allegations of inappropriate behavior, the band voted to disband itself. In 2022, Columbia Athletics launched a new spirit band, under the supervision of a band director employed by the university.

History

Founded in 1904, it claimed to be the first college or university marching band in the United States to convert to a

scramble band A scramble band – also known as a scatter band – is a particular type of field-performing marching band with distinct characteristics that set it apart from other common forms of marching bands; most notably, scramble bands do not normally ma ...

format, making the switch in the 1950s. Today, all of the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

bands (except Cornell), as well as the

Stanford Band The Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB) is the student marching band representing Stanford University and its Stanford Cardinal, athletic teams. Billing itself as "The World's Largest Rock and Roll Band," the Stanford Band ...

William & Mary Pep Band The William & Mary Pep Band is the scramble band of the College of William & Mary. It is a student-run ensembleMarching Owl Band have adopted the scramble band style. There were 60 members in 2019. CUMB billed itself as "The Cleverest Band in the World." The CUMB, which was entirely student-run, had a reputation for edgy humor and was often thought to be the most controversial and irreverent of the scramble bands. Since the 1960s, national news outlets have covered the band's most infamous pranks. Over the years, the band developed a "tumultuous history with the Columbia administration," leading to their dissolution in 2020.

Performances

In addition to playing at every Columbia football game, the band played in the stands at Levien Gym for Columbia basketball games, and at various other events. These have included the

New York City Marathon The New York City Marathon, currently branded as the TCS New York City Marathon for sponsorship reasons, is an annual marathon () that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest marathon in the world, with 53,627 fini ...

, the Walk Against AIDS, and at New York City's 34th Street post office on Tax Day. The CUMB appeared on many television programs including an early episode of

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show was the third installment of ''The Tonight Show''. Hosted by Johnny Carson, it aired from October 1, 1962 to May 22, 1992, replacing ''T ...

, the

Late Show with David Letterman ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production com ...

, The CBS Morning Show, MTV's

Total Request Live ''Total Request Live'' (commonly abbreviated as ''TRL'') is an American television program that premiered on MTV on September 14, 1998. The early version of ''TRL'' featured popular music videos played during its countdown and was also used as ...

, The Howard Stern TV Show (on WWOR), and Columbia's student run television station CTV. CUMB had also been featured in the films Turk 182! and Game Day. In the final years their musicianship had improved exponentially, and they have been invited to perform at

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning seven to nine days when international Fashion design, fashion collections are shown to buyers, the pres ...

, birthday parties, and Good Morning Tokyo.

Orgo Night

In one of the school's longest-lasting traditions, begun in 1975, at midnight before the Organic Chemistry exam—often the first day of final exams—the Columbia University Marching Band invaded and briefly occupied the main undergraduate reading room in Butler Library to distract and entertain studying students with some forty-five minutes of raucous jokes and music, beginning and ending with the singing of the school's fight song, " Roar, Lion, Roar". After the main show before a crowd that routinely began filling the room well before the announced midnight start time, the Band led a procession to several campus locations, including the residential quadrangle of

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

for more music and temporary relief from the stress of last-minute studying. In December 2016, following several years of sporadic complaints by students who said that some Orgo Night scripts and advertising posters left them "triggered" and "traumatized" and called for the show to be canceled, as well as a ''New York Times'' article on the Band's treatment of sexual assault on campus, University administrators banned the Marching Band from performing its Orgo Night show in the traditional Butler Library location. Protests and accusations of censorship followed, but University President Lee Bollinger maintained that complaints and publicity about the shows had "nothing to do with" the prohibition. In subfreezing weather, the Band instead performed—at midnight, as usual—outside the main entrance of Butler Library. The Band's official alumni organization, the Columbia University Band Alumni Association, registered protests with the administration, and an ad hoc group of alumni writing under the name "A. Hamiltonius" published a series of pamphlets exhaustively addressing the issue, but at the end of the spring 2017 semester the university administration held firm, prompting the Marching Band to again stage its show outside the building. For Orgo Night December 2017, Band members quietly infiltrated the Library with their musical instruments during the evening and popped up at midnight to perform the show inside despite the ban. Prior to the spring 2018 exam period, the administration warned the group's leaders against a repeat and restated the injunction, warning of sanctions; the Band again staged its Orgo Night show in front of the library.

