Please be advised that on November 22, 2011 Columbia University Public Safety received a tip from a CC student regarding suspicious activity in a potential bike theft. As a result, Public Safety Officers were able to apprehend the suspect and NYPD arrived on the scene to arrest him for attempted bike larceny, criminal mischief, and possession of burglary tools. A special thanks to the student for alerting the authorities.

As always, if you have any information about the recent crimes or recall any unusual activity, please do not hesitate to call Public Safety at 212-854-5555 (4-5555). Thank you in advance for partnering with us to ensure the safety of our community.

Terry Martinez
Dean of Community Development
and Multicultural Affairs/
Associate Dean of Student Affairs

On the women’s side, Columbia finished third behind Harvard and Princeton, with Jackie Drouin and Julie Quinn finishing 8th and 10th respectively. The teams next compete on November 14th in the NCAA Northeast Regionals.

Photo: Columbia University Athletics

In other sporting news, the field hockey team won its Ivy League opener, 2-0 over Brown, behind two goals from Catherine Campbell, and the volleyball team won all three of its matches in the Columbia Classic. Only the soccer teams were unable to record wins, with the women drawing Hofstra 1-1, and the men losing to Saint Peter’s 2-0.

- Photo by Columbia University Athletics

For his wit and competent display of reading comprehension, Michael receives our grand prize package: a cotton t-shirt declaring his victory, and a used DVD of Dane Cook’s latest stand-up special (buying a second t-shirt has put us into chapter 11).

Didn’t make it this time? Stick around – the competition will resume during midterm week and finals in the fall.

In other sports results, the baseball team lost three of its four games against Penn, finishing 7-13 in the league and failing to qualify for the Ivy League playoffs. The track team competed at the Penn Relays, with first-year Monique Roberts winning the high jump, the men’s 4×800 team setting a new school record, and several other members setting NCAA qualifying times. Meanwhile, softball also lost three of four to Penn, and lacrosse had its three-game winning streak snapped by Dartmouth.

On the water, things were no better, with the men’s varsity eight losing their first race of the reason, finishing behind Boston University and Syracuse. The women’s varsity eight finished third as well, to Cornell and Brown (photo by Columbia University Athletics).

The Lions won the event with a time of 5:54.0, two seconds ahead of Yale and 13 ahead of Penn. The Varsity Eight has yet to lose this spring, and will compete next week for the Doc Lusins Trophy against Boston University and Syracuse. 

In other sports results, the lightweight eight finished second place in the Geiger Cup (losing to Cornell, but defeating MIT), Gabrielle Geronimos scored with less than 40 seconds to go for the women’s lacrosse team first Ivy win of the season (11-10 over Harvard), and both baseball and softball split their first doubleheaders with Cornell (photo by Columbia University Athletics).

- JCD

Ahmed emphasized that the step “is still a plan,” and that the changes would have to be written into official ResLife guidelines over the summer. If it goes through, the change will be in place by next year, and denizens of EC, Hogan, and other popular senior locales could finally stop pretending that a second door suddenly made their alcohol private. A first step, perhaps, but we doff our caps to the councils. Now let’s work on that whole 40s thing.

- JCD

Each university is only allowed to nominate four students, and this is the first time in six years that Columbia has had three of its nominees selected. Perry is pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics, Prywes in chemistry, and Richard in biochemistry. Congratulations to them!

In the second game, the Lions eked out an 8-6 win. Tied 3-3 going into the bottom of the eighth, catcher Dean Forthun doubled down the line to score centerfielder Nick Cox, and Columbia went on to score four more runs, and hold off a Crimson rally in the top of the ninth. Starter Dan Bracey went 8 innings, with six strikeouts. (Image by Columbia University Athletics)

- JCD

- Columbia University Athletics

Looking better each weekend, the Columbia men’s basketball team won its third game in a row (and sixth in seven), holding off Brown 70-57. Junior guard Pat Foley scored a career-high 21 points, and freshman guard Noruwa Agho added 17 more, including 14 in the second half, to lead the team to an important victory at the start of a four-game, two-weekend road trip.

Even more impressively, the Lions remain in strong contention for the Ivy League title. Tonight’s win, combined with Cornell’s loss at Yale, puts the Lions (6-3) only one game behind Cornell (7-2)  in the standings, with five games left in the season. Although Cornell holds the tiebreaker by virtue of having beaten Columbia twice to start the year, the Big Red have lost two of their last three away games, and could easily stumble down the stretch.  

