IT IS COLUMBIA. Roar, Lion, roar!

Today on Daily Intel, we learned that there is a new website that makes the last 3,981 wedding announcements in the Times and made them into a database. Columbia has been mentioned 615 times. Browse and see if your TA married your other TA! Harvard had only 466 and Yale- Yale!- only 278! MIT is mentioned 663 times (shhh).

That means that a huge chunk of the important/rich/highly-aggressive people who get their wedding announcements in the Sunday Times are your fellow Columbians. Perhaps we spoke too soon against Floorcest.

Update: A commenter points out that “Columbia” also overlaps with British Columbia, and probably some other things mentioned in wedding announcements that aren’t actually about Columbia the school. Bwog remains certain that we beat Harvard, however.

While the value of Columbia’s endowment rose a relatively measly 2% last fiscal year, our friends in Cambridge saw their endowment grow 8.6%. But the tables are turning. Between June 1 and October 31, the WSJ estimates, Harvard lost about $8 billion — that’s 22% — of its endowment. Well, yikes. No word yet on how much Columbia lost in the same period.

In other news regarding Harvard-related losses, beloved newsstand Out of Town News announced a few weeks ago that it will be closings its doors. More business for the COOP we guess.

As some of our more movie-savvy readers have noticed, Hermione Granger (also known by the alias of “Emma Watson”) is currently touring the Ivy League, having already made stops at Harvard, Yale, and Brown (?), and provoking geeky analogies that Bwog certainly will not engage in. Though, just for the record, we would like to point out that Hermione’s crusade on behalf of house elves would fit right in here. Just saying…

Regardless, given that her partner in wizardry is currently parading around in the nude on Broadway, we would not be surprised if she visits our fair campus on her southbound Tour D’Ivy. We ask our dear readers to please keep a lookout for her, and let us know if she is spotted. Without your help, we might miss her: after all, she can apparate.

Gather round Columbia, it’s time to re-welcome IvyGate into our browsers and into our hearts. Naturally, it has returned dressed to the nines, with a new WordPress redesign and fresh-faced summer editors. Bwogger Justin Vlasits favors the mouse over chalk-underlines in the new masthead (see above), while a Yalie friend of Bwog noticed that clicking on the chalky names re-directs readers to posts about that school.

Now let’s meet the man and woman behind the summer incarnation of IvyGate 2.0. Why look, it’s hometown favorite Nina Shield (BC ’07), and some rising sophomore from Harvard.  After introducing herself, Shield puts together a nice little wrap-up of all Vag-related happenings. She is the first Columbian to helm the good ship IvyGate since the legendary days of Chris Beam and Nick Summers. (Oh, and Andrew Nusca, a former summer editor, was a J-Schooler.) Go Lions. 

In which Bwog correspondent and past-life high school orator, Andrew Flynn, sojourns to a recent Harvard high school debate tournament and waxes philosophical about the current state of that ever so nebulous academic activity.  

When the wind-chills of February announce their arrival in Morningside Heights, when long papers and dry readings begin to weigh heavily on my soul, there is no respite I look forward to more than getting on a coach bus filled with rowdy 15 through 18 year-olds and making the seven and a half hour trip to Cambridge for the annual Harvard Speech and Debate tournament.

Harvard is one of the kings of high-school forensics competitions. (Unlike at my local state tournament, Harvard does not need to remind its competitors that defecating in the classrooms is against the rules.)  Here, thousands of high school speakers and debaters from across the east coast and Midwest (sometimes further) meet to match wits and spend their downtime wandering aimlessly around the Epcotesque tourist trap that is Harvard Square. But, “Harvard” is a bit misleading. Read more…

The Crimson has broadened its coverage area–it’s now taking a look at Columbia’s expansion, but only as far as Alma’s project relates to its own. Some of the paper’s conclusions, in Bwog’s expert opinion, turned out a little whack.

