This weekend, a snafu caused a handful of Barnard seniors to receive an e-mail informing them that they would not be graduating come may. In the midst of finals and second-semester senior stress, those who received the e-mail (AT 8AM) were affronted with the possibility of having to eat at Diana for another semester. One Bwog staff writer fell victim to this registrar ‘glitch,’ and this is her story:

Since January, I have jumped right into expressing my nostalgia as a second-semester senior. Every time I contemplate skipping a class, I think, “I only have three months left of college classes ever,” which just makes me proceed to skip with slightly more guilt. Or I get misty eyed thinking about never going to 1020 again. Or I whine about a lack of dining halls in the real world, and so on and so forth.

So imagine my fucking surprise when I wake up to an e-mail from the Barnard registrar at 8 am

love waking up to texts from bae

casually informing me the following: “while you are slated to graduate in May 2018, you will not have enough credits to graduate on time. Let us know if you have other graduation plans or plan to graduate at a later date”

Honestly, why was I surprised; it’s a classic Barnard move to drop a bomb like that on Saturday morning, just to make sure you spend the entire weekend in anguish until they open their doors Monday at 9. After frantically calling my mother and my therapist (and my lawyer), I migrated to Butler to work on my thesis. But, as I found out, trying to work up the motivation to write a senior thesis is hard when you know, your collegiate life is in free fall.

barnard buffoonery after the jump

On Tuesday evening, Bwogger Jake Tibbetts made his way to the Maison Française East Gallery to listen to Professor Bernard Harcourt discuss his new book, The Counterrevolution: How Our Government Went to War Against Its Own Citizens, with fellow political theorists Seyla Benhabib of Yale University and Uday Singh Mehta of the City University of New York. The conversation, in which members of the audience were given the opportunity to participate, was a lively one, and though Harcourt’s

Even the cover of Harcourt’s newest book reminds us that the world in which we live has, in many ways, become utterly dystopian.

book outlines a number of uncomfortable truths about politics and civil society in the twenty-first century, he made sure to focus during his talk on the hope offered by movements that seek to resist the logic of counterinsurgency.

Bernard E. Harcourt, Professor of Political Science and Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, is, in many ways, something of a twenty-first century Renaissance man. In addition to teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels here at Columbia University, Professor Harcourt, who earned both his J.D. and his Ph.D. at Harvard University, serves as Executive Director of the Eric H. Holder Initiative for Human Rights, Founding Director of the Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought, and directeur d’études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. In his spare time, he is an active defense lawyer, currently representing a number of inmates in Alabama who have been sentenced to death or to life imprisonment without parole. His previous books, including The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order, Occupy: Three Inquiries in Disobedience, and Exposed: Desire and Disobedience in the Digital Age, have all been met with widespread acclaim. Considering the breadth and depth of his work, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Harcourt’s fans—including students, fellow professors, and members of the larger community—completely filled the Maison Française East Gallery in Buell Hall on a Tuesday night in late February in celebration of the launch of Harcourt’s latest book, The Counterrevolution: How Our Government Went to War Against Its Own Citizens.

The book launch, which took the form of a somewhat informal panel discussion followed by a section during which Harcourt answered questions posed to him by audience members, was chaired by Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University. After introducing Harcourt, Professor Benhabib welcomed Professor Uday Singh Mehta, a Distinguished Professor at City University of New York and Harcourt’s interlocutor on the panel, to the stage. Harcourt first met Mehta, who specializes in the study of the intersection between liberalism and postcolonialism, while the former was an undergraduate student and the latter was a doctoral student at Princeton University, and the two political theorists have remained in close contact ever since. Once introductions wrapped up, Benhabib began to discuss Harcourt’s motivations for writing the book. In the post-9/11 era, we have witnessed the use of torture during the use of CIA detention and interrogation and the expansion of the drone warfare program abroad as well as the instatement and reinstatement of NSA warrantless wiretapping programs, the surveillance of Muslim-American communities by the New York City Police Department, and the militarization of police forces across the country at home. According to Benhabib, Harcourt argues that the tools that the government once reserved only for imperialist warfare are now being used for purposes of domestic repression. In other words, as Hannah Arendt once said, “the chickens have come home to roost.”

Read more about the discussion between Harcourt, Benhabib, and Mehta here

The original Facebook post.

