First came the lice. They invaded the heads (and sheets, and clothes, and pillows) of the girls of the Barnard Quad back in October. Next up on the nuisance continuum: “racist” graffiti. 

It’s barely eight hours into the first day of the semester, and controversy has already erupted in the form of graffiti scribbled on dry-erase boards in Hewitt. The nature of the graffiti is first described as “racist”, but later as “targeting feminism.” Perhaps the correct term might have been “sexist”? In any event, the entire Barnard community received an email alerting them to the events and subsequent series of meetings to discuss the code of conduct. 

Frankly, we’re a bit nostalgic for the lice. Full email after the jump.

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Rare is the day when Bwog kicks things off by satisfying your doubtless insatiable appetite for Columbia-related experimental art news, but here goes:

The recent spate of bias incidents have led John DeSerio, GS, to undertake a marathon social and artistic experiment: for the next week, his “word wall” will be on display on Low Plaza from 12-6PM, and ready for you to write anything on it. And DeSerio means anything: For him, the solo project is about “taking ownership over our words,” and generating the kind of dialogue and discussion that he thinks will help us get over recent events.

Precedent leaves Bwog a little worried, but we’re hoping for the best.

Meanwhile, the folks over at ABC No Rio (?) have offered this subtle riposte to last week’s investigation. For those of you whose high school years didn’t involve listening to Biograph on repeat for weeks months years at a time, the rest of this line (from Dylan B-side “Up to Me”) goes as follows: “In fourteen months I only smiled once and I didn’t do it consciously/Somebody’s got to be on your trail, I guess it must be up to m
e.”

Better believe were on your trail, mysterious guerrilla artist with a seemingly endless supply of easy-to-break dental molds. Or as Bobby would say,

“I see through your eyes

And I see through your brain…”

-ARR

In case you were curious about what other things came up in the last 24 hours or so:

•   Robert Kraft, alumnus and New England Patriots owner extraordinaire, just donated a crapload of money to Columbia Athletics ($5 million, to be exact). Consequentially, Lawrence A. Wein Stadium has become the Stadium Formerly Known as Wein, AKA, Robert K. Kraft Field.

• Apparently another noose was found on a lamppost outside a ground zero post office yesterday afternoon. Indeed, no words can probably describe our reaction to this better than “WTF?”
• In case you were wondering on how much Professor Hamid Dabashi had to say on the Ahmadinejad/Bollinger face-off, he’s got a recent lengthy response to the incident in a Cairo publication. To cut it short: he’s not happy, and he mentions Rudyard Kipling.
• Former J-School visiting professor/VP Al Gore has been announced as co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (alongside the IPCC) for his fight with global warming. It’s kind of surreal, actually.

On a sidenote, the weather is suddenly much cooler, and there are many more people walking around campus with scarves than usual.

UPDATE: Letter from VP Dirks, Dean Quigley and Navratil included after jump.

Bwog just got a copy of this blast email that went out to GS students.

From: Mary McGee

Date: Oct 11, 2007 4:29 PM

Subject: **Vandalism in Lewisohn Hall

To all GS students:

 It is very distressing to report that anti-semitic graffiti was found

in a bathroom stall in Lewisohn Hall.   These kinds of hateful crimes

directed against the Jewish community or any other individuals or groups will not be tolerated.  I have been a member of the Columbia faculty for thirty years and know that we as a community stand for values that are completely antithetical to such vile and hate-filled images.  Let us seize this occasion to renew our commitment to the values of inclusiveness, respect, and toleration that we all cherish. And let us make clear to one another that we will not allow such cowardly hate-mongering to divide our community.  I can assure you that the Office of Public Safety and the New York Police Department are conducting a full investigation of this incident .

Peter J. Awn

Dean”

And, after the jump, PrezBo’s cumulative response to what we shall heretofore dub (the Great) Racism Rash. Read more…

Organizers have wasted no time organizing a response to yesterday’s noose. Last night’s protest was followed by an early afternoon rally today, on the steps of Teacher’s College. 

With a variety of signs and speakers, it seemed the event’s main purpose was to demonstrate a swift and strong response. By the time the event kicked off at 2 pm, a good-sized crowd had gathered, stretching as far into the street as the police barrier would allow. Others watched from campus across the street, and a tour bus even rolled by for the photo op.

