Betsy Morais

After plans to transform 125th Street passed with an overwhelming majority at City Hall on Wednesday, many council members lauded Inez Dickens (D-Harlem and Morningside Heights) for the dramatic revisions she made to the city’s initial proposal. But as development plans drew one step closer to being realized, not everyone was cheering.

The New York City Council is expected to vote today on plans to transform Harlem’s “Main Street” at a moment of uncertainty for the future of the area and its residents.

Friends, family, and administrators gathered in Low Rotunda to commemorate Yu’s life in speeches and shared memories Friday afternoon. Flowers and photographs had been placed around the rotunda, and a slide show projected on a large screen displayed pictures—with his friends, with his girlfriend, in front of Alma Mater, and one of him as a child.

Amid chants protesting Columbia’s approach to Manhattanville expansion, activists recall the infamous rally cries of 1968, as well as surface tensions over University and neighborhood identity.

Today at noon the University will hold a memorial in the Low Library Rotunda for Minghui Yu, the 24-year-old statistics graduate student who was tragically killed by a car while fleeing an assault earlier this month.

Picket sign in hand, Michael Henry Adams stood in front of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s house on the Upper East Side several months ago to urge the mayor save Harlem. And although he stood there alone, there are many who join him in expressing apprehension about the area’s future.

A week after arriving in New York, the parents of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences student Minghui Yu are struggling to cope with the sudden death of their 24-year-old son and to arrange a memorial service in his honor.

Forty years ago this week, Columbia made its mark on the national scene with legendary protests that shaped the University's history. Now former activists are reuniting for a look back.

Since the New York City Council Zoning and Franchises Committee voted Tuesday to approve a modified version of plans to sweepingly change 125th Street—ensuring likely passage at an upcoming full Council vote—many Harlemites fear that their beloved neighborhood will soon become unrecognizable. As in the case of any community change, longtime residents wonder how their children will be impacted.

The parents of Minghui Yu—the 24-year-old graduate student whose death shocked Columbia’s campus and garnered widespread media attention just over a week ago—arrived in New York Thursday evening and met with University President Lee Bollinger Friday.

With the approval of their travel visas, the parents of Minghui Yu, the 24-year-old graduate student killed tragically Friday evening, are now set to fly from China to New York this weekend as Columbia students and administrators begin to plan their son’s memorial service. “This case broke all of our hearts and brought the Columbia University community and the city together,” Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a press release.

Candles in hand, hundreds stood in silence facing Alma Mater, her arms outstretched as if to comfort them in their mourning of 24-year-old graduate student Minghui Yu. The vigil Monday evening on Low Plaza featured speeches from University President Lee Bollinger, Dean of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Henry Pinkham, and statistics department chair David Madigan, among others—but the moments in which no words were spoken seemed to resonate the loudest.

The 24-year-old Graduate School of Arts and Sciences statistics Ph.D. student is remembered by close friends for his joyful attitude toward every aspect of his life—from the pursuit of knowledge in the classroom to the delight of jumping by the shore.

As Columbia prepares to expand into Manhattanville, the regime change in Albany that thrust two alumni to the helm of state government may prove both convenient and timely for the University.

For local activists picketing at the Columbia gates Monday afternoon, the shouts into the misty air were more than just noise. After the rain cleared, Tom DeMott, CC ’80, led members of the Coalition to Preserve Community—a local group created in opposition to Columbia’s approach to its Manhattanville expansion—and other local residents in a march against the way the expansion plan is being executed.

Nick Sprayregen, the largest private property owner in Columbia’s Manhattanville campus footprint, is picking another battle with the University—he filed a lawsuit today against Columbia and the city over the University’s planned underground construction. The “bathtub,” as it is commonly called, is designed to be a contiguous space, running from 125th Street to 133rd Street and from Broadway to 12th Avenue, that extends seven stories below ground level.

David Paterson, CC ’77 and adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, kicked off his first week as governor of New York on Monday, March 17.

