Maggie Astor

Despite the fact that fares were raised as recently as last March, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority may once again increase prices in an aim to reduce a $900 million deficit.

The Nine Ways of Knowing differs from Columbia’s Core Curriculum in that, while Columbia students must take a number of specific courses—Lit Hum, CC, Frontiers of Science, etc.—Barnard students have flexibility in fulfilling requirements.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced on July 23 that it will seek a fare and toll hike to reduce a $900 million budget deficit. The proposal, which included no specifics on the hike but called for an 8 percent increase in revenue, was part of the preliminary 2009 financial plan on which the MTA board will vote in December. If approved, the new hike would take effect in July 2009.

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.

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.

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.

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

After accusations of unnecessary delay, the Landmarks Preservation Commission said it responded Wednesday to an April 15 Freedom of Information Law request filed by State Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell (D-Morningside Heights) regarding the proposed establishment of a historic district in certain parts of Morningside Heights. On Tuesday, O’Donnell sent a follow-up letter to the commission, noting that 14 days, 10 of which were business days, had passed since he filed his request—a period in excess of the five business days within which the LPC is legally required to respond to a FOIL request.

Charles Tilly, Columbia’s Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science and founder of the noted Workshop on Contentious Politics, died April 29 after a 20-year struggle with cancer that fluctuated in severity. He was 78.

Professors Joseph Massad and Andrew Nathan received the Lionel Trilling and Mark Van Doren Awards, respectively, on Monday in an announcement from the Columbia College Academic Awards Committee.

In the spring of 1968, Barnard sophomore Linda LeClair made her way onto the national stage when she defied college housing rules by moving off campus to live with her boyfriend, Columbia College junior Peter Behr.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently announced that it would postpone proposed service upgrades on a number of subway and bus lines, including the 1, C, and E trains, due to an unforeseen lack of revenue. The announcement came just a month after a $360 million fare hike took effect March 2—raising questions of why the MTA remained short on funds even after the hike was passed—and sparked significant discontent among riders who said the MTA was reneging on a promise it had made to soften the blow of the contentious fare increase.

State Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell (D-Morningside Heights and West Harlem) filed a Freedom of Information Law request last week for documents related to the possible establishment of parts of Morningside Heights as a historic district, or landmarking of particular buildings in the area. The request followed several months of attempts to obtain the documents directly from Robert Tierney, chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Manhattanville business owner Ramon Diaz says Columbia has cut off negotiations over a possible relocation of Diaz’s restaurant, Floridita, due to overdue rent, real estate tax, and water charges which Diaz disputes. A meeting between Diaz and University representatives consisted of “a lot of niceties,” according to Diaz, but he said he was told that “until we get all this [the rent dispute] clarified, we don’t speak and we don’t negotiate about the future of Floridita.”

Fireworks and sparklers exploded over Lehman Lawn Tuesday afternoon, releasing clouds of smoke into the otherwise blue sky and illuminating the name of the most recent donors to Barnard’s new student center—the Vagelos family—set to open in fall 2009.

State Senator Bill Perkins (D-West Harlem) hosted a town hall discussion Friday night to address a little problem—the world’s third most successful mammal, otherwise known as the rat. The panel at Perkins’ 125th-Street office was followed by what Perkins called a “rat tour,” in which officials visited particularly ratty areas of the city.

In front of a crowd of over 100 at the Columbia School of Journalism, radio host, investigative journalist, and political activist Amy Goodman called on the mainstream media to do what she feels it’s not—showing the public what she says it needs to see.

The New York State Assembly killed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s controversial congestion pricing plan Monday. The proposal, which would have charged $8 for cars and $21 for trucks entering Manhattan below 60th Street, faced overwhelming opposition from assembly Democrats, who voted privately not to hold a vote in the full assembly.

City Council passed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s controversial congestion pricing plan Monday by an unusually close vote of 30-20.

A business owner in the footprint of Columbia’s planned Manhattanville campus has become embroiled in a rent dispute with the University, his landlord. Floridita owner Ramon Diaz was until recently Columbia’s poster child for relations with local business owners.

He was standing in the 116th Street subway station, waiting for the downtown 1 train, when screams for help rang from panicked commuters on the opposite platform—a man had fallen onto the uptown tracks. Without thinking, Veeramuthu Kalimuthu climbed down to help.

Workers at Flor de Mayo, a Peruvian-Chinese restaurant located on Broadway and 101st Street, were up in arms Tuesday night over alleged low pay, sharing stories of receiving wages as low as $1.25 an hour. The protest outside the restaurant and another one last Saturday are part of the employees’ “Justice Will Be Served!” campaign.

A portion of a façade on the roof of 535 W. 110th St. collapsed Saturday evening due to high winds. No major damage was sustained to apartments in the building, and no one was injured in the incident.

The Burma 88 Coalition, a humanitarian organization of Columbia students formed in the fall of 2006, has redoubled its activity this semester since the Saffron Revolution in Burma last September.

Discussing the need to mitigate street traffic and build up the subway system, Elliot Sander, executive director and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, gave the first annual “State of the MTA” address Monday morning at the Cooper Union.

On Saturday, I rode 22 of New York’s 25 subway lines, excluding the B, V, and W, which don’t run on weekends. What follows are some of the trip’s highlights.