Miscellaneous Instruments

One innovation of the CUMB was the introduction of the "miscie," which rhymes with "whiskey" and is short for ''miscellaneous''. While many of the band members carried a musical instrument onto the field, the band's miscies carry whatever they choose. Some miscie instruments of the past have included a washboard, spoons, juggled balls/pins, the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

, the

ROLM ROLM Corporation was a Silicon Valley technology company founded in 1969 by four electrical engineers: Gene Richeson, Ken Oshman, Walter Loewenstern, and Robert Maxfield. The company is best known for creating a computerized telephone switchi ...

phone, beer bottles, spare tires, steel mailboxes, condom harp, football stadium bench (no longer attached to the stadium), passenger handle from the interior of an MTA Redbird subway car, unicycle, and kitchen sink. Towards the end of the Band, the miscie section had a toilet seat player. Other, slightly more melodious, instruments have included the shofar, the E♭ contrabass

sarrusophone The sarrusophones are a family of metal double reed conical bore woodwind instruments patented and first manufactured by France, French instrument maker Pierre-Louis Gautrot in 1856. Gautrot named the sarrusophone after French bandmaster Pierre- ...

, a

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (;()), also spelt didjeridu, among other variants, is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...

(the ''didge''), and the B♭ ''lenthopipe'' (an 8-foot length of

electrical conduit An electrical conduit is a tube used to protect and route electrical wiring in a building or structure. Electrical conduit may be made of metal, plastic, fiber, or fired clay. Most conduit is rigid, but flexible conduit is used for some purp ...

, with rubber hose and horn mouthpiece at the bottom end, and funnel at the extreme end). Band members had a long history of raiding competitive Ivy League schools and other institutions for memorabilia, including flags of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and the outsized stick used to beat the Harvard University Band's iconic giant bass drum. In a guerrilla action, the band once surreptitiously switched its regular dress for the dark blue of Yale University and appeared in the

Yale Bowl The Yale Bowl Stadium is a college football stadium in the northeast United States, located in New Haven, Connecticut, on the border of West Haven, Connecticut, West Haven, about 1½ miles (2½ km) west of the main campus of Yale University. The ...

as the Yale Precision Marching Band.

Controversies

The band regularly stirs up controversy due to its irreverent sense of humor. *In 1964, the band performed a "Salute to Moral Decay," featuring a formation of "the upper part of a topless bathing suit" (all marchers left the field except for two sousaphones, while the band played "My Favorite Things") and a typically heavy-handed reference to Walter Jenkins, an aide to President

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

, who had been caught ''

in flagrante delicto ''In flagrante delicto'' (Latin for "in blazing offence"), sometimes simply ''in flagrante'' ("in blazing"), is a legal term used to indicate that a criminal has been caught in the act of committing an offence (compare ). The colloquial "caught ...

'' in a men's room. Columbia's president had to fend off angry letters from several notables, including conductor Leonard Bernstein. *In 1966, the band was suspended for several games for the infamous "A Tribute to Birth Control" show where they formed a

birth control pill The combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), often referred to as the birth control pill or colloquially as "the pill", is a type of birth control that is designed to be taken orally by women. It is the oral form of combined hormonal contra ...

, a calendar (for the rhythm method), and a chastity belt. *In 1972, at West Point, the band formed what it called a "burning Cambodian village" on the field. The band has been effectively banned from ever playing at West Point again. *In 1973, a brawl broke out between the CUMB and the Harvard University Band over the alleged attempted theft of the giant Harvard Bass Drum. *The band performed a 1981 halftime show at Holy Cross with the theme "The Lions vs. The Christians". Holy Cross administrators subsequently dis-invited the band from any future games played in Worcester. Columbia's next road game vs. Holy Cross in 1983 was the beginning of what became an

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

-record losing streak; the Lions would go almost five years without a win. *The band's script for the 1982 season-opening road game against Harvard mysteriously turned out to be identical to the script the Harvard band had planned to use moments later. The CUMB denied the idea that such an astonishing coincidence had anything to do with the fact that two of its members had spent the previous week posing as new freshmen at Harvard's undergraduate orientation. *In 1990, the band received a bomb threat over its symbolic formation of a burning

American Flag The national flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag or the U.S. flag, consists of thirteen horizontal Bar (heraldry), stripes, Variation of the field, alternating red and white, with a blue rectangle in the Canton ( ...

accompanied by

The Doors The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, comprising vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most influential and controversial rock acts ...

' " Light My Fire," a reference to the recent

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

ruling in Texas v. Johnson upholding the right to

flag burning A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and flags have ...

