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The Graduate School of Journalism announced Monday that it will receive a $5 million donation to establish a new and emerging media center. The center will broaden existing curriculum for the new media specialization, as well as bolster the J-School's research in online and digital journalism.

In what could have been her final public appearance as Barnard’s president, Judith Shapiro sang happy birthday in Portuguese to a roomful of Barnard donors at Monday’s 2008 scholarship gala and auction.

Hudson Moving & Storage, a company at 3229 Broadway owned by Anne Whitman, came to an agreement with University officials to hand over her property within the Manhattanville expansion footprint, Columbia announced Wednesday.

On Wednesday night, University officials confirmed that Google removed the file containing the personal information of about 5,000 current and former Columbia students. The removal of the file follows Tuesday evening's e-mail message that informed students that due to a mistake by a student employee at Housing and Dining, personal information including social security numbers had been posted online for over a year.

A former student of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism who was the victim of rape and torture last year took the stand in court Friday to testify against her alleged attacker.

Bill Grueskin is about to assume leadership of a type of education he never received—in the classroom. Although he never attended journalism school, Grueskin has been a newspaperman since 1975, when he reported for the Daily American in Rome, Italy. Despite his content-based Masters, the School of Journalism considers his 30 years of intense experience to be sufficiently educational.

The trial of Robert Williams, the 31-year-old man accused of raping and torturing a student of the Graduate School of Journalism last year, began Thursday with an opening statement by the prosecution.

The trial of Robert Williams, the 31-year-old man accused of raping and torturing a student in the Graduate School of Journalism last year, began Thursday with opening statements.

As Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), CC ’83, stands at the end of one of the most competitive primary seasons and the beginning of the general election, Columbia University finds itself in a new political position.

Another top editor has left the Wall Street Journal, which News Corporation acquired last year. The journal Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday that Bill Grueskin, deputy managing editor for news, will leave the Journal and become dean of academic affairs at Columbia's School of Journalism.

In an e-mail to Barnard students and affiliates today, outgoing President Judith Shapiro announced slight delays with construction of the new Nexus building. The center, originally scheduled to open for the Fall of 2009, should now be ready by January 2010.

After more than a day during which her whereabouts were unknown, Christina Fernandez, a 12-year-old resident of 235 W 109th Street, returned home Saturday afternoon, Paula Diamond Roman, Democratic Leader for the 69th Assembly District, said in an email Monday.

Christina Fernandez, a 12-year-old who lives at 235 W. 109th Street, is missing.

Lisa Rowland, a student in Columbia’s School of General Studies, died this month after an extended struggle with multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia. She was 39.

Columbia College Dean Austin Quigley will retire after next year, he announced in an email to CC students Wednesday afternoon. He has served as dean of the college since 1995. In the email, Quigley gave no specific reason for retiring other than time.

For someone just graduating from college, Ron Towns speaks about teaching with a passion beyond his years. “When someone tells you, ‘Thank you for teaching me,’ or ‘Thank you for inspiring me,’” Towns says with an excited look. “There’s just no greater reward that a person can get.”

Jason Resnikoff’s mother watched proudly as her son got stabbed in the back by a vicious murderer. But she wasn’t upset—Resnikoff was playing the Duke of Clarence in a student production of Shakespeare’s Richard III.

It was a role few would have envisioned for the girl from the Bronx who first arrived at Barnard.

Don’t jump to any conclusions about Shruti Kumar’s double major in economics and music.

When small-town Pennsylvanian Emma Kaufman came to Columbia, she expected to meet brilliant professors, study with motivated peers, and take great courses. She didn’t expect to end up in jail.

Justin Fiske might be an artist, but his head certainly isn’t in the clouds.

For many students, their college major exists as a point of abstract—but not practical—interest. But for Ruthzee Louijeune, political science has become a way of life.

After speaking about educational inequity, New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo led a selection of Teachers College master’s degree students to the conclusion of their academic careers Tuesday afternoon.

Growing up in Camden, N.J.—one of the poorest and, according to many rankings, most dangerous cities in the nation—Tiffany Davis dreamed of obtaining the authority to shape more effective social policy.

The graduates of the School of Engineering and Applied Science were instructed to think innovatively at the school’s Class Day Monday afternoon as Armen Avanessians, SEAS ’83 and a University trustee, emphasized the interdisciplinary nature of the world of engineering.

