Bwog last night

NYU Abu Dhabi students complain about their beach resort campus. Ahhh, what might have been! (New York Mag)

New York families do crazy things for their kids’ education. (New York Times)

The plight of the middle class put to music. (Buzzfeed)

Seriously though, admission at the 9/11 Memorial. (Gothamist)

Bwog’s first world problem… Getting white girl wasted and sleeping through Bwoglines.

Bwog’s life via Shutterstock

I think SWS must stand for Super White Smiles.

Monday night, a number of students gathered in a small room in Pupin to discuss the modern obstacles of labor rights in America. The presentation was titled Intern and Labor Rights: Amnesty Presents a Panel Discussion. It featured, among others, Ross Perlin. Perlin is best known for his book Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy. Our intern young contributor, Zachary Hendrickson, was there to come up with an intellectual excuse for why he hasn’t found a job yet.

The first to speak was Patrick Gallagher, a former grad student of Columbia who is now at NYU. Gallagher’s portion mostly discussed he and his colleagues’ efforts to unionize graduate TAs and RAs at both CU and NYU. His point focused on the notion of graduate students as workers. He mentioned complaints that are well-known in the graduate community. Some examples include little pay for long hours, work that doesn’t truly relate to what the graduate student is studying, and little to no support over the summer months. Gallagher also expressed concern toward the relationship between the graduate student and their faculty adviser, a relationship which he describes as “paternalistic.” This feeling of being treated like a child with no power fueled much of his push for unionization. “I immediately jumped at the chance to assert myself as a citizen,” Gallagher says.

Needless to say, the fight for unionization has been a long and tumultuous one. Gallagher spoke of a ballot measure for unionization that went out among Columbia grad students. Before the votes could be counted, however, the ballots were impounded and incinerated. This was done on the grounds of the NLRB’s decision in 2004 to overturn a 2000 court decision involving NYU that had given graduate students the ability to negotiate a contract for terms of employment. The overturn, which happened under the George W. Bush administration, established the view that graduate students of private universities (not public) are working in a capacity that can be equated to a form of modern apprenticeship. Therefore, they do not have legal right to bargain for working conditions because their work is more about education. This doesn’t mean that universities can’t negotiate with grad students, but why would they want to do that? Hope still lives, however. The NLRB has been reconsidering the 2004 decision since August, and Gallagher is hopeful that this time it will come down in favor of the graduate students.

With no down time between applause and the next speaker, Perlin began his portion of the discussion. He illuminated the fact that an internship is a relatively new concept. Truly it does seem absurd when you think about it. “Working unpaid is an expected thing. It’s something that everyone is expected to do,” Perlin muses. He also described the frustrations of researching the intern phenomena because the word intern, according to Perlin, has no definition. “It’s a buzz word. It’s a catch all,” he says. This allows for different corporations to claim a wide variety of jobs under the term internship. The differences could be drastic such as the difference between paid and unpaid, between working in a training environment and being an errand boy, or between working on a team and working alone.

(more…)

Like this, but a magazine

Personally, we think it’s better when college magazines start blogs. But you know those NYU kids.

From the Observer:

NYU Young Media War Rages On: The young folk of NYU Local—the pirate NYU news publication/blog, as opposed to the officially-mandated NYU publication, Washington Square News—is going to wage further war on its rival by putting out its own print publication. It’s going to be called NYU Local Magazine. The scrappy youths at NYU Local have sold us on it as follows:

It’s going to be a mix of guides to life at NYU (A guide to smoking pot in your dorm room written by a former R.A.), some long profiles of NYU students and New Yorkers (Rapper Cakes Da Killa), and there’s some servicey content of stuff that we think NYU students need to know (Where you can drink with and without a fake id). Essentially, now we’re the most exciting print publication at NYU too.

