As he does from time to time, last night PrezBo opened the doors to his grandiose abode on Morningside Drive to a number of students and administrators for the latest in his Rooseveltian series of fireside chats. A pair of Bwog editors were in attendance, and positioned themselves on a soft couch to listen in on the night’s discourse.

As the thirty-some undergraduates climbed the elegant staircase within the president’s mansion yesterday evening, they were greeted by a large display of finger foods surrounded by a host of hungry students—many of them notable campus characters. After about 20 minutes of schmoozing and snacking on miniature pizzas and breads, the students were shepherded into the main sitting room, which contained neat rows of chairs as well as the promised fireside.

PrezBo entered without fanfare and made his way to the stool waiting for him at the front of the room, pausing briefly before quieting the room in his trademark soft, paternal tones. He introduced the other administrators in the room—among them KevSho and Kenneth Prewitt—and then solicited questions from the crowd, adding as always the caveat that while they could ask him whatever they liked, he “could choose not to answer whatever he liked,” as well, garnering himself a handful of polite laughs.

When the chuckles waned, the first question was asked—likely one PrezBo never would have predicted: does he have plans to retire after his (recently extended) term as Columbia’s president is over? He hinted vaguely at other side projects he would like to finish up, including helping to see the Manhattanville expansion through as far as possible, before giving an apparently earnest answer that he wishes to continue as an educator and a scholar after he steps down from leadership.

The next question was far more topical, and regarded PrezBo’s reaction to the controversy surrounding the SEAS faculty’s recent vote of no confidence in Dean Peña-Mora. PrezBo expressed nothing but confidence in “Feni,” reminding the attendees that he is still a new dean, and that the engineering school has seen a great deal of improvement, both in the rankings beyond them, over the past few years.

Read on for Manhattanville, student wellness, and the McKinsey Report

Look at this guy

Down: Our favorite Phil says we’ve got more winter. Because it’s been so harsh so far. Cute hats, guys. (USA Today)

Up: Columbia is picking local construction firms run by minorities and women for the Manhattanville campus project. (DNAinfo)

Down: Ajay Kumar Mangal, CC’10 Teach for America member and former John Jay RA, was arrested for an improper relationship with a 16-year-old student. (Columbia College Today, Houston Chronicle)

Up: Timothy Donnelly, teacher at the School of the Arts, received this year’s $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. (Washington Post)

Up?: Facebook filed for a $5 billion IPO. Bwog isn’t entirely sure what this means, but it’s a BFD. (CNN Money)

Large rodent via Wikimedia Commons.

As reported by basically everyone, Stanford has withdrawn its bid to construct a science and engineering campus in New York as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign to reinvigorate the city’s reputation as a technology hub. Proposals from Columbia, Cornell, NYU, and Carnegie Mellon are still under consideration. Originally considered a front-runner in the competition, Stanford claims to have withdrawn due to an inability for the school and city to “reach an agreement on a number of points, including whether the school could withdraw from the project without penalties” and the decision was “partly a result of the different cultures and expectations of a private university and a major city,” according to a Bloomberg source.

We reported on the announcement that Columbia had made it to the Mayor’s “short list” of proposals a few weeks back. In their December issue the Blue & White examines in-depth the impact of Columbia’s plan, which conveniently fits into the grand Manhattanville strategy. Look out for the print magazine on campus next week!

Illustration by Eduardo Santana, CC '13

From the Issue: Bloomberg Means Business, Again

“We have presidential candidates who don’t even believe in science… it’s mind-boggling!” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg exclaimed at a recent international economic forum on Columbia’s campus. Science has certainly been on Bloomberg’s mind of late (not to mention for most of his life—he did, after all, make his name as a tech entrepreneur before it was cool). After his early-morning eviction of Zuccotti Park, his most publicized crusade over the past few months aims to reinvent New York as the next Silicon Valley. The mayor has called for universities all over the world to submit proposals for new tech campuses within the city.

Bloomberg extended the invitation on July 19th, promising free city land and $100 million in funding to the winning plan. The mayor speculated enthusias- tically that the innovation (and the further innovation it sparks) could bring the city $6 billion in economic activity, and somewhere around 400 new companies with 22,000 new permanent jobs—what he called a “real game changer for this city.”

