Ydanis-Rodriguez

In the English language, there’s this very delicate dance that we spin around the n-word. We have conversations over who can say it and who cannot. We reserve it for certain scenarios and contexts. We create impossible hypotheticals that serve to push people to some type of ethical extreme: “If there’s a kid with a terminal disease and his last wish is to say the n-word, do you tell him he can’t say it?” Meanwhile, I pepper the n-word into all my casual conversations. I grew up hearing the word: It simply is a part of my vocabulary, and it’s a word I carried to my time as a Columbia student. I even said it abroad, yelling it across Avenida de los Presidentes in Cuba to catch another student’s attention one or two times. The word exists, however, outside of Make-A-Wish-sponsored philosophy questions and my mouth.

Residents of Upper Manhattan will be riding around on Citi Bikes if local politicians have their way.

Life at Columbia is often absurd. But it is easy to forget about the absurdity of, say, the Barnard guest sign-out policy in the midst of the rather frenetic lives we lead here. Fortunately, Columbia University (No Budget) Sketch Show is here to ensure we always remember.

Community members and local politicians crowded the South Hall of Riverside Church Sunday afternoon to officially inaugurate Mark Levine as a City Council member for Manhattan's District 7.

Washington Heights residents and Columbia students rallied in support of SEAS Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora at a community meeting Friday night, just weeks after an overwhelming majority of tenured engineering professors voted no confidence in the dean.

City Council member Ydanis Rodriguez helped organize what was deemed an "emergency" meeting, with his office saying in a press release that "Columbia University has engaged in effort to remove" Peña-Mora as dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

"We've been trying to work with Columbia to find a solution to this problem," Rodriguez said. "We need to express to all that we will not accept any plan to remove Dean Peña-Mora."

Many professors have called for Peña-Mora's resignation, although top administrators have not indicated whether they plan to remove him as dean. In a letter to Provost John Coatsworth last year, senior faculty members accused Peña-Mora of worsening SEAS' long-standing space crunch, sacrificing graduate students' education for short-term profits, and compromising the quality of the faculty.

Rodriguez, though, refuted some of these claims, arguing that Peña-Mora should not be held responsible for the engineering school's space shortage.

"Go after the president [of Columbia]. Go after the provost," Rodriguez said. "Ask them to give them [professors] space."

Rodriguez also said that Peña-Mora has had several important accomplishments as dean, including increasing SEAS' ranking in the U.S. News and World Report and working to make the school's faculty and student body more diverse. Rodriguez frequently paused during his speech to translate his words into Spanish.

"When Dean Peña-Mora was appointed dean, the school of engineering was ranked 21. It is now ranked 15," he said to applause.

"The space issue can be resolved. All the criticisms can be resolved," he added. "Whatever dynamic they [professors and Peña-Mora] have, he increased the prestige of the institution. The numbers speak for themselves."

Most speakers at the meeting—which was also organized in part by the Dominican American National Roundtable—stressed the symbolic importance of Peña-Mora's background. He was born in the Dominican Republic and lived in Washington Heights.

"He is one of our own. He's from our own backyard," Washington Heights resident Shaun Abreu, CC '14, said, adding that Peña-Mora inspires him.

"The most important thing about Dean Peña-Mora is that he's given all minority youth someone to look up to," Abreu said.

Rodriguez also described Peña-Mora as an immigrant success story.

"He represents the 40 percent of New Yorkers who were born in a foreign country," Rodriguez said. "Being the leader of one of the more prestigious schools of engineering in the country is something that is so important to the black and Latino communities."

Several students who attended the meeting also praised Peña-Mora for his engagement with the student body.

"We adore him," Sebastian Garcia, SEAS '13, said. "He's very active within the student body."

"He's well-liked, venerated by the students," Abreu said. "He's constantly with the students. I walk around and see him all the time."

Some meeting attendees, including Yoni Golijov, CC '12, questioned whether the criticism surrounding Peña-Mora is racially motivated.

"It's essential to make sure that this isn't a racist issue," Golijov, who is graduating in December, said.

