After nearly two years of virtual instruction at Columbia, student reports of sexual assault during the 2020-21 academic year plummeted according to the Student Gender-Based Misconduct Prevention and Response annual report. Within the same year, reports alleging Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action policy violations increased by 1.9 percent, with a significant increase in allegations of discrimination and harassment on the basis of race and color.

Assistant astronomy professor David Kipping and a team of researchers at Columbia’s Cool Worlds lab have reportedly discovered a promising exomoon candidate. If their research findings—which were featured in science journal “Nature”—are validated, Kipping and the other researchers would be the first team to discover a confirmed exomoon.

As students and faculty return to campus for the spring semester, loosened COVID-19 protocols reflect a shift in the University’s policy from pandemic restriction to endemic sustainability.

In recent decades, trends in the apportionment of Columbia’s financial aid have led to an increased financial disparity among undergraduates. With this growing divide, many students experience what they describe as social stratification wherein social circles are segregated by students’ family income.

Hosting events in Columbia-owned brownstones during the fall semester will be prohibited in an effort to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak. Events include parties and programming for philanthropy and recruitment.

As students, faculty, and staff fully return to campus for the first time since March 2020, Columbia’s COVID-19 policies are guided by a “single approach”: the monitorization of risk level. Guidelines for masking, testing, social distancing, travel, and gatherings will be determined by the assessed COVID-19 risk level in New York City and on campus, which the University will monitor throughout the semester. Using metrics including Columbia affiliate vaccination rates, case numbers, hospitalizations, and deaths in the city, the University will determine if the risk level is lower (green), low (yellow), moderate (orange), or higher (red). Under the current risk level, many aspects of campus life will near a pre-pandemic sense of normalcy, though students disagree as to whether this approach is safe.