Read more…

After finals are over you will go back to doing this

Far from over, the Occupy-everything movement continues to live up to its grammatical mission. Occupy Harlem has some students worried about the Manhattanville expansion. Meanwhile an Occupy China may be around the corner. Finally there’s “Mockupy” Wall Street. (Spec/Atlantic/City Room)

A recent DOT report confirms every pedestrian’s worst fear: bicyclists are taking over the city. Now you can finally use the traffic excuse for your class three blocks away. (Gothamist)

The George Washington bridge is in need of a multimillion dollar hip replacement. Just hope you never get stuck on the other side. (NY Times)

Investigators have officially linked the deaths of the two victims at yesterday’s Virginia Tech shooting. While the motive and identity of the shooter remain unknown, police have not ruled out a connection to a nearby armed robbery. (Huff Po)

Flanneled fathoming via Wikimedia

Columbia (not pictured) keeps pace with the front runners

You may remember that Columbia is one of the participants in Mayor Bloomberg’s much-publicized competition for the construction of a new science and engineering campus (or two!) somewhere within New York. According to DNA info, Bloomberg recently hinted that of the original seven applications, four have made it past the first cut—though he quickly and mysteriously told the media “that’s-not-what-I-meant-but-maybe-sort-of-could-be-true-anyway.”

Whatever you make of the Mayor’s waffling, the president of ESC, Nate Levick, SEAS ’12, spoke with Brian Wagner, who is working on an article on the Bloomberg competition for the upcoming issue of The Blue & White. He confirmed that we’re still in the race: ”recently the Dean [Pena-Mora] informed me that the CU proposal has indeed made it to the ‘short list’ of candidates for the award.” This is exciting news for Columbia and would indicate that, if Bloomberg does indeed select two proposals, we’ve got a 50% chance of winning (you don’t even need to be in SEAS to do that math).

The Mayor is due to announce his decision in January. Be sure to check out the article in the December issue of The Blue & White for the full story on Columbia’s proposal and how we stack up against the competition.

Inane metaphor via Wikimedia

Close only counts in horseshoes and these

This year’s Black Friday sales set a new record for shopper splurging. Unfortunately, it turns out Black Friday isn’t home to the season’s lowest prices. Wal-Mart strikes again! (Bloomberg, NYT)

Egyptians are heading to the polls today for the first time since they forced Hosni Mubarak out of power, but clashes with current military leader Hussein Tantawi are casting doubt on the election’s legitimacy. (CBS)

Columbia is trying to do its part and pay the money it promised to residents the school evicted nudged out of the way in Manhattanville, but a bunch of it is just sitting in a bank. (WSJ)

For the first time in history, a group of American and English lexicographers selected a “Global Word of the Year.” Their choice? “Squeezed Middle.” Which, if you didn’t notice, kinda sucks. (Slate)

There’s nothing more exciting as a young [Christian] child than visiting Santa at the mall to excitedly shriek out a list of gifts. Well, until Santa tells you that you probably won’t get most of them. (NYT)

Notably poor Black Friday seller via Wikimedia

This! But uptown

That was quick! From within the blushing blue Low earlier tonight, PrezBo announced that the recent recipient of the Alexander Hamilton Medal, H. F. “Gerry” Lenfest (LW ’58), has pledged to donate $30 million to a new “multidisciplinary arts venue” in the now ever-growing Manhattanville campus (no wonder he received the award!). The new Lenfest Center for the Arts will feature an art gallery, film screening room, and performance space, all designed by the renowned Italian architect Rezno Piano, One of the master designers behind the Manhattanville campus, Piano also dreamed up the NYTimes skycraper just downtown. PrezBo’s full announcement below.
Read more…

Shit's getting real.

At 1 am this morning, hundreds of police officers raided the two-month-old Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park. Tune in here for a live stream of the events. And despite efforts to suppress media access to the park, Bwog and B&W alum Avi Zenilman was there. IvyGate blogger Wilfred Chan, CC ’13, met up with a few Columbians there as well. Bwog wonders what this will mean for this week’s Occupy Columbia events. (NYT, Reuters, National Memo)

We may spend our days attempting British accents, but it looks like the linguistic imitation goes both ways…sorta. A recent survey from the Economist has shown that speech-wise, “Americanisation” is catching in Great Britain. …we takin’ ova.

