Laura Schreiber

A hangman's noose was found pinned to the door of an African-American professor's door at Teacher's College, administrators said today.

In addition to hiring Claudio Lomnitz as its director in the fall of 2006, the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race announced upcoming curricular changes and sponsored various lectures and panels that raised its profile at Columbia this year.

Last week, Fix-It brought up a broken shower in Hartley Hall.

Professors at Brown, Princeton, the University of California-Berkeley, and Dartmouth have joined students who authored a report on the state of ethnic studies at Columbia report in emphasizing the importance of the discipline in a liberal arts education.

With The Current's first "green" publication yesterday, the student journal on contemporary politics, culture, and Jewish affairs prevented the emission of 250 pounds of greenhouse gases and saved approximately 2.7 trees.

Last week, Fix-It looked into leaky ceilings in McBain Hall.

Select administrators and faculty praised the initiative taken by students, currently majoring within the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, who released a report on Monday outlining the state of the discipline at Columbia.

A new student report calls ethnic studies at Columbia "immensely under-funded and under-supported" by the University and recommends departmental status for current centers, institutes, and programs by 2010.

Professors criticized the limited offerings within the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race and urged students to take matters into their own hands to create a department of ethnic studies at a teach-in last night.

While the official Activities Board at Columbia executive board elections take place tomorrow, unopposed presidential candidate Paula Cheng, CC '08, is already making plans for what she wants to accomplish during her term.

Last week, Fix-It brought up the removal of the stamp machine in McIntosh Student Center. According to Alan Anderson, director of Barnard's mail and documents services, the post office removed the machine because of low profits. This week, we find that Hartley suite 3A is housing a few extra residents.

When Danny Yu, SEAS '09, and a group of six other students got tired of dealing with drunken roommates and lingering aromas of pot in the hallway, they came together to form Students for Substance Free Space, a new special interest living community housed in McBain Hall that is designed to eliminate substance use within the dormitory.

This week, we find that the stamp machine in the lower level of Barnard's McIntosh Student Center has been removed. Naila Campbell, BC '09, said that she was dismayed to find the machine missing when she needed to send a letter on Monday afternoon.

When Matthew Brown, CC '07, and Stephen Searles, SEAS '08, entered a suite in Ruggles in 2005, they did more than just scrawl racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic epithets on the walls-they brought together a diverse set of cultural groups on campus.

Last week, Fix-It talked about defective dryers in East Campus. According to Nikkia Sharpe, assistant manager of residence halls, housing has called the machines' vendors, who have extracted all excess lint from the cavities of the lint trays.

Last time, Fix-It discussed irregular water temperatures in Ruggles Hall. According to Daniel Held, a director of communications for Columbia's Department of Finance and Administration, Columbia Facilities has recalibrated and reduced Ruggles' hot water output temperature in response to the complaints raised, although it found the water temperature to be normal in its investigation of the hot water system.

Chief political correspondent and analyst for the Jerusalem Post Gil Hoffman listed Iran and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as major threats to Israel while shedding an optimistic light on the country's current political state in a speech delivered Tuesday night in Hamilton Hall.

Last week, Fix-It looked at a broken help box on 119th Street and Claremont Avenue. While the box has not yet been fixed, according to Bill Plackenmeyer, director of Barnard security, a contractor is expected to repair it in the near future.

Columbia conservatives and black Republicans from Harlem discussed the implications of being minorities as conservatives on Columbia's campus and Republicans within the black community on Wednesday night.

Last week, Fix-It raised complaints about a broken shower in Reid Hall. According to Julio Vazquez, director of Barnard facilities services, the shower has been shut down for over 10 years. "We are looking into it," Vazquez said. "We're trying to find out the reason for it [being broken], whether or not the water line was cut.

New York Supreme Court Justice Sheila Abdus-Salaam urged students interested in politics to get directly involved in grassroots political organizations during the opening cocktail event of Black Womanhood Celebration week Monday night.

According to Ann Aversa, Barnard's director of residential life and housing, about 60 to 70 items are confiscated each semester during room inspections by Barnard resident advisers.

Last week, Fix-It raised complaints about Lerner Hall's removal of the computer kiosk outside of Café 212. According to Maxwell Seales, assistant venue manager at Lerner, Lerner management has no plans to return the computers. "I won't say it's permanent, but for the time being, that's how it is," Seales said.

Although the past few days make it easy to forget, New York has experienced an unusually mild winter, with significantly higher temperatures and less snowfall than normal.

Last week, Fix-it took a look at a broken printer in the 616 Barnard computer lab. According to Andrew Blaner, associate director for Technical Support Services at Barnard, the printer has been repaired, and both printers in the lab have been equipped with 512 megabytes of memory to speed up print jobs.

Over seven hundred people gathered in Riverside Church on Friday night to attend a screening of Death of Two Sons, a documentary that tells the intertwining stories of Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old victim of a police shooting in New York.

In planning Barnard's Nexus Student Center, which is set to break ground this June, architects Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi's said that their vision was driven by the goal of creating an open and interactive environment.

Last week, Fix-it brought up hot water issues in Carman. Daniel Held, a director of communications for Columbia's Department of Finance and Administration, wrote in an e-mail that Facilities is monitoring the system daily and regularly cleaning the "hot water return line" in order to help eliminate waiting for hot water.

For many students, faculty, and staff, the relationship they begin with Columbia when they first step on campus lasts a lifetime. This connection to the University influences many families to plan memorial services on campus.

Students in Carman Hall are reporting problems with getting hot water in their building.

While some may see graduating summa cum laude or Phi Beta Kappa as impressive, such honors pale in comparison to the biggest ego boost that Columbia can bestow-naming a new building, library, or hall after you.

Loaning your name to a campus location puts you in the company of such esteemed alumni as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.

While John Jay Dining Hall consistently provides a varied selection of frozen yogurt, many frozen-yogurt lovers often find that Hewitt Dining Hall's yogurt machine is either non-functional or absent at meal times. According to Jason Williams, assistant director of Barnard Dining Services, the machine's absences occur because of the need to clean it to maintain health standards.

The difficulty of combining multiple interests into a single area of study has students and faculty at odds over the merit of double major.

The cherry and linden trees lining college walk provide a quiet escape from the bustling city to many, but the recent appearance of large outgrowths on the trees has some members of the Columbia community concerned about their health.

New gourmet selections at Barnard's lower level McIntosh eatery have proven remarkably popular, but they have also brought a less welcome change to Barnard's only official take-out option-congested lines and tiresome waits.