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Lacrosse Unable to Notch Win in Ancient Eight

Julie Appel — Sat, 10 May 2008 13:42:55 -0500

Students March Against Apple

Julie Appel — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 23:00:00 -0500

About 15 people marched from Lerner Hall to the Office of the Secretary yesterday to present the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Bill Campbell, with a petition to protest the unclean environmental practices of Apple Computers. The "Green my Apple" campaign, launched by Greenpeace in 2006 and brought to Columbia's campus in early November, is specifically targeting Apple's use of toxic chemicals in their products and the poor recycling practices of the company. The group specifically wanted to speak with Campbell because he sits on the executive board of Apple Computers. "Bill Campbell won't speak to us, and that's a problem because we speak for 850 people," said Lauren Valle, CC '09 and the organizer of the campaign at Columbia. When the students and Greenpeace workers went into Low Library in an attempt to hand over the petition, they were not able to speak to Campbell. Campbell resides in California. "It's nice that you want to give this [petition] to him, but this isn't a press op," said a man who worked in the office. "We want to be helpful ... but now is not the appropriate time." Valle explained at Lerner that the march was not a protest but a pressure tactic to evoke a response from Campbell. "We're not trying to protest. We just want to fill the office" Valle said, instructing people to walk into Low Library silently and file into the Office of the Secretary. "People presence is really important." Though Campbell was unavailable, many involved in the march considered it a success. "I think it went well. They were receptive in the end," Greenpeace worker, Adam Conrad said. "Having the presence of all these people really helped show that people are concerned." "The most effective thing is that it did create a spectacle," Allison Leonard, CC '09 and participant said. Valle was also happy with the way it turned out. "It went really well. ... He [Bill Campbell] is going to thank us in the future," she said. Valle emphasized that the problem would not be forgotten. "We're not going to drop this issue until we get a response," she said. "I understand they [the trustees] have a big agenda and I respect that, but we all have to step outside ourselves and look at some larger issues."

Frontiers of Science Set For Curriculum Changes

Julie Appel — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:00:00 -0500

The Frontiers of Science program, now completing its third year of a five-year experiment, is due to undergo structural changes that will increase continuity between the lectures and seminars, as both students and faculty pinpoint areas in which they believe improvement should be made. Darcy Kelley, biology professor and co-chair of the Frontiers program, said that for next year, the designers of the program plan to "adopt a method for engaging students with material to replace the WIAs [Weekly Individual Assignments]," which includes using a new method for assigning and reading scientific papers. "Either they [the WIAs] are too easy, or they're too difficult. It's difficult to draw connections between the lectures and discussions," Kelley said. One of the key issues raised by students was the weekly assignments. Many students said that the assessments did not test their grasp of the scientific material. "The WIAs are busy work, but they're not conceptual," Nathan Morgante, CC '09, said. "I don't think giving us statistical busy work is the way to make us think more scientifically." During the class's elective pilot program four years ago, César Cabrera, CC '07, attended a few lectures without taking the course. "I heard it was ineffective because they force science on you," Cabrera said. "They teach certain parts of things for you to do the problem sets." Timon McPhearson, a postdoctoral environmental biology research scientist and a Frontiers of Science section leader, said, "It'd be nice to have an exercise that is the same-a way of teaching that is the same across all sections for each unit." He noted that he thought such a device would allow students to read scientific papers and help "decrease variation" among the sections. There is a disparity between some of the issues being targeted for change by the administration and those students raised, many of which were enumerated in a proposal passed Sunday by the Columbia College Student Council to effect change in the program. Frontiers of Science "looked really good on paper," Kevin McKenna, CC '10, said. "But then I took it." "I really love that we had a broad, introductory science course," said Maxine Paul, CC '10, who took the course last semester. "The main problem was the application of what we learned." Cashel Rosier, CC '10, echoed that sentiment in regard to the tests. "It was kind of stressful because the topics were interesting, but when you get to the test, it wasn't on anything we'd learned," he said. Administrators said that although the curriculum needs to be revised, it is still effective. "In my opinion, I don't think students go through and forget about it-I think that's what they think happens," McPhearson said. "Students learn a lot more than they think they do." Though Frontiers is still receiving mixed reviews from some students, its designers and teachers are adamant about the importance of retaining it as part of the Core Curriculum. Professor David Helfand, the original creator of the course, said that administrators are committed to achieving the two main goals of the course: to teach students to think more scientifically and to "disabuse students of what they think science is in high school." "The faculty think science is one of the crowning intellectual achievements of the past 200 years," Kelley said. "To have our students go forth in the world without it is a travesty."