Former opponents of Charlie Rangel Vincent Morgan and Adam Clayton Powell IV have teamed up to defend Harlem residents against Columbia’s oft-criticized Manhattanville expansion. The West Harlem Local Development Corporation, the group responsible for allocating Columbia funds for public works, is their main target. (DNA Info)

.xxx domains are totally a thing, and universities are trying to get in on the ground floor. It appears the columbia.xxx domain is still up for grabs, but while Bwog would love a new site to house our Roaree Erotica, we imagine that Columbia might want to snap it up before we do. PrezBo, are you reading this? (TPM)

In an interview with Bob Costas on Rock Center, former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky admits that he “shouldn’t have showered with those kids.” (MSNBC)

Requisite old-school black and white via Wikimedia Commons

Despite its title, the Divine Comedy wasn't all that funny

Conservative activist and Michael Moore wannabe James O’Keefe took on the J-School’s Dean of Student Affairs during his latest tour of journalism school campuses. After being laughed at by the dean, a bemused O’Keefe had no choice but to walk out. (Gawker)

U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel has endorsed the recent subpeonea on WHDLC, the financial group responsible for distributing funds for the Manhattanville expansion project. The call for a formal investigation comes after accusations that the group spent more on consulting than actual community programming. (DNAinfo)

Talk about an easy A. One GW professor resigned last month after apparently never teaching two out of the three classes he was signed up to teach. Instead students did no work, but received A grades. Best part: the university is refunding tuition fees and letting students keep the grade. (WaPo)

Hate trudging through sewage backflow? A business has compiled an interactive guide to Midtown’s worst puddles, calling on the city to fix the offending sewers. Meanwhile West Side residents scoffed at their complaints, as they have always had to put up with sewage backflow—it’s called the Hudson River. (DNAinfo via Gothamist)

 Manhattan Lodging via Wikimedia Commons

The Man just doesn't want you to find out the truth

Turns out Bank of America’s $5 monthly debit fee was actually an attempt to be more transparent, but consumer outrage killed the surcharge before it reached fruition. (Atlantic)

The Murdochs, no strangers to lying to the public, could be in more trouble as new legal documents suggest that News Corp paid off victims once they realized their position was “perilous.” (Reuters)

After numerous visits from Jordanian Royalty, PrezBo returns the favor, visiting the Queen of Jordan to discuss “[Columbia University Middle East Research Center]‘s strategy and programmes for the upcoming year and their accomplishments to date.” (Petra)

China is funding “Confucius Institutes” at various universities across the country, including Columbia. The catch: if you want the money, you have to avoid touchy topics like Taiwan, Tibet, and the like. (Businessweek)

More controversy over the Manhattanville expansion plans as the $150 million given to the West Harlemt Local Development Fund has not been properly distributed and lacks transparency, coming under fire from local politicians. (Spec, DNAinfo)

Not the world’s most transparent document via Wikimedia Commons

May gain a friend soon

Bloomberg’s recent proposal that aims to lure top engineering universities around the world to New York with a pledge of $100 million to be put towards a new campus (either on Governor’s Island, Roosevelt Island, or the Brooklyn Navy Yard) has universities across the country scrambling to send in their applications. Big names that have expressed interest include Stanford, Cornell, and NYU, so it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that today, PrezBo has officially thrown Columbia’s hat into the ring. That being said, with the proposals due tomorrow, our administrators certainly didn’t leave much margin for error.

Some major points touched on within the proposal (PDF):

• Columbia will build or renovate another 3 buildings on the Manhattanville Campus, adding 1.1 million additional square feet, which will make up the new “Institute of Data Sciences and Engineering.”
• The Institute will consist of five specialized interdisciplinary research centers: U.S. and New Media Center, Smart Cities Center, Health Analytics Center, Cybersecurity Center, and Financial Analytics Center.
• Since Columbia already has the necessary building permits, the project is “more than shovel ready”—a boon for Columbia, given Bloomberg’s goal of having the campus open by 2015.
• Phase I of construction: By 2020, Columbia will have completed the construction of a 443,000 sq ft facility, housing 40 new faculty and 600 grad students. By 2022, there will be a total of 72 new faculty and 1,080 new grad students.
• Phase II will be completed by 2032, and involves renovating a 220,000 sq ft building to house 20 more faculty and 300 grad students, and building a 520,000 sq ft building for another 75 faculty and 1,125 grad students.

