Breaking News

In an e-mail to Barnard students and affiliates today, outgoing President Judith Shapiro announced slight delays with construction of the new Nexus building. The center, originally scheduled to open for the Fall of 2009, should now be ready by January 2010.

After a year as acting dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, John Coatsworth has been named to the position permanently, University President Lee Bollinger announced in an e-mail Tuesday afternoon.

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.

A New York Police Department bomb squad closed off one block of Broadway to all car and pedestrian traffic for about an hour late Thursday night, allegedly in response to a suspicious package. The street has since been reopened.

In the wake of similar reforms by other Ivy League schools, Columbia announced a package of broad financial-aid policy enhancements Tuesday morning.

Professor Madonna Constantine has been sanctioned by Teachers College for plagiarism, according to an official memo obtained by Spectator Tuesday evening. The memo, dated Feb. 18, was hand delivered to professors on the Office of the President’s stationery.

A series of pipe and heater explosions shortly before 2 a.m. have flooded several floors of Sulzberger Hall at Barnard College, displacing residents.

Jim Gilchrist, the controversial former head of the Minuteman Project whose visit to Columbia in fall 2006 ended in a violent and hotly disputed brawl, confirmed that he was invited on Monday to return to campus for a second speaking appearance.