Cheezin' it up

Bwog: We miss you around Columbia. How does your work there compare to managing Campo?

Mike: It’s just a different dynamic. Campo is great—I’m still a partner there so I definitely still have an interest in seeing it succeed. Campo was a neighborhood restaurant near Columbia that catered toward the university as a whole—the students, faculty, sports teams came there a lot.

Campo was also a bunch of different things within the same community—a lot of people just thought it was a club, because they were only there from 1 am to 4 am, while others in the neighborhood had no idea about the nightlife going on. And my experience at Campo was so important because it allowed me to move on from this and operate at a higher level.

Bwog: How do the clienteles compare?

Mike: The clientele is definitely different – people that come to Momofuku and Má Pêche are foodies—they watch food network; they watch top chef. There are a lot of celebrities that come in.

But I still have so many connections in the Columbia community: People that used to come to Campo—some that have now graduated—come to Midtown to Momofuku. I still have a lot of friends that I made while at Campo that I’m very close to.

Find out about Campo Mike’s diet plan after the break

A glimpse of the future?

Bwog was born out of remedial html coding and ramblings about Russian art. Life was never very easy in the beginning. Spec was curious, Gawker didn’t want to play nice, and Bwog tried to be the big kid on the playground.

Since then, Bwog kind of grew up, but never at heart. There has been a mix of the useful with the absurd. Growing pains are definitely in our future, but we’ll keep chugging so long as there are bellies to fill and PrezBos to creep.

We would like to thank you, our dear readers, for your tips, tweets, comments, and love.

Forever Yours,

Bwog

cake via Wikimedia Commons

Agonize no longer about what John Jay’s facelift will mean for the ambiance of your favorite date spot—its shiny tabletops and questionably sauced meats glisten once again under lights much too bright for a Campo Mel’s hangover.

Wethinks the juxtaposition of the round tables with the floor’s neutral-colored quadrants conveys the plight of a carefree freshperson molding him/herself to the world of strict bureaucratic systems and hard-lined tradition. Or, like, budget-adherence.

According to Rosie Fernandez of Dining, they’ve “finished phase 2 of the John Jay Dining Room restoration project,” which includes terazzo floor, “the floor that was originally in the dining room.” Additionally, they “removed the railings to allow additional flexibility in moving the tables.”

Spotted: lukewarm, weirdly-flavored soups

First everyone’s favorite sandwich shop is closed for remodeling, and now everyone’s favorite dining hall the place you thought would be like Hogwarts until you tried the food is getting a makeover too. We saw some improvements on John Jay at the beginning of last semester, but it would appear that big changes are still to come. Maybe a sick hardwood floor? New tables, maybe with inset chessboards? Arcade systems? Fondue fountains?

We’ll let you know more as we find out, but if you’re on campus and happen to notice an earth-mover or army of construction workers, send us a picture. Happy Holidays!

Cleared out.

First Amy leaves, and now it appears that HamDel is undergoing unexplained cosmetic surgery. What will be next? Limited hours with a breathalyzer test at the door? A man can only handle so much change.

We agree buddy. What the hell is going on here?

May gain a friend soon

Bloomberg’s recent proposal that aims to lure top engineering universities around the world to New York with a pledge of $100 million to be put towards a new campus (either on Governor’s Island, Roosevelt Island, or the Brooklyn Navy Yard) has universities across the country scrambling to send in their applications. Big names that have expressed interest include Stanford, Cornell, and NYU, so it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that today, PrezBo has officially thrown Columbia’s hat into the ring. That being said, with the proposals due tomorrow, our administrators certainly didn’t leave much margin for error.

Some major points touched on within the proposal (PDF):

• Columbia will build or renovate another 3 buildings on the Manhattanville Campus, adding 1.1 million additional square feet, which will make up the new “Institute of Data Sciences and Engineering.”
• The Institute will consist of five specialized interdisciplinary research centers: U.S. and New Media Center, Smart Cities Center, Health Analytics Center, Cybersecurity Center, and Financial Analytics Center.
• Since Columbia already has the necessary building permits, the project is “more than shovel ready”—a boon for Columbia, given Bloomberg’s goal of having the campus open by 2015.
• Phase I of construction: By 2020, Columbia will have completed the construction of a 443,000 sq ft facility, housing 40 new faculty and 600 grad students. By 2022, there will be a total of 72 new faculty and 1,080 new grad students.
• Phase II will be completed by 2032, and involves renovating a 220,000 sq ft building to house 20 more faculty and 300 grad students, and building a 520,000 sq ft building for another 75 faculty and 1,125 grad students.

