Columbia Spectator 04/29/08

Finding Your Place

Students often have difficulty deciding where to enter calculus and language sequences, or whether to skip introductory courses with whose material they are already familiar. The University’s departments should offer online placement tests so students are better equipped to make these decisions.

4 Years of Memorable New York City Moments

On the first day of his seminar, Writing Film Criticism this spring, Andrew Sarris, a longtime Columbia University professor and columnist for The New York Observer, gave his honest view of the craft in which he has made his living for over a half-century.

SEAS Names Class Day Speaker

Armen A. Avanessians, SEAS ’83 and a recently named University trustee, will be the Class Day speaker for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the school announced Monday. “Mr. Avanessians is the perfect example of how engineering has become a ‘liberal arts’ education for the 21st century,” Gerald Navratil, interim dean of SEAS, said in a press release. “His background and accomplishments highlight how education in traditional engineering disciplines allows flexibility to develop diverse career paths.”

South Asian Culture Takes Center Stage in Tamasha, Inc.

There’s no place like Tamasha, Inc.—it treats its hirees well, encourages diversity, and works not on Wall Street, but on Taal Street. On Saturday, a whirlwind force of energy exuded by an eclectic mix of enthusiastic performers swept the stage in Roone Arledge Auditorium.

Respect, Race, and Torture

The state must take my rights, and take everyone’s rights. seriously. The state cannot respect my right to avoid torture if it tortures others, even if the others are terrorists.

Funding Committee Opens Discussions To CU Students

Following a decision by the four undergraduate student councils last night, the meetings in which the councils allocate undergraduate student life fees to club governing boards will now be open to the public. As part of an effort to make the Funding at Columbia University Committee’s deliberations more transparent and hold members accountable, the councils worked with club boards and voted to allow students to quietly observe the decision-making process.

BAM Proves That Paul Simon Is Not the Only Living Singer-Songwriter in New York

Sometimes the most surprising performance is also the best. On Wednesday, as part of a series of events focused on honoring Paul Simon’s musical legacy, Josh Groban sat down at the piano and played such a heart-wrenching rendition of “America” that some audience members stood up to applaud the young heartthrob.

Why (even <i>Spectator</i>) Criticism Matters

Writing criticism for the Spectator is a bit of a masturbatory enterprise (I know this because I write criticism for the Spectator). But though it may be masturbatory, it’s not irrelevant.

Harlem Residents Consider Effects, Meaning of Gentrification

In his pink polo shirt and stylishly ripped jeans, 43-year-old Arthur Hoyt, Jr. is an archetypical local resident. He often stands outside his apartment building, cigarette in hand, watching the traffic go by in Harlem. Hoyt is the perfect example of the “new Harlemite”: white, in his 30s or 40s, with a family. In south-central Harlem, which extends roughly east-west from Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard. to Morningside Park and north-south from 125th Street to 110th, people like Hoyt are arriving in droves.

Harold and Kumar Dodge Homeland Security and Delight Audiences in New Gross-Out Comedy

Quest completed, satiated with greasy sliders and fries, best friends Harold and Kumar return home, and hastily begin packing for a journey to Amsterdam. No rest for the raunchy.

Panel Reflects on Outgoing President Shapiro’s Tenure

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.

French Firebrand Brings Fury to NY

It’s hard to tell whether Bernard-Henri Lévy, colloquially known (often exasperatedly) as “BHL”, gets a bad rap. On the one hand, he has been one of the West’s most consistent and enterprising critics of human rights abuses.

Political Science Department Names Replacement for Professor Dalton

Barnard professor and internationally recognized scholar Dennis Dalton, who has taught the same two-semester political theory sequence since 1969, will give his last lecture this Thursday. The announcement of his retirement shook up Barnard’s political science department, which has not needed to recruit someone to teach political theory in nearly 40 years, thanks to Dalton’s lengthy and much-acclaimed tenure.

Jeffrey Sachs Addresses Economic Crisis, Iraq War

Columbia’s own in-house celebrity, Jeffrey Sachs, appeared Monday evening in front of a packed Miller Theater to take on the world’s problems—including the lack of sustainability in our current consumption habits and the need for new technologies to conquer an increasing crisis in natural resources.