For Golijov, the controversy over Peña-Mora is just one of several issues complicating the relationship between Columbia and the surrounding neighborhoods. Rodriguez said that how the University deals with the Peña-Mora controversy will affect its relationship with the community.

"I hope Columbia understands that their decision will have an impact, positive or negative, on the relationship between Northern Manhattan and Columbia," Rodriguez said.

Local residents are pressuring top administrators to back Peña-Mora. On Monday, signed petitions in support of the dean will be delivered to University President Lee Bollinger's office, and students and community members plan to hold a rally for him on the Morningside Heights campus in September.

"As elected officials that value the partnership between Columbia and our community, this is an uncomfortable position for me," Rodriguez said. "Someone who is a good asset to Columbia is going through this situation—the possibility to be removed. I hope it won't happen."

Abreu said he is optimistic about Peña-Mora keeping his job.

"I don't think Columbia will oust the dean," he said. "I think they will stick with him."

news@columbiaspectator.com

New York's Districting Commission did little to assuage concerns that its redrawn City Council lines would divide Upper Manhattan communities. The plan adopted Thursday could put in place many of the changes proposed in earlier draft maps, which have been met with strong opposition from local politicians and residents. The commission will now send the plan to the council for approval. Unless the council raises any objections within three weeks of receiving the proposal, it will be forwarded to the Department of Justice, which will then have 60 days to either accept or reject the new district lines. The new maps for Upper Manhattan are similar to draft maps the commission released in September, which local politicians and residents have loudly opposed but with several important changes. The new maps put most of Washington Heights and Inwood in Ydanis Rodriguez's 10th District, while putting Hamilton Heights, Manhattanville, and all of Morningside Heights in Robert Jackson's 7th District. While the previous draft maps divided Columbia's Morningside campus down Amsterdam Avenue, the new maps place the entire campus in the 7th District. But the new maps maintain some significant changes to council member Melissa Mark-Viverito's 8th District, which would lose its current Manhattan Valley portion, add territory in the Bronx, and divide East Harlem. In a tweet to a Spectator reporter, Mark-Viverito said the community demanded the "integrity" of East Harlem in her district. "The latest maps don't do that," she said. The new maps would put La Marqueta, a market that is a symbol of the neighborhood, back in the district—opponents had criticized its removal. But Mark-Viverito said that was not enough. Other residents of the Upper West Side said that the new plans' continuing to split the Manhattan Valley would separate communities. The "Manhattan Valley has always been a springboard for disenfranchised groups hoping to make a better living in America," Glory Ann Kerstein, president of the Duke Ellington Boulevard Neighborhood Association, said. "Now they're going to crack us down the spine and pair us into districts who have no knowledge of who we are. Kerstein said her organization, which has fought cocaine addiction and other social ills, was an example of a group that would suffer as a result of the new plan and that she is worried that it might not have the political connections to effect similar change in its new district. Others said more public hearings should be held. While the public had a chance to submit testimony in October, the commission will not hold further public hearings specifically about the approved maps. "More public input should be considered as final map was not presented at public hearings," Rodriguez said in a tweet, adding that he was hoping to hold separate City Council hearings on the plan. Despite the complaints, commissioners said the process of redistricting was largely focused on preserving close-knit communities throughout the city, many of which are defined along ethnic or cultural lines, and praised the redistricting effort as open and transparent. "I am proud to have been a part of the open and public process this commission has implemented," commissioner Madeline Provenanzo said in a statement. Before the plan becomes official, it must, under federal law, receive approval from the Department of Justice because Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx all fall under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which mandates that any changes to voting procedure in "covered jurisdictions" do not harm the political influence of minority groups. According to a memorandum submitted to the commission by Lisa Handley, director of Frontier International Electoral Consulting and an expert on redistricting and voting rights, the new plan would preserve the 19 city districts in which minority voters are currently able to elect the candidate of their choice, meaning the plan will likely face little opposition during the federal review process if it passes the council. news@columbiaspectator.com