The proceeding moved rather quickly, although at times it suffered from microphone failure, leaving some speakers to be drowned out in the loud crowd. Audible orators included N.Y. State Senator Bill Perkins, Madonna Constantine herself, and (Bwog believes) Reverend Calvin Butts of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. a loud-spoken individual named Calvin.

Perkins took the event as a sign of racism’s pervasiveness even in today’s society, comparing Columbia University today to Columbia, South Carolina in the 1800s. Although he did not condemn Columbia, he said the threat “sounds like an inside job,” noting Columbia’s “very serious security.” Constantine directly addressed the perpetrators, saying “hanging the noose on my door reeks of cowardice,” praised the security and police forces for their responses, and added that she was proud to be a part of Teacher’s College (but no mention of Columbia). <br>

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Brokers, landlords unite in subtle White-Wing conspiracy to keep New York segregated

What? Discrimination in the sciences? Damn you Larry Summers! Quick, have lots of girls invade Pupin and blow up gummy bears!

Asian-American fest lots of work, draws “everyone”

Capitalism helps us be able to bear winter, be Christ-like, and remember the expulsion of the “unholy and oppressive Seleucid Greeks”

“I am young, healthy, of average height, blonde, blue-eyed, and free of tattoos, and I have great SAT scores. Who wouldn’t want my adorable Ivy League baby?”

Over the past several days, the Bwog has recieved a steady stream of drivel decrying the Minuteman protest. In the interest of depicting what kind of statements are coming out of a particular subset of American society today, we’ve reprinted a few of them. The really long ones have been cut down a bit, but otherwise they’re posted as written.  

Communist? We Prefer Anarcho-Fascist

I am exercising my first amendment right to blast you for your riot against the guest speakers invited to your university. Since the administration at your college is too chicken chit to have a “contact us” tab on the Columbia web site..this blog is all I could find to respond to. 98% of American citizens are against illegal immigration. It is causing a burden on our social programs (of which I am quite sure most of your minority students need) and also causing diseases and urban sprawl. We are NOT for it..and we applaud the Minutemen Project and also The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. Did your parents raise you with any sort of good values? Obviously not. I realize you are young..and will do idiotic things for awhile…but whoever was involved in the riot should be expelled from the university. I would not donate one thin penny to that college until all the participants of the riot are expelled. Now, if you can’t behave yourselves and get the education that the taxpayers are probably footing the bill for, pell grants etc…then perhaps you should leave college and join the military and do something productive for you country. If this is the sort of citizens Columbia University is turning out..perhaps someone in New York should shut it down. Shame on all of you who participated in the insanity..and shame on those of you who condone such piss poor behavior. Dig? (feel free to print this on your communist blog)

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This evening, after a 45-minute long diatribe by a preachy opening speaker, a large group of students rushed Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist, in what descended into a free-for-all on the stage. Scroll below for the blow-by-blow and photos.

3:45 PM: Releases by the University and by the College Republicans appended below.

3:21 AM: Those who occupied the stage have released a statement, which has been added to the bottom of the post.

1:56 AM: Chicano Caucus press release at the bottom of the post.

1:23 AM: YouTube is down at the moment. Bwog is working to provide an alternative, so stay tuned.

CTV’s video of the protest:

7: 30 PM: In the biggest old-fashioned activist shindig Broadway has seen since Chris Kulawik’s last guest arrived in November 2005, hundreds of students and community members yelled and picketed outside Lerner to protest the arrival of Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minutemen. They had catchy slogans.

“Workers of the world unite! Same struggle, same fight!”

“Minutemen, Nazis, KKK! Racists, fascists, go away!”

8:10 PM: A little Miles Davis music on overhead in Roone Arledge Auditorium strikes Bwog as ironic. Opening speaker Marvin Stewart steps up to the podium, and begins by thanking Jesus Christ and Chris Kulawik. “ARE YOU READY to surrender your liberties?” he demands of the crowd.

