President-elect Nemat “Minouche” Shafik met with dozens of students at a reception in Lerner Hall on Wednesday afternoon, hours after being announced as Columbia’s 20th president. Many students reacted with optimism, acclamation, and hope for her tenure.

Barnard President Sian Beilock noted Barnard’s “excitement and pride” at the appointment of Nemat “Minouche” Shafik as Columbia’s first woman president in an email to the Barnard community Wednesday.

Barnard received a record 1,671 early decision applications for the class of 2027, according to the Barnard admissions office.

Columbia College Student Council and the Engineering Student Council are closing out the semester after working with Campus Services on a number of initiatives, including free MetroCards for first-generation and low-income students to be distributed next week and ongoing discussions about how to alleviate overcrowding in dining halls.

The Intrapreneurial Leadership Fellows Program, a new joint initiative between Barnard and the School of General Studies, has selected its inaugural cohort and begun its year-long course for this year’s 10 fellows.

Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, among others, spoke at a “get out the vote” women’s rally on Thursday in support of the reelection of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia “Tish” James.

Susan Hartman, an adjunct associate professor of writing at the School of the Arts, gave a talk about her book “City of Refugees, the Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life into a Dying American Town”  on Thursday, Oct. 13, at the Manhattanville campus.

Karen Poniachik, SIPA ’90, a Chilean politician and the director of the Santiago global center at Columbia, died on Wednesday in Chile. She was 57 years old.

The Center on Global Energy Policy at the School of International and Public Affairs held its eighth annual Columbia Global Energy Summit on Wednesday.

Barnard College received a $20 million matching grant from the Schuler Education Foundation on Sept. 14. As part of a 10-year partnership with the Foundation, if Barnard can raise $20 million for Pell Grant-eligible and undocumented students, the Schuler Education Foundation will match the funds dollar for dollar, meaning that Barnard will gain a total of $40 million for financial aid.