Columbia (not pictured) keeps pace with the front runners

You may remember that Columbia is one of the participants in Mayor Bloomberg’s much-publicized competition for the construction of a new science and engineering campus (or two!) somewhere within New York. According to DNA info, Bloomberg recently hinted that of the original seven applications, four have made it past the first cut—though he quickly and mysteriously told the media “that’s-not-what-I-meant-but-maybe-sort-of-could-be-true-anyway.”

Whatever you make of the Mayor’s waffling, the president of ESC, Nate Levick, SEAS ’12, spoke with Brian Wagner, who is working on an article on the Bloomberg competition for the upcoming issue of The Blue & White. He confirmed that we’re still in the race: “recently the Dean [Pena-Mora] informed me that the CU proposal has indeed made it to the ‘short list’ of candidates for the award.” This is exciting news for Columbia and would indicate that, if Bloomberg does indeed select two proposals, we’ve got a 50% chance of winning (you don’t even need to be in SEAS to do that math).

The Mayor is due to announce his decision in January. Be sure to check out the article in the December issue of The Blue & White for the full story on Columbia’s proposal and how we stack up against the competition.

Inane metaphor via Wikimedia