Gus Hagen-Dillon

Students and parents burdened by the financial costs of college education may soon have reason to celebrate, thanks to the College Affordability and Opportunity Act, passed by the House of Representatives Feb. 7.

Despite a demographic consisting largely of those 50 or older, the energy and excitement was equal to that of a school playground at Wednesday’s Three Parks Democrats meeting as Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor and publisher of The Nation, took the floor.

An estimated $7.5 billion in funding to New York state hospitals could be cut under President George W. Bush’s budget proposed last week, a decrease that many fear will jeopardize health care services for New Yorkers.

On the eve of a highly-anticipated announcement Tuesday afternoon—when, according to sources close to the selection process, the next president of Barnard will be named—students and faculty described the college’s relationship to Columbia and its financial future as the key issues on Barnard’s horizon.

The New York Civil Liberties Union took the New York Police Department to federal court Thursday on behalf of Arun Wiita, a Columbia University graduate student of Indian descent who was detained by a police officer for taking photographs near a Manhattan subway station in July 2007.

The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the New York City Police Department two weeks ago over the NYPD’s refusal to release information that the group says would help them complete an analysis of whether the department disproportionately targets minorities in stop-and-frisk procedures.

State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Upper Manhattan, voiced his support Thursday night for a controversial proposal by Gov. Eliot Spitzer to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain a New York state drivers license.

When President George Bush signed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act on Sept. 27, advocates praised it for being the largest increase in federal student aid since the GI Bill.