David Paterson, CC '77 and an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, was sworn in as Governor of New York Monday afternoon.

Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, CC '77 and an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, will take over the executive branch of New York state government following Governor Eliot Spitzer's resignation.

Droopy-eyed Columbia Students for Obama returned from the Buckeye state early Wednesday morning after a long weekend of campaigning, traveling through the night so that one campaigner could make it back on time for a 9 am midterm. Despite the inopportune timing as academics anchor most students to their library desks, six students piled into a minivan last week and drove away from the Butler stacks to the Ohio haystacks.

Uncomfortably clutching a box of donuts, Ali Shafei, CC’10, sat on a ledge in Lerner waiting in rapt anticipation that mirrored the suspenseful mood of Tuesday’s pivotal primary eve.

Governor Eliot Spitzer named Mary Gordon, BC ’71 and an English professor at Barnard, the official New York State Author on Monday. Gordon, a bestselling writer and New York native, is the first woman to receive the honor since the late 1980s.

Beyond the glass and steel illustrations of Columbia’s planned Manhattanville buildings is a tension between preserving the aesthetic aspects of the neighborhood and convincing local residents to embrace a modern look.

Claude Blanchet will celebrate his 65th birthday on Saturday—but when he blows out the candles on his cake, he’ll be wishing that the eviction notice he received from his landlord, Columbia, will go up in smoke as well.

Like-minded student activists joined forces to “Remember Manhattanville” Wednesday evening in Lerner Hall.

The greatest city in the world has the most utterly sublime traditions for celebrating the holidays.

Columbia University closed a $20-million real estate deal on a site to be used as affordable housing for residents displaced by the University’s Manhattanville expansion earlier this month.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer presented his State of the Borough Address at City Hall Monday evening, calling his vote for Columbia’s campus expansion plan the most important decision he made in the past year.

Growing up around Washington, D.C. has made Annie Minoff, CC ’11, cynical about government. While she is fresh on the scene as a first-time voter, Minoff’s perspective on politics has already begun to wilt.

On a blustery Wednesday morning, Harlem residents gathered at City College of New York to discuss the winds of change the city has planned for 125th Street.

Pigeon zealots are still squawking about Councilman Simcha Felder’s (D-Brooklyn) proposed anti-pigeon legislation.

Since their beginnings, Columbia and Community Board 9’s alternative Manhattanville rezoning plans, known as 197-c and 197-a respectively, have traveled a long and winding road of revision. Yet many 197-a advocates have criticized these revision processes, arguing that CB9’s plan was altered more substantially than Columbia’s, and that conflicting components of the two proposals were left unresolved.

The New York City Council paved the way for Columbia’s Manhattanville expansion on Dec. 19 when it approved the University’s plan for land rezoning.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, says this presidential race is not about race.

In 1968, a famed year in Columbia lore, Mister Rogers first welcomed viewers to his home, changed his cardigan, and asked, “Won’t you be my neighbor?”
Meanwhile, the University struggled to maintain good relations with its neighbors as it planned a gymnasium in Morningside Park.

Barack Obama, CC ’83, was the first Columbia graduate in history to win the Iowa Caucus in Thursday evening's formal kick-off to the presidential primary elections.

The New York City Council paved the way for Columbia's Manhattanville expansion Wednesday by approving a combination of rezoning plans melding elements of proposals from the University and Community Board 9.

An anti-expansion activist group released a statement on Monday saying that the City Council vote on Columbia’s rezoning plan for Manhattanville has been scheduled for Wednesday.

Columbia began introductory negotiations Thursday for a land swap with Nick Sprayregen, the largest property owner in the footprint of the university’s Manhattanville expansion plan.

Columbia and Community Board 9 representatives made their cases for alternative Manhattanville zoning proposals before a packed crowd at a City Council hearing Wednesday morning.

The public review process for Columbia’s proposed Manhattanville development is entering its final stages. As the City Council gears up to give the last word, despite continued opposition, the outlook is positive for Columbia.