The Crimson calls Harvard’s proposed expansion an “even more ambitious plan” than Columbia’s (because all comparisons must turn into contests). But is it?  OK, Harvard’s plans extend over the next 50 years. And yes, they plan to expand over 200 acres. Columbia’s plan happens to be 25 years and cover 17 acres. But Allston is no West Harlem. If Harvard really wanted to be more ambitious than Columbia, it would have expanded 200 acres into downtown Boston.

In its second botched conclusion, the piece goes on to say that Columbia’s $150 million community benefits agreement will pressure Harvard to offer more to the Allston community.  Allston may have its share of problems, but because it doesn’t have the race factor or a history of an ugly relationship with the University, Bwog’s going to take a bet that Harvard won’t budge much.  Harvard has other places to throw its cash around.

Musings from Bwog staffer Alec Turnbull, serving up lux and veritas over a summer bartending in Boston:

A pair of fragile old women in matching floral print dresses arrive first, ten minutes early. Half an hour later the room is at its 325 person capacity, and the loud buzz of conversation drowns out Harvard president-to-be Drew Faust’s first attempts to speak. My fellow bartender and I ask people to quiet down for her speech, and her third try is drowned in a chorus of SHHHs. She begins again. “I’d like to welcome everyone-” Faust continues through the rustle of everyone rushing to the bar for the last drink they’ll get until she’s finished.

They whisper now. “White wine. Two.” “You don’t have any vodka? Whiskey? Just a diet coke.” “I’ll have the pinot.” “Water, please. Flat, with three ice cubes and a lemon. Thanks.”

“Do you have champagne?” A grandmotherly woman asks as she leans in to advise me, “You should find a bottle of it. You just can’t have a toast without champagne.”

The toast isn’t for Drew Faust’s new role, but for her work with the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, which she is leaving behind. Faust helped found the institute when Radcliffe, Harvard’s Barnard, merged with the larger university. Radcliffe’s campus has lost its undergraduates and now gives year-long fellowships to established intellectuals whose work focuses on women, gender, and society.

Everyone settles in to listen. Faust declares her pride the Institute and its success in bringing together people from disparate fields, promising to foster interdisciplinary scholarship and equal access to higher education. She says little more about her plans, preferring to reminisce about her time at the Institute and tell anecdotes about its successful fellows. Faust singles out theoretical physicist Lisa Randall for special praise, an unsubtle gibe at her predecessor, who claimed that women were naturally  less talented in science.

As Faust finishes, Randall slips through the admiring crowd and arrives at the bar blushing, “A spritzer, please. For the toast.”

The New York Times Magazine covers sex publications, marking the eighteenth time in as many years Bwog has read about H-Bomb; interestingly, the aforementioned Harvard publication was granted college funding, unlike, say, Columbia’s Outlet.

No mention of sex pieces in non-sexual college publications? Following in the footsteps of our favorite “explicitly, absolutely, without a doubt straight woman,” today’s Spec sex column, “Embracing Your Inner Slut,” begins, “A few weeks ago I arrived home to find one of my roommates involved in an orgy.”

And that’s all the news that’s not fit for print.

In the latest news from the rest of the Ivy League, Harvard plans on naming Drew Gilpin Faust as its next president, according to the New York Times and Harvard Crimson (and most definitely not to a hoax email).

If Harvard’s Board of Overseers gives her full approval as expected, Faust, who is currently Dean of the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at the university, will be the first female president at Harvard in the school’s 371-year history. In the meantime, Bwog finds it unnecessary to make any clever references to German folklore, since they’ve all probably been used within the last 24 hours (although admittedly, President Faust is a pretty damn awesome title).

“Harvard introduces Major Cultures requirment, new Core Classes. World breathlessly applauds Harvard for trailblazing. Columbia yawns, wonders what the big deal (asks self why Harvard always gets the press and credit?)” – writes one anonymous tipster, who discovered this article on CNN’s website.

According to the article, “the university is also expected to soon announce a new president to steer the changes.” It is no surprise, then, that Bollinger made the short list of Harvard’s presidential candidates, as they probably wanted somebody with Core experience.

