Kiss those tapas goodbye: Floridita owner Ramon Diaz loses his lawsuit, Manhattanville finally begins construction, and PrezBo celebrates (Spec).

Remember what happened the last time Columbia tried to expand?  Carle Hovde, CC ’50 and Dean of the College from 1968 to 1972, died last Saturday.  Faculty mourns (Spec).

As if the updated Kindle wasn’t bad enough, bedbugs have infested publishing offices (MediaBistro).

Those bottles of Purell may have been unnecessary — there’s still hope for a cure for H1N1 (NY1).

Fresh off his plea for healthcare reform, on the eighth anniversary of 9/11, Obama declares “every year on this day, we are all New Yorkers” (Daily News).

Columbia may have been upstaged last month in the building takeover category by our violet-loving friends to the south. However, we can all rest assured that nostalgia for the halcyon days of Morningside Heights in 1968 will never be crushed by pesky NYU Public Safety officers.

On that note, today Gothamist posted an interview with Mark Rudd, former member of occasional bombmakers Weatherman and, more relevantly, president of the Columbia chapter of SDS. Rudd was expelled from Columbia in 1968 and then joined the Weathermen, aka the Weather Underground, and helped to plan a bombing in the early 70′s of Butler Library, a horror unimaginable to those holed up in 209 at this very moment. Rudd and his fellow Weathermen eventually landed themselves on the F.B.I’s top 10 most wanted list. 

Rudd is currently living in New Mexico and is about to release a book about his experiences as a Weatherman and campus activist in the 1960′s and 70′s. It’s creatively titled Underground, and retails for the quite capitalist price of $25.99. The Gothamist interview touches on his childhood and upbringing in the suburbs of New York, the Ayers/Obama controversy, and his thoughts about the progression of New York City throughout the last few decades. He describes his book as a “story of good organizing (Columbia) followed by bad (Weathermen).” (Photo via gothamist.com)

- ECS

Classes “begin” in a few days, figuratively because a few of Bwog’s have already been canceled for CC’83 Awesomeness Festivities.  But your fair university didn’t get nearly as much sleep as you did over break.  Here’s what Alma Mater’s been up to.

People of Old

Alumni provide proof that we’ll all find jobs, eventually.  In the meantime, buff your resume with good deeds for the UN, or fulfill your second grade dream and work for the circus (Bwog is jealous of the latter grads).  If the arts are your thing, you could end up guiding an opera company or debuting at Sundance.

People of New

The good times might be few years away, but you can still relish your present hell situation in this (frigid) town.  Alex Gross, CC’11, came here for football and was profiled by his local paper.  The Dayton Daily News mentions “learning how to get around the city by subway” as one of the things he has managed to pick up.  And how to stand on line, instead of in line.  Four other Columbians were recently profiled in The New York Times.  A few years ago, they formed the Columbia Ballet Collaborative after, you know, “juggling calculus, molecular biology and Hindi-Urdu” and the other cool things college kids do.  Representing straight-laced, conscientious Butler residents everywhere, one student assured the reporter “I never take drugs.” Read more…

Everyone’s elections predictions (which took up most of the “Columbia University” hits this week) came out alright, but there are still more predictions to come.

Stiglitz says “Yes We Can…eventually”

Eisenbach says “See?  I told you this one would be different.”

A Columbia scientist says, “The predictions were too late.”

Those who were around in ’68 say, “It’s gonna be just like it used to be, dang nabbit.”

Bwog daily editor Mariela Quintana takes you inside yet another ’68 retrospective, this time a reading featuring Columbia writers who were there when the protests happened.

Of the four events I’ve attended that commemorate the 1968 protests, not one has started on time. From all the socializing and incessant chattering that precedes each lecture, it’s clear that these aging activists are desperate for a chance to catch up, reminisce and revive the waning spirit of ’68.  To an outside observer, the commemoration too often loses sight of its historical and social mission and instead tends towards an intimate, if not insular, college reunion–the likes of which these anti-establishment hexagenarians wouldn’t deign to attend.

But last night’s reading, entitled “Voices of 1968,” offered this jaded Gen-Yer insight into what the protestors felt at the time of the event and what they feel now.  The reading was most penetrating when authors exposed their struggles, their effort to pick themselves up out the wake of the protests, grow up and move on. As the poets and authors made clear, moving on proved difficult because it required accepting their moment in history had ended. Read more…

Hey, did you know that some stuff happened at Columbia in 1968? Bwog daily editor Pierce Stanley braved two of this week’s numerous ’68-centric lectures; here’s what he thought about them.

That tangible sense of nostalgia gripping campus has not waned this weekend as the commemoration of the Columbia 1968 Protests hits full stride.  After its tame opening on Thursday evening in Casa Italiana hosted by PrezBo and Nancy Biberman B ’69, the gaggle of aged (and surprisingly boisterous) anti-war and anti-discrimination activists continue to mill around campus, reminiscing about their hours spent hunkered down in Hamilton, Fayerweather, and Low in the spring of 1968.  

The commemoration, however, has been heavy on reminiscing.  Aged protesters have spent much of their time back-patting, reminding themselves that they were the greatest generation of activists, catching up on years spent away from one another and bickering about current day social justice issues.  At the end of the day, much of the audience, including this Bwogger, was left frustrated by the single-mindedness of the activists who graced Columbia’s campus forty years ago and wondering if they might be still looking for a fight but are just a bit out of touch.  

Read more…

What can we do to reinforce a message of freedom on this campus? How about dancing at Havana Central?

Hey, it’s better than wishy-washy social justice editorializing

Or picketing alone in front of the Mayor’s house

Maybe there’s nothing to do but pray

But in this case, the guy should probably just sue their asses

Writer Paul Auster, CC’69, perhaps best known for the postmodern detective novels collected in the New York Trilogy (and subject of a Columbia College Today cover story not too long ago), has a very enjoyable and candid personal essay in today’s NYT about his involvement in the protests of ’68.

