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The Columbia Spectator, founded in 1877, delivers news and information daily to thousands of readers around Columbia, Morningside Heights, and West Harlem. We are the second-oldest college daily paper in the country and have been financially independent from the University since 1962. The newspaper is published five days a week during the academic year and our blog network, Spectrum, offers update
s on news, arts, commentary, and photos from around campus and New York City. The organization is run by undergraduates from Barnard, Columbia College, the School of General Studies, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, with a staff totaling over 200 students. Spectator has opportunities for a wide range of interests, including reporting, writing, editing, photography, design, multimedia, and finance. Along with the daily paper and blogs, Spectator Publishing Company Inc. includes The Eye, a weekly arts and features magazine; and the business division, which manages Spectator's financial standing. If you're interested in joining or have any general questions, please contact us at [email protected].
Operating as usual
The Barnard RA union gained official recognition with the National Labor Relations Board after 96 percent of RAs voted to unionize. The official status comes after Barnard refused to voluntarily recognize the union in October. “We’re one step closer to getting to the bargaining table,” Aditi Misra, BC ’23, said.
https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2022/11/18/barnard-ras-union-gains-official-recognition-with-national-labor-relations-board/
Columbia Law School will opt out of the U.S. News & World Report rankings, joining law schools at Yale, Harvard, University of California, Berkeley, and Georgetown, Law Dean Gillian Lester announced in an email Friday. “The case in favor of Columbia’s continued involvement has become increasingly weak,” Lester wrote.
Columbia Law School will opt out of the U.S. News & World Report rankings, Law Dean Gillian Lester announced in an email Friday. The Law School joins a host of peer institut...
“If Barnard has any desire for their students to give back to the college in the future, they will take this desperately needed initiative to prioritize student residential wellbeing,” claims Julia Coccaro, BC ’23. In her column, Coccaro describes her story of creating a safe space with her living situation and pushes Barnard to make such privacy accessible to more students.
In my apartment 14 blocks down from campus, I have a true closet, an air conditioning unit, and my own half bath. I have a queen-size bed and space for a full 88-key piano keyboard. I have one roommate, who lives in the true bedroom upstairs; Instead of a door, my garden-level room boasts a romantic...
“The left is under no obligation to unilaterally uphold standards of civility that the right refuses to follow,” argues Glynis O’Meara, CC ’25. In response to Lorenzo Garcia’s op-ed concerning the suppression of pro-life voices at Columbia, O’Meara contends that the “suppressed” speech is simply unpopular and that civility is not owed to those who do not adhere to it within the debate.
In his recent op-ed, Lorenzo Garcia claims that pro-life voices at Columbia are being suppressed, noting a number of University events and policy changes in an attempt to exemplify this suppression. But this supposed “suppression” of pro-life voices is just a manufactured crisis, and as someone ...
Despite six individual race wins, women’s swimming and diving came up short against Yale in its second meet of the season, finishing with a score of 179-121. Two pool records were broken during the meet: Yale diver Paige Lai set a new record in the 3-meter dive, while Columbia senior swimmer Karen Liu raced ahead to a new best time in the 200-yard butterfly.
In its second meet of the year and first matchup against Yale, Columbia women’s swimming and diving came up short against the Bulldogs, finishing with a score of 179-121.
Columbia football will close out its season on Saturday when it takes on Cornell at home for the annual Empire State Bowl. While both teams’ hopes of a championship are gone, both teams will fight for a win, as the victor will secure both a winning record and a fifth-place finish.
Columbia football will conclude its season when Cornell comes to town on Saturday.
Walking into the Judith Lee Stronach Center, students are met with a unique space that aims to bring community and art together in conversation. The sixth annual “M.A. in Art History Presents” focuses on printmaking as a medium that showcases contact beyond just the process of printmaking and expands it to human interaction. This is represented across borders with works from North America, Europe, and Japan included in the exhibit.
Walking into the Judith Lee Stronach Center, students are met with a unique space that brings community and art together. The sixth annual “M.A. in Art History Presents” showcases the process of printmaking and expands on its relationship to human connection. This is represented across borders a...
On Saturday, Columbia men’s soccer concluded its 2022 campaign with a 3-1 loss against No. 14 Cornell in Ithaca. The Lions concluded their season with a record of 1-9-6 and 0-3-4 in Ivy League competition. The team’s leading goalscorer was first-year midfielder Joao Lima, with 2 goals and 4 points.
Looking to claim their first and only win of the 2022 Ivy League campaign, the Lions traveled to Ithaca to face off against a top-15 Cornell side. They were unsuccessful, falling to the Big Red by a score of 3-1 and finishing their second consecutive season with only one non-conference win.