The proposal has not been voted in yet, but is sure to generate major headlines again when it passes. It includes “eight new required subject areas” which are not described in detail, and, in some mysterious way, “plagiarism is also addressed,” but “limelight plagiarism” does not appear to be. On the plus side for Harvard, they do have an innovative idea of how to introduce science into their core curriculum: with actual science classes.

OK, just kidding. But just for a second, the Harvard class of 2010 thought the Hutt-like former president had been brought back for the job: someone sent the gullible young ones an official-looking e-mail announcing the appointment. The buzz over at Bored@Lamont is pinning the prank on the Lampoon. The best part? The practical joke forced Harvard to declare their real pick a day early, and it’s perhaps more exciting: law school dean Elena Kagan, who will be the first queen of the Crimson (i.e. female president). Looks like Bollinger really is sticking around a little longer.

Faux and genuine e-mails after the jump, courtesy of Zachary Katz, Harvard ’10.

Update, 10:30 PM: Gullible? That would be us. Looks like we post-happy Bwoggers called the race too early, while other Harvard blogs had the sense to be skeptical.

Read more…

This maintenance van has been parked on College Walk intermittently for the past week.

Go refurbish in Cambridge if their moldings are so nice, then.

The first Ivy League fees for next year have been set: Princeton has ra
ised total fees to $43,980 while keeping tuition at $33,000. Interesting tidbit: currently, Columbia is the most expensive Ivy ($45,444, as your parents likely know), followed by Penn and Harvard. Columbia will announce next year’s tuition in June, last of all the Ivies; stay tuned to see just how much Alma Mater will cut into your cigarettes-and-Pinnacle budget for ’07-’08.

The internets are afire with talk of this weekend’s “Modern Love” column in the NY Times, authored by one Ashley Cross, a reputed student at our very own university. The mysterious Ms. Cross, who could not be located by Facebook, Columbia directory, or truly thorough Googling (unless she happens to own this site), has come under attack for defending her relationship with a Harvard student suspended from the institution after being accused of rape. In her piece, Cross divulges the two are no longer together, her ex-lover’s apparently attractive assertiveness having been suppressed by the re-education programs he was ordered to attend as part of the plea bargain he worked out after criminal charges were filed (which also included house arrest). Still, she is now seen by many as having severely downplayed the allegations against him– and helping to cast doubt on future rape accusations.

A tour of the controversy so far: a thread on the topic at liberal politics blog Daily Kos, where some seem confused by the fact the story has not run as a straightforward news item and others link the social implications of Cross’ piece to the Duke rape case, has run to 340 responses; Gawker questioned Cross’ reasoning…twice, Harvard’s Gadfly ran lots of Crimson documentation on the question of the rape case, and IvyGate wants Cross’ number.

On Thursday, Harvard released its 50-year plan for expansion in the Allston neighbourhood (think Manhattanville, except 341 acres instead of 17, Boston instead of New York, and more parking lots than people). It’s long, like 72 pages (even Penn kept theirs to 32!), and Bwog didn’t read the whole thing, but if we were Harvard alums with lots and lots of money, we’d probably give serious thought to sending it Allston’s way.

Why? They’ve got everything planned out to the last street sign, and want all their buildings to be built to LEEDs Gold standard (Columbia hasn’t committed to any LEEDs certifications), and think they can generate 15-20 startup businesses per year. Although it also helps to have about $25 billion on hand to make sure the thing gets finished. But really, we don’t know, because all we can find is pro-Harvard propaganda (OK, and the Crimson). They’re at a ten-year disadvantage, but maybe the folks up in Low should be taking lessons from their homies in Cambridge anyway.

Also! We knew Barack hated Columbia, but we didn’t know he was such a buzzkill as well.

Also! Have you noticed that the Morton Williams receipts still have “Welcome to the Class of 2008″ printed at the bottom? I mean, juniors are great, but ’10 probably would appreciate the open arms a bit more…

Also! The Current wants YOU!

Finally! The Columbia University Model United Nations Conference and Exposition (a.k.a. CMUNCE, a.k.a. seamonkey) is underway, which means there are hordes of coiffed high schoolers running around. Be nice to them, maybe they’ll give you food.

- LBD