ABC Chooses New Board

Julie Appel — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:00:00 -0500

Paula Cheng, CC '08, was elected the new president of the Activities Board at Columbia as the organization picked its 2007-2008 executive board. Working with Cheng will be incoming vice president Dominic McClure, CC '08, treasurer Jacob Weaver, CC '09, and secretary Samantha John, SEAS '09. ABC is responsible for recognizing and funding student groups from within the Office of Student Development and Activities. Weaver encouraged those interested to join ABC. "We would encourage people who want to get more involved in ABC to do that," he said. "I'm very excited about the new board," said Cheng, who ran unopposed, immediately following the announcement. "We'll work together very well and make a lot of improvements building on top of this year's." The executive board will oversee the 13 representatives and three council liaisons on the general board, who are chosen separately. Among other things, the executive board helps divide up allocations for club funding and make decisions about new group recognition. "We're going to tackle some big problems this year, including space issues, funding issues, and Web site issues," Cheng said. "A lot of improvements will be based on the feedback we got from students this year," McClure said. Outgoing ABC president Keith Hernandez, CC '07, expressed excitement about the new executive members after he made the announcement. "There is a great amount of talent and leadership ability in this group," he said. "It seems like they'll work really well together as a team, as a unit." "ABC has committed itself to developing premier service for student groups, being the strongest advocate for student groups, creating policies and procedures that are clear and concise, to avoid becoming just another bureaucratic impasse," Hernandez added. "This new group will do wonders, and it will be a very exciting year for ABC and the entire Columbia community."

Missing Jester Copies Found

Julie Appel — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:00:00 -0500

The 700 copies of Jester magazine that disappeared this past weekend were recovered on Monday, found in all the places that the magazine is usually located-dorms, Lerner Hall, and Mudd, among others. One thing, though, was off: all the recovered copies of the semi-semesterly humor magazine had a sheet of paper stapled to it, reading, "Jester of Columbia promotes scientific fallacies." Below was a list of "abridged errata," stating false facts mentioned in that issue. "Seahorses plainly exist," one grievance stated, referring to an article titled "E-Document: Expose of the seahorse hoax." The flyer included the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal logo and mentioned a Web site, jesterlackssoundscience.com, which lists further ways in which Jester has endorsed erroneous science. Several commentators on Bwog, the Web blog of the Blue and White, attributed the prank to Jester. "This is likely all contrived by the jester," one said. "Bravo jester... you invoke classic college hijinks." Staff members from Jester-whose brand of humor editor in chief Sam West, CC '08, called "totally off the wall, absurd, not grounded in reality at all," in Jan. 2006-couldn't quite get their story straight. Some continued to place the blame on CUSJ, while one denied that the science journal was implicated at all. "There is an all-out war between the CUSJ and Jester," said Alex Weinberg, SEAS '08 and a Jester editor. "Justice cannot wait several weeks for bureaucratic approval," added West, in explaining why the staff would not involve public safety. Two days earlier, before the magazines turned up, West wrote in an e-mail that he had "no reason to believe CUSJ was the 'culprit' in this 'caper.'" And Jester publisher Eli Goldfarb said late Tuesday that "there is no reason or evidence to believe that CUSJ was involved as far as Jester is concerned." Gabriel Morris, CC '08 and editor in chief of CUSJ, said that Jester had taken the prank a step too far. "We had nothing to do with this. These are serious accusations, and they're punishable by established practices within student group guidelines proscribed by SDA, and we hope that we can move on beyond this." -Julie Appel