So head on down to Bobst (that’s their Butler, which we are apparently allowed into) and pick up a copy. Or just get your fill of NYU hate from celebrated New Yorker Fran Lebowitz:

I don’t love NYU. I didn’t hate it before. I just never thought about it. It’s not of interest to me. And it really should be stopped from being called NYU, because it really has nothing to do with New York…The worst thing about being around these people, about these students, is overhearing their conversation. For that alone, I walk around my neighborhood in a constant rage, thinking I want to say to them: No, no you’re not. NYU should move out of New York.

A desert in Alaska!

Heroin in a five-year-old’s pockets. (NY Daily News)

A Big Mac in a diabetic ward. (USA Today)

Fuel in North Korean rockets. (Reuters)

A bullet in store-bought cleats. (HuffPo)

A transgender competitor in Miss Universe. (Daily Mail)

Ikea in a London city planning initiative. (HuffPo)

NYU in Greenwich Village. (NY1)

Unlikely places to dune-buggy via Wikimedia Commons

Something else kinda funny.

Or, at least Columbia’s stand-up comedy team thinks so. This week, they are competing in a virtual match-up against stand-up comedians from NYU. It’s North vs. South, Uptown vs. Downtown, Morningside Park vs. Washington Square, and the heat is on. More importantly, the impetus is on YOU to help them claim the National College Comedy Contest title. You can vote every 5 minutes, which as Columbia comedian Bob Vulfov points out, “works in favor of the brooding, indoor NYU students.” Why should you vote? Vulfov responds:

Well, right off the bat: our team boasts two incredibly funny female comedians, whereas NYU’s team boasts four incredibly heavy smokers. Also, the NYU comedians don’t shower because personal hygiene is too “early-2003.”

In any case, if you’re reading this, you’re already procrastinating. You might as well click here, laugh a little, annoy everyone else in the Reference Room, and help Columbia claim some bragging rights while you’re at it.

A fruitful idea via Wikimedia Commons

Columbia isn’t the only university set on expansion in New York. NYU has decided to make a bit of a ruckus with the residents of the Village for the past couple of months with their proposal to develop 2.5 million square feet of new infrastructure over the next twenty years. Their plan, which they’ve called NYU2031 in honor of the year that marks the university’s bicentennial, includes a host of other changes, like expanding academic buildings to Governor’s Island and Downtown Brooklyn and reconfiguring its medical campus in Midtown. But, it is the construction in the Village, a historically political (and now affluent) area of the city–the very neighborhood where NYU resides–that faces the school with so much opposition.

Unlike Columbia’s expansion, much of NYU’s proposal relies on it building on the land it already owns, land some would argue it has the right to develop. This makes the development more palatable for Village residents who have demanded that the university “build on its own footprint.” But doing so isn’t enough for some residents who feel they have a claim to the open space . Michael Kimmelman, the NYT’s architecture critic writes:

The most radical part of what N.Y.U. wants is to construct two tall, crescent-shaped towers, 400,000 square between them (the architecture is still notional) on the 1.5 acres of open space between the two apartment slabs of Washington Square Village. Beneath that open space, in lieu of the current parking garage, the university wants to dig several floors down to create 770,000 square feet of underground classrooms.

This would entail, among other things, demolishing the raised concrete garden by Hideo Sasaki from 1959 that is one of the country’s earliest parking garage roof structures, beloved by landscape historians, with its boxed crabapples, cherry and willow trees. I used to play in it as a boy. It’s a severe park but peaceful. The Village has notoriously few public refuges, aside from Washington Square Park. This is one of them, though most people don’t even realize it exists.

That’s because over the years the university has effectively closed off the open space between the buildings with fences and gates, obscured it behind a cheap retail strip mall on La Guardia Place and allowed what should be accessible parkland to languish while arguing that building the towers with fresh landscaping around them would create an improvement. Demolition by neglect is the term of art.

Uncle Clown wants YOU

And unlike the weird clown photo you’ll see to the right, it’ll actually make you laugh! The National College Comedy Competition (sponsored, bizarrely, by Wendy’s) is on the hunt for the funniest college kid in America, and they’re making a stop here in good ‘ole New York.

