Sarah Darville

To our readers:

Spectator spends much of its time looking forward. Reporters try to catch the next big story and editors work on new ways to get you—students, faculty, neighbors, friends—the breaking news, commentary, and distractions that you want. But right now, we're taking time to look backward into Spectator's and Columbia's history.

Beginning today, a large portion of that history is accessible online for everyone to see and search as we launch the Columbia Spectator Archive (spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu), a joint project from Spectator and Columbia University Libraries. Almost every issue of the Spectator published from fall 1953 through spring 1985, as well as the 1991 and 1992 volumes, has been digitized and uploaded to the new site.

Until now, those who wanted to read Spectator content published more than a decade or so ago resorted to crumbling bound volumes in the Spectator office or fuzzy and incomplete microfilm rolls in the libraries. Spectator's single bound copy of the 1968 volume has been kept in a locked cabinet, the key to which has been passed from to each successive editor in chief. Today, the text in those articles, headlines, bylines, photo captions, and advertisements is completely searchable, and each page and issue is also viewable and available for download.

Getting to this point took years of work from Spectator editors and Libraries staff, as well as significant financial contributions from Spectator alumni and friends. We're now working around the clock to raise the final $24,000 that Spectator needs to complete the archive, from our first issues in 1877 through 1953 and from 1993 to the beginning of the 21st century. (If you or someone you know could help us finish the job, please donate here!)

We invite you to click here or the button at the top of the site to explore the archive. Just a few seconds of searching can pull up some real gems. Don't miss a moving piece about Columbia's reaction to President John F. Kennedy's assassination, a complete history of Barnard's decision to remain independent, a summary of Postcrypt's first event (complete with "coffee and pastries"), and, of course, a day-by-day account of the 1968 campus riots.

We hope you'll use the archive to dig up information about your club's founding, past campus controversies, and the history of Morningside Heights and Manhattanville (and their bagel establishments). If you have any questions, or find something especially interesting, let us know. We'll be featuring more historical content across Spectator and Spectrum in the coming weeks, and using the archive to add context about Columbia's past to the stories we'll continue to write about Columbia's future.

With gratitude,
Sarah Darville, editor in chief
Maggie Alden, managing editor
Alex Smyk, publisher

Public Safety confirmed that a male attempted to steal a purse in front of John Jay this afternoon. Campus security officers turned the suspect over to police, and the purse and its contents were recovered, a Public Safety officer said. The victim was outside, sunning herself while sleeping on a bench, when the suspect grabbed her purse around 12:15 p.m. She woke up and chased the suspect through the 114th gate, where the suspect was apprehended by security officers and an alarm technician.

Campaigning has begun, and Spectator is here to bring you everything you need to know about the candidates running to lead Columbia College Student Council. We're happy to announce that we'll again be taking part in the race by hosting a debate between the two parties running for executive board, Block Party and The 212. What should we ask them? Take a moment and tell us here, and then join us for the debate and Q+A next Sunday, April 1, at 6:30 p.m. in Lerner Satow Room. See you then! In the meantime, remind yourself who's running, and check out what's gone down in CCSC this year here.

Chemistry major Zach Brill earned the top spot, and anthropology major Zach Levine is Columbia College class of 2012's salutatorian. Congrats! Full announcement from Hazel May, senior associate dean of academic affairs, after the jump. more

For my 22nd birthday, my friend April gave me a mug with a New Yorker cartoon on it. The cartoon man is sitting behind his desk, on the phone, a calendar laid out in front of him. The caption reads, "No, Thursday's out. How about never—is never good for you?"

Yesterday, Spectator published an editor's note in response to an article in Thursday's A&E section titled "Frank Lloyd Wright archives arrive at Columbia." That followed from a post on the blog Ivygate that indicated that one of our articles included plagiarized content. It became obvious that a few pieces of Jade Bonacolta's article closely mirrored a New York Times article published two days earlier, and we immediately removed the article text and replaced it with an editor's note.

A closer look led to the article's retraction within the next hour. Using the writer's interview notes, the press materials released by the University, the articles themselves, and conversations with the writer, we have now concluded that the writer both lifted text from the Times piece and created a false quote using material from the Times piece. We did not find any evidence of anything similar in her past work for Spectator.

We have absolutely no tolerance for plagiarism, and Jade's relationship with Spectator has been terminated. We were, as you may be, shocked by such a clear breach of ethics, as our editorial standards for accuracy and originality are the first things new writers learn (second only, perhaps, to their own poor lung capacity after climbing our three sets of stairs). This situation has been disappointing, but has been dealt with quickly in order not to distract from Spectator's purpose: to produce high-quality journalism every day that serves the campus and our neighborhood.

Please contact me or Maggie if you have any questions. The original editor's note can be read below.

Best,
Sarah
editor@columbiaspectator.com

It came to our attention this afternoon by the blog Ivygate that portions of a story in Thursday's arts and entertainment section, "Frank Lloyd Wright archives arrive at CU," contained similarities to a New York Times article published on September 3 on the same topic. A review of both articles indicated that at least three paragraphs of the story were largely identical to those in the Times piece, and we have retracted the article for not meeting Spectator's standards or originality. We will be reviewing the writer's other work for Spectator and will update readers as we know more.

Political science professor David Epstein, 46, was charged Thursday with having a sexual relationship with his daughter, 24.

