Alix Pianin

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.

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.

The choice of award-winning journalist Steve Fainaru as the School of International and Public Affairs’ commencement speaker has some students questioning whether Fainaru’s international clout is great enough to live up to SIPA’s prestige.

When outgoing Barnard president Judith Shapiro was asked whether her time as head of the college was similar to running an institution somewhere between a “faltering corporation and a hotel,” Shapiro said she had a better comparison. “Being the president of Barnard is more like being the mayor of Brigadoon,” Shapiro said to a packed room.

General Studies Student Council VP of Communications Brody Berg was elected president after Wednesday’s elections. With 50 percent of the vote, Berg won by a large enough margin to easily secure the student body presidency.

Forty years after rallying against the proposed construction of the Morningside gym, alumni of the 1968 demonstrations returned to protest something else: the Manhattanville expansion.

With a rapidly growing $ 7.2 billion endowment and in the midst of a massive capital campaign, Columbia appears poised for financial advancement. In the mid-1960s, the University seemed to be in a similar position—but history intervened.

Casa Italiana hosted over a hundred Columbia alumni Thursday as former students returned for a night of reunions and panel discussions. The opening reception kicked off a weekend of reminiscing for those who participated in or witnessed the demonstrations in the spring of 1968. In those weeks, Columbians occupied school buildings and administrative offices to protest the proposed construction of a private gymnasium in Harlem and Columbia’s affiliation with a Defense Department-related think tank.

Financial aid, housing, and loan debt were hot topics at Tuesday night’s General Studies Student Council candidate debates, where presidential and Vice President of Policy hopefuls presented platforms with a common thread—what candidates purported as a return to integrity for the beleaguered council.

At both the figurative and literal center of this week’s anti-war efforts are two figures standing atop the College Walk sundial, with one sounding a hand-held gong as another reads off the names of the dead in Iraq. While the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War in March came and went with little on-campus attention, student groups are now working to turn the spotlight back on the American presence in Iraq with a week of anti-war action intended to spark community discussion.

General Studies Student Council VP of Finance and presidential write-in candidate Keith Hightower will be permitted to participate in tonight’s debate, Judicial Committee members have ruled. While Hightower was initially told by the Elections Committee that he would need the unanimous approval of the other GSSC presidential candidates, a ruling from the newly-appointed Judicial Committee came back in his favor.

General Studies Student Council elections, originally scheduled to take place this week, have been postponed for a week while the Judicial Committee decides how to handle a rare write-in presidential candidate.

As he stood at the Miller Theater podium following a tribute to his own achievements, literary legend Philip Roth couldn’t help poking fun at an afternoon of near-eulogizing.
“I’m glad to be reminded that it’s not a funeral,” Roth joked. “I did have my doubts.”

After several days of review, the office of School of General Studies Dean of Students Mary McGee announced Friday that it would uphold the impeachment of General Studies Student Council President Niko Cunningham.

After several days of review, the General Studies Dean of Students office announced Friday that it would uphold the impeachment of General Studies Student Council President Niko Cunningham.

In its fifth year, the Relay for Life event is starting to establish itself as a campus tradition with increasing student body support—but not, it seems, financial support.

The General Studies Student Council voted to impeach President Niko Cunningham Tuesday night in the midst of long-standing controversy surrounding his leadership. In response, Cunningham argued that the impeachment was not constitutionally or procedurally sound and said he will not recognize the vote.

The entire General Studies Student Council Elections Commission resigned Monday night after what members described as "being asked to legitimize what we believe to be an unconstitutional and illegitimate election."

The entire General Studies Student Council Elections Commission resigned Monday night after what members described as “being asked to legitimize what we believe to be an unconstitutional and illegitimate election.” EC Commissioner and last year’s GSSC president Susannah Karlsson, along with EC members Ken Barnes and H. Andrew Chi, resigned in an email addressed to GSSC president Niko Cunningham.