, and public debate around the proposed Flag Desecration Amendment. *In 1992, during "Youth Day" at the Yale Bowl, the band pantomimed the consummation of a same-sex marriage on the field. *In 1993, the band drew parallels between the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

and homelessness policies proposed by newly elected

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The Anti-Defamation League demanded an apology. *In 1993, at Princeton, the band recreated the Magic Bullet Theory as put forth by the

Warren Commission The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President of the United States, President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the A ...

on the John F. Kennedy assassination, complete with band members representing scattering skull fragments. *In 1998, at the Yale Bowl, the band performed a show featuring a homosexual, pot-smoking Jesus Christ as a homage to Columbia alumnus

Terrence McNally Terrence McNally (November 3, 1938 – March 24, 2020) was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. Described as "the bard of American theater" and "one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced," M ...

's play '' Corpus Christi''. Angry Yale fans left the stadium and demanded their money back. *When Vice President

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

arrived to teach at Columbia, the band reportedly welcomed him with a program solely consisting of

Monica Lewinsky Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American activist. Lewinsky became internationally known in the late 1990s after U.S. President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an affair with her during her days as a White House intern ...

jokes. *During a game against

Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...

in 2002, the band joked that Fordham's tuition was "going down like an altar boy" (in a joke improvised minutes before the start of the pre-game show). In the ensuing media frenzy, band poet laureate Andy Hao was featured on the

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

show '' Donahue'', in a debate with the president of the Catholic League Bill Donohue, who called the comment

anti-Catholic Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics and opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, and its adherents. Scholars have identified four categories of anti-Catholicism: constitutional-national, theological, popular and socio-cul ...

bigotry. Additionally, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' profiled the CUMB as part of an article about scramble bands. Columbia University president Lee Bollinger ended the controversy in one of his first official acts as University president when he apologized to Fordham president, Joseph A. O'Hare. *Following a loss to Cornell in 2011, the band sang an altered version of the Columbia fight song lamenting the football team's winless season. After a member of the team coaching staff overheard the rendition, the athletic department promptly banned the band from performing at the Brown game the following week. The story was picked up by various news outlets including ''The New York Times'' and

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. Following this media firestorm as well as an outpouring of support for the band from various alums, students, and bandies, and an apology from the band, the Athletics department—in the interests of Columbia's "core free speech values"—allowed the band to perform at the season's final game. *In December 2012, a promotional flyer for Orgo Night which featured a pun on "Gaza Strip", i.e. "Everyone Wants a Piece" was met with some backlash by student groups on campus as well as activist Sherry J. Wolf. Subsequently, Kevin Shollenberger, Dean of Student Affairs, criticized the band via a student-wide email. In the wake of the event, despite the few protestors who attended Orgo Night, the band received overwhelming support from the Columbia community.

Dissolution

In September 2019, the band was officially banned from Columbia athletic events and its funding revoked, with many pointing to the administration's distaste for the band following the Orgo Night controversy. On September 14, 2020, following allegations of inappropriate behavior, the band voted to disband. The band's leadership issued a statement acknowledging decades of "racism, cultural oppression, misogyny, and sexual harassment" and, deciding that it would be "impossible to reform an organization so grounded in prejudiced culture and traditions," decided to disband the organization.

Pep Band Revival

In Fall 2022, Columbia Athletics launched a new spirit band, under the supervision of a director employed by the university. The band is managed with input from both the Columbia Athletics marketing office and the Columbia University Band Alumni Association. In its first year, the new Pep Band attracted about 25 undergraduate and graduate students. The pep band plays at football games and men's and women's basketball games, as well as other local events.

References

External links

The Columbia University Marching Band''Editor and Publisher''
criticizes censored ''New York Times'' and ''Associated Press'' coverage of the Fordham halftime show. 2002

''Sunday Styles section,

'', 2002.
Student Coalition Calls for Systematic Changes to Address Issues of Racism, Discrimination; Fed, CCCC, CUMB Offer Apologies
''

Columbia Daily Spectator The ''Columbia Daily Spectator'' (known colloquially as ''Spec'') is the student newspaper of Columbia University. Founded in 1877, it is the second-oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after '' The Harvard Crimson'', a ...

'', February 25, 2004

Bibliography

*''Lisa Birnbach's New and Improved College Book'', by Lisa Birnbach (1992) {{Ivy League Marching Bands Columbia University student organizations Scramble bands College marching bands in the United States Musical groups established in 1904 1904 establishments in New York City Musical groups disestablished in 2020 2020 disestablishments in New York (state) Obscenity controversies in music