We understand that public statements made by the Columbia University College Republicans have called two stories ("CUCR board denies group planned for Ahmadinejad invite, does not deny individual members' roles," Feb. 28, and "CUCR members plan to invite Ahmadinejad to campus," Feb. 27) into question. Both stories were reported based on documents supplied and verified by current top leadership of CUCR. Before we included the information from those documents in our story, group leadership said that the documents were authentic. CUCR leadership's intentions behind supplying and verifying the documents to us are now unclear.  We apologize if individual members of CUCR felt unfairly implicated in the stories. We have continued to report that the CUCR board and organization have publicly denied any involvement, and as CUCR's current leaders continue to make public statements contradicting the information they gave to Spectator, we are reassessing the statements that CUCR's current leaders have made to Spectator.

Without child care, Donna Williams, who has a nine-year-old son and a three-year-old in preschool, said she would have to take a break from her education. And for Williams, this nightmare could soon become a reality in Morningside Heights, with her local day care center facing termination. Harbor Morningside Children's Center, located on 120th Street east of Manhattan Avenue, is one of 15 child care centers that the city announced would likely close by the end of the school year due to budget cuts. This local center, funded entirely by New York City's Administration for Children's Services—the agency that oversees child care and child protection—includes a preschool and an after-school program for elementary school students. It serves a total of about 90 children from low-income families. In response to budget woes, the city is shutting down some of these services throughout the city to save millions of dollars. And as parents and neighborhood residents worry about the loss of child care space, Harbor Morningside administrators and ACS officials tell very different stories about how the school, and its parent organization, not-for-profit Boys and Girls Harbor, were informed of the pending shutdown. Closure confusion Harbor Morningside Director Rory Scott said he first heard the school might be closed at an ACS meeting on Jan. 29. "My boss and myself were very surprised to hear it, and asked people we knew from ACS if they knew anything about it, but they didn't know. We spent a week trying to get information, but didn't get any," he said. But ACS Director of Communications Sharman Stein said in an email that ACS had spoken to Boys and Girls Harbor Executive Director Michael Marrone on Jan. 28. "The sponsoring organization, Boys and Girls Harbor, in fact welcomed the consolidation for its own reasons— and was responsible for communicating with the center director. The executive director said he had no issue with the closing," Stein said. Stein added that the closing might have happened without city intervention at all. "In fact he [Marrone] was planning to contact ACS in Feb. to discuss Boys and Girls Harbor restructuring of its services, which will include downsizing and consolidating ACS child care services [closing sites]," she said. Scott, however, said he was surprised to hear that Boys and Girls Harbor had any intention of shutting the center down. "That's news to me. Another site is closing because the landlord tripled the rent, maybe they thought he was referring to that. I don't like to say that people are lying, but I just don't know whether that was the case," he said. Bernadette Wallace, the director of day care services for Boys and Girls Harbor, said that nothing about the situation was clear. "Marrone is trying to get additional information. Right now it's all rumors, and we don't like rumors, we like specifics. I know he's put in several calls, whether he's received calls back I don't know," she said. Marrone could not be reached for comment on Thursday. But all parties agreed that without city funding, the Morningside day care could not exist. Teacher Keisha Kennedy from the center said, "ACS pays for the children to come and pays the rent. If they say they won't, we have no other option. We have 20 staff without jobs and 99 children without a school." Choosing Morningside Stein said that ACS had looked to close centers that have empty seats to consolidate neighborhood services, and Scott, Morningside's director, acknowledged that the site was not operating at full capacity. "We have had some issues with enrollment," Scott said, explaining that the city stopped funding kindergarten classes, which meant that all pre-K students had to leave the center. Neighborhood residents said that other local day care centers exist, but that Morningside Harbor is known for its quality. Stephanie Dubsky, who lives close to the center, said, "The good places have long waiting lists, and some others are just not good. Of course there are options, but they might not be good options." Patrice Eaton, who lives a block from the center, said that Harbor Morningside has helped fill in the gaps created by other neighborhood after-school programs slashed by budget cuts. "There are a lot of centers, but that's the biggest. A lot of neighborhood kids go there," she said, adding that the center also serves many Senegalese immigrants. Scott said that 75 percent of children have West African immigrant parents. Though the city council still has to approve the budget cuts in early March, the ACS said they were moving ahead with the plans to shut the center down. Stein said that they will soon begin to communicate with parents and present them with other child care options, including vouchers for private child care providers. "In the coming months, ACS will be reaching out to each center and enrollment will be frozen," she said in an email. No other options? Scott said he had sent a letter to parents letting them know about the possible closure, and the response was intense. "We have many second and third-generation parents here who are very upset," he said. Williams, who has two children in the program, said she was worried that if the site shut down, she would be unable to find child care for her youngest son even if the city provided vouchers. Of the closest other day care centers, she said, "They don't take vouchers, so we'd have to travel far out of our way. I'll have to stay home, stop everything, work and school, for a year. And that would slow me down It's hard to improve your life, improve your education without child care." Kennedy said that the school hopes to reach out to local politicians to fight the closure. Lynette Velasco, spokesperson for City Councilmember Inez Dickens, said that while she hadn't yet received a specific inquiry from Morningside Harbor, day care is an important issue for her office. "The councilmember had been advocating about cutbacks in day care centers for the last year. It's important for kids to get a good foundation, and it allows people to work, especially in this economy ... It's a very, very serious issue," Velasco said. Stein acknowledged that closing day care centers is upsetting to the neighborhood, but said the city's hands are tied by the budget problems. "The people are emotional about losing their local child care centers because people hate to lose their local services. Parents want the known entity that they are used to and trust. She added, "While child care centers are an essential service, its really hard to find money for it in tough times." news@columbiaspectator.com