Noticeably, the Columbia proposal contrasts from the others in that it only adds to the current Manhattanville expansion plans, rather than utilizing any of the sites Bloomberg has proposed. The administration seems to be hoping Bloomberg will be pleased at not having to donate city land to the expansion, but we’ll have to wait and see. And given Bloomberg’s recent statements on the institute, he may end up spreading the love to multiple universities anyways.

Engineer via Wikimedia Commons

Without even an announcement, the powers that be have seriously revamped the Dodge Fitness Center! Bwog thought the changes were so substantial they deserved more than a mere Boringside mention. Last week, we (Emily) posted on how to comport yourself in Pupin’s congested underbelly, and, sure enough, the space was promptly spruced. Pure speculation: perhaps the old stuff is headed for the new Carman gym slated for next semester? Anyways, behold the transformation:

The seas can be rough sometimes

Over the summer, Bwog shed a silent tear when the acronym for Columbia Engineering was changed from “SEAS to “CE.” All hope seemed lost when the powers that be drilled the inferior acronym into our youngest minds. But the tides turn for the better! A tipster forwarded us the following email this morning from Margaret Kelly, the Executive Director of Communications of… SEAS (feels so good just to use it again). Emphasis is theirs:

Dear Columbia Engineering Senior Staff Members,

Following a number of rounds of discussion with senior staff and exchanges with students and alumni, the dean has decided that the preferred acronym for our School, when abbreviated as a series of letters, should be SEAS. This means that there should be no further references to CE or EN as identifiers of our students or alumni.

Our logo is cobranded with the University, and we will continue to use Columbia Engineering as the preferred identifying name of our School in any written context, as short-hand for the legal name of the School.

Our School logo bears the full name of the school (The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science). In all communications from the School, there must be, somewhere on the first page, recognition that The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science is the official name of the School, as well as indicating the identifying name of the School as Columbia Engineering.

When using the full name of the School, please remember that, despite any style guide to the contrary, we must honor the donor’s preference and ALWAYS capitalize the “T” in The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.

I hope that this e-mail serves to clarify usage of the School’s name and abbreviation. Please share this with members of your staff so that, going forward, we are all using the same nomenclature for the School.

If you have any questions about implementing these new guidelines, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks,

Margaret

The email gives no reason for this sudden change, although some have been speculating “CE” could potentially conflict with the School of Continuing Education, which is abbreviated “SCE” (and soon to be “PAX”), but is still found on the web at http://ce.columbia.edu/. We just think that the dean ran out of “CE” puns.

Perfect storm of metaphors via Wikimedia Commons

"Things do not change; we change." -This Monkey/Thoreau

• Lindsay Lohan Representative Charles Rangel gatecrashed Rick Perry’s NYC fundraiser. Rangel’s opinion? “He’s tall and he’s from Texas.” [Politico]
• The Times has plenty to say about the much maligned Ahmadinejad dinner. They even talked to Hornsby! [Opinionator]
• People are wondering why Barnard fell so far in the USNWR rankings. [Spec]
• NYC might be getting a casino soon! (Yeah, we’re wondering if they’ll take Flex, too.) [Gothamist]
• It’s the end of an era: Single-space parking meters have been purged from NY. So, like, will they end up in the Divine Comedy? [NYT]
• A couple of New Yorkers are among the new class of geniuses. No 2015, we aren’t JUST talking about you. [WSJ]
• Brooklyn bikers hit more people than we thought… Somehow, the tight jeans are probably to blame. Or something. [Gothamist]

Pensive clamor-er via Wikimedia Commons.

“CE” and not “SEAS,” and they are now taking a Gateway course that is a radically different from what their older peers endured. Learn all about it below!”>

A new Gateway course, based on engineering principles from the nine departments in SEAS, rises from the ashes of the old, based on the tears of freshmen

Every graduating glass goes through an experience that is uniquely theirs, but it seems like the Engineering Class of 2015 is pioneering an uncanny amount of firsts. Their school was introduced to them as “CE” and not “SEAS,” and they are now taking a Gateway course that is a radically different from what their older peers endured. Learn all about it below!

As we reported last semester, the required first year engineering course, commonly referred to as “Gateway,” is undergoing major modification starting this fall. Plans were set in motion last spring when the committee in charge of Gateway decided to scrap the old curriculum and asked Electrical Engineering Professor David Vallancourt and Mechanical Engineering Professor Fred Stolfi to head and design a brand new course. Vallancourt told Bwog that there was an “abrupt transition from the old group to the new group” and said people associated with the old Gateway courses played no role in the creation of the new one. He added, “No one associated with the course previously had any input into what it is now. Pretty much there was a clean break, and the Gateway Steering Committee was handed a blank slate to create this course from scratch.”

