Dear readers,

The percentage of female graduate students in science and engineering fields at Columbia has remained virtually unchanged since 1998. However, this stagnation shrouds a more complicated picture underneath...

Dr. Wallace Broecker—lovingly called “Wally” by his coworkers, friends, and family—never wanted to be known as the prophet of climate change. He was the prank-playing, puzzle-loving, New Balance-wearing, colorblind, dented-Toyota-owning, dyslexic, opinionated rock of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Broecker saw the big picture...

In Upper Manhattan, artists and art lovers are neighbors. If you were living in an uptown neighborhood like Harlem, Washington Heights, or Inwood before 2003, though, you may have been completely unaware. Franck de las Mercedes, an abstract artist living and working in Washington Heights, often feels the anonymity of Manhattan. “New York can be like a small city, but it can be like a big city at times. And you know, sometimes it’s just like a whole universe.” Mercedes was shocked to find out, through his participation in the Uptown Arts Stroll, that two fellow artists lived just around the corner from him...

I knew as early as third grade that I would be sent abroad to the States for higher education. Like other “parachute kids” in Asia, my acceptance at an elite Western college became the project of my parents’ entire lives. It would eventually pave the way for my family to immigrate to join me. As soon as middle school started, I stopped following the regular track of my English classes and began studying for the TOEFL, an English proficiency exam for aspiring international students. I read English literature while my peers studied the present perfect tense. I missed school frequently to take extracurricular English classes and to meet with my education counselor...