Valeria Escobar

Last Thursday, the Columbia Elections Commission notified University Senator-elect Heven Haile, CC ’21, that someone had reported her for publicizing a false endorsement from the Columbia University Mental Health Task Force, an offense that could be ruled as a major rules violation according to election policies.

The six Barnard Public Safety officers involved in the physical confrontation of Alexander McNab, CC ‘19, have been placed on paid administrative pending investigation, Barnard administrators announced to students on Friday evening.

Candidates for the Columbia College and Engineering Student Councils emphasized the need to expand resources for underrepresented groups on campus, increase club inclusivity, and call for initiatives that build community on and off campus at the student council debates on Sunday.

The fifth annual 1vyG Conference, held last weekend at Princeton University, saw the greatest number of delegates from the School of General Studies in attendance in the conference’s history, bringing to light the nuances of the first-generation, low-income community that exist within Columbia’s entire undergraduate community to the forefront of student discussion, and placing emphasis on the need for diversity within student mobilization and advocacy.

During the first ever Campus Hunger Awareness Week, the Food Pantry at Columbia hosted discussions about food insecurity on campus, provided students with resources to apply for food stamps, and called for greater attention to food insecurity relief through student-led activities and discussions.

In collaboration with the Office of Multicultural Affairs, a group of six student facilitators will be hosting a dialogue series—titled Respecting Ourselves and Others Through Empathy & Dialogue—with the goal of building “solidarity, empathy, and authenticity” amongst the Columbia community. The first day of the series will focus on discussions about racism, white supremacy, and the Core, in direct response to the bias incidents at the end of last semester.

When Jesus Mancilla, CC ’22, came to Columbia, he realized that identity would play a larger role in his relationships than it had back home in his predominantly Latinx community in Northern California. Mancilla, who identifies as a Latino first-generation low-income student, said he felt more anxious about his experiences with consent due to the racialized rhetoric of sexual misconduct accusations.

In light of the official release of the Department of Education’s new proposed regulations regarding sexual misconduct, the University will stand by its values that emphasize student safety and support, according to Executive Vice President of University Life Suzanne Goldberg. Under federal mandate, however, Columbia’s own policies and procedures—particularly those regarding adjudication processes—may be forced to change.

Columbia’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action received 174 allegations of discrimination and discriminatory harassment from individual complainants in the 2017-18 academic year, a number that has increased by 54 percent from the 2016-17 academic year, according to first-ever annual report from the EOAA. The number of gender-based misconduct reports made to EOAA also increased by 46 percent from the prior academic year.

Panelists broke down the implications of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s contentious confirmation to the Supreme Court, at an event hosted by anti-sexual assault advocacy group No Red Tape on Monday.