Bwog crowded into the mystical back room of Havana Central to see the preview of The 116th Annual Varsity Show.

Alex Hare, Jenny Vallancourt, Yonatan Gebeyehu, and Chorus

Upon receiving an invitation to a student production, every administrator must blanch with fear. Given the last two Varsity Shows’ penchant for administrative caricatures, it’s a wonder Deans Shollenberger and Denburg showed up at all. But there they were, in the front row, ready to witness yet another show hosted by and centered around administrators and their personal struggles.

Thank goodness, then, for the one-liners: these were the highlight of the evening. Our favorite character, an over eager CC’er played by Pat Blute (V115‘s Quigley), can’t help but spoil the end of every CC book for the rest of the class: “I read Matthew…you won’t believe what happens to Jesus!” The scene perfectly captured the the frustrations and absurdities of the Core, with the professor giving a perfect grad student nod and assuring us, “If you stay an academic like me, the real world is just a show on MTV!”

A gold star must be given to perennial favorite Yonatan Gebeyehu as our oft-forgotten mascot Roar-ee. His powerful voice and expression-filled face carried the opening scene and we look forward to seeing his character develop in the real show. The talented Jenny Vallancourt sashayed and waggled her eyebrows as she read a meal plan-like e-mail from Denburg using the voice that most of us imagined in our heads.

Alex Hare nailed Shollenberger’s (“Please, call me Kevin”) awkward chuckle and informed a delighted crowd of his hair product of choice (Pomade). Hannah Kloepfer stormed onto the floor as a Miss Gulch-like Denburg, taking the audience by surprise, and proceeded to chastise Shollenburger for trying to win student opinion with offers of free food.

And that seemed to be the plot focus: Dean Shollenberger is trying to connect with students but only knows how to do so by offering free food. His character could have been any generic administrator trying to understand student culture (who really knows him personally anyway?). Hare and Kloepfer set up the age-old V-Show formula of a domineering administrator and a few old souls just trying to do the right thing.

Read more…

As you may have heard, Barnard officially announced required meal plans for all students starting next semester year. Initial support for the measure seemed low, so we went on a hunt to find students who were excited about it. We searched high and low, but found not one student willing to praise the plan. What we heard instead:

• Embry Owen, BC ’12 — “[W]hy was the larger Barnard community not asked for their input? This lack of transparency is unacceptable.”
• Cait Levin, BC ’12 — “I doubt that Financial Aid will be taking the higher cost of meal plans and points into consideration when evaluating student need.”
• Victoria Steffes, BC ’12 — “The 800 points that will be required for sophomores is absolutely outrageous. … There is no way they will be able to go through 800 points unless they are giving away their food to the homeless.”
• Katie Palillo, BC ’10 – SGA President — “We’re currently in discussion with the administration on how this will affect students…in an effort to make sure the administration is considering all facets of the discussion.”
• Anna Scaife, BC ’11 — “There may be a wider variety of options available at the Diana, but that doesn’t negate the objections of students who do not wish to eat there.”

No luck there. Owen has created a Facebook group against the new meal plan and, as of posting, it had 331 members.

Read more…

What’s that, Barnard students? You were excited about the opening of the Vag Diana? Looking forward to all the exciting new dining options, such as “a state-of-the-art dining room and Liz’s Place, an expanded and improved-upon replacement for Java City.” Well, even if you weren’t giddy with anticipation, you’ll have to spend some money there: following Spec‘s report from yesterday, Barnard has officially announced that it will be requiring all students to participate in at least a limited meal plan.

According to an email from Dean of the College Dorothy Denburg, each year will have fewer and fewer requirements: first-years will “receive” (buy) unlimited meals and 250 dining points, while seniors will only have to chip in for 400 dining points. Sophomores living on the quad, though, will no longer have to renew the unlimited meal plan; their count will be limited to “only” 150 meals per semester. To encourage using the meal points, Barnard is “providing a five percent bonus amount to all dining points, making purchases economical as well as convenient.”

Wait, you wanted some justification, some reasoning for the change? Denburg’s email only devotes one sentence to that area, writing that “sharing food and conversation is a tried and true way of building community, and I think we are all excited about the increased opportunities that the Diana provides for us to come together.” Whether administrators are also okay with the Barnard community coming together in opposition to the new plan sadly went unaddressed. Full email after the jump.

Read more…

Since federal subsidies have already led to horrors like Constitution Day, one wonders what silly conditions will be extracted now that Barnard will be issuing more loans directly through the federal government. 

Yes, Barnard has now joined the Federal Direct Loan program, which is already used by schools such as Harvard, Brown, Amherst, Williams, Cornell and MIT. According to an email from Dean Dorothy Denburg (reproduced after the jump), the loan program will eliminate “the middle man,”  actually forgive debt after 10 years in “key public service professions,” and will even have a (relatively) lower interest rate. Unfortunately, Denburg’s email did not include the fine print with the inevitable catch. No word on whether Columbia will be changing participating in the program anytime soon. Read more…