Brian Connolly, Associate Vice President for Public Affairs from the Office of Communications, has released the following statement (emphasis ours) from President Bollinger regarding the resignation of Columbia College Dean Michele Moody-Adams. Bollinger writes that “under the circumstances,” Moody-Adams will step down immediately, rather than on June 30, 2012, as she proposes in her statement. Bollinger plans to choose an Interim Dean in the next few weeks.

I have accepted Dean Moody-Adams’s decision to resign as Dean of Columbia College and Vice President for Undergraduate Education. In her position as dean and vice president, we had looked forward to her playing a central role in shaping the academic administration of the College to ensure the finest educational experience for our students, and had hoped that she would be a key voice in the ongoing discussions involving faculty, alumni and administrators about how to position the College even more centrally in the life of Columbia’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences. Under the circumstances, it is in the best interests of the College and the University that she step down immediately so that we can have an Interim Dean in place at the beginning of the new academic year.

Those hoping for the Spec site to return will be happy to hear that, according to editor-in-chief Melissa Repko, “the website should be back up again in the next 24 hours.” In the meantime, though, tipsters have provided a more complete picture of what brought the site down. 

According to sources, a group of managing board members, including now-former online editor Ryan Bubinski, have expressed unhappiness with the leadership of Repko and managing editor Elizabeth Simins, and have been meeting to discuss changes to the managing and corporate board structures. These sources say that, when Repko and Simins refused to allow discussion of the proposals at a tomorrow night’s staff meeting, (several editors planned to bring the ideas up anyway), Bubinski decided to take the website down until the demands put forward by the managing board members were met. Spectator editors did not respond to requests for comment yet have declined to comment on advice of counsel. More to follow shortly.

UPDATE (6:15 PM): The following is Bubinski’s resignation letter from Friday afternoon.

Visitors to the Spec‘s website might find the front page looking a little lacking in content.

Rather than the first step in a makeover, tipsters tell us that there’s “some serious internal – and possibly legal – drama going down.” Spec editor-in-chief Melissa Repko declined comment on advice of lawyers, and online editor Ryan Bubinski, who oversaw the most recent redesign, has not responded to requests for comment.

- JCD

See it! Woyzeck, a production of Columbia Stages, runs from March 28 to April 1 at the Riverside Theater, 91 Claremont Avenue at 120th Street. Free with a Columbia ID!

Woyzeck is a tragic masterpiece penned by the brilliant German intellectual Georg Buchner, who before his death from typhus in 1837—only 23 years old—founded a revolutionary society, was convicted of high treason, staged a daring international escape, completed a doctoral dissertation, published three plays and two translations of plays by Victor Hugo, wrote several philosophical essays and an unfinished novel, earned a position as an Anatomy Lecturer at the medical school in Zurich, romanced his fiancee, endured a strained relationship with his father (including a period when he was kept under virtual house arrest) and, for good measure, wrote a series of unordered dramatic fragments in an almost unintelligible hand that became this excellent play.

The story is a cautionary tale (based on a true story) about a soldier, Woyzeck, who goes insane after participating in a scientific experiment, for which he eats nothing but peas for three months. He starts to hear voices and seeks help. The doctor who supervises the study tells him to keep eating. His captain tells him to stick to his station. His girlfriend, who works as a prostitute and looks after their baby, has enough on her mind. Woyzeck resolves the situation by slicing her to pieces in a dramatic and bloody finale. Read more…

There doesn’t seem to be a resistance, exactly, to the strike going down on Thursday—but not everyone is happy about it. SGB President Sakib Khan says that, while handing out flyers to advertise the strike yesterday at 7:40 PM outside Carman, a “tall skinny guy” came up and slapped a flyer out of his hand. According to Khan, the kid pushed him in the chest and then the face, identifying himself as “Jose” when asked. He was wearing a grey hoodie with the word “infantry” on the front and “war lords” on the back. Public Safety is investigating.

- LBD

Update, 3:00 PM: The Dems, who were not consulted in the reporting of this post (to Bwog’s discredit) have some additions and clarifications after the jump.

The College Democrats, who collaborated with several anti-war groups (Students for Justice in the Middle East, the Working Families Party, Lucha, World Can’t Wait, and the ISO) on sending people down to DC last week, are done with all this left wing solidarity: Dems President Mike Nadler just sent an e-mail announcing that his group would pull out of the coalition’s next event, a walkout planned for February 15 (the anniversary of the massive walkouts in 2003). David Judd of the ISO had this to say:

“The Dems have decided to not participate as a club in the walkout and rally, though individual members will do so. they have left because of ideological differences which could not be reconciled despite much effort to do so. the remaining members of the coalition are disappointed with this decision and continue to hope that the Democrats will reconsider. the walkout and rally will continue, and the Columbia Coalition Against the War believes that it will be very successful. a broad spectrum of groups and individuals are still participating in planning, student strikes are moving forward on a national level with endorsements by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, the latter delivered at Columbia yesterday, and we are all very excited to take concrete action against the war on the 15th.”

Both sides are staying mum to avoid a public shit show, but one person less personally invested gave Bwog the backstory. In a nutshell, the groups parted ways over how to request that Columbia study divestment from certain defense contractors to protest the war. Representatives of the Coalition groups compromised on only three companies (Raytheon, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin, which constitute $4.3 out of Columbia’s $836 million in public holdings) for the duration of the war, but the Dems said no. The Coalition reps declined to say definitively what they would recommend to their groups, which the Dems took as a sign of bad faith, finally pulling out of the deal altogether.

Is this how it’s like in the real world?

Full announcement from Dems Board after the jump.

Read more…