CCSC and ESC both canceled their weekly meetings because of board retreats, but SGA is still around to keep the student government machine rollimg. Nikhita Mahtani reports.

Monday’s SGA meeting had a special guest, Carol Katzman, the new head of IT at Barnard fondly dubbed “VPK.”  VPK apparently just couldn’t bring herself to leave the ivory tower: she began by joking that she has “been involved with higher education since college!” She continued to ask students’ opinions about so-called ‘hot buttons’, which sparked a discussion about students’ IT problems. Some of the main issues brought up included greater wireless access, wired networks, dining, clubs, and money, with all suggestions passed along President Debora Spar.

SGA is also to meet with Barnard’s Board of Trustees next Wednesday.  The meeting will now only be between the students and the board, without any administrators attending, to facilitate more in-depth discussion. Plans have been made to discuss Barnard’s new college ranking policies. Barnard was ranked 30th under liberal arts colleges by U.S. News last year, before which it hadn’t been ranked. This causes concern for many students, some for whom the ranking would have influenced their decision to come to Barnard.  U.S. News also inadvertently entered into the fray of the eternal (well, at least twenty-six-year-old) Columbia-Barnard debate, not noting Barnard’s relationship to Columbia in the rankings.  Some expressed concern that Barnard is little known as an independent institution, but the U.S. News still ranks it as one. Read more…

Bwog’s theatrical afternoon continues with Tony Gong’s review of the Classics Department’s production of Antigone. 

Last night, I journeyed into Columbia classics undergraduates’ first performance of Antigone at the Minor Latham Playhouse in Milbank, buried deep within the Barnard’s campus. The mystical and labyrinthine trek was well-worth it—partly due to the unique theater experience that followed, and partly because Hewitt dining hall was pretty good that night.

Sophocles’ Antigone picks up where Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes ends, with brothers Polyneices and Eteocles dead, and their power-hungry uncle Kreon instated as king. Kind of like the end of Star Wars: Episode III. And, like the newly asthmatic Darth Vader, Kreon demerits all family and friendship for loyalty to the state by denying the dead Polyneices proper funeral rites for fighting against Thebes. Hence the drama begins, when Antigone, Polyneices’ sister, is caught trying to bury her brother, and ordered to death.

Read more…

Akeel Bilgrami inspired Bwogger Justin Vlasits to pontificate on the differences between undergraduate and graduate education 

John Legend and Jeffrey Sachs teamed up to slow-jam against poverty

Shapiro out, Spar in

We also learned about the baller after-party of the Poverty Action Tour

Barnard might have discovered another way of knowing

The Greek scene: Not all fun and games. Just mostly fun and games

Phi Beta Kappa was announced and subsequently stalked

And so the plot thickens. It seems our maiden brownstone had not two but four suitors: Delta Sig, AXO, Lambda Phi Epsilon, and Fiji. 

Each of the four had applied to occupy the space, a process which included explaining what they intend to do with the house, how their occupation within said house would improve campus life, how their theoretical new living situation would incorporate philanthropy, etc.  “I somehow doubt that DeltSig put beer pong on their ‘what you intend to do with the house’ document,” retorted one Greek regarding DSP’s victory. The applications were presented to committees of students and administrators, but ultimately the final decision rested with Dean Sholleberger.

AXO also received endorsement letters from 5 of the 8 InterFraternity fraternities that weren’t running and 2 of the 3 Panhellenic sororities, according to our source. AXO also felt that their application had a better shot than most (and certainly than DeltSig’s) because their charter mandates that all AXO property to be alcohol-free.

“We weren’t ever promised the house, but we did feel like we had the strongest application,” said the source. “However, we didn’t donate any money to Columbia either, and gossip sure points to DeltaSig dumping a lot of money.”

- JNW

Completely unsubstantiated gossip… or scandal? Let us know! Email bwog@columbia.edu, anonymity guaranteed. 

Come summer, 113th street residents are going to have a new neighbor: Delta Sigma Phi. The fraternity was recently awarded an open brownstone, a step up from their current EC digs where space was reportedly tight. “Ultimately, we believed our chapter needed a centralized place to meet if our activities were to remain unhindered, and with the acquisition of a brownstone, we know this can be achieved,” said Josh Milstein (yes, Milstein), CC ’10 and DSP’s president.

But sources within Columbia’s Greek netherworld speculate that the acquisition of said brownstone was not without strife or scandal. Apparently, Alpha Chi Omega (also currently housed in EC) was first in line to move into the 113th st. location. But the fates (or the reportedly unpopular Victoria Lopez-Herrera, Assistant Director of Greek Life and Leadership Development) intervened and the gods of real estate smiled upon DSP instead. It also probably doesn’t hurt that Columbia’s Inter-Greek Council’s President and Chair of Judicial Affairs are both DeltaSigs. Just sayin’.

- JNW

Know something? Send tips to bwog@columbia.edu. Anonymity guaranteed.