When in doubt, choose C.

The results of last year’s survey of undergrads, courtesy of the CSA Assessment Team, went public tonight—and the numbers are overwhelmingly good. You can check out a more comprehensive summary here, or just skim our highlights as you halfheartedly Apple+Tab between Reddit subpages:

• Of the 5,922 CC and SEAS students sent the survey link by email, 31% took the bait
• 73% said that the CSA is “meeting their advising needs” and 78% would recommend their advisers to others
• Only 51% said they’d turn to their adviser with “personal issues”
• A whopping 96% said they like the CSA’s new digs
• Choicest finding: “The name ‘Center for Student Advising’ connotes a hub of guidance and support”
• 85% reported that their adviser is knowledgeable about the curriculum
• Elusively, “some students expect quicker responses to emails”

Survey taking via Wikimedia Commons

UPDATE: Athletics has confirmed that Pete Mangurian will coach Columbia football next year. He has an impressive track record at Cornell, Stanford, LSU and with the NFL.

Notoriously un well-versed in sports, we were intrigued by the financial details of Columbia’s football team, detailed yesterday in the Times:

• The head coach of the football team is paid somewhere around $250,000 a year. This is comparable to senior administrators and faculty. The average salary for Columbia’s 14 men’s coaches is $94,000.
• Last year, PrezBo’s salary was $1.5 million, 6.9 times the median professor salary of $222,000, including benefits. This was a 13% decrease from his previous year’s pay.
• For comparison, John Sexton of NYU earned roughly the same, while Harvard’s Drew Faust, received $875,000 (a 6.4 % increase), and Princeton awarded its president, Shirley Tilghman, $911,000,(a 3.4 % increase).
• For further comparison, tOSU just hired a new coach on the terms of $4 million annually, and the use of a private jet.
• The annual expenses of the football team come in around $2.6 million.
• Two of Columbia’s major donors have made big gifts to Athletics in recent years. Willaim V. Campbell, chairman of the Board of Trustees, pledged $10 million, and Robert K. Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, pledged $5 million. Both played football at Columbia.
• Columbia’s football team has only played five winning seasons since 1956.

The right attitude

When Bwog rolled out of bed this morning and checked iCal, we counted two weeks of classes left, so we naturally assumed we were miscounting because we hadn’t had our morning Joe yet. Upon post-caffeination recount, we still counted two, and quickly resorted to running around our room screaming like a little kid in the vain hope that our mommy would hear and come save us from impending disaster. Be prepared to do the same, as we provide you with some rather startling digits:

2 – Number of full weeks of class left in the semester

11 – Number of days of class left (9 if you don’t have class on Fridays)

2.5 - Number of weeks until final exams

19 – Number of days until final exams begin (Friday, December 16)

26 – Number of days until final exams end (Friday, December 23)

3 – Mindblowingly large number of study days before finals this year

12 – Number of weeks since the start of the semester

55 – Number of days of class since the start of the semester

5 – Number of Security Alerts sent out this semester

1 – Number of football games Columbia won this season

So, what does this all mean? It means that you have 2 weeks to: turn that B+ into an A-; catch up on a semester’s worth of reading; actually start trying to contribute in classes that count participation; learn the name of that class that didn’t have a midterm; figure out what to do with the next summer and send in an application or two; find someone with notes from that 9am that you never go to; maybe attend office hours for once.  Sheesh, Debbie Downer much? Ultimately, the amount of time a task requires is the amount of time it takes to finish it. It’ll all get done. We have faith in your abilities, man.

visual metaphor via Unsheathed