“Being crazy,” Auster writes, “struck me as a perfectly sane response to the hand I had been dealt–the hand that all young men had been dealt in 1968. The instant I graduated from college, I would be drafted to fight in a war I despised to the depths of my being, and because I had already made up my mind to refuse to fight in that war, I knew that my future held only two options: prison or exile.”

He describes himself as a “quiet and bookish” young man who discovered his wild side in the protests, which happened exactly 40 years ago today. “I am 61 now, but my thinking has not changed much since that year of fire and blood, and as I sit alone in this room with a pen in my hand, I realize that I am still crazy, perhaps crazier than ever.”

Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll see him at the Manhattanville construction site, flinging feces at the gates.

UPDATE: See also the funny nymag.com listicle that anoints Auster the “Brooklyn Literary 1″

Bwog has just been alerted to some curious news.  It seems that the bastion of journalistic integrity that is the New York Sun ran a very informative piece about CU by a certain Columbia Alum and Republican District Leader Christopher Lanzillotti.

According to this article, it was almost precisely two score years ago when a group of renegade students overtook some buildings of this very campus (urinating out of windows) and protested commencement with “loud rock music” and used “intoxicating substances.”  It’s a good thing that none of this tomfoolery persisted on campus!  Lanzillotti seems relatively pleased that the campus was able to overcome this “tumultuous” time and now student activism is no longer an important part of campus life.  Apparently, we have been tamed!

-JJV

The 40th anniversary of Columbia’s 1968 student protests are fast approaching, so start brushing up on your history!

An early point of contention between students and administrators happened in March 1967, when Bob Feldman, a Columbia student and Students for a Democratic Society member, unearthed documents revealing Columbia’s institutional membership in a Department of Defense think tank that was doing advanced weapons research.

Feldman recently reminded Bwog that parts One and Two of Columbia Revolt, a Newsreel documentary about the strikes of ’68, are available online. The film begins with monotone monologue and lots of shaky, low angle shots of CU buildings, but gets to the juicy stuff—students occupying buildings, cops, ambulances—pretty quickly.

This April marks the 40th anniversary of the 1968 student protests at Columbia. (For a brief re-cap, you can read about Barnard’s Town Hall on ’68 here.) In order to commemorate the protests, the administration, along with several activist groups and student organizations, is organizing a three-day conference about the events. Channel all your false nostalgia into a weekend of lectures, tree-planting, and concerts. 

The event boasts some pretty big names including activist and former Jane Fonda paramour Tom Hayden,  British historian and New York Review of Books contributor Tony Judt, ’68 protest leader/SDSer Mark Rudd, and hometown favorite and former SDS president Todd Gitlin.

The weekend will also feature such events as a Druids of Stonehenge concert at no one’s favorite bar Havana Central, an investigatory, “large scale, multimedia narrative” fittingly entitled “What Happened?”, and a closing ceremony/picnic lunch. Tickets are not available yet, but Bwog will alert you of when they are. Until then, once again, we’d like to direct your attention to a video of the Grateful Dead playing on campus. It’s a lot like that time Vampire Weekend played on the steps of Low during Orientation Week, except you know, completely different.

In which Bwog succumbs to a terrible case of false nostalgia. 

Par for the course of other Barnard Townhalls, the lasanga, coffee and white tablecloths came out in full force for tonight’s discussion about student activism at Columbia in 1968.

After a brief introduction by two SGA representatives announcing tonight’s speakers—Dean of the College Dorothy Denburg, BC ’70, and Karla Spurlock-Evans, BC ’71—the members of the Townhall were shown an 11 minute video clip. The clip was part of a larger documentary entitled Remembering ’68, and featured interviews with a number of Barnard and Columbia professors and students about the spring of said historic year. Bwog would normally, of course, be happy to share with you what interviewees said, but because the documentary-maker—in a curious move indicative of some sort of activist-y universality or sheer forgetfulness—didn’t think to provide the names of the people who were speaking as they were on camera.

Read more…

Bwog happened to be passing through the front doors of Hamilton, as we all do several times a month, and had a companion point out something very interesting. Outside the wooden doors that Columbians know and love are a set of enormous, bunker-style doors, engraved in brass, and slid sideways behind the cement facade. (They’re visible between the door and the outermost metal frame in this photo.)

No amount of force would dislodge them from their current position, but careful camera work revealed detailed brasswork and engraving. Bwog has a pretty good idea when the last time that these were shut were (it rhymes with fineteen-shmifty-eight), and, most likely, the reason that they no longer can be without some serious leverage.

Engraving details after the jump.

Read more…

Debora Spar, pioneer of the economics of fertility, loves babies. 

How does one transform the face of the Barnard woman?

Columbia is a national treasure, and Barnard is its jewel.

Ted Kennedy’s new best friend still hates his alma mater.

How do you cure administrative schizophrenia?

Next time you think about getting a haircut, consider splitting hairs.

Thai Jones, CU American history Ph.D. candidate and son of Weather Underground founder Jeff Jones, has written a piece in today’s New York Times about the University’s most recent hunger strike and the history of self-imposed starvation as a means of political activism. Jones compares much of the campus’s anti-hunger striking sentiments of just a few months ago with the similar frustrations of 1960s students towards Students for a Democratic Society.

Jones interviews several Columbia students, one postulates that the hunger strike was an argument “that our education has us starving intellectually”—the apparent appetite of the affordable housing-eating octopus non-withstanding. Jones also speaks to his own parents (hi Mom!), who also agree with his favorable comparison of Mark Rudd et al. to 2007′s hunger strikers.

Top right photo from NYT via Getty.