Columbia wrestling traveled to Virginia to compete in the Southeast Open, the first tournament of the season. With a pool of 346 wrestlers, Columbia saw 18 of its Lions have top-six finishes, including a trio of champions. Among them was junior Joshua Ogunsanya, who is returning after a season where he qualified for the NCAA tournament. Ogunsanya entered the match as the highest nationally ranked wrestler on Columbia’s squad. En route to his championship, Ogunsanya outscored his opponents 42-20, including a 3-1 sudden victory win in the semifinals.
In its first action on the mat for the 2022-23 season, Columbia wrestling crowned three champions at the Southeast Open tournament.
As rising rents and low enrollment leave child care centers struggling to stay open, New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed off on seven bills on Nov. 9 that aim to make child care more affordable and ease the burden on child care providers. The impacts of the bills, themselves a preliminary step toward universal child care, will take significant time to be felt in West Harlem, much of which is a child care desert.
Purple Circle Early Childhood Program in Morningside Heights has space for 68 children, but since the pandemic, the center has not been able to fill more than 50 of those seats at a time.
“They don’t patrol the neighborhood. They don’t talk. They don’t engage.”
Seven years after the implementation of Neighborhood Policing, residents of the 30th Precinct describe a police force that is absent, “standoffish,” and violent. Survey respondents rated their relationship with the NYPD a 2.1 out of 5 on average, and over 90 percent of the 76 respondents could not name a single officer in their precinct.
Seven years in, residents say the NYPD’s Neighborhood Policing program is failing West Harlem
The Barnard board of trustees released an update on the search for Barnard’s next president on Tuesday, which included a document outlining the priorities of the presidential search and the identified qualifications for potential candidates. The search committee identified “stellar academic credentials” and “emotional intelligence” as important qualifications for candidates.
The Barnard board of trustees released in an email Tuesday afternoon a document that will be used by potential candidates to learn about the role of the president and to gauge their fit for the college.
What is worth inking on your skin forever? For three Columbia football players, the answer is “a lot.” From the Virgin Mary to Naruto and Celtic knots to doodle hearts, their tattoos tell the tales of their lives, serving as a form of personal expression of permanence through pain. In three parts, Spectator explores each of their stories.
Part I: Lucas
Saturday’s victory against Penn came in dramatic fashion after five close sets and capped off Columbia’s Senior Night. Following a loss to Princeton the day before on Pride Night, the Lions ended their season with a homestand split.
All’s well that ends well, and the Columbia volleyball team made sure to finish the season with a win.
Andrew Heinrich, CC ’13, and Julian Richardson, CC ’14, Business ’21, SIPA ’21, have received the Gerald Sherwin Young Alumni Award. Every year, the award honors alumni from the last 10 years that have demonstrated extensive commitment to Columbia College.
The Columbia College Alumni Association recently granted its annual Gerald Sherwin Young Alumni Award to Andrew Heinrich, CC ’13, and Julian Richardson, CC ’14, Business ’21, SIPA ’21.
Students from the School of General Studies are demanding changes to financial aid packages, the conferral of diplomas, and the level of transparency of admissions and retention data. The movement Equality for GS has been organizing in support of these changes, writing an open letter to University administration and working with other student organizers.
Students from the School of General Studies are organizing a movement under the name Equality for GS, demanding that the University administration provide more equitable financial aid, issue Latin diplomas at General Studies graduation, and increase transparency regarding statistics on General Studi...
In their op-ed, UAW members and academic workers critique their parent union for preventing cross-local brainstorming and uneven resource distribution and call on members to vote for union leaders focused on building solidarity and sectoral organizing strategies in the upcoming UAW election.
The academic sector’s growing union density has recently been applauded by United Auto Workers President Ray Curry, who in an article for the Detroit ...
Wena Teng, CC ’25, discusses affirmative action in her new op-ed, writing, “The reality is, no matter how hard we work or however many SAT preparatory courses we sit through, access to higher education will not be equitable unless we redefine access through intersectionality and solidarity.”
In my sophomore year of high school, I wrote a paper arguing against affirmative action. Influenced by WeChat articles spread throughout Chinese immigrant group chats, oversimplified academic research, and traumatizing years of attending prep school for both the Specialized High Schools Admissions T...
In light of Barnard’s recent decision to make medication abortion available to students, Lorenzo Garcia, CC ’23, argues in his first op-ed that the discourse around abortion on campus is dogmatic and often stifles or antagonizes the voices of pro-life students.
“Many supporters of abortion at Columbia not only hold that abortion is good for women but also hold that opposing views should not merit public conversation. This presumption silently suppresses too many of us on the pro-life side at Columbia,” Garcia argues.