For the Lions, tomorrow night’s game at Yale (5-4) will be critical; last time, at home, Columbia won 53-42 behind strong 2nd half defense and a double-double from forward Jason Miller. You can watch (yes, watch!) the action on the YES network tomorrow night at 7.

- JCD

The Lions again used a K.J. Matsui three-pointer (one of five in the first half) to take a one-point lead into the half. Harvard, though, led for almost the entire second half, until freshman guard Noruwa Agho hit two free throws to give Columbia a 58-57 lead with 50 seconds left. After Harvard retook the lead, Bulger missed an open jumper with nine seconds left, but Columbia got the ball back, and Bulger made up for the miss to give the Lions their 5th win in 6 conference games. The team now has a 5-3 Ivy record, good for 3rd in the conference.

In other news, meteorologists expressed fear over the changing temperatures in hell.

- JCD (photo by Columbia University Athletics)

The win took the men to a 4-3 Ivy League record. Tonight, Columbia takes on Harvard in the Levien Gym at 7 p.m. The game can also be heard on WKCR and on Sirius Satellite Radio. (Photo: Columbia University Athletics)

- JCD

Our men’s club water polo team won the New York State Championship today, huzzah!  On the way, we beat Syracuse and, yes, NYU.

As fourth seed, we beat Army (West Point) 7-4.  This means that Columbia gets to go to club championships in Ohio.

This news comes two years to the day as Bwog last reported the team’s triumphs.

 More photos after the jump.

“about 2 minutes ago, columbia won the ivy league title in baseball. 7-5 over dartmouth in game 3 of the ivy league championship series in hanover. i am not making this up. tried snapping a shot of the pile after the game, but my stupid computer wouldn’t allow anything from windows media player. but damn. they won something huge in sports for once. now they move on to the ncaa tournament.”

Congratulations, boys.

Bwog daily editor Mariela Quintana floats into the surprisingly happy go lucky world of Ivy League fencing.

The Columbia Fencing team did not carry themselves with the athletic aggression that one would expect at their final competition of the season. The mood Wednesday evening at Dodge Fitness Center evoked memories of the indoor soccer tournaments of my youth, where gossiping with the girls on my team was as important as our competition. Family and friends of the athletes comprised the majority of the audience. Fencing Moms chatted and younger siblings ran around, begging for attention from the fencers. The social atmosphere carried over to the athletes, who munched on Goldfish and joked with spectators between bouts. Had I only known about the informal milieu that fencing offers, perhaps I would not have given up on organized athletics.

In the eyes of a novice sports spectator, the appearance of the fencing team did not reflect that of a typical organized sports team. They lacked a team’s most defining feature: its uniform. To my disappointment, there are no baby blue swooshes to unify the Columbia squad. As opposed to the matching maroon tracksuits of the Vassar squad, the Columbia fencers opt for a more subtle form of showmanship – a pair of knee-high socks, one white and one baby blue.

Unlike the lanky rowers of the lightweight crew team or solid, square-shouldered wrestlers, fencers cannot be categorized by a general body type. Furthermore, the team members all hail from different areas of the country, some from east-coast prep schools, others from New York City public schools and still others from places as outlandish as Hong Kong and even Texas.

As I was reflecting on the success I might have had as a fencer, I suddenly heard a loud bark and out of the corner of my eye I glimpsed a flash of metal surge into the air – it was the petite Issac Kim, CC ’08, triumphing over his adversary from Sacred Heart University. Kim proudly grabbed at his mask and let out another roar to exhilarate him for the next bout in the set.

Although Kim’s aggressive performance did not match the laid back attitude of his team between rounds, the more I watched the Columbia fencers compete the more apparent their drive to dominate became.

This year, the Lions’ determination to dominate has proven successful. Both the Men and Women’s fencing team has gone undefeated this year. To add to their prestige, both teams claimed the all-Ivy Title at last weekend’s tournament in Princeton.

I overheard two spectators intensely debating the merits of the NYU and Columbia teams. Although the two could not come to terms on which team was better, they equally acknowledged that “New York fencing teams are guaranteed to be number one.” When I mentioned this to a pair of sophomore on the women’s team, they laughed and said NYU was no competition.

Who needs matching uniforms and formal pre-game warm-ups, when the toughest adversary can be dispelled with a laugh? Some teams, but certainly not the impressive Columbia fencing team.