The CSPA lectures started again in the halls of Columbia, and Feather adviser Greg Stobbe strutted the carpet floor of his hotel; waking his staff members by knocking and screaming outside their doors. After the group was awake and ready, they moved to the Edison lobby to receive a final pep talk from Stobbe before being rushed out of the door and on to the streets of New York.

The Feather has suffered two causalities during their time in the city. Phillip Christopher, ’17, and Tyler Breedlove, ’16, came down with an illness on March 15. Lethargy, temperature, and projectile vomit plagued the duo before reaching Columbia. They have since been bedridden and have not left their room since they returned to the hotel.

Phillip Christopher explains the different stages of his illness since he came down with symptoms.

“I started vomiting and feeling really faint yesterday in the morning while we were in the subway station,” Christopher said. “After I puked, Tyler (Breedlove), took me back to the hotel with one of the adults. I’ve been sick all day and haven’t been able to enjoy the city since the sickness. I hope after today that I’ll be healthy enough to do stuff on Friday.”

Though the rest of the staff was concerned for the health of their peers, their jobs demanded their time be spent at Columbia. Students arrived on the Ivy League campus at 7:30 a.m. and diverged into separate groups to either give lectures or listen to other speakers at the conference.

Chloe Mueller, Joshua Carter, and Rees Roggenstein gave two lectures at 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. covering “Online Workflow” and “Thriving in Cyberspace”. Adviser Kori Friesen and photo editor Kylie Bell gave an additional lecture on “Feather Photojournalism Nuts and Bolts”. After the lectures were completed, some of the students departed for a coffee break before going to additional classes.

[fusion_soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/252516478″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]

Kevin Garcha, ’16, found the lectures by Roggenstein, Mueller, and Carter to be informative but catered to a specific audience.

“I thought the lectures our editors gave were really interesting, I learned a lot about what they do and how they manage the website from behind the scenes,” Garcha said. “Most of the people that came were advisers and other editors though. I think the lecture was more relevant to them, not really a staff writer.”

Editor-in-chief Chloe Mueller explains the two lectures she gave alongside her fellow editors .

“The classes we taught were about ‘Workflow’ and ‘Thriving in Cyberspace’,” Mueller said. “In the Workflow lecture we talked about we managed our staff on a day to day basis, how to plan coverage for larger events, and how to motivate a staff for success. In the Cyberspace lecture we talked about more of the details of how we manage the website and social media, the tools we use and how we specifically divvy up the work among the editors.”

The Feather staff members departed Columbia at 2:30 p.m. before a thunderstorm arrived at 3 p.m. As the winds sped up and the dark clouds rolled over the sky, the journalists rushed to the subway station to return back to their hotel. After avoiding the impending storm the group was given a couple hours of time to eat, sleep, or work on their articles before their broadway play that night.

The journalism crew met back at the Edison lobby with Stobbe to depart for Phantom of the Opera at 7:30 p.m. Along the way, one of the adult chaperones was accosted by a drunken St. Patrick’s Day celebrator. Verbal and physical threats were levied against Vanessa Markarian, who did little more than stand a foot a way from the inebriated older woman.

Her son, Jarrod Markarian, recounts the story of the fight that nearly broke out on the street.

“I was just standing in the line with my mom and this weird lady came up and started yelling at us,” Jarrod said. “She was saying a lot of things I probably shouldn’t repeat and then shoved my mom. I was definitely feeling some fight or flight urges in the moment, mostly fight because that’s my mom and I want to defend her.”

After the altercation, students began moving into the building and taking their seats to watch the play. Phantom of the Opera began at 8 p.m. and ended at around 10:30 p.m. Following the entertainment, the group departed for candy at the M&M’s store on Times Square.

The Feather staff returned to the Hotel Edison for the last time at 11 p.m. While some students tucked into their beds soon after, others stayed up late into the late hours of the night to publish and prepare for the final CSPA conference tomorrow.

[rev_slider alias=”NYC Day 5″]

For the previous Feather takes NYC, please read Feather takes NYC: Day 4.

For the corresponding column, please read COLUMN: Assume responsibility, ownership of actions.

For tomorrow’s daily recap, March 18, please read the WRAP-UP article on the front page.