This morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed former Dean of SEAS Dr. Feniosky Peña-Mora as the new Commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction for New York City. Peña-Mora served as SEAS’s fourteenth dean from 2009 to 2012, when he abruptly resigned from office in an event we dubbed Peñamonium. For freshmen and sophomores out there, this all happened […]

It’s a busy semester for all of us, and especially the SEAS students. With the launch of Engineering Week 2014, which is coinciding with SEAS 150th anniversary, it doesn’t get more programmed than this! Sun, 2/16: Opening Ceremony Dinner Roone, 7:00 – 9:00 pm Open to: entire Columbia community Sun, 2/16: Launch Week Light Display College Walk, […]

Yesterday afternoon, SEAS students took their turn at being graduated.  It was a great afternoon, if humid, with lots of energy and excitement.  Class Prez Mary Byers stepped up to the mic to chants of “Ma-ry Ma-ry!” from her classmates.  “We’ve had our minds blown time and time again,” she said with a smile.  Engineering […]

And the SEAS commencement speaker is… Robert Bakish, SEAS ’85! Bakish is the CEO of Viacom International Media Networks, so he’s definitely doing something right. Here’s what Bakish had to say about it: “It is an honor to represent Columbia Engineering and a privilege to be asked by my School peers to speak at such […]

Most Columbia alums dream of a cushy job in trading or a somewhat successful book deal. But four Bio-Medical Engineering graduates are starting their post-college careers not by working in a coffee bar, but by saving a few thousand lives. Actually, more than a few thousand, if Tampostat, the group’s BME senior design project that […]

Are you going to be studying electrical, chemical, industrial engineering? Or maybe applied math or physics? Well, if you’re a member of the SEAS class of 2015, you better make up your mind, because major declaration starts today. From October 16-19, members of the SEAS class of 2015 have to declare what major they will […]

Except not the kind with a fun theme/drinking games. According to an email from Provost Coatsworth that was sent to SEAS students yesterday, the obligatory search for an official dean has commenced. While we don’t yet know what this means for Goldean, it turned out well for interim-cum-official Columbia College Deantini. The search party’s timeline is […]

Minutes ago, PrezBo and Coatsworth sent out the following email to the SEAS community, announcing Dean Peña-Mora’s sudden resignation. Could it have something to do with the faculty’s letters of no confidence last year (and this year)? Last fall, the Times reported that 80% of tenured faculty supported his replacement in a strongly worded letter. […]

It’s been six months since the New York Times reported that most of the SEAS senior faculty wanted Dean Peña-Mora to resign and Professor Goldfarb was appointed Executive Vice Dean of SEAS. According to Spec, not much has changed; most professors still have no confidence in Peña-Mora. What does the dean think about all this? […]

Bwog has just learned that the Ursula Burns, SEAS ’82 (MS in mechanical engineering) and the chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation, will be the featured speaker at the 2012 engineering school class day. Burns is the first African-American woman to chair a Fortune 500 company, according to an article published by Spec. The same […]

Last week, we informed you of the beginning of DevFest, the “week-long application development experience” that has something to do with computers. Since the combination of get-rich-quick potential and Westside cookies was too much for Bwog to resist, technocrat chronicler Michael Menna was dispatched behind the Silicon Curtain of the Computer Science Department to report […]

Sean Zimmermann reports from last night’s ESC meeting. SEAS Dean Pena-Mora attended last night’s ESC meeting. The Dean began by thanking ESC for their letter in support of his administration, which the council sent to the Spectator last December. Pena-Mora pledged to “continue to ensure that you [all] have the best education experience that anyone could […]

It seems like just yesterday that PrezBo anointed Feniosky Peña-Mora dean of SEAS. Back in 2009, that halcyon year, Feni was talked up by ‘Bo, wore a doofy tee shirt, and hell, even sat down with OldBwog. These days are a little less rosy—the Times, which first profiled the guy in ’09, has of late […]

The leadership of SEAS Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora was brought under intense scrutiny in an article in The New York Times today. The story notes the numerous resignations of department heads since his arrival, citing frustration with his direction. This semester, two letters of no confidence in the Dean—signed by the majority of tenured faculty in SEAS—have been […]

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 […]