Moments into Barnard orientation, Raemond Grosz, GS, knew he didn’t belong.

Pat Jones has an interesting perspective on keeping a lid on things.

While Community Board 9 voted in favor of the city's vision for the 125th rezoning, Community Board 10 voted against it unanimously Wednesday evening. Both boards proposed modifications to the plan in their resolutions.

A construction worker was trapped in a trench hole at the Morningside Park playground reconstruction site Friday, local newspapers reported.

Columbia students rallied for HIV/AIDS awareness and government action this past weekend as a part of Saturday’s World AIDS Day movement.

After a Department of City Planning presentation on plans to rezone 125th Street, Community Board 9 responded with its own recommendations for land use Monday evening.

Manhattanville business owner Nick Sprayregen, whose refusal to sell his property has posed an obstacle to Columbia’s expansion plans, formally proposed a property swap with the University in a letter to the Empire State Development Corporation earlier this month.

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum has developed a set of recommendations for Columbia’s Manhattanville expansion project, according to a spokesperson.

Community Board 9 tackled local controversies and nominated officers for next year at its Thursday evening meeting.

As Committee on Instruction administrators evaluate Barnard’s Nine Ways of Knowing, college student government representatives are calling for immediate diversification of the college’s requirements.

Tensions ran high at a panel on Columbia’s Manhattanville expansion plan hosted Tuesday evening by Global Solutions, a campus organization that seeks to provide a forum for debate.

City Council member Simcha Felder, D-Brooklyn, has put forward a proposal that would put a cap on pigeon crap.

Manhattanville residents, Columbia students, and community leaders rallied to protest Columbia’s expansion plans and support student hunger strikers on Saturday to the beat of a djembe drum.

Manhattanville residents, Columbia students, and community leaders rallied to protest the University’s expansion plan and support student hunger strikers on Saturday to the beat of a djembe drum.

President Bollinger joined a panel of scholars to address university development in urban communities to an engaged crowd at Rockefeller University last night.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer rejected the rezoning proposal of Tuck-it-Away storage company owner Nick Sprayregen on Wednesday.

Hip-hop artists flocked to Teachers College Monday evening for a film screening and to discuss representations of sexism, homophobia, and manhood in rap music.

“Is peace possible?”

A boisterous disruption from protesters forced conservative writer David Horowitz CC ’59 offstage within 30 minutes of his Islamo-fascism Awareness Week lecture at Emory University Wednesday evening, according to press reports.

Rows of empty seats greeted New York Police Officer Michael Osgood as he discussed how police respond to hate crimes Monday evening.

Regaling a rowdy crowd about his time as an unembedded journalist in Iraq, Dahr Jamail kicked off the tour of his debut book, Beyond the Green Zone, at Broadway Presbyterian Church Wednesday evening.

A national Coming Out Day event originally intended as the launch of a safe space program found itself becoming a forum for issues of race and tolerance, as it was thrust into the debate over the recent spate of racially charged incidents.

Animals flocked to St. John the Divine’s animal blessing yesterday morning for the Feast of St. Francis.

“Fuck the cops. Come Jesus. Blow me again,” Adrienne Rich read to the entranced audience stuffed into Schermerhorn Monday evening.

“Fuck the cops. Come Jesus. Blow me again,” Adrienne Rich read to the entranced audience stuffed into Schermerhorn Monday evening.

The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs announced early last week that restaurants will be able to use portable natural-gas heaters to extend their outdoor dining seasons into colder months—but not all Morningside eateries will take advantage of the new rule.

A day after his appearance at Columbia, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blasted the United States and other Western powers in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly.

Chilean President Michele Bachelet stepped up to the podium last night to conclude a historic day for Columbia’s World Leaders Forum, discussing the status of democracy in Latin America and asserting her place as a woman in the man’s world of politics.

A speech by Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, set to kick off the World Leaders Forum today, has been called off.