The first lady of Tanzania, Salma Kikwete, addressed students from the School of International Affairs on Friday afternoon as the keynote speaker of the annual African Economic Forum, hosted by the Institute of African Studies.

Minghui Yu, a student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, was hit by a car after fleeing an alleged assault Friday night, and subsequently died at St. Luke’s Hospital. Police have since arrested a 14-year-old male in connection with the case, and the suspect has been charged with manslaughter in the second degree.

At a Wednesday night discussion hosted by Hillel’s Orthodox student organization Yavneh, Barnard President Judith Shapiro engaged students in conversation on Jewish identity in the academic realm as the audience sounded off about attending college as observant students. In an audience made up largely of Orthodox students, Shapiro touched on questions of how to best embody feminism, pursue careers and families, and participate in activism and leadership, as well as the role of the college in accommodating observant students.

A majority voted to remove General Studies Student Council President Niko Cunningham from office Tuesday night, but lacked the two-thirds vote required to impeach him.

City Hall hosted over 100 local activists, city officials, and concerned Harlem residents at a public hearing Tuesday on plans to change the face of 125th Street.

The General Studies Student Council believes it has found a way to unite its diverse and sometimes disparate student body—through a virtual student lounge. The council’s Web site, launched in September, features over 400 pages of content, including student blogs, surveys, a University-wide calendar of events, and minutes from weekly GSSC meetings.

The days of lining up for hours to register for limited enrollment classes at Barnard, a process that can take hours, appear to be coming to an end.

While Columbia Community Outreach may have united a wide variety of service-minded Columbians for a day, many service groups said that they struggle to gain recognition and funding on a day-to-day basis.

Though Sprayregen previously focused on rallying against the potential use of eminent domain in Manhattanville, Sprayregen is now also setting his sights on the environmental implications of the University’s planned underground development.

Following a riotous half-term of controversy over financial issues and a less than ideal financial aid announcement, several members of the General Studies Student Council are reportedly unhappy with the actions of GSSC President Niko Cunningham and have discussed the possibility of removing him from office.

General Studies Student Council members and students threatened to “scorch the earth” following this week’s financial aid announcement, saying they felt they had been slighted and disregarded by the University administration.

The City Planning Commission voted on Monday to approve its plan to transform the face of 125th Street, while local Harlem activists vowed to continue fighting against the city’s vision.

The City Planning Commission voted to approve its plan to transform the face of 125th Street Monday, while local Harlem activists vowed to continue fighting against the city’s vision.

A two-day international conference at School of International and Public Affairs on Senegalese culture, led by the Institute of African Studies, capped off a year of change for African programming since the institute reopened this year.

School of General Studies administrators and the General Studies Student Council are divided over certain aspects of a recent GSSC resolution calling upon the University to resolve disparities in financial aid.

Community Board 10 voted in favor of a proposal to develop a series of lots on Frederick Douglass Boulevard into a high-rise condominium Wednesday night, ending a series of disagreements and negotiations between board members and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development that have dragged on for months. The proposed development, slated for the 2282-2284 Frederick Douglass Boulevard lots in West Harlem, will have 12 stories and 89 condos, 18 of them classified as “affordable housing units.”

Tuesday night, in anticipation of a major Columbia financial aid reform announcement expected this week, the General Studies Student Council passed a resolution calling on the University to increase the amount of aid given to GS students.

The School of General Studies Annual Gala, held in Low Library Saturday night to a crowd of approximately 250, was a black-tie affair that featured dinner, dancing, and fountains of chocolate, while also honoring current and past GS students.

According to a police report, Aurelio Molina, 45, was stabbed in the torso Tuesday afternoon. Police responded at around 2:50 p.m. and transported Molina to Harlem Hospital, where he later died. The suspect, 48-year-old Wayne Bradley, was arrested at the scene and charged with murder.