8:35 PM: Stewart is 30 minutes into a free-associative rant, ranging through scripture and America’s Consitutional Republican form of government (NOT Democratic). People in the increasingly restless crowd shout: “You don’t know shit about god! Black white supremacist!” “Go home! ”

to which Stewart counters: “I am home! God bless America!

to which the crowd replies: “BOOOOOOOOOOO!”

It’s getting more surreal by the minute.

Update 8:41 pm: Someone yells, “In Spanish, please!” The crowd bursts into a thunderous applause, which spirals into a full-out protest, complete with students wearing Mexican wrestling masks. The students are now standing up one by one, with their backs to the man, who has asked, “Are you standing with your backs to me? Why’d you come, no wonder you don’t know anything.” Republicans cheered, others sneered.

Update 8:45 pm: Some white-shirted students were just escorted out of the auditorium by security.

Update 8:47 pm: The man at the podium is still ranting, despite the beads of sweat trickling down his forehead and his voice-cracks… “Religion and morality are necessary for government.” Students chanting: “Wrap it up! Wrap it up!” Some guy just came out to try to get him to stop, and he said, “Let me finish…” he’s sweating, and looks angry. “All of you who are doing your chanting in here are the very ones that need this the most. But guess what, I’m not deterred.”

Update 8:51 pm: “I’m going to wrap this up because time is an issue.” With Kulawik looking uncomfortable, Stewart stops talking with a boisterous “God Bless America, and America Bless God!” Taking the podium, Kulawik chastens the crowd. “I was under the false assumption that this was an Ivy League School,” he says.

Finally, the Minuteman himself enters. “Now who’re you calling racist?” he shouts, putting his arm around Stewart, who is black. “I love the First Amendment. As soon as you graduate, you’ll all be investment bankers. I’ve been where you at. I know you hate yourselves.”

Update 9:00 pm: BWOG IS SHOCKED. STUDENTS WITH A BIG YELLOW SIGN JUST CAME ONTO THE STAGE. The sign says, “There are no illegals.” Students rise en masse from the audience and rush the stage. The Minuteman and the students engaged in a tug of war with the banner. More people rush the stage, prompting a fist-fight. One female student is kicked in the head. A guy in a pony tail (definitely not a student) rushes the stage and fights with students (several witnesses saw him kick a student) and then banded together with the Minuteman to shout the pledge of allegiance as the rumble spun out of hand, “One nation! Under God! Indivisible!”

There was at least two minutes of chaos between students, other students and the Minutemen. Bwog took cover.

Update: 9:01 pm: Security comes out, now the curtain is down. Students are still chanting, now everyone’s filing out.

Update: 9:15 pm: Students outside shouting, “They say, ‘get bent,’ we say, ‘let’s fight!’”

Update: 9:22 pm: A Bwog correspondent calls in a tip. A student defending the Minuteman right outside the gates on 115th was encircled by a group of protesters after a heated personal fight with just one of the protesters. The protesters then shouted, “Racist, go home!” Security showed up, and they started breaking up. Student last seen laughing on phone with friends. A mosh pit of triumphal students and community members dance and chant, “Asian, Black, Brown and White, we smashed the Minutemen tonight!”

Everyone and their mother has official responses to the brawl, after the jump…

- Bwogging by Lydia DePillis, Sara Vogel, and Will Snider

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Finals week, angry grad students, and vaguely racist comments do not a pretty picture make.

According to an anonymous tipster, Russell BRickford, a TA for Barnard’s American Civilization Since the Civil War class, objected to a statement written by one student in the course’s final exam yesterday. And so e-mailed the entire class about it. Full e-mail after the jump.

—————————– Original Message —————————
Subject: HIST X1402.001
From: rjr2020@columbia.edu
Date: Wed, May 10, 2006 12:15 pm
To: ——@barnard.edu
——————————————————————————-

Dear beloved,

One of my students wrote the following statement in an essay on her final
exam yesterday: “This austerity is at the root of Protestantism in America, but
is considered quite different from the sensuality and decadence of black
culture.”

Now, some of my best friends are black. Some of them show signs of sensuality. Others, not so much. Some are decadent. Some ain’t. As a matter of fact, I too am black. And I’d like to think that from time to time, I can be pretty darn sensual myself. What’s more, I must confess that, on occasion, and twice in recent memory, I have been as decadent as my graduate student stipend would allow.
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