The sun sets over another semester

So much happened this semester, from protests of CUCR speakers to sexual assault scandals to marching band victories. As you head home for winter break (or finish up your last final paper), take a moment to relive it all with our bi-annual semester in review.

To start the new semester, we decided to change up our Bwoglines format so that it now includes national and international news. The dirty Carman that we remember got an unexpected upgrade (or at least, some of it did). Spec was forced to leave their 111th street office, and later moved to Riverside Church. Suzanne Goldberg and Barnard’s new president, Sian Beilock, ensured the protection of undocumented students’ physical safety and personal information.

Bwog does videos now! Barnard students are only allowed in JJ’s until 1 am. We tried to brainstorm ways to handle being trapped in a hurricane during one of the worst seasons in history. We investigated the new Halloween pop-up store on Broadway and found some pretty creepy things. Before Columbia Crushes, there was Barnard/Columbia Missed Connections. Law and Order: SVU also decided that 1020 was worth having on their show.  We tested Columbia students to see how much they really know about their university. Ferris started cracking down with a new bouncer. Apparently there was a gorilla in the package center?

Early in October, a graduate student sued Columbia due to claims of indifference for her reports of sexual harassment from a professor. Mel’s and 1020 somehow switched music for a night. Columbia’s new food bank opened. We wrote a guide on how to not be disgusting in communal bathrooms, because you all need it. Presbo’s Fireside Chat was as eventful as it usually is (read: not at all eventful). We found out where UNIs come from. Students protested Suzanne Goldberg’s class to confront her about her failure to address Title IX violations at Columbia. And we imagined Alma Mater’s finsta.

The next week saw more protests, as students protested both inside and outside of CUCR’s Tommy Robinson talk. SGA became the first student council to officially support the graduate students’ vote to unionize. We learned that Barnard’s magnolia clones are doing well. Columbia heard a lot of fire alarms, and saw a lot of people who literally graduated. We chose to get very drunk at Homecoming, but our football team won! They still didn’t get the Ivy League title, though. Bwog talked to the founders of Columbia Crushes, and heard Jhumpa Lahiri read a new short story.

The grass arrived, so we didn’t revolt. We outsourced our job to robots, saw DSpar in the wild, then decided to spend a few hours on Low steps. A John Jay elevator sent us an op-ed. Columbia removed the time management chart that sparked outrage for suggesting students only needed 1.5 hours of “free time” each day. We speculated about our sad, lonely Canada Geese. And we took an extensive look at tension between Barnard RAs and Res Life in the past couple of semesters.

The end of October was rather eventful, even though we spent a lot of it in Butler. EC became the most exclusive club on campus, Absolute was temporarily shut down, and we found a punctuation error on the Columbia Core website. CUCR held their second controversial speaker event, this one with Mike Cernovich, and protesters were met with a heavy Public Safety blockade. Protesters of the first event were met with support by students and faculty, and CCSC filed a disciplinary report that may result in CUCR losing some privileges. And we came up with ninety-five Columbia theses, in honor of the anniversary of the original ninety-five theses.

November started with the sudden demise of Spirit Halloween, its costumes and props left in a huge pile on the side of Broadway (much like our midterm spirit). First-years who had been moved to EC as a result of the Carman renovations found themselves actually… missing Carman?

The month then took on a more somber tone, as beloved admissions officer Peter V. Johnson passed away. Lisa Rosen-Metsch was named the new Dean of General Studies. A member of the Varsity Show creative team accused of sexual assault stepped down, causing many leaders in the theater community to reevaluate their priorities regarding community standards.

We gave Columbia nine ways to say no to a threesome, and found a Columbia Yelp reviewer’s song about JJ’s. We also found out why the stacks close so early, and interviewed a frequent commenter in the Spec op-ed section. November finally ended with a bang – or, rather, a blaze, as both Ruggles and Wein faced fires in one night. Watt followed with flames a couple of days later.

Early in December, Barnard joined the Workers Rights Consortium, Columbia announced the purchase of new electric shuttles to reduce carbon emissions, and ESC almost impeached someone. We asked people what they’d do for an EC sign-in (many said they’d suck a dick). Deantini didn’t impress us at the “Columbia College Winter Celebration,” and “weird Bwog” had some fun with contraception.

Columbia got a snowy makeover, and we took tons of pics while it lasted. We rang in a new Editorial Board, as Bagel said goodbye to Bwog. We ranked Columbia’s a cappella groups, and pissed off a couple of them. A week later, we ranked the jungle juice of Columbia’s various frats, and… pissed off a couple of them, too. Men’s basketball continued to disappoint us. We took stock of all the new restaurants that have popped up in MoHi this semester.

Barnard got more Early Decision applications than last year, and Columbia got one fewer. Orgo Night returned to Butler despite the administration’s edict that the Marching Band should find somewhere else to perform its jokes and its (surprisingly good this year?) music. We discovered that Ferris has a new policy for those who want to dine outside the dining hall.

We alerted campus of dangerous events about which Public Safety neglected to warn us. And we found out that Amigos is (maybe) (probably) (sadly) closing, due to lacks of gas and of heat. Finally, Dr. William Harris, the history professor whose inappropriate behavior caused a lawsuit earlier in the semester, retired, much to the annoyance of graduate students who believe the university should have taken more action against him.

Now, as the semester comes to a close, we’re ready to leave and have a long list of Netflix shows to binge over break.  Betsy Ladyzhets is Bwog’s new Editor-in-Chief, joined by Managing Editor Victoria Arancio, Internal Editor Sarah Kinney, and Social Media Editor Youngweon Lee. Our publishers Nik Huth and James Fast will continue funding our weekly supply of green grapes. Get some sleep, Columbia. We’ll see you in the new year.

Columbia in orange and yellow via Zack Abrams and Bwog’s Instagram