Earlier today, police arrested protesters, including several Columbia students, at the Occupy Wall Street demonstration. Some reports say 60 arrests were made, but Columbians at the scene tell us the arrest count has reached 96. Bwog has learned that two seniors are still detained. According to Gothamist, tensions with NYPD escalated today as about 1,000 protestors gathered and marched towards Union Square.

A self-proclaimed leaderless resistance movement, Occupy Wall Street aims claims to represent the “99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and and corruption of the 1%”. The protests are based on Wall St to target what they see as the American financial system’s favoritism of the rich at the expense of others. There has been criticism of the protestors’ lack of coherence and articulation of specific aims. The Times called it a ” noble but fractured and airy movement of rightly frustrated young people.” Naturally, they’ve taken to twitter, and adopted the hashtag #occupywallstreet as a sort of unofficial slogan. They’re tweeting away!

Update (4:56pm) : We just spoke with Klein, and two other Columbia students who are down at the protests, Alexandra Afifi and Layan Fuleihan. All three are CC’12. They have been at the sit-in on and off since it began last Saturday, and report that today has drawn the most people they’ve seen yet.

The slew of arrests was precipitated by a march from Zuccotti Park, their base of operations, to Union Square. “The whole time the cops were trying to divert us but we managed to stay on the street the entire time. All the pedestrians were involved and seemed very supportive,” Klein said. NYPD were closely monitoring the march, but when the protestors reached Union Square, cops confronted them with large orange plastic nets, attempting to divide up the march, and divert the protestors in different directions. Many of those caught in the nets were arrested. Afifi described the particular arrests as “really arbitrary.” She said that they were not doing anything differently from the hundreds of other people: “We chanting in the same way, holding the same signs.” She added that all the arrests were made on the sidewalk, which is technically public property.

Klein believes this is a major turning point in the demonstration. Many new demonstrators showed up today, and pedestrians and locals became more involved and supportive. It also marked a shift in the nature of police actions. Arrests over the past few days have been relatively infrequent, and largely peaceful, albeit arbitrary. Layan said she’d seen people arrested for drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, for holding umbrellas, and for trying to screen their faces from the police cameras that are constantly filming the protestors.

Today, marchers were singled out and tackled to the ground. Some, including kids in high school, were hit with pepper spray and were visibly in severe pain. All those involved have emphasized how peaceful the march was. ”I didn’t see any provocation from any protestor at all,” Layan added.

Klein encouraged other students to get involved: “This movement really needs support. It would be great to get a lot of Columbia students down here. The more it grows the more everyone’s voice will be heard.” All three students are planning to stay at Zuccotti Park until they find out what’s happened to their friends. Right now the arrested protestors, who fill up two vans and a bus, are being driven around the city because they have no place to put them. “I’ve stayed two nights,” Afifi said. “I’ll definitely stay the night here if I don’t hear anything.”

Update (5:10pm) : One of the arrested students still has his phone. He believes he will be detained for a few days, but will need a lawyer, and reports that the other student was hurt during his arrest.

Update (Sep. 25, 1:42pm) : We just spoke to Klein again, who told us that the other two detained Columbia students were released last night with disorderly conduct charges. Most other detainees held with the students were released as well—Klein also mentioned that apparently there were a lot of bystanders that were arrested along with the protesters, but they too were subsequently released.

“Let me begin with the caveats: I like men,” writes Barnard’s president in today’s Washington Post, “But as the financial debacle unfolds, I can’t help noticing that all the perpetrators of the greatest economic mess in eight decades are, well, men.”

Oh yes, you may have heard many other explanations for the Wall Street crisis: irresponsible lending agencies, insane hedge fund managers, a housing prices bubble,  and so on. But according to Barnard’s president (who was a professor at Harvard Business School before coming to Morningside Heights), though, the problem lies in the nefarious XY chromosome pairing. Male-dominated Wall Street DSpar argues, could have been saved by some female leadership, because “women may be less inclined than men to place the kind of bets that can get them in real trouble.” Oh, and female whistleblowers (on Wall Street or elsewhere) are also never listened to. 

Don’t worry, though, guys: Spar assures you that “I have spent most of my career surrounded by men, and I have no major complaints.”

Columbia’s favorite non-partisan political periodical is on news stands but not online, so we’re giving you the low down on this month’s issue by the page.

Rwanda’s President:  Westernizer or War Criminal? (Page 4)

Wall Street and Main Street: Vast oversimplifications of the credit crunch or is it just homeowners’ faults? (Page 6)

LitHum, CC and Major Cultures: The West and The Rest.  CESR’s “Common Core”: Colonization/Decolonization. (Page 13)

Obama vs. McCain: They have different policies on health care, outsourcing, net neutrality and abortion!   (Page 15)

We’ve been hearing a lot about Business School professors opposing the government bailing out Wall Street investment banks, but according to IvyGater Robyn Schneider, they have no problem bailing out their vending machines. 

They have lowered the prices of Luna Bars and Vitamin Waters so that even the poorest MBA student can afford them.  The move has put Uris Hall into the upper echelons of campus automatic refreshment dispensers along with Mathematics and Schermerhorn, which feature the $1.50 Nantucket Nectar (the best price in Morningside until the Business School came along) and the cafe between Journalism and Furnald that sells $1 Wolfgang Puck hot chocolate. Bwog, however, will always have a soft spot for this little guy.

Photo by Robyn Schneider via After the Gates

UPDATE, 10/16, 11AM: The vending machines on the first floor of Mudd (the real first floor, not campus level) have joined the Defend Your Dollar program, too.  This one might actually help people, as most Mudd-dwellers live off vending machine food and the occasional mac and cheese from Carleton Lounge.

Haven’t seen this one before: Chabad is luring passersby with challah dough, which you can mix with raisins, cinnamon, and chocolate chips to bring home and bake for midafternoon deliciousness. The challah-pushers seemed a little crestfallen to hear that Bwog wasn’t actually Jewish, but we feel sure that Gentiles wouldn’t be turned away.

Meanwhile, the banging sound from College Walk comes from  the College Democrats, who are protesting the handing out of dough in much larger quantities: $700 billion to Wall Street. They want you to call Sen. Chuck Schumer to tell him to get behind Chris Dodd, who has put forward a plan to regulate the bailout — better call now, because the deal’s almost done anyway!