700 Copies of Campus Magazine Disappear

Julie Appel — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 23:00:00 -0500

Most people take just one or two copies of the magazines laid out in Lerner. This weekend, one avid reader took 700. Of the nearly 1,700 copies printed of the current issue of Jester magazine, around 700 were found to be missing on Saturday morning from the Student Government Office in Lerner Hall. Jester, a humor magazine originally founded in 1901 and recently reincarnated, usually comes out twice each semester. The theme of this month's issue is "liquid," and the publication is available in print as well as online. "We're sort of surprised," said Alex Weinberg, CC '08, who is on the editorial board of Jester. "When we came into the SGO we had two more boxes of Jester to distribute and they were gone." While members of Jester are upset over the missing issues, they have avoided making public accusations, and have decided not to involve the administration in the matter. "We don't have a problem letting people know that this happened, but we don't want to get Public Safety involved," Weinberg said. "We don't want this to be a big deal." Currently, the magazine has no plans to reprint the missing issues. "We don't want to reprint them and then have the issues turn up," Weinberg said. "We're just hoping they'll turn up." For now members of the publication have contacted the maintenance workers on duty at the SGO to see if they saw anything, and hope that they will enjoy increased traffic on their Web site.

Panel Debates the Future of Pakistan

Julie Appel — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 23:00:00 -0500

Breaking with more traditional celebrations, the Organization of Pakistani Students at Columbia University, in conjunction with Pakistan at City College, commemorated the 67th anniversary of the Lahore Resolution-which began the creation of Pakistani statehood-last night with a discussion of issues facing the country. Munir Akram, the permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, spoke yesterday in Roone Arledge Auditorium with two other panelists, Syed Farooq Hasnat and Adil Najam, about topics ranging from Pakistani nuclear power to the difficulty of sustaining economic growth. "Today, Pakistan is the fifth-largest country in terms of population. Today, Pakistan is, in military terms, one of the most powerful nations in Asia and in the world. We are, whether some people like it or not, a nuclear weapons state," Akram said. "Today, Pakistan is a success story. "Our political vision ... is a vision of a country that is modern, tolerant, progressive, democratic and Islamic," Akram said, speaking about Pakistan as a modern nation. "We are an Islamic state, but we are not a theological state, and we are not set in the path to achieve that vision. " After the panelists had finished speaking, the floor was opened to questions from the audience, which ranged from the status of women in Pakistan to the role of youth in creating the image of Pakistan throughout the rest of the world. "The image question is not about whitewashing-the image question is being proud of what we are, but also of being cognizant of what our faults are," Najam said, one of the panelists and associate professor of international negotiation and diplomacy at Tufts University. Ali Abbas Causer, president of the OPS, said he thought it "turned out extremely well." "This is the first event of its kind," Causer said, noting that in the past the events commemorating this date "have been more cultural" and included more music and dancing. Causer said that the audience was passionate about the issues at hand. "Considering the time Pakistan is going through now, this reaction was bound to come up," he said. While Causer noted the thoroughness of Adil in answering the questions, he said he was a little disappointed at the answers of the other panelists. "I personally don't think the answers given [from the panelists] were persuasive as expected," he said. Some students involved in planning the event said that they were very excited to have been able to host this kind of conversation with political figures directly involved with today's issues. "The confidence in our organization on campus, and with the youth on campus, rests on being able to engage in sensitive issues with government officials," said Rabia Hassan, BC '08 and co-vice president of OPS. "That's why I think this is important."