Maggie Astor reflects on her recent seven-hour ride on 22 out of New York City's 24 subway lines. Click here to read the article, Seven Hours Underground: A New York Subway Adventure.

In Barnard College residence halls, the policy dictating security practices seems simple—a desk attendant is stationed at the front entrance of all dorms, and students flash their Barnard IDs when entering. But this may change soon, as safety and security officials are considering switching to swipe access because the current system is prone to error.

The effort to “terror-proof” the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is coming up short, a New York City Council hearing revealed on Thursday.

Taking on the contentious issue of the relationship between Israel and Palestine, award-winning journalist Khaled Abu Toameh—Palestinian affairs producer for NBC and correspondent for the Jerusalem Post—spoke in Lerner Cinema Tuesday night in a discussion that oscillated between hope and pessimism.

Upholding a family tradition that has lasted over three decades, Ramon Diaz has become a window into the changing landscape of Manhattanville.

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism professor and longtime Associated Press editor Sam Boyle died Sunday, Feb. 3 after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 59 years old.

A 29-year-old woman who attended the School of General Studies under a false identity was arrested Saturday in a shopping mall near Chicago, several news sources have reported.

As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

The New York Congestion Mitigation Commission laid out its plan for implementing congestion pricing below 60th Street in Manhattan in a report released on Thursday.

A power failure brought trains on the 1 line to a halt in both directions between 96th and 168th streets shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday, forcing students, commuters, and tourists to either walk east to the A/C line or to take the bus instead. Service resumed at 7:50 with “residual delays.”

The construction of the Nexus, Barnard’s new student center, is progressing as planned and is on track to be completed by the start of the 2009-2010 academic year, administrators say.

A four-person panel of environmental science experts and Nobel laureates, along with University President Lee Bollinger, explored the topic of climate change in front of a packed auditorium on Wednesday evening.

This year’s presidential campaign trails feature the “Straight Talk Express,” promises of change, and Chuck Norris. Columbians, too, are along for the ride.

A rough transition to a new computer scheduling system in the registrar’s office left several courses without classroom assignments for the first week of classes.

Bright orange brick reaches into the Manhattanville skyline, refusing to blend in. Though the business name painted on the wall reads "Tuck-It-Away,” the building’s owner does the opposite when expressing his thoughts about Columbia’s expansion. It is one of only three properties preventing Columbia’s full control of the campus footprint. But above “Tuck-It-Away” reads another message—“Stop Columbia! We Won’t Be Pushed Out!”

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board approved a fare hike as part of its 2008 budget on Wednesday morning, after months of debate and political pressure over a potential increase.

If anyone needed proof that I’ve sold my soul to Spectator, they got it Saturday, when I jumped into the 40-degree Atlantic Ocean in nothing but a swimsuit. The prospect elicited only a few laughs on my part, until I stood with bare arms and legs in the freezing cold at Coney Island.

New York's Campaign for Fiscal Equity released a report on Monday which stated that 2,522 new classrooms will be needed to achieve class size reduction goals in low-performing and overcrowded city schools. There are 408 such schools in New York City, known as "Schools In Need of Improvement" or "Schools Requiring Academic Progress."

Dozens of students have reported unwelcome visitors in their dorm rooms recently, as bedbugs and cockroaches have been spotted in McBain and Schapiro.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority may not go through with its proposed fare hike after updated budget forecasts showed $220 million in unforeseen revenue.

Butler Library will replace its flash-access system beginning this January, opting to install CUID swipe readers to increase security.

Out on Pier 76, behind the Jacob Javits Center, where 38th Street hits the West Side Highway, stands a vast gray garage with tin-ridged doors. A rickety ramp winds up to a wooden door frame, which leads into a small, windowless room with concrete floors, dim fluorescent lights, and a large population of gnats.

A trash can fire on the ninth floor of Sulzberger Hall led to the hospitalization of five security guards and the evacuation of nearly 1,000 students from the Barnard Quad early Sunday morning.

Since city schools opened this September, Harlem’s P.S. 125 has played host to a Columbia-sponsored public magnet school.

Local residents discussed the impending subway fare hike Saturday at a workshop hosted by the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Failures of the city’s school system and possible responses to the problems were debated by members of the West Harlem Independent Democratic Club, along with Harlem teachers and parents, at St. Mary’s Church Wednesday evening.

What does it take to be a security guard at Columbia or Barnard? Nerves of steel, a personable nature, or a sense of humor? If the stories guards tell are any indication, this last quality may be the most important.

Columbia University Medical Center’s Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center held a major fundraising event, dubbed Art Rocks!, off Chelsea Piers Wednesday night. Over 500 guests gathered on the Seafair yacht to dance and raise awareness for diabetes alongside designer Tommy Hilfiger and former American Idol contestants Elliott Yamin and Constantine Maroulis.

It is hard to miss the statues that appeared in late September on the Barnard campus, in Morningside Park, and along the Broadway mall.

The first subway fare increase since March 2005 may be on the horizon as two competing plans were proposed by the Metropolitan Transport Authority, which operates New York City’s public transit, last Monday.

Hundreds of New Yorkers and tourists flock daily to Central Park to visit Strawberry Fields, the 2.5-acre tribute to the late Beatles icon John Lennon. Soon, there may be less for them to look at.