Columbia’s NCCC Comedy team faces up against NYU tonight at 7 pm at the Gotham Comedy Club (208 West 23rd St.) $5 Student tickets are available by calling 212.367.9000 and mentioning one of the student performers: Torsten Odland, Bob Vulfov, Eli Grober, Bijan Samareh, Katy Olsen, Charlie Dinkin, Orli Matlow, or Alex Curtis. For those of you who can’t be bothered, regular tickets are $10 at the door, and there’s a two drink minimum to ensure that you will laugh at the lamer jokes. Go and laugh at your fellow students!

 Children’s nightmares via Wikimedia

Mixed bags, get it?

Why did the number of applicants to Columbia dwindle to a mere 32,000? Perhaps the kids realized  it’s “impossible” to get in so they’ve all stopped applying, or more likely, it’s because Harvard and Princeton brought back early action. (Business Week)

Mayor Bloomberg already takes Spanish lessons, but this year he wants to try a new language: Javascript. And he’s going to use Columbia alum/students’ Codecademy to learn it. (NYT, TPM)

In last night’s Republican debate, Rick Santorum claimed rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich “were playing footsie with the left.” That’s not all Gingrich was playing footsie with; after the debate, his ex-wife claimed he asked her for an open marriage. (Youtube, ABC)

Yesterday morning, the Feds took down file-sharing sites MegaUpload and MegaVideo, arresting seven employees while sparing their CEO, Swizz Beats, who has worked with Jay-Z and as NYU’s producer-in-residence. No word on whether they’ll be back up in 72 minutes. (NYT, Rolling Stone)

A new Vietnamese sandwich shop just opened on 108th and Broadway, which means Columbians can finally try one of the hottest foods in the city: báhn bánh mì, a colonialist combination of traditional Vietnamese food served on a French baguette. The lens essay just writes itself! (Westside Rag)

Baker St, a band made up of Columbia alums and students (and one random Fordham kid), has sort of hit it big. Their new EP is dropping tonight and they’re headlining a show downtown at The Delancey. It’s not free, but who knows? Like every other Columbia band for the last five years, they could be next Vampire Weekend. (Baker St, the Delancey)

More like purses, via Wikimedia

Wearing your wig in public runs you the risk of getting called a dandy

President Bollinger recalls his younger (but not more youthful) days as a Wall Street protestor. Despite having served on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, he wasn’t reluctant to chime in with his own views regarding the current protest. (Spec)

Korilla’s brief stint in reality television ended last month after a cheating scandal. A recent series of tweets, however, seemed to have revealed a counterfeit bill as the culprit, only to be quickly discounted by the Korilla accountant. (Twitter)

Our colleagues down at NYU faced a dilemma after Fake NYU Local, a mock version of the school’s online newspaper, called for an occupation of its business school. Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first bogus protest to pop up since Occupy Wall Street. (NY Observer)

Wall Street investors felt the chagrin of their own fake news. Analysts conclude that stocks for one company fell 78 percent and kept falling after false reports claimed the company was filing for bankruptcy. (Bloomberg)

Bad hair day via Wikimedia Commons

Unexpected acts: On Thursday night, NYU held a “mystery concert” (featuring Flying Lotus, Gang Gang Dance, and Light Asylum) which got rave reviews. At Columbia, we still have to plan our concerts months in advance. (NYULocal)

Unexpected calendars: Forget firemen. Now you can check out hot New York City bus drivers and semi-famous Republican women. (NYDN, Clare Booth)

Unexpected places with animals: A pet cat waiting to be put on a flight with its owner escaped into JFK airport. Meanwhile, this bird in a crowded mall tried to go down an “up” escalator. (CityRoom, Jezebel)

Unexpected radio hosts: Former governor David Paterson now has his own radio talk-show on AM 710. Unsurprisingly, he likes his new job more than his old one.

Unexpected food: Weeds that grow downtown and taste like gasoline apparently make good guacamole. (CityRoom)

Unexpected Columbia roommates: Azar served in Iraq with his “battle buddy,” Alex, until Alex was badly wounded and taken out of the country for medical treatment. After a tour in Afghanistan, Azar enrolled in GS and encouraged Alex to do so as well. Now they’re roommates. (NYT)

Lucy from Google Images

The technical term is eyasses.