Many supporters of abortion at Columbia not only hold that abortion is good for women but also hold that opposing views should not merit public conversation. This presumption silently suppresses too many of us on the pro-life side at Columbia.
The State Historic Preservation Office announced a new program that provides homeowners of historic properties up to 20 percent and commercial owners up to 50 percent of the properties’ repair costs in tax credits. Motivated by the fight to preserve the historic character of West Harlem, this program provides even more protection than the previous program to preserve properties on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The program hopes to “manage the expense of taking care of the buildings which also safeguards [West Harlem residents’] homes,” Yuien Chin, executive director at Harlem One Stop, a community preservation organization, said.
In response to gentrification in West Harlem, small businesses and homeowners have worked to protect landmark sites that preserve the character of the neighborhood.
Student-Worker Solidarity hosted its first teach-in of the semester on South Lawn last Friday, reflecting on over 60 years of radical dissent from students at the University. The event, organized alongside the Barnard Organization of Soul & Solidarity, covered topics relating to Columbia’s history as the “Activist Ivy,” a moniker for Columbia since the 1960s.
Student-Worker Solidarity hosted its first teach-in of the semester on South Lawn last Friday, reflecting on over 60 years of radical dissent from students at the University.
Vincent Pinkney will not be tried for the stabbing of School of Engineering and Applied Science doctoral student Davide Giri in the foreseeable future. On Wednesday, Judge Maxwell Wiley committed Pinkney to the New York State Office of Mental Health, adjourning his trial indefinitely. The decision comes after Judge Wiley’s ruling on Oct. 26. that Pinkney is “not fit to proceed with trial.”
Vincent Pinkney will not be tried in the forseeable future for the stabbing of School of Engineering and Applied Science doctoral student Davide Giri. On Wednesday, Judge Maxwell Wiley committed Pinkney to the New York State Office of Mental Health. The decision comes after
Columbia fencing started the 2022-2023 season with a successful preseason tune-up at the Temple Open, sweeping all three gold medals in the women’s weapons and adding five more medals in the men’s competitions.
Columbia fencing won eight medals—including three gold medals in the three women’s weapons—at the Temple Open last Saturday, the team’s first action of the 2022-2023 season.
Columbia football will make the trip to Cambridge this weekend to take on a strong Harvard team. After struggling in the second half last week against Yale, the Lions look to snap their three-game losing streak and earn their first conference win of the season.
Columbia football will make the trip to Cambridge this weekend to take on one of the Ivy League’s best at Harvard.
Before he was a talk show host or a Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, Dr. Mehmet Oz was a surgeon, professor, and researcher at Columbia. But since the spring of 2022, Columbia has been quietly erasing Oz from its online presence. Is the University trying to erase its ties to Oz?
On an afternoon in early October 2021, Dr. Mehmet Oz of The Dr. Oz Show taught a lecture on the anatomy of the heart to medical students at Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The University awarded tenure to 56 faculty this year hailing from 14 schools, including the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Barnard. The faculty were received by Provost Mary Boyce at the first annual Newly Tenured Faculty Reception at Low Library earlier this month.
The University awarded tenure to 56 faculty this year, bringing the number of tenured faculty at Columbia up to 1,272.
Last week, men’s soccer faced off against La Salle in a midweek match, and then Yale for its last home match of the season. Although the Lions suffered a three-goal loss to La Salle, they managed to bounce back with their fourth draw of the season on Senior Night. Seniors Keenan Foley, Nic Jandeleit, Brian Timoney, and Max Gonzalez were honored before the match Saturday night.
“They’ve been challenged with so many things as a group right over the course of their time here, and they’ve done an amazing job of figuring out ways to just continue to take steps forward,” head coach Kevin Anderson said.
Columbia men’s soccer traveled to Philadelphia last week for a midweek fixture against La Salle University. After suffering a three-goal loss, the Lions (1-7-6, 0-1-4 Ivy) bounced back against Yale on Saturday with their fourth draw of Ivy League play on Senior Night.
Columbia women’s volleyball lost both road games against Brown and Yale this weekend and are still looking for a second in-conference win as they enter their last two weeks of the season. Although the Lions improved their performance against the Bears in their second match-up, pushing the game to four sets instead of three, the Bulldogs crushed them in their match on Saturday, winning in straight sets without a particularly fierce threat from the Lions. Entering their penultimate week of the season, the Lions are looking for their second in-conference win.
Columbia women’s volleyball continues to struggle as the Lions conceded their two games against Brown and Yale last weekend. They are still searching for their second conference win as their season enters its penultimate week.
Norris Pride, a sophomore in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, has died. A gathering in memory of Pride will be held Tuesday from 4:30 to 6 pm in 401 Lerner Hall. Counseling and Psychological Services has extended today’s hours to 10 p.m.
Norris