Congratulations to Vikram Pandit, who is about to go from exceedingly loaded to unbelievably loaded. Pandit is a triple Columbia alumnus, having earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering in the 70s before selling out to get a PhD in finance in 1986. Yesterday, he was named CEO of Citigroup, a company worth […]

And if you’re a foreign affairs newshound or doing work-study at the Harriman Institute, you’d immediately know that that person is Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, Law ’94 and member of an alleged “‘Columbia Club of Post-Soviet leaders.” While the real Columbia club is still a tenant of our much hated and intellectually sub-standard rivals at Princeton, the […]

Finally! Joseph Ratzinger, better known as Pope Benedict XVI, made the announcement today: Archbishop John P. Foley, Journalism ’66, will be one of 23 new cardinals in November. According to the International Herald Tribune, Foley had “long been considered a candidate” for the job. At the fresh young age of 72, he’s eligible to vote […]

Wish you were in Paris right now? Bwog foreign correspondent Sumaiya Ahmed reports on Columbia’s big weekend in the City of Lights. This weekend, Columbia students in Paris were treated to another sort of World Leaders Forum organized by the Columbia Alumni Association. The three day affair included Nobel laureate and 7th Secretary-General of the […]

Sick of hearing about Ahmadinejad? Of course you are! But watch this anyway. And are you sick of real estate tycoons conspiring with major universitites in order to mind-control unsuspecting students using electromagnetic satellites? Then you, my paranoid friend, have something in common with a former SIPA student who has spent the past week spamming dozens […]

Late last night, a couple former Columbia household names–Reggie Gossett CC ’06 and Illyana Mendez-Penate–found themselves on the way to prison after a party for the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a transgender rights advocacy group. The SRLP press release says members of the SRLP were trying to stop police officers from violently detaining a black […]

We here at Bwog were literally convulsing with excitement when we heard t hat a Columbia alum was nominated for Attorney General (Princeton you  are soooo wiretapped…). If you’re like us, you can pass your congratulations along to mmukas@law.columbia.edu –Mukasey was a lecturer in the Law School, and team-taught a seminar on Advanced Trial Practice in the Fall of 2006. Could […]

French lit obsessives might recall a character from Camus’s The Plague who spends years reworking the opening sentence of a novel. It’s a commentary on the human condition, or some shit…anyway, Butler library the Columbia library system, which has inspired everyone from Max Weber to Orhan Pamuk, could well have its own resident serial re-writer/tormented […]

Our correspondent wades through the morass of Reunion 2007, last weekend’s get-together for 60 years of Columbia and Barnard grads. The annual tri-college reunion brings with it myriad opportunities for the enterprising summer student. For the social climber, it is a chance to establish some gainful contacts with potentially loaded and influential alumni. For the […]

The GW Hatchet, George Washington University’s student newspaper, is reporting that GW President (and ’59 Columbia grad, pictured) Stephen Joel Trachtenberg will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at Commencement. The list of recipients also includes Aharon Barak, former Israeli Supreme Court President, and CNN correspondent Suzanne Malveaux. UPDATE: According to the official list, […]

Those of you who were around last year may remember Kate Berthold C’06. The three-time V-Show star, Tea Party improv cast member, writer and performer of the one-woman “Samantha Show” as her senior thesis, B&W Campus Character and part of the legendary Prangstgrüp lecture musical has moved on to her next role in life: starring […]

“Columbians” miscredited, discredited, and, well, just plain credited, worldwide: Spike Lee has certainly stalked our campus before. First, it was to use Hamilton Hall in a scene of Malcom X (to serve as Harvard, of all places). Later, Bwog discovered he was ducking into the same building for evening Lit Hum sessions. Now, a Chicago […]

One of our more distinguished alumni (excerpted): “I’m a liar and a cheat and a thief and the ultimate manipulator. … I tell lies every day, man,” the 40-year-old actor says in the February issue of Men’s Journal magazine. “And when I say I’m phenomenally manipulative, I am.”   Fox, who is now starring opposite […]

You may have seen the fat ad supplement in the Spec the other day about the John Jay Awards, which brought in $1.2 million for Columbia last night. Bwog freelancer Addison Anderson has the story from the ground level.  Last night I went to Cipriani on 42nd Street to introduce Eric Foner at the John […]

Molly Ivins, the nationally syndicated columnist and Columbia Journalism School graduate, died of cancer at the age of 61 today. Ivins, a witty Texan,  was known throughout her life for an unpretentious, down-to-earth style as well as her strong, self-proclaimed liberal views. Most recently, Ivins had written in strong opposition to President Bush and his […]