Update, 9:30 pm: That’s not actually the theme, Dan was joking after all…

According to Bacchanal president Dan Weinstein‘s Twitter, this year’s theme will be Barkanal. When asked if he was kidding, he returned, “Not at all.”

Let’s not let our hopes get too high… Ugh.

Senior Satow Correspondents Sarah Ngu and Maren Killackey report from this week’s CCSC meeting. Topics covered at the meeting include the financial aid office, Bacchanal and their debts, along with various other policies along the way.

Financial aid, Bacchanal, proper drainage... gotta have those Benjamins!

FinAid:

Student Services Rep Karishma Habbu has continued meetings with administrators from the Undergraduate Office of Financial Aid. It appears the Undergrad OFA is finally beginning to make strides towards an internal review based on the feedback it received from students, oh… last semester.

Bacchanal:

CCSC President Aki Terasaki made the announcement that, after extensive discussions with Dean Schollenberger and Dean Martinez, they have offered to cover the entire Bacchanal debt (though the offer comes with the caveat that a new event review process must be pursued). Terasaki heinously stole USenator Kenny Durell’s thunder as Durell is popularly credited with doing the legwork for the Bacchanal investigation; Durell then made a comprehensive presentation to the Council regarding his inquiry into the event’s financial situation. Durell’s report included a breakdown of Bacchanal’s expected vs. actual costs for last year, which, in the case of security fees, amounted to a difference of more than $9,000 and, in the case of facilities fees, more than $10,000. Although the Deans have agreed to reimburse Bacchanal the “full” $16,107, the total debt was more along the lines of $25,400. That missing $9K chunk was paid for by the Student Government Security Fund and therefore didn’t show up on the books, however it still represents lost Student Life fees.

Policy:

VP Ryan Cho will meet with CC Senators sometime this week about redoing the Pupin Plaza and Amsterdam Bridge. For the seven of you out there who have yet to invest in a solid pair of rainboots, this is particularly good news because in the resolution Cho will discuss is mention of, among other things, plans to fix the infamous Plaza drainage (or rather, lack thereof). Also, in response to some students’ concerns, Cho said definitively that graduate libraries are open to undergraduates, with the exception of the Law library (only during finals) and the top floor of Uris.

Co-sponsorhips:

The Council announced that it would be seeking proportional sponsorship from SGA for Bacchanal, as they do not currently contribute to funding for the even, despite significant Barnard attendance to it.

You Know It’s Finals Season When…:

The meeting ended in record time at 9:00 p.m. It would have ended around 8:55 p.m. had the conversation not unexpectedly descended into excited chatter about what food should be served during next meeting’s Holiday Party.

Cold, hard cash via Wikimedia Commons

A theoretical depiction of a Bacchanal concert held in Butler Library

Sean Zimmermann emerged from his home in Mudd to bring us this report of the final ESC meeting for the semester.

ESC opened with a presentation by Columbia College Senator Kenny Durell, who spoke on the recent Bacchanal Inquiry. Durell explained that UEM and Commencement, during a meeting in late March, determined that there would not be a conflict between Commencement and Bacchanal last year.

Though Bacchanal was not informed that they would need to move the event from Low Plaza to the lawns until April 19th, the move was not triggered by early commencement setup (as many believed), but due to safety concerns. Public Safety explained that, after analyzing previous Snoop Dogg concerts, they predicted an abnormally large attendance, and were concerned there would not be enough space to safely hold the event on Low Plaza. In hindsight, the event drew 8,000 attendees, so Public Safety’s concerns appear to have been justified. Durell explained the event would not have fit on Low Plaza.

However, security and facilities fees are not assessed until June. In general, public safety and facilities are not required to give exact costs before a student event. They give an estimate, then charge after the event. Facilities and securities fees were not billed to Bacchanal until June, at which time Bacchanal learned that the concert cost $25,421 more than expected, of which, $16,107 was due to the move itself, and the rest was due to additional security costs.

In non-Bacchanal news, the council also encourages students to use the newly created study spaces on the 5th and 6th floor of Butler, explaining that if they are not used during finals, the space will be closed down.

Revelry via Wikimedia Commons

Diana Correspondent Renée Kraiem brings the latest from the SGA.

Constellations: A major focus of the SGA meeting

DSpar stopped by SGA this week to give thanks and get thoughts from Rep Council about the College’s forthcoming capital campaign, its Global Symposia and its new Constellations program. Each conversation built upon the central topics of SGA discussions this semester: communication and cash, and what it means to be a women’s college.

