Sean Zimmermann reports from last night’s meeting

In one of the speediest (and most poorly attended) ESC meetings yet, council members celebrated Secretary Heidi Ahmed’s birthday, discussed PMSing (or post midterm snacking), and heard updates on the Diana. 

SGA liaison Jessica Lewis announced that there was “lots of Diana discussion” at the last SGA meeting.  SGA wondered how it might set up a system for students to reserve space in the new student center, and also announced that the Diana will have a ribbon cutting ceremony on February third.  Barnard has invited the New York Senators and Mayor Bloomberg to the ceremony, and anxiously awaits their responses.  Perhaps Barnard’s early invites don’t bode so well for Thompson’s chances. 

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For most of our readers, the graduation ceremonies have finished, and after watching all the webcasts, we still can’t tell them apart. They all have graduates throwing things/falling asleep/not paying attention, administrators reminding said graduates about the opportunities that await them, and lots of light blue and school pride. The one area that does have the potential to make a ceremony slightly worth your time (besides the diploma, of course, and the post-ceremony family gifts) is the speech. But did this year’s selection make people perk up their ears, or drop their heads? (photo from acordova on Flickr)

SEAS Class Day – James Albaugh, Executive Vice-President, Boeing: Allbaugh started off nonchalantly, joking about the absence of the West End, and his lack of academic success while at Columbia (Albaugh recieved a master’s from the engineering school in 1974). The first half of the speech focused on the problems Albaugh felt faced the new generation of engineers, including global warming, and he bemoaned how the United States is failing to keep pace in science education. The second half of the speech, however, could have been given to a new group of Boeing employees, as Albaugh moved through pieces of advice for anyone seeking a career in engineering. He even drew advice from how people become a “friend of Jim” at Boeing, and closed with a quote from a newspaper article about the first cross-country flight of a Boeing 707. In giving a thoroughly practical speech, Albaugh too often sounded like he was reading from a corporate memo. Grade: B- Read more…

- An eager crowd awaits the band’s entrance

If you missed Orgo Night, fret not – the show was recorded and will be available tomorrow on CUMB’s blog. Now, the Bwog review:

After entering to the usual “Roar Lion Roar,” the Columbia University Marching Band noted that, due to the recession, this year’s show would be sponsored by the Columbia University Show. “We also thank the Varsity Show,” a band member opined, “for lowering expectations for the past 35 years.” As the Hillel-distributed stress balls flew in the air over the spectators (one eventually landing in a tuba sousaphone), many were still looking for seats, but the band told them not to worry: “if you can’t hear the jokes, there’ll be plenty seats open by intermission.”

Thus began one of the best Orgo Nights in recent memory, though, in typical marching band fashion, some of the jokes skirted the edge of tastefulness. Surprisingly, the end of the election and the departure did not dampen the band’s taste for political humor- the first two segments focused on Ann Coulter (simply described as “fucking crazy” and Fox News respectively (with “Beat It” and “More Than A Feeling” mixed in), and mostly had fun at “Coultergeist’s” expense, including asking “If she thinks kindergartners are being taught fisting in kindergarten, what are they being taught in high school? Read more…

Seems that Hillary Clinton can’t get enough of Barnard: Barnard President Debora Spar just announced via email that the new Secretary of State (and former Senator, presidential candidate, and first lady) has agreed to give the commencement address at Barnard this spring.

Clinton will also receive the Barnard Medal of Distinction – past recipients include Toni Morrison, Mario Cuomo, Madeline Albright, and Doris Kearns Goodwin. Now it’s your move, CC, GS, and SEAS. Full email after the jump (photo via Flickr). Read more…

If you were surprised to find a Bwog sans Quickspec this morning, have no fear for QuickSpec is here, as the Spectator was a tad delayed in updating their website today, maybe just because of all of the breaking NROTC hooplah on campus.

NROTC at Columbia.  Just like a coin-flip.

“Healthy Aging Centers,” aging all too quickly, require a radical revamp.

Friends of Hillary friendly towards Obama Secretary of State choice.

Mailman School of Public Health delivers on AIDS research.

First there’s LionLink now there’s ArtsLink?

Hillary Clinton at Barnard, Spars for pay raises.

In debut, Sparing nothing for Clinton’s Barnard speech.

The Mothers of Harlem trusted Mr. Rangel.

That girl’s shoes are totally hideous.

Halloween, Ricky’s (neé Kim’s) are a girl’s new best friend.

Hey, welcome to this liveblog of Hillary Clinton speaking about pay equality at Barnard. Bwog’s thankful this thing is starting late, because we were a little late getting to the James Room in Barnard Hall, where about 60 students are now watching a livefeed of the podium at which Clinton will speak on a large (but not Obamacain large!) flat-screen TV.

2:16 PM: Still nothin’. Somone who was not Clinton stepped behind the podium to check the sound. It seemed to be working fine.  The podium has a sign that says “Fair Pay for Working Women.” We’re officially 15 minutes behind schedule.

