The sociology department has announced the hires of three new professors: Mario Small, Marissa Thompson, and David Knight. These hires are part of a cluster hiring initiative led by Dr. Dennis Mitchell, senior vice provost for faculty advancement, that focuses on bringing scholars with expertise on race and racism to Columbia. Small joined the University in January, while Thompson and Knight will join in July.

For his reporting on Indigenous communities, Julian Brave NoiseCat, CC ’15, was announced on Wednesday as one of two winners of the prestigious American Mosaic Journalism Prize.

The University’s Commencement ceremony will officially take place in person on Wednesday, May 18, University President Lee Bollinger announced in an email today. The classes of 2020 and 2021, which did not have in-person graduation ceremonies due to COVID-19, will also be recognized in a ceremony on campus on Thursday, May 19.

After 10 weeks of striking, the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers voted to ratify a nationally significant contract with the University. Following a 15-day discussion period and a six-day voting period, the contract was supported by 97.6 percent of voting members of the SWC-UAW. The union has been fighting for this contract since 2014, when attempts at unionization first began.

After extended bargaining sessions earlier this week and reaching a tentative agreement late last night, 93.5 percent of voting members of the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers union voted to end their strike at 12 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 7.

Eight weeks into what is now the largest strike in the nation, the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers and the University have each presented new proposals. Although the University has called its latest proposal its “final offer,” the union continues to strike, calling primarily for workplace protections for casual and hourly workers.

In the fifth week of the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers strike, directors of undergraduate study from 30 departments have declared concerns for a potential inability to award credit in select undergraduate classes.

Student-workers received an email from Dan Driscoll, vice president of human resources, on Dec. 2 informing them that they will not be promised reappointment to their teaching positions and may be replaced in the upcoming spring semester should they not return to work by Dec. 10. Workers who are not partaking in the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers’ strike or workers who are not currently employed by the University “will receive their letter [of appointment] in the normal course,” the email reads.

As students from across the University’s 21 schools gathered on College Walk for the first Tree Lighting ceremony since 2019 on Thursday, student-workers took to College Walk to picket in support of the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers strike. The picket came one day after over 100 student-workers and their supporters marched from Columbia University Irving Medical Center on 168th Street to the Morningside campus on 116th Street.