DSpar was insistent that the Constellations program, launched this year as a networking system and community builder for Barnard students and alumni that is based on their first-year residential life, was one that was built to evolve with lots of student imput. The main sentiment among members of Rep Council was that upperclassmen felt substantially disconnected from the program and that its purpose was confusing to all involved, which, in this case, is everybody. SGA will submit a report on their suggestions for the Constellations program to DSpar, which she intends to discuss with A-Hinks.

SGA had many questions about the growth of Barnard’s Global Symposia and its presence on campus. The Symposium is in its fourth year, and is to be held over Spring Break in Mumbai. The purpose of the Symposia were brought up as a continuation of the discussion about the purpose of women’s colleges that began following the Seven Sisters Conference. Rep Council discussed what could be done to make the Symposia more of a presence on campus considering how few students are selected to attend each year. Spring Break in PI? Try Mumbai. Read more…

The trucks may stop here, but the buck stops with this guy

For the second day in a row, famed NYC food trucks will continue their occupation of College Walk, courtesy of Columbia Cheatsheet and Bacchanal. Today’s on-the-go menu will feature drool-worthy offerings from the GO Burger Truck and the Treats Truck (we hear their Mexican chocolate is pretty delicious). They’ll be stationed there from 12 to 4 pm, so scurry on over and indulge in some gourmet goodness. You deserve it!

Prez 33.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Lassen wir uns über Musik sprechen. Bacchanal took to Bwog last Thursday to stir up recommendations for Spring’s annual concert, and boy did ya’ll deliver. One hundred and seventy comments later, a ton of possibilities are on the table. The folks over at Live at Lerner conveniently created a Spotify playlist on Facebook sampling just a few dozen of the most popular suggestions. Here’s a streamable mix provided by Live at Lerner:

Below are the artists in the mix. Is your favorite missing? Let us know in the comments or email Bacchanal.

• Arcade Fire
• M83
• James Blake
• Florence + The Machine
• Mumford & Sons
• Janelle Monáe
• St. Vincent
• Empire of The Sun
• Grizzly Bear
• Lana Del Rey
• Cults
• Dirty Projectors
• Beach House
• Wilco
• Radiohead
• Passion Pit
• The Lonely Island / Justin Timberlake
• Childish Gambino
• Drake
• Nicki Minaj
• Afrojack
• Quintino
• Deadmau5

Update: Organizers of Bacchanal have pulled together funds from councils and are now at roughly the same budget they had two years ago for Chewbacchanal. Here’s an explanatory video CCSC made about the club’s financial situation:

In the democratic spirit of the recent elections, the people from Bacchanal want to know what sort of band you want occupying the steps during Bacchanal this spring. While a dispute with the administration set Bacchanal’s budget back significantly and caused the cancellation of Bacchanal’s fall concert, the group currently has ~ $38,000 $100,000 to spend on the act of your choice. Tell them what sort of sound you’re interested in by voting in the poll to the right, or, if you feel hindered by the choices available write in the specific style, artist, or vibe to which you dream of getting your crunk on in the comments section of this post. Reach Bacchanal directly here..

Sean Zimmermann reports from last night’s Engineering Student Council Meeting.

• Bacchanal President Daniel Weinstein presented the group’s financial status to ESC, pleading that their current financial problems are the fault of university administration. As it stands, their budget is $38,000 less than it was last year. Bacchanal has already canceled its Fall concert (which costs $14,000) due to lack of funds.
• ESC voted to conditionally fund Bacchanal $18,000 in ratio ($2,980 from ESC) pending an the results of a student-run audit into whether the problem was actually due to administrative error or poor planning by Bacchanal. The proposal is intended to allow Bacchanal to have a minimum budget so they can negotiate contracts. If the administration was at fault, and does partially reimburse Bacchanal, then the amount provided by the councils will be reduced accordingly.
• VP Policy Logan Donovan reported that a new computer will be installed in the Lerner Package Center. This should increase the number of students that can pick up packages simultaneously. In theory.

Upgrade that might actually decrease Package Center efficiency via Wikimedia Commons

That must explain all those shopping carts

Columbia’s investments returned at a rate of 24 percent over the last year, edging out Harvard and Yale for the best-performing endowment among the Ivies. If only some of that gain could fix Bacchanal’s financial woes. (Bloomberg/Spec)

Forty years later a Barnard alum was reunited with her missing 14-karot gold watch after losing it in a New York subway station. Now let’s all be good netizens and “like” it on Facebook. (Boston Herald)

In one of the city’s recent corruption scandals a former NYPD detective testified in court against his narcotics squad after it falsified drug charges to meet arrest quotas. (NY Daily)

According to a report by the university’s Earth Engineering Center, up to 5.2 million households could be powered by the energy saved in recycling plastic waste. (CNET)

Can CCSC keep Bacchanal afloat?