2:25 PM: 25 minutes behind schedule.

2:33 PM: Oh, okay finally. Here we go. It’s D.Spar, talking about “how working women juggle their lives.”

2:35 PM: D.Spar mentioned Wellesley, and looked at Clinton, who is one lady to her right. Oh, topical: She just said what it means to be working and female in America is “not the stuff of Saturday Night Live skits.”

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Columbia cannot get enough of presidential candidates. The Spec is reporting that former candidate and New York Senator Hillary Clinton will be holding a press conference on pay equity at Barnard this Monday. The conference itself will be held at 2 p.m. in the Sulzberger Parlor, with a live feed for students in the James Room. Spec also reports that the negotiations for this appearance only started on Friday.

So where does Columbia go from here for speakers? Somehow, Bwog doubts that John Edwards is next. 

You might recall that awhile back a famed street artist drew Hillary Clinton’s face on the sidewalk in front of Citibank. She looked stupendous, and our artist left in his wake promises of two additional portraits to come, namely those of Barack Obama and John McCain. Well Columbia, we are thrilled to report that for Mr. Obama, that time has come.  Well, nearly — the forehead might need some shading in. But oh, he is a masterpiece and a fine addition to sidewalk in front of the Citibank.

Bwog’s coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign continues with Jim Downie’s Political Weekly, now back to its regularly scheduled Monday broadcast. 

This week in politics is like the eye of a hurricane (or at least a tropical depression): stuck in between two supposedly significant weeks. Life on the campaign trail continues incessantly: campaign strategists will scheme for votes, blogs will comb ever deeper for “news,” newspapers will ignore their impending doom as a mass media, and America will eagerly await the coming summer vacation for the next semi-attractive white girl to be kidnapped so they finally get some enjoyable news again. Political Weekly also soldiers on, bringing you the news you might have already found while procrastinating.

(Also, in honor of the Ron Paul fans who did not realize I was not comparing him to “former mayor” Rudy, but rather “Samwise Gamgee” Rudy, all introductory taglines will reference Lord of the Rings. Whether I’m proud that I can do this is something I’d rather not confront.)

And now, the news:

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The pantsuit is what’s keeping Hillary from the nomination, femininity

It really speaks volumes about the id of The Eye when the name chosen for a fictitious professor is “Rutherford Edgemont,” which are actually two towns in north Jersey and Westchester, respectively.

Breaking: California kids choose to leave California the first chance they get

Nellie McKay: like a feisty, vapid, downtown version of Jewel

“Mogharabi lifted a portion of Farimani’s design from Acephale, the dissident surrealist journal compiled by Georges Bataille that proposed to celebrate the death of Louis XVI and called for human sacrifice. But Mogharabi was quick to point out that Futura, the font of choice of a number of avant-garde publications contemporaneous to Acepahle, is also used by Chanel.” Yup. It’s about 1000+ words of that.

Enjoy!

So the Super Bowl is over, but New York is getting ready for another showdown. Bwog wakes up early to catch the solicitors in action!

Snow on Christmas Eve is so trite, but snow on SuperTuesday Eve?! It’s just a harbinger of things to come. Volunteers from the rival Obama and Clinton factions have been stationed outside the 110th Cathedral Parkway 1 stop since 7 am handing out fliers and reminding people to vote in the New York primaries tomorrow. The solicitors are braving the elements during both morning and evening rush hours, stop by later to show your support. Read more…

With the second most delegates of any state, New York promises to be a critical part of Super Tuesday on February 5th. Here’s a brief rundown of what to expect; be sure to keep your mice on the refresh button a week from today and watch as shit gets consequential.

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Let’s check in with our batch of fresh-faced presidential hopefuls to see what they have to say about Ahmadinejad’s Columbia visit:

During a Fox News interview, New York  Senator Hillary Clinton says she is, “Leaving that up to Columbia.” Thanks, Hil! “But I was outraged that he wanted to go to Ground Zero and did speak out very forcefully, and thankfully he will not go to Ground Zero.” Later in a follow-up to CNN, Hillary, apparently realizing that she didn’t actually express any sort of opinion about the issue at hand, gave it a second try. “Well, if I were a president of the University, I would not have invited him. He’s a supporter of terrorism. But I also respect the right in our country to make different decisions.”

We couldn’t find anything from Obama, Kucinich, Dodd, or (most surprisingly) Gravel–but find Fred Thompson, Michael Bloomberg and more after the jump!

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Enough about the t-shirt hype… here’s the real deal. (PDF only.)

Cartoons: marching stampeding into the canon. (Page 8)

Damn, someone read a lot of Wikipedia entries for this one. (Page 12-13)

It’s all about how they rock the modest lipstick and pearls. (Page 17-18)

How about… this way? No? Ok. (Page 20)

Don’t they have some kula ring shit going on instead? (Page 21)