Dear readers,

Chirping cranes, buzzing jackhammers, and the singsong of truck backup alarms are the sounds that Matt Reid has been waking up to since the start of Columbia’s Manhattanville construction, which began in 2009. Reid is a resident of 3333 Broadway, a 35-story apartment complex directly adjacent to the north side of Columbia's Manhattanville campus construction site...

Six nights a week, two or three Columbia student volunteers walk down Broadway wearing red North Face backpacks filled with sandwiches, socks, toiletries, and feminine hygiene products. They share these items in an effort to create and sustain relationships with members of their community who are experiencing homelessness...

In a recent Netflix comedy special, Hasan Minhaj, a writer for the Daily Show, describes watching Fox News’ heavy hitters, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Bill O’Reilly, walk to lunch. Minhaj sees all of them leave their glossy midtown offices, those epicenters of American Islamophobia; cross the street; and get in line at a street food cart for halal chicken over rice...

“What are you?” people would ask me. And when I was too young to answer, they would ask, “What is he?” and await my parents’ reply.