The Lecture

Gateway this fall has a wholly new structure, thanks to Vallancourt. All enrolled students attend a two-hour long lecture every Friday (à la Frontiers), which introduces different aspects and fields of engineering to the freshpeople. Don’t call it a “survey course” though: there’s no one week dedicated to Civil Engineering, and another to Mechanical Engineering. Instead (and, we think, ingeniously), each weekly lecture will examine a particular SI unit (time, mass, etc.) and how to apply these to various disciplines.

Professor Vallancourt is striving to keep these lectures “exciting [and] immediate” and give “examples that aren’t toy examples” by incorporating as many demonstrations and real-life scenarios as possible. The new course will focus more on actual problem-solving, and the introduction of mathematical principles. In addition to these technical lectures, there will be four nontechnical guest lectures during the semester. It is confirmed that Damon Horowitz, the Director of Engineering at Google (!) will address entrepreneurship, and Engineering Dean Peña-Mora (!!) will tackle project management.

Read about projects and more after the jump

The new CCSC is looking to freshen up its image. We recommend Febreeze.

CCSC met formally for the first time of the year. Seasoned student council buff Brian Wagner and our newest addition to the bureau, Maren Killackey, CC’15, were there to smile and wave politely.

• The new student council, led by President Aki Terasaki, introduced themselves to each other and onlookers. To get to know each other “slightly better,” they played a game of bingo using random facts about each other as squares. Amidst jealous cries from the excluded unelected first-year candidates, a winner emerged, and it was time to get down to business. Well, after cookies.
• The first issue faced by the council regarded funding for student groups. VP—Funding Kevin Zhai gave a presentation on how best to deal with recurring co-sponsorships for student groups. Previously, some governing boards had been caught holding onto a bit of the cash for themselves, which made CCSC a little uneasy. To remedy this, the Council presented three options: not granting funds at all, giving the funds to the governing boards with increased oversight, or giving the money to the joint cosponsorship committee to handle. A formal resolution will be drafted in the coming weeks, but a quick straw poll showed that council members favored option 2.
• Aki then went on to discuss some of the new strategies and goals of this year’s council. The main focus, as promised during elections, is increasing communication and outreach with the general student body. This includes a fancy new website, more advertising and branding, student polls, and new office hours in which any CC student can come and voice concerns directly to members of the E-Board. They also promised to look out for the College’s best interests in the wake of Moodygate. After a brief rehashing of council rules, the meeting ended in record time.

Artsy air sanitation from Flickr/rayewing

The powers that be have bulldozed the thicket between Hamilton and John Jay and replaced it with this sandy, serene seating area. You can even see the rake marks in the gravel—like an oversized Zen Garden. But the manicured landscape has left us craving less cultivated wildlife. Bwog proposes a guerilla gardening group.

Side note: it’s been our not so secret dream to start a renegade Columbia craft crew like knit graffiti group Knitta Please. Upcoming campus character, senior Elizabeth Kipp-Giusti, suggests a less racist and potentially more brilliant name: Lie Low and Stitch. Any takers?

"Life is a beach and I'm just playing in the sand"

Eating in comfort (and style!).

Though changes in Dining aren’t as drastic as last year’s, some business is going on, and we think there are some bits in here you’ll like.

• JJ will offer new items such as “sandwiches and sliders at the Pizza Station, and new specialty burger and sandwich options at the grill.”
• JJ’s Place will have expanded hours on Thursday through Saturday, from 12-8pm.
• Some more booths have been set up in Ferris Booth Commons.
• John Jay has been refurbished with new chairs, new light fixtures, and a newly painted white ceiling meant to add light to the dining hall. This sounds dramatic, but we snuck in for pictures and were pretty underwhelmed. (see below)
• The Nescafe machine that loved and left us is back! (see farther below) Read more…

Here are the things you could do at Koronet’s last semester:

• Gorge yourself on giant pizza slices
• Use the awning as a smoking haven when it’s raining out, you want a cigarette, and the Mel’s bouncers are being particularly ornery
• Abuse the parmesan cheese and red pepper flake station

Here are the things you can do at Koronet’s this semester:

• Gorge yourself on giant pizza slices
• Use the awning as a smoking haven when it’s raining out, you want a cigarette, and the Mel’s bouncers are being particularly ornery
• Abuse the parmesan cheese and red pepper flake station
• PLAY MINI-GOLF*

*Well, kind of. You’d have to bring your own putters, balls, and attack plan to dodge drunken freshmen. But what we’re getting at is that Koronet’s has new Astroturf carpeting! It looks like this:

Photo via parmesan/red pepper flake abuser and Bwog contributer Louise McCune.