Last week Sarah Ngu brought you the details of CCSC’s fall budget, a hefty $472,125. She breaks down two major and distinct issues raised in CCSC this week, course registration and its associated problems, and the fact that Bacchanal is missing a significant part of its budget.

A quick note on ESC: this week’s meeting was principally given over to an inconclusive discussion of bacchanal’s budget (see below). A new GSSC liason, Darren Chu, was elected.

Bacchanal Bailout?

Dan Weinstein, president of Bacchanal, announced to the General Council on Sunday that Bacchanal has lost about 20% of their budget, and requested financial assistance on behalf of the club.

The $18,000 debt is due entirely to unanticipated costs from moving the concert from Low Steps to the lawn:
Just two weeks before the concert last semester, Bacchanal members were informed that they could not host their event on Low Steps because of a conflict with graduation. The dates of graduation were mis-entered by administrative planners, and the mistake was only discovered two weeks before the concert. Hosting a concert on the lawn meant extra costs of hiring extra stage hands and security, and hoisting a bridge to move stage materials from the trucks to the lawns.

Currently the budget of Bacchanal, including the debt, is $88,000. To give this figure some context, labor usually costs $25,000 and Snoop Dogg charged $75,000 $70,000:
Council deliberated over whether to help Bacchanal out or to pressure the administrators involved to pay for its mistake. Bacchanal members have asked relevant administrators to compensate them for the costs, but they refused. The uncertainty about the final budget is preventing Bacchanal from going ahead to start contacting artists now before they are booked.

This mishap in space-booking in general is not an isolated occurrence. Delta Gamma recently had to move their fashion charity show to Havana Central because University Event Management (in charge of Lerner) mistakenly told them they had Roone Arledge booked when they did not. The slip-up cost the sorority $650. It’s yet unclear if UEM was also responsible for the Bacchanal mistake.

Culpa Meets Courseworks?

Columbia College’s Academic Affairs Representative, Bruno Mendes (CC’14), is working on several initiatives to make your academic life easier…

Read about them!

Bacchanal 2011 in picture and video. Stay tuned for tales from the concert!

The grand approach:

See videos of Snoop’s performance

Snoop Dogg

Bwog’s Wednesday feature, Where Art Thou?, is here to keep you posted on what’s going on in the A&E department in Morningside Heights and beyond (basically all the cool events your friends are in/on/at). If your club is bringing Snoop to Columbia, and you want it posted on Bwog, now you can make it happen! E-mail us at events@bwog.com.

Thursday

• KCST’s THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, 8pm at the Sundial. Running through Saturday. Free. Read more…

Please note that Dean Peña-Mora does not endorse the content of this video. But…OMG.

LYRICS

Drugs went into the making of this image.

A little bit of sour news, Columbia. Threatening precipitation has forced the good people at Bacchanal to move their Dark Side of the Oz screening indoors.

Instead of once on the Low Steps, the movie will be screened twice, at 8 pm and 9 pm in the Lerner Cinema. Run time is about 45 minutes. According to a message from the Bacchanal people themselves, you can expect ridiculous amounts of fooood:

There will be munchies available outside of the cinema provided by FeelGood, NOM^3, 4local, CoreFoods, Green Umbrella, and more.

Come by early and enjoy gratuitous consumption before the film.

For the most up-to-date updates, check out the Facebook event.

Thanks and stay green,

Bacchanal

Stoolie from Wikimedia Commons

Those don't look like bands!

Why is Columbia so violent? The Clash of the Classes continues unabated, the Battle for IAB ended in an indecisive slaughter, everyone is preparing for the upcoming Penny War, and tonight’s the Battle of the Bands! There are ten nine contestants, but only one will be victorious and perform during the Abacchalypse. It’s like the Highlander, if the Highlander got to open for Snoop Dogg. So check out the latest line-up below and then head to the Lerner Party Space to at 8:30pm to witness the musical massacre!

• Simon Herzog & Warrior Monks
• Night Eyes
• Life Size Maps
• Blaxel
• CUSH (Columbia University Society of HipHop)
• Daniel Murcia
• Ajo
• Grace Gibson
• Jake Snider

Bandless battle via Wikimedia Commons.