Black History Month has induced reflection in Harlem this year, as some worry that the neighborhood’s heritage needs not only to be celebrated, but also sustained in the face of great change.

The annual Blue Pencil Lecture, sponsored by Spectator, drew almost 200 people to an evening of dining and shop talk in Low Library on Saturday night. The crowd, which was made up of former and current Spectator staff as well as members of the Columbia community, turned out for a speech on the current state of print journalism and the unveiling of a new work-study initiative for editors on financial aid.

A General Studies Student Council financial town hall, held Tuesday night instead of the usual GSSC meeting, left some concerned with the state of the council’s budget while others claimed foul play on the part of the council’s leadership.

After a meeting last week dominated by arguments over finances, the General Studies Student Council will hold a town hall Tuesday night to resolve lingering questions about how funds were spent last semester.

On the heels of her resignation as social chair of the General Studies Student Council, Ashley Forman appeared at Tuesday night’s weekly GSSC meeting to set the record straight.

An arts bonus initiative tied in with the proposal to rezone 125th Street has some community members optimistic about cultural expansion, while others worry that the program could bring trouble to the area.

General Studies Student Council Social Chair Ashley Forman announced her resignation Sunday night in an e-mail, obtained by Spectator, to General Studies Dean Dominic Stellini and members of the GSSC executive board.

Students crammed into Lerner Piano Lounge Tuesday night to eat pizza, wax political, and admire Wolf Blitzer’s beard as they watched CNN project the results of 22 state primaries.

The tone was distinctively light at Friday night’s Muslim Students Association dinner, where music and comedy were the main entertainment of an evening meant to ring in
the Islamic New Year.

You won’t see him blocking the bulldozers, but surely founding father Alexander Hamilton is rolling in his grave as new proposals put the future of his former
residence in question.

At a forum Thursday night, Barnard administrators explored the question of how to create a code of behavorial conduct to unite what many students in attendance described as an increasingly disparate student body.

Four legal experts discussed the growing number of local governments attempting to exert control over immigration policy, a hot issue in the ongoing presidential campaign in a panel discussion at the Law School Wednesday night.

General Studies Student Council Vice President of Student Life Cheryl Berg submitted her resignation Monday, citing a packed schedule of commitments.

A cache of guns and homemade explosives was discovered Sunday in the apartment of an AIDS researcher affiliated with Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Columbia University Libraries and Google will collaborate to digitize and make available online a large number of the libraries’ books, the University announced in a press release Thursday.

Free flu shots and wider installation of hand sanitizing dispensers are in play just in time for the coming onset of the common flu season.

The Student Governing Board recognized seven student groups at its semiannual town hall meeting Monday night.

Even with the live band, open bar, and mingling alumni, the role of the School of General Studies and the prospect of a merger with Columbia College stole much of the attention at the GS scholarship awards dinner.

Pull up your baggy pants and take off that bandana—NYC Council Member Leroy Comrie wants to clean up “gang” fashion in New York.

Barnard students and administrators gathered Thursday evening to address the discussion of race and ethnicity in the classroom one day after student government representatives issued a statement calling for a diversification of the college’s general education requirements.

The General Studies Student Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for its inclusion in and the reorganization of the Office of Multicultural Affairs Tuesday evening.

Professor Alice Kessler-Harris prioritized playwright Lillian Hellman’s role as a liberal advocate over her allegedly mysterious persona as part of a lecture series on women and law Thursday night.

Students at 31 low-income New York City high schools who score a three or higher on their Advanced Placement exams could be awarded up to $1000 per test under to an initiative launched last week by the New York based non-profit Council of Urban Professionals.

Legal experts, local musicians, and public interest advocates ventured into a den of media pirates at a copyright infringement panel at Warren Hall on Wednesday night, and some offered a popular message to the audience at hand.

The symbols of racism and intolerance that have rocked Columbia over the past several weeks have brought to light an ambiguous gray area in the legal definitions of racially charged episodes.