Noticeably, the Columbia proposal contrasts from the others in that it only adds to the current Manhattanville expansion plans, rather than utilizing any of the sites Bloomberg has proposed. The administration seems to be hoping Bloomberg will be pleased at not having to donate city land to the expansion, but we’ll have to wait and see. And given Bloomberg’s recent statements on the institute, he may end up spreading the love to multiple universities anyways.

Engineer via Wikimedia Commons

Sitting, waiting... craning. (And you thought that was going to be a Jack Johnson reference. Tsk.)

Sadly, the pair of cranes visible in the distance from the 1 stop at 125th street is not an elaborate teaser for a new surprise Star Wars installment (we’re crushed, too).

In fact, they’re towering over the site of Columbia’s new Manhattanville campus. The cranes signify the start of work on the slurry wall, an impressive two year engineering feat that will keep ground water from seeping into the foundation—meaning it will still be some time before the campus starts taking shape above ground. Meanwhile local residents can get excited about their new sewage and drainage system, a much-needed (and greener!) upgrade from the previous one that dates back to the 19th century. The following comes from the September issue of the Columbia newsletter:

Local politics might not be your chief concern as you prepare to uproot your entire universe, move across the country, and attempt to make friends with a few thousand other over-achieving geeks, but there are plenty of reasons to care about your new home! With countless unions, special interests, businesses, and millions of people, New York City is like a political pressure cooker. It’s impossible to summarize that whole mess in a short blog post, but here is some basic information about our local, state-wide, and federal representation.

Once upon a time..

Community Board: Morningside Heights is member of Manhattan Community Board #9. Manhattanville, the northern site of Columbia’s mammoth expansion, is also a part of CB9M. Most of the Mville expansion (don’t worry, there will be a primer for that too!) battle has been fought in courtrooms, and it’s likely that nothing exciting will happen with the community board in the near future.

City Council: Our City Council member is Inez Dickens. She is well-connected and has served as the majority whip. Some speculate that once her second term expires (2013) Dickens might try for Charlie Rangel’s House seat (see U.S. House below).

State Assembly: Our New York State Assembly member is Daniel O’Donnell. Elected in 2002, O’Donnell was the first openly gay member of the State Assembly. He was actually the author of the recent (and finally successful) Marriage Equality Act. A member of the “bear” community, he represents district 69.

State Senate: Bill Perkins is our New York State Senator (30th district). He went to Brown.

U.S. House: Charlie Rangel is our representative in New York’s 15th Congressional District. He’s the third longest serving member in the House, and during the last 30 years he’s been one of the most relevant figures in congressional politics (looong Wikipedia page). Recently, Rangel has been caught up in multiple ethics scandals. Despite that, he still won re-election with 80% of the vote. Shortly after the election, Rangel was censured by the full House. A note about NY-15: it’s tied with NY-16 for being the most Democratic congressional district in the entire country. Obama carried it with 93% of the vote.

But really, when it comes to NYC politics, Mayor Michael Bloomberg runs the show. While the official reach of his powers may be officially limited, this is a guy that managed to change election laws so that he could chill in town hall for a few more years. That, and there is always a rumor circulating about a self-financed run for the White House.

Fat Cat via Wikipedia.

Manhattanville’s first installment, the Mind, Brain and Behavior Initiative, is rolling full steam ahead, and they’ve put together this new and exciting video to tell you about it. The building itself will be called the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, and it’s supposed to be done by 2015, by which time there should also be a new Business School and School of the Arts, and a new building for the Columbia Secondary School, a public high school for math, science and engineering. All 6.8 million shiny square feet of the Manhattanville campus should be completed by 2030.

Then again, it's hard for days to get worse than this

Reasons why these days are not the best days:

Parts of the world are at risk from nuclear fallout. Yet another fun/terrifying way to use Google Earth. (Fast Company/Arcade Fire)

Columbia dramatically scales back its new public school for those affected by its multi-billion-dollar expansion, angering residents. Does this surprise you? (DNAinfo)

NYU’s hawk Bobby was spotted reading amNew York. (City Room)

A transgender group, Together Columbia, is considering pursuing legal action against Columbia for its recent decision to reinstate ROTC. (Spec)

Today is “Gang Initiation Day.” Stay inside and eat your peeps. (Gothamist)

Scary picture via Wikimedia