College Commences, Parents Exit
With pictures snapping, campus safety patrolling and students and professors promenading en masse, this afternoon’s convocation began with all the fanfare of a red carpet affair. After brief introductions given by Dean Kevin Shollenberger and Dehui Kong, CC ’11 and NSOP Coordinator in Chief, faculty celebs took the podium to address students and parents of the incoming freshman class.
Despite the glare of the jumbotrons and the buzz of loudspeakers, Michele Moody-Adams and Feniosky Pena-Mora, rookie deans of the college, did not deliver the blockbuster performances their flashy crimson and gold robes promised. Pena-Mora filled the audience in on the history of SEAS (did you know Michael I. Pupin, CC 1883, is not only the namesake of Pupin Hall but also the inventor of the Pupin Coil?) and Moody-Adams encouraged students to take risks, but not too many and not too foolishly.
But it was President Bollinger, that inveterate crowd-pleaser, who stole the show. With well-timed witticisms and an equally eloquent exhortation, he reminded the audience that if there’s one thing that never depreciates in a recession, it’s the inestimable currency of a Columbia education. So tell your mom and dad not to worry about the interest rates on your student loans, dear frosh; PrezBo’s got your back. Photos from the sunny afternoon after the jump. Read more…
Tags: convocation, nsop, nsop 2009, parents, photobwogging
31 August 2009 @ 3:19 PM · 18 comments

At some point on the first day of Orientation, a sudden realization hits many a first-year: there are a lot of new people here (and one or two of them are hot!). Winning the friend lottery from this mass of people requires mastery of multiple tactics:
2013, you’ve just arrived on campus, and we know it’s rough out there. Orientation is awkward. You don’t know these people. You have to play Two Truths and A Lie and decide what color M&M you would be. “Wait, blue?! ZOMG, me too!”
Earlier this afternoon, the coordinators over at NSOP finally released their schedule book, a hefty pamphlet full of some orientation activities and some more advertising. The breakdown, day-by-day:


Three years after adopting
The announcement Monday that swine flu could hospitalize up to 1.8 million Americans has sparked a new flurry of news hysteria over the virus. Even before the announcement, 
Benjamin Franklin once famously said that the only things certain in life are death and taxes (a rather fatalistic saying for someone who got so much tail). In the world of college rankings, one might add, “And Harvard will always be first, and Penn will always be inexplicably overrated.” Yes, it’s this year’s edition of the
The Columbia Lions football team has made
In case you missed the Saturday Times, or don’t read those ancient things your parents call “newspapers,” receiving an extensive profile was none other than the new director of Miller Theater,
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