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The New York Times is reporting that the J-School received a 5 million-dollar gift today from one Mr. Leonard Tow, a Columbia grad whom the Times identifies as “a former chief executive of Citizens Communications, and Century Communications” as well as a philanthropist — and how!
Tow is hoping that his $5 million will aid J-Schoolers in figuring out how to save the dying newspaper business by attaining Internet-savvy. (Hint: stop printing newspapers on paper.) Tow also explains that he was annoyed at Harvard and its fancy “Internet institute” because it was much better than Columbia at teaching grad students how to publish things online.
Tow also donated $3 million to the CUNY J-School to create the Tow Center for Journalistic Innovation, which will focus on research and development. Funds at Columbia will be centered around training J-Schoolers in “digital media.” What exactly can 5 million buy these days? Accoring to J-School dean Nicholas B. Lemann: “two professors in new media” and “a curriculum that may include data-driven reporting and software design for news organizations.”
According to Editor & Publisher, CUNY will have to match the donation through fund raising in order to receive it. Columbia will have to do the same, but it will have to double Tow’s donation and fund raise $10 million.
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@So... why are bwog editors obsessed with the youthful Dustin Hoffman?
@wheeeooowheeooooo wheeeoooowheeoooo….what is that sound that I am hearing, Watson? Well my dear Sherlock, that would be the grammer po-lease.
@Whyyyy are there two different forms of the plural form of “alum(nus)” in the tags?? Choose one: alumni or alums. FUCK.
@lame why do they have to double his donation? What a d-bag
@Alum “Columbia will have to do the same, but it will have to double Tow’s donation and fund raise $10 million.”
Raising an additional $10 million to add to the original $5M will make a total of $15M. Most people would call this tripling the donation, not doubling it.
@calculator No, most people would call that doubling it. In total, the overall amount of money Columbia will get will be triple Tow’s donation. But the amount it has to raise is double Tow’s donation.
@Alum You’re using “double” as an adjective, but the article used it as a verb. To double something is to increase it by 100%. (Or would you call that “singling” it?) To triple it is to increase it by 200%, which is what CU plans to do here.
@v. polite lol so courteous
@haha i like how alums donate when they feel annoyed.
@DO THE BWOG EDITORS EVEN READ THE ARTICLES THE POST ABOUT? COLUMBIA’S GETTING $5 MILLION AND CUNY’S GETTING $8 MILLION. YOU GUYS ARE DUMB AS SHIT.
@Bwog Staff Thank you for pointing out the numerical error, we are happy to correct it.
@umm Actually the Times says “The philanthropist plans to announce on Monday, along with the universities, that his Tow Foundation
has pledged $5 million to the Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and $3 million to
the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism.”
5 million to CU + 3 million to CUNY = 8 million total
@yeehaw “Hint: stop printing newspapers on paper.”
Hmm, don’t know if that would be the best idea just yet. Newspapers still make the majority of their ad revenue via print. (Online ads aren’t as effective, so they sell for a lot less.)
But yes, the day is coming.