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Riverside Church, where the convocation is going to be! Pretty, huh.
With this flurry of news about Bacchanal and Columbia’s new Gender-Based Misconduct Policy, you may have missed some recent updates to our community. Not going to lie, they’re not as exciting.
- Haakon’s Hall, that weird bar you’ve probably never been to, is becoming a gluten-free, farm-to-table restaurant called Friedman’s Lunch. (Crains New York)
- But maybe we don’t even need restaurants. The Daily Meal ranks Columbia #3 in the country for its food. (Daily Meal)
- Dean Hinkson announced Barnard is going to have a school-wide convocation ceremony to celebrate the 125th anniversary at the beginning of next year. Anna Quindlen will be giving the key-note speech. (Office Minute)
- Rising senior Nadia Eke competed in the Common Wealth games, in the “triple jump” event, which sounds incredibly bad-ass. (GoColumbiaLions)
- Physics professor Janna Levin did a segment for NOVA’s Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers. (NOVA)
- Student Worker Solidarity is urging Columbia to not to choose the security firm Command Security for their new security contract. Apparently the firm is non-union and has done all sorts of scary things that SWS outlines in their letter, which you can see after the jump.
Riverside courtesy of Wikimedia
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18 Comments
@Morningside Heights App A morningside heights neighborhood app is launching (next week)!
@Anonymous Friedman’s (at least the 31st st location) is great. Huge boon to the neighborhood. Sorry, Chef.
@Anonymous Friedman’s seems way too expensive for the Columbia crowd. 12-15 dollars for a sandwich? 14-16 for a salad? 2.50 for GF bread on that 15 dollar sandwich? No thanks. I can go to Westside and get a salad for 8.
@P Or that Possibilities@Columbia is moving??
@Anonymous Speaking of security: There’s news about gluten-free bars but no mention of the public safety officer who was run over and almost died on Amsterdam/116th? Interesting.
@wtf ^ this
@BC15 Janna <3
@please cite your sources, SWS also…..
‘LABOUR’?
OU?
@GrammarNazi Also “fulfil.”
@please cite your sources, SWS “Columbia is an institution that claims to empower every individual in the community to take control over their own life.”
Where does it claim that?
@Umm, Fuck McShane Why does Columbia hire contract security when they have proprietary Public Safety Officers? Jim McShane needs to be fired and a full audit needs to be conducted of Public Safety’s finances. Why are students forced to pay exorbitant guard service fees to Public Safety? Where does that money go? Alumni, Students, and Faculty need to demand that McShane provide an accounting for his department.
@Alum The contractors usually work in off-campus apartment buildings. Columbia’s agreement with the union that represents the on-campus security guards might limit when and where members can be assigned. It almost certainly limits when and where non-members can be assigned, but it could do both.
Using contractors will often be a lot cheaper than hiring more full-time guards. Given the extent of Columbia’s real estate, there have to be a large number on duty at any given time. The savings can add up quickly.
Before I get any flames: I’m not saying CU *should* hire contractors. That’s a different question. I’m just listing some of the reasons why it might want to.
@Umm, Fuck McShane I would love to save money on many things, but not when it comes to the safety and security of the community. You get what you pay for, and when you wager the lives and safety of the community against saving a buck or two, well…I would invest in quality. I would rather see a Public Safety Officer inside my building than a mediocre contractor who is barely able to keep away from their iPad or cellphone. Our lives are worth the costs. Again, Jim McShane needs to go. End of story.
@Dan Also, there is an issue when it comes to matters of security. Since Columbia owns the campus outright it can provide it’s own security force to cover the campus. It gets a little confusing when it comes to off campus buildings. Security has to be provided and it can only be done by a licensed agency of which P-safety is not while Summit and others are. That’s one reason they have to use contractors to meet NYC law and state laws. It’s a complicated issue.
@Alum More expensive options aren’t necessarily better options. Even when they are, and even when they concern something crucial, that doesn’t make cost irrelevant. Faced with a choice between, say, a $40,000 car that’s safe and a comparable $60,000 car that’s even safer, many people will rationally decide that the added safety isn’t worth the added cost.
Safety is important, obviously. But there are other important concerns, and safety doesn’t trump all the rest. If the contractors are plenty good enough but the CU guards are even better, it’s far from clear why CU should pay the higher price. And even if it would clearly be worth some amount of extra money, the amount it would actually cost might be much higher.
I don’t know how much better CU guards are than contractors (if at all) or how much more they cost. So even if we assume cost is the only issue, I have no basis to agree or disagree with the decision to hire contractors. Since you feel so strongly that this is the wrong call, I hope you have better information than I do. Please share it with us if you do. Otherwise, please explain why you’re so sure this was the wrong way to go.
While you’re at it, please tell us why you’re so sure McShane made this decision. He might have agreed with you but been overruled. It might not even be his decision to make. (He might only control on-campus security, while an entirely different office might be in charge of security at off-campus apartments.) Even if this was his call, what makes you think he has enough extra money in his budget for the higher-priced guards?
@ugh *Commonwealth Games
@Americans.... Tsk Tsk…
@Anonymous Oh shut up SWS.