Around 4 pm on Tuesday, February 27, NYPD arrested GS student Shlomo Fingerer in Barnard Hall. Later that evening, a photo was posted to the Barnard Class of 2021 Facebook page, asking about the reason behind the arrest. A student commented that the man being arrested in the photo was a friend of theirs who suffers from a medical condition; they speculated that the reason Shlomo refused to get into an ambulance was because he,“loses awareness of where he is and can’t control his actions.” The post has since been removed from the page at the request of the student who commented. Also, a different commenter noted that Barnard students were not notified of the police presence on campus, as is usual protocol in such situations.

On Wednesday, Fingerer posted on Facebook explaining his condition: “Seizures make me sleepwalk. I am totally unconscious and unresponsive. I look like someone in a total daze.” While studying in Lefrak, he wrote, he experienced a seizure. Later he awoke to find himself under arrest. It appears, he continues, that he went to Hewitt Dining Hall and was asked to leave but did not respond. Public Safety and the NYPD were called (unknown by whom) and Fingerer was removed from Hewitt. He was then arrested for trespassing, and NYPD transported Fingerer to a holding cell off campus.

According to Fingerer’s Facebook post, the head chef at Hewitt, Frank Pulgiano, claimed that he felt threatened because of the way Fingerer was clenching his fork; he allegedly refused to put it down, and it had to be physically removed from his hand.

Fingerer says in his Facebook post that he was told he can no longer step foot on Barnard’s campus, despite being a Columbia student and paying “$1,500 for a class in Barnard this semester.” If he does, he will be charged with trespassing, issued a $1,000 fine, and possibly sentenced to one year in prison. In his post, Fingerer writes, “Any seizure that I have, and I have two a week, I can sleepwalk onto Barnard campus, which is right across the street.” Additionally, because he keeps kosher and Hewitt is one of the few dining halls with kosher options, Fingerer claims that not being allowed on Barnard’s campus severely restricts his dining options.

In an update to his post, Fingerer added that he may now be facing homelessness because of his arrest. According to Columbia Facilities, they have received complaints from students and parents who feel unsafe with him in his building.

Barnard has since released a statement saying, “With the utmost concern for the safety of our community, on Tuesday evening, Aramark staff and Public Safety responded to a university student who was exhibiting threatening behavior and they called NYPD. Subsequently the student informed us his behavior was a result of a medical condition. Barnard will always work with members of our community who have medical needs. The College will never take legal action or ban a student from our facilities solely because of a medical condition.”

A number of students have begun an email campaign targeting Barnard employees who deal with disabilities and discipline. These faculty members range from Barnard Human Resources to a Title IX representative to the Barnard representative for Aramark to President Beilock.

Edit, 2/28/18, 10 pm: The title of the post has been changed from “GS Student Arrested In Barnard Hall Yesterday” to “GS Student Had Seizure In Barnard Hall, Arrested By NYPD,” in order to better reflect the events described by the contents of the post.

Edit, 2/28/18, 10:45 pm: Members of the Barnard community received an email from Dean Hinkson at 10:41 pm on 2/28/2018 regarding the incident described above. In the email, she referenced action being taken by “Columbia counterparts” and indicated that Barnard “will work with them to ensure the student’s well-being.” She also noted that Barnard is not pursuing legal action against Fingerer, that they “are working with Aramark to see that the charge that was filed against the student is dropped,” and that he is not banned from campus or Hewitt Dining Hall.

In accordance with many of the demands being made by students earlier in the day for next steps, the email also stated that Barnard is “looking at how we can collaborate more closely with Columbia’s Office of Disability Services” and “reviewing our response to this incident to ensure it comported with our values, as well as our policies and procedures.”

The full text of the email can be read below.

Full email after the cut

This came up when I googled “engineering”.

Ben Barton is now President! And Richa Gode, former 2019 Class President, was unanimously voted as interim VP of Student Life. Other than these organization shakeups, the rest of the meeting was pretty tame (read on below). Oh and the SEAS newsletter is back.

Important

ESC has decided to change up the format of alumni coffee chats by having 3 alumni come in for 2 hours and splitting their time into 20 minute blocks so that students have better face time with them. The upcoming coffee chat is for ChemE majors. If you haven’t received an FB invite yet, do not fear, ESC is co-sponsoring a Free Food Expo in Furnald at 12 PM on Friday. Don’t go for Tom’s, but maybe stay for the other diverse options. Lerner Ramps are going under renovation and are currently scheduled for the end of April. Student groups will not lose their access to space, but will be moved to the old computer room a floor up instead. The timeline for the renovation may change, so they may be renovated at the end of May and student groups will not have to be relocated. There is also some changes coming to the Securities and Facilities Fund that will be finalized and discussed by ESC and CCSC later.

on mental health after the jump

One-time Bwoggie nominee Lee “Prezbo” Bollinger, seen here with the world-famous Bwoggies statuette, nicknamed “Alma Pater.”

