Bwog crowded into the mystical back room of Havana Central to see the preview of The 116th Annual Varsity Show.

Alex Hare, Jenny Vallancourt, Yonatan Gebeyehu, and Chorus

Upon receiving an invitation to a student production, every administrator must blanch with fear. Given the last two Varsity Shows’ penchant for administrative caricatures, it’s a wonder Deans Shollenberger and Denburg showed up at all. But there they were, in the front row, ready to witness yet another show hosted by and centered around administrators and their personal struggles.

Thank goodness, then, for the one-liners: these were the highlight of the evening. Our favorite character, an over eager CC’er played by Pat Blute (V115‘s Quigley), can’t help but spoil the end of every CC book for the rest of the class: “I read Matthew…you won’t believe what happens to Jesus!” The scene perfectly captured the the frustrations and absurdities of the Core, with the professor giving a perfect grad student nod and assuring us, “If you stay an academic like me, the real world is just a show on MTV!”

A gold star must be given to perennial favorite Yonatan Gebeyehu as our oft-forgotten mascot Roar-ee. His powerful voice and expression-filled face carried the opening scene and we look forward to seeing his character develop in the real show. The talented Jenny Vallancourt sashayed and waggled her eyebrows as she read a meal plan-like e-mail from Denburg using the voice that most of us imagined in our heads.

Alex Hare nailed Shollenberger’s (“Please, call me Kevin”) awkward chuckle and informed a delighted crowd of his hair product of choice (Pomade). Hannah Kloepfer stormed onto the floor as a Miss Gulch-like Denburg, taking the audience by surprise, and proceeded to chastise Shollenburger for trying to win student opinion with offers of free food.

And that seemed to be the plot focus: Dean Shollenberger is trying to connect with students but only knows how to do so by offering free food. His character could have been any generic administrator trying to understand student culture (who really knows him personally anyway?). Hare and Kloepfer set up the age-old V-Show formula of a domineering administrator and a few old souls just trying to do the right thing.

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Image courtesy of Facebook

In a school-wide email announcement earlier this afternoon, Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger announced that MIT Financial Aid Director Daniel Barkowitz will be Columbia’s new Dean of Financial Aid and Associate Dean of Student Affairs.

“A financial aid professional with over twenty years of experience in higher education – most recently as Director of Student Financial Aid and Employment for MIT,” Shollenberger wrote in the announcement, “he brings to Columbia a depth of experience and strategic planning skills in the areas of enrollment management and policy development.” Full email after the jump. Read more…

In July, Columbia said goodbye to longtime Dean of Student Affairs Chris Colombo. Now, Kevin Shollenberger has been appointed as his replacement as Dean of Student Affairs. Shollenberger had been serving as interim dean since Colombo left.

Before becoming dean, Shollenberger was Associate Dean of Student Affairs for nine years. He is best known among students for his role in organizing the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Office of Student Group Advising, and various other parts of Columbia’s bureaucratic alphabet soup.

Bwog, of course, will always love him for looking as dapper as he did at the ServiceNation summit (see picture).

Well, they moved quickly this time. As we wrote about before, the announcement of a joint appearance by Obama and McCain on campus next Thursday took student government and group leaders completely by surprise.

Just before midnight, though, the presidents of the student councils, club governing boards, and Panhellenic councils have sent an email to President Lee Bollinger, as well as fellow administrators interim Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger, Executive Vice President for Student Services Jeffrey Scott, and Housing & Dining Vice President Scott Wright.

The email asks for two accomodations: “a fair share of the tickets made available are apportioned to undergraduates” and “arrangements, similar to those made for the Ahmadinejad visit, should be made for all students, including but not limited to the installation of a large screen on South Lawn.” In other words, “make sure everyone gets an equal chance at tickets, and give us another jumbotron.” The full letter will be printed in Thursday’s Spectator, but you can save yourself from waiting outside a residence hall until noon and just read it below the fold.

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It’s on to MIT for outgoing Dean of Student Affairs Chris Colombo, where he will serve as the Dean for Student Life.

How excited is Colombo about the new position? He’ll tell you how excited: “It is with very mixed emotions that I share with you that I have accepted the position of Dean for Student Life at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ”

While sad Colombo is in Massachusetts, Associate Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger will take over as Interim Dean of Student Affairs.

Full email after the jump

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