Keondra Prier didn’t expect to become an activist at Barnard. “My initial expectations were to do well and graduate,” she said. But the former academic affairs representative for Barnard’s Student Government Asociation explained that soon, she realized “how easy it was to affect the institution by a little bit of work and involvement.”

The Barnard class of 2008 strutted with pomp and circumstance through the drizzling rain to celebrate moving beyond their college years—with outgoing President and Barnard alumna Judith Shapiro at the helm.

“Well, you don’t meet a ton of Columbians that have worked at Starbucks,” Kelsey Price jokes, her laugh infectious even over the phone. “So I guess that’s one thing that sets me apart.”

Members and alumni of the School of General Studies emphasized the unique qualities of GS at the school’s Class Day Monday evening.

This year’s senior class has witnessed an especially fitful period in Columbia’s history. Over the past four years, Columbia has gained in stature globally, increased its local profile, and settled into a period which has been—and seems likely to continue being—largely defined by the leadership of high-profile University President Lee Bollinger. In the process, the University also attracted the caring attention of public figures ranging from Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs to Robert Kraft and Kofi Annan.

Passion was the recurring theme at Monday’s Columbia College Class Day—a ceremony where the color of the sky matched the class of 2008’s caps and gowns, which blew ceaselessly in the chilling wind.

On May 15, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced the results of its 21st annual “Music Under New York” competition, and gave 23 lucky musicians and groups the right to perform in New York’s subway stations. The competition, launched in 1985 by the MTA’s Arts for Transit branch, involves annual auditions in which city bands and soloists vie for participation rights in 125 weekly performances in 23 subway locations citywide, including platforms and mezzanines of stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

blahAt the close of 2007, the New York City Police Department reported significantly declining crime rates, and announced that the city had experienced 496 homicides in the past year, as opposed to 2,245 homicides in 1990.

It was a tumultuous year for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, with financial difficulties, a fare hike expected to raise $360 million, and the defeat of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion-pricing plan.

Community Board 9 has shifted its focus from Columbia’s now-approved Manhattanville expansion toward more common, community-based issues over the past nine months.
The first half of the academic year was marked by a series of milestones that were part of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, a citywide mandatory review process required for land rezoning, for Columbia’s rezoning of land in Manhattanville.

One of Columbia’s own, David Paterson, CC ’77 and an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, was sworn in as governor of New York state on March 17.

Columbia’s campus expansion into Manhattanville went from proposal to city-approved project this year amid clamor that ranged from staunch opposition to excitement.

Minghui Yu, Sam Boyle, and Charles Tilly were among the Columbians who died this year.

On the 40th anniversary of the Columbia student protests, alumni returned to campus for a series of events to commemorate the dramatic events of 1968 and debate their relevance today.

Teachers College was forced to do some soul-searching this year as the discovery of a noose on a professor’s door—and subsequent revelations about plagiarism on her part—brought to the fore questions about the school’s handling of racial issues.
On Oct. 9, a noose, an infamous symbol of lynching, was placed on the office door of psychology and education professor Madonna Constantine’s office door. Shortly thereafter, a swastika was found painted on the door of a TC professor known for her research on the Holocaust, kicking off a campuswide dialogue on the implications of hate crimes.

According to University President Lee Bollinger, the year’s events marked a flashpoint in the trajectory of his leadership.

The four undergraduate student councils have defined the year largely through their responses to events that affected the campus as a whole, while also dealing with internal council strife.

The eyes of the world gazed upon Columbia in September when the University invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at the World Leaders Forum, the weeklong speakers series which Bollinger launched in his first year at Columbia to capitalize on the University’s access to the United Nations.

After a year of reforms in admissions and financial-aid policies throughout academia, Columbia appears to have kept pace with its Ivy League peers.

blahIn a year whose first enduring image was of the frenzied protests surrounding Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s September visit to Columbia, student activism has played a large and multifaceted role. From marches to campaign trips and from division to unity, students’ “extracurricular activities” set the tone for a whole campus.

The Columbia baseball team is the Ivy League champion. In the decisive third game of the Ivy League championship series, the Lions defeated the Big Green 7-5, earning the Light Blue its first Ancient Eight title since a split title in 1977 with Cornell. The victory gives Columbia the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

In honor of the revival of the aptly named Undergraduate Journal of History, a group of history majors will participate in the Herbert Aptheker Undergraduate History Conference this Wednesday.

The University Senate will convene for its last session of the semester Friday to tie up loose ends and make final decisions regarding issues of discrimination and diversity on campus.