The apotheosis of awards season is upon us. No, I’m not talking about the Academy Awards this Sunday. There’s a new set of awards in town, coincidentally also being given out on Sunday: the Bwoggie Awards, the categories and nominees for which can be found below.

The crop of nominees for this year’s Bwoggies was compiled by the tireless tastemakers here at Bwog, but we don’t have the final say here. Today, our social media team will be posting all the categories as polls on our Twitter, and you, the vox populi, will decide the winners. Watch this space (i.e. Bwog.com) for the winners to be announced on Sunday. Oscar? Oscar who? The Bwoggies are in town.

Again, head to Bwog’s Twitter to cast your votes!

Best Picture (Best Place To Take A Photo On Campus)

• Facing Low Steps from the Sundial on a nice day
• Looking north up Amsterdam on the overpass towards EC
• McΒain mirror in the lobby
• In the middle of a protest in front of Lerner

MORE BWOGGIE NOMINEES AFTER THE JUMP!

Hey, Bwoggers. Mid-exams, pre-spring break, end-of-February blues got ya down? Cheer up with this perfectly juice, sweet, tart and healthy-ish(?) Pistachio-Plum Crisp from Alison Roman’s hit cookbook Dining In.

Perfect and oh so juicy!

ENDLESSLY ADAPTABLE PISTACHIO PLUM CRISP

INGREDIENTS:
TOPPING
1 cup of flour
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom or cinnamon
½ tsp kosher salt
1 cup shelled nuts (pistachios, walnuts, almonds, and/or pecans), finely chopped
6 TB unsalted butter at room temperature, torn/chopped into coarse pieces

FILLING
4 lbs fruit, sliced 1” thick (plums, apricots, apples, strawberries (really most any pitted fruit)
¾ cup granulated sugar
3 TB cornstarch
1 TB lemon juice
1 tsp rose water (optional!)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
For the Topping: In a medium bowl, combine ¾ of the nuts and the dry topping ingredients. Work the torn butter into the dry ingredients until it’s completely incorporated– it will be soft and slightly sticky.
For the Filling: In a separate bowl, add the ingredients for the filling and toss well– ensuring that the fruit is completely coated in the lemon-sugar-cornstarch mixture.
In a 3 quart ovenproof baking dish, evenly spread the filling. Scatter the topping and remaining chopped pistachios over the fruit mixture.
Bake crisp until the fruit bubbles and the crumble is golden brown and crisped, between 55 and 65 minutes.
Let cool slightly (I know it’s hard!) and devour. Best served with a hefty scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Bwog used the suggested pistachios and plums, but other ingredients would work well, too! Think apple with walnuts, peaches and almonds, and pear-hazelnut. Share your creative combos with us!

Image via Bwog Staff.

Recipe Adapted from Alison Roman.

I feel like Jared Kushner would be the worst kind of Columbia frat boy.

What’s Happening In The World: Experts in the United Nations have reported that North Korea has shipped supplies to Syria that could be used to produce chemical weapons. The danger of this exchange goes both ways – Syria gets chemical weapons, North Korea gets funding for their nuclear weapons. (New York Times)

What’s Happening In The US: According to current and former U.S. officials, foreign officials in at least four countries discussed ways to manipulate Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and also a spineless sack of mashed potatoes. Members of the White House have expressed concerns that he was “naive and being tricked.” Poor Kush. (Washington Post)

What’s Happening In NYC: Today is the last day to visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for free! If you have a few hours to kill today, make the trek and check out some beautiful plants between 10:00 am and 4:30 pm.

What’s Happening On Campus: Visiting Scholar IAS and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Antwep Hannah Hoechner is giving a talk called “Islamic Education and the ‘Diaspora’: Religious Schooling for Senegalese Migrants’ Children.” Check it out in Knox Hall from 12:10 pm to 2:00 pm. 

Overheard: “Isn’t a leap year when there’s 28 days instead of 29?”

Sweet sweet Kush via Wikimedia Commons.