NYU’s adopted hawk family, Violet and Bobby, have been the subject of a lot of concern recently. Bird experts, and Bwog, claimed that the pair’s eggs past due earlier this week, but to the shock and surprise of live stream viewers, one chick has since emerged! College students aren’t the only people who procrastinate in/on Bobst Library. The NYTimes City Room is hosting a competition to name the new babies. Bwowk, anyone?

The ornithological relief was short lived, however, as bird-watchers noticed a blue plastic band tightly wrapped around one of Violet’s (the mother) legs. Her leg has since swollen, and hawk experts suggest that if it is not quickly removed, Violet will lose her leg, her life, and thus her babies. A daring rescue plan is being formulated by University officials and hawk rehabilitation experts. Supposedly, it will involve an 18ft long pole-net and some poor sucker climbing out onto the roof. Best of luck!

In other hawk-related news, Hawkma might be dead. Until there is certain evidence, Bwog refuses to speculate about the loss of a campus legend.

Goodnight, sweet prince.

Photos via NYT City Room, Taylor Siedel.

Ellen Morris, Academic Director of the semester abroad program, confirmed the Columbia students studying at NYU’s Amheida archeology program were safely evacuated from Egypt yesterday evening. After stopping in Dubai, they are due back in New York City today. “For the rest of the semester,” Morris writes, the CU & BC students will be studying abroad in the Village (in NYU housing).” All the way downtown!

We’re very happy to hear you’re all safe!

What even is a line, anyway?

PoliticalLine: Our very own Jeffrey Sachs (director of Columbia’s Earth Institute) did not approve of Obama’s State of the Union Address. Media caught up with him on a bus from Zurich to Davos. That’s usually where Bwog goes, too, to express disapproval. (WSJ)

HawkLine: Apparently we’re not the only news outlet with a thing for hawks. While comforted by this recent outburst of hawk-news, we’d like to think that Hawkma could take either one of these guys in a pigeon-eating contest, or whatever it is that hawk drama consists of. [Warning: Some of these are graphic!] (CityRoom, NPR)

EconomyLine: Columbia’s $6.5 billion endowment performed the best out of all Ivy League endowments last year. Yale’s was the worst. Ha. (Bloomberg)

JealousyLine: Speaking of other schools, we thought we should break it to you early that NYU has a snow day, while we do not. Blerg! (NYU)

StressedFreshmenLine: An annual survey of college freshmen reveals today’s record levels of stress, compared to the past 25 years. We feel that this excess of stress can be attributed to lack of snow days. And, also, because school officials don’t use Columbia’s (best performing!) endowment to buy a lot of snacks, and then keep them in accessible places around campus, all the time, though we try to compensate for this. (NYT)

Image via Wikimedia.

Why do I look so fancy? I'm a wizard!

What do we do up here? (NYU Local)

MTA faked inspections. Safety first? (Gothamist)

What’s so great about gold, anyway? (NPR)

How much cash money can Harry Potter make in one day? A lot. (NY Daily News)

JG-L

The staff of the Harvard Crimson is concerned our Social Experiment will backfire, causing vicious competitive tension which will destroy any existing social cohesion at Columbia. (Harvard Crimson)

NYU’s neighbors are concerned that its plans to add an additional 3 million square feet of space in Greenwich Village are not a good thing. NYU’s president John Sexton readily defends the plans. (NY Mag)

Steadfastly refusing to acknowledge which side of the magical apartheid they fall on, over a thousand people showed up for the Quidditch World Cup this weekend.  The cup was won by the team from Middlebury College. (NY Mag)

The Feds are looking into a Four Loko ban. Connecticut Senator elect Richard Blumenthal, caught up in PotterFever, describes it as “witch’s brew”. The New York Times prints the phrase “Edward Four Loko Hands.” Good times are had all around. (NYT)

Also tickets for your opportunity to meet Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Roone on Friday are almost sold out!

photo via Facebook