Update, 11:30 am: Kristin Sylvester, Associate Director of the Office of Residential Programs, and Ricardo Morales, Manager of the Crime Prevention Programs both sent out emails to residents confirming the thefts. Both are after the jump.

Update, 11:11 am: According to Terry Martinez: “As in previous cases, several laptops, iPods, and chargers were stolen from unlocked rooms.”

Update, 10:44 pm: According to a third tipster, a guard confirmed that four laptops were stolen.

A tipster reports that the NYPD was spotted entering EC around 8 pm on Friday night, headed for the 16th floor high-rises. That same tipster relates that “just before 10 pm as I was entering EC, a Public Safety officer came in to tell the desk guard to send NYPD to the 16th floor when they arrived.” The tipster then asked the desk guard what was happening, and reports, “His word is that the Friday night incident was a laptop theft in suite 16[xx] and tonight is another theft in suite 16[yy].”

A second tipster reports that a laptop was stolen last night from a townhouse.

Public Safety declined to comment. Lock your suite doors, residents!

Read more…

Either these lamps in EC, fully prepared with their thinking hats, are ready for classes or another crazy weekend in EC has restored campus to its natural harmony. Either way, this scene from yesterday is a sign that school’s back in full swing.

Just another Sunday

Meet the new face of EC

CCSC convened. Bwog’s Brian Wagner survived to bring you this harrowing account:

• DON’T FORGET TO VOTE!
• Quick hits: All the candidates for next year attended; College Days is coming up; prepare your coin purses, because Penny Wars is on the horizon; a committee on the Student Council elections process is being formed to review electoral policy, rules, and the like, and a bunch of CCSC-ers volunteered to join.
• The meeting focused on a potential new EC swipe access system. After several incidents involving unruly mobs mobbing the EC entrance while trying to get guests signed in, a fancy electronic swipe system is in the works that will allow residents to electronically sign in guests. The student scans to scan his or her CUID, visitors scan their ID (whether BC or a drivers’ license), and the system electronically records who signs in who. It will also scan your iris and arrest you for crimes that you commit in the future.
• In order to make room for this new system, there will be two lines going into EC: the traditional desk with the security guard and a separate line with a turnstile of some sort that admits signed in guests. This way congestion will be reduced and the entrance will remain secure.
• For those who think the CIA/PrezBo/Thought Police will use this digital information to delve into your personal records, never fear: the system is designed so that it will not record any extraneous information. Read more…

Location: 70 Morningside Dr.

• Nearby dorms: Wien. That’s literally it.
• Stores and restaurants: HamDel, Appletree Market, SubsConscious, Kitchenette (!) No banks or large grocery stores, but there is a Citibank ATM on the 4th floor of SIPA.

Amenities:

• AC/Heating: Yes and yes.
• Kitchen/Lounge: Yes and Yes. Also a hall lounge. Kitchens are very nice and have a dishwasher, but strangely lack a microwave. Not a huge amount of cabinet space for food and pots/pans for five people who all like to cook, but it’s not impossible for everybody to use it frequently.
• Computers/Printers: Labs with a printer on the 10th and 18th floors.
• Bathrooms: One (for five people), with a shower, bathtub, two sinks, and a toilet in a stall.
• Gym: EC also has two floors with gyms. The term “gym” should be used lightly. There are several cardio machines on each floor, and usually about 80 percent of them are functioning. This is great in the winter though. No weights or anything like that.
• Intra-transportation: Two elevators that are actually pretty fast and efficient.
• Wi-Fi: None currently, but there will be next year.
• Hardwood/Carpet: Renovated suites have all-hardwood floors and a linoleum kitchen floor. Other suites have carpeted rooms, and the hallway and lounge is carpeted.
• Laundry: A ton of machines (“high-efficiency”) in the basement where there is never a long wait.

Room Variety:

• Most suites are 5-person (R.I.P. “Exclusion”) with one double and three singles.
• There is 1 coveted 6-person and 1 5-person suite on each floor that has all singles.
• The sixth floor of EC has all doubles at 200 sq. ft. each.

Numbers:

• You need at least one senior in your group to snag a highrise 5-person. There’s just no way around it; your point value needs to be higher than 20.
• The all-single suites in the highrise go to 30-point groups, and are a little more popular than their Hogan counterparts, perhaps due to location.
• 6th floor doubles go to sophomores that don’t want to get shafted in McBain.

Bwog Recommendation:

• The double in the former exclusion suites sucks, but if you’re living with friends you’ve known for a few years, it’ll suck less. Think about the view.
• If you’re a senior and didn’t get your first-choice suite, look to the 5-persons in EC during Senior Regroup; they’re hot commodities then.
• If your lotto number is so bad that you’re considering a 6th floor double, just pick whatever room is the biggest on your day. If that’s a 6th floor double, so be it.

Read more…

This is not in EC, but don't you want to see what is?

There is a Residential Programs brunch happening now until 2pm with a lot of food and a suggested donation of $3 that will go to the Haiti Relief efforts on campus. Stop by EC now!

Plumbing and Aquatics Correspondent Joy Jorgensen sends along this picture from the EC courtyard. There’s a big leak in front of one of the townhouses that is flooding the courtyard. If you’re braving the waters, update us in the comments. Stay dry, party people.

Tipster extraordinaire Ron Gejman found some strange graffiti by the East Campus Guard post.

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In case those high lottery cutoff numbers had you thinking EC was some sort of “Palace in the Sky,” you can enjoy a hearty helping of schadenfreude this morning.