LLC Sees Drop in Application Numbers

Julie Appel — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:00:00 -0500

Applications for the Living-Learning Center have declined over the past three years, from 488 in 2005, to 327 in 2006, to just 220 for 2007. While certain administrators have credited this drop in applicants to fewer students attempting to live the "suite" life, some students point to the lengthy application and the first-year experience in the LLC as reasons why fewer students are applying to live there. "It's no longer about real estate just to live in the LLC,'" said Cristen Scully Kromm, assistant dean for Community Development and director of residential programs. "There are expectations that are followed up on, that you participate actively in the LLC." She noted that while the actual number of applications had declined, the quality of them had improved. "If students are interested in reapplying to live in the LLC for a second year, they must demonstrate that they have contributed to the LLC community and will continue their active participation," Cromm said in a statement. Alice Sturm, CC '10 and a resident of Hartley who reapplied to live in the LLC next year said that the decision to reapply depends largely on the your first-year experience and whether you have a social suite. "The main thing that would deter people is a bad experience the first time," Sturm said. "It makes a difference if the people in your suite really want to be there," explaining that many of the first-years that live in the center had listed it as their last choice when applying for housing. "It's hard to create a community if a lot of the people who live there don't want to be there," Sturm said. Sturm also noted that the LLC is known around campus as being "nerdy and anti-social. I don't think that's true-my experience hasn't been that way, but I think that's the stigma," she said. Dave Vega-Barachowitz, CC '10, a Hartley resident who decided not to reapply to live in the LLC, noted that the center could be a hard place to live at times. "It's somewhat isolated and can be a not great social experience if you don't know anybody," Vega-Barchowitz said. "At least in my experience, you kind of have to find your own universe in other places." The application process, which included a nine-page written application and five one-page essays this year, can also discourage for some perspective candidates, Sturm said. The LLC was founded in 2000 by Columbia College Dean Austin Quigley and SEAS Dean Zvi Galil with a mission to "foster an atmosphere that supports self-exploration and promotes opportunities to develop ownership and leadership within the residence halls," Cromm said in a statement.

Sophomores Will Take on Larger Role as New RAs

Julie Appel — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:00:00 -0500

It might be difficult to imagine a sophomore telling a senior to keep the noise down, but that may very well be the case next year, as the Office of Residential Programs is employing 14 rising sophomores to be residential advisers, the first time that the youngest returning class is eligible for the positions. The new policy was implemented to give younger students a chance to become involved in the Office of Residential Programs-mainly to widen the applicant pool and to increase competition among candidates. "By allowing current first-years to apply, there is an opportunity for some students to become connected to the Office of Residential Programs earlier in their Columbia career," Cristen Scully Kromm, assistant dean for Community Development and the director of residential programs, said in a statement. "Coming off their first-year, sophomores are generally excited to devote endless time and energy into whichever project they involve themselves with." While first-year students do not have as much experience living in the dorms as rising juniors or seniors do, administrators directly involved with the policy change said that won't be an issue. "That really isn't a concern for me. It's how we train the staff to handle situations," Kromm said. "I don't know that a senior would say to a freshman, 'No, I don't respect you.'" Some of the chosen first-year RAs, however, expressed more trepidation about their positions. "Since we've only been at college for a year, there might be some experience that we lack," Eric Huh, SEAS '10, said. "It would be useful to have lived outside the first-year experience." Kromm said that they generally tried to place the underclassman RAs in dorms where sophomores traditionally live. Innokenty Pyetranker, CC '10, who was accepted for an RA position for next year, said that he thought the RA training-which happens once before school starts and again during the winter-would prepare them to work in the dorms and take care of potential issues that would arise due to the age difference. "I'm not worried because they have [summer] training and winter recharge training that will give me the skill set that I'll need," Pyetranker said. "Eliminating the entire first-year class, solely based on their class standing, was limiting the applicant pool, and staff in residential programs was ultimately seeking the most qualified candidates," Kromm said in an e-mail. "I'm really excited about getting to know my residents," added Huh, who applied and was accepted to be an RA in John Jay next year. "The fact that we're only a year apart is really cool because I know I can meet new friends and also be someone they can look up to and go to if they have problems."

Sophomores Will Take on Larger Role as New RAs

Julie Appel — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:00:00 -0500