Tipsters tell us and Housing confirms that all hot water is off in the building because of “emergency repairs.” Maintenance crews are just now arriving, so there’s no estimated time yet for when the hot water might be back on.

So, if you live in EC and were in need of a hot shower this morning, you may want to investigate the time-honored tradition of the bucket bath. Be sure to heat the water in your microwave first.

UPDATE 12:07 p.m.: Housing confirms the hot water is off in most dorms, the notable exceptions being Woodbridge, Watt, and — The Land That Happiness Forgot — McBain. Repairs are nearly completed, though, so the hot water should be back on shortly.

Bwog has been informed that the above treasure is the first thing that greets your eyes when you enter the EC lobby. Professor-in-residence Harrist discovered it on his deck.

As everyone slogging towards the housing process finish line knows, East Campus is nice. Nice enough for professors to consent to live there, despite the social disadvantages of sharing a building with 700 undergrads and about half as many clean pairs of underwear at any given time. Don’t scare them away. And don’t leave your shoes on the windowsill.

Why didn’t you think of this first? 

Six CC ’09 gentlemen who met on their pre-Orientation COOP trip have started a blog from their EC townhouse. Designed with a bright red hue to echo their townhouse’s decoration (“as if McDonald’s built a ski chalet”). Casting reformed gender norms to the wind, the group has chosen the title of “The Mansuite,” an epithet for the group that existed long before the blog.

Updated often (for now, at least), the Mansuite blog boasts a photo album with rotating shots of recent parties the bro-consortium has hosted. One such photo, which depicts the archetypal scene of a frenzied and cramped college party, is the permanent bottom banner of the site. Previous posts have included documentation of the Mansuiters’ $450 spending sprees treks at the 125th Street Fairway and of scooter rides down the Lerner ramps.

It is unclear where the idea to start the blog came from, but in a short play one member (who would only go by the alias of “Colin Drummond”) wrote for Bwog in an attempt to link Mansuite back to its roots, the member wrote of a fallen scooter, upturned risotto bowl, puddle of spilled wine and a freeze frame of Gossip Girl forming the letters B-L-O-G. If this description is any indication, the Mansuite is certainly worth a read.

- ECS

For those of you staying in East Campus or McBain over break, Columbia University Facilities will be using the time to fix your residence. In McBain, elevator repairs will mean that both elevators will be out on Monday, December 29th.

In EC, the story’s slightly less chipper, and quite a bit longer. Facilites “has identified significant deterioration to the plumbing lines for the sink and washing machines in the East Campus laundry room,” and so “the East Campus laundry room will need to close during the upcoming weeks.” The work could take all of Winter Break.

This seems like an appropriate time, then, to remind everyone sticking around in EC over break that there is a tunnel in the basement to Wien, the closest building with a laundry room. Thank us later.

On November 12, Bwog received an anonymous email with the subject line: “Exorcism on Broadway 9.” The email detailed an incident that occurred between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. on October 25th, that involved several students who the sender identified as Christian Koreans — despite our attempts to reach various groups, there’s been no way of verifying this. There was also a Barnard student present who had been signed in earlier that evening.

According to the email’s sender, the Barnard student had expressed concern for her  health, and so an “exorcism” was performed. Details about the procedure remain scant, though the girl’s repeated shrieking eventually caught the attention of a Broadway RA, who stopped by the scene in an attempt to break up the gathering. The RA’s attempts to interfere were brushed off, and another ResLife staff member, who was described as being a part of the group, told the RA to allow the students to continue with what they were doing. RAs for Broadway and Ruggles have confirmed that the incident occurred in the early morning hours of Oct. 25th, but few know the details of what happened, and none are willing to discuss it on record.

Read more…

What would Saturday night be with out a dance party in Lerner, free food and student association spirit? Bwog simply does not know.  Tonight brings you not just Ahimsa and the HSO’s celebration of Diwali, one of the most important Indian holidays of the year, but also the Korean Students Association’s rendition of Pojangmacha – that’s outdoor eating done Korean style! Sometimes life is so sweet, the only difficult part will be deciding which to go to first…

Bwog recommends starting at Diwali for a little dancing in Roone,  some naan noshing and some more schmoozing with TAAL from 7:30  til 9 and then heading over to the Ancell Plaza for the final hour of Ponjangmacha.  Although the event starts at 7, if you’re lucky, some Soju and other forms of Korean street food and drink might be left for you to enjoy!

Shocking Report from Bwog tipster Hillary Busis: The fire alarm in East Campus has gone off three times in about thirteen hours.

According to Public Safety, it’s not a fire drill, just a malfunctioning alarm. And they have “people working on it.” 

Stay strong, EC.

Jezebel has breathlessly recounted an argument that occurred between Columbia’s own James, a self-described anti-feminist with a private Facebook page, and an unnamed Barnard student who slapped him for saying that he hadn’t met an “intellectual feminist” in his life. Naturally, this all happened this weekend at a party East Campus because of course.

James’ mysterious and covert Facebook also features a theoried-out anti-feminist rant. It’s cryptic and long and its coherence is tenuous, but you can read the whole thing on Jezebel (if you’re so inclined).

Oh okay fine, here’s the thesis: “The ethos of the feminist movement and gender relations today in America [is] the homosexualization and corruption of women into earthly creatures moved only by sex and material power, incapable of affirming a natural and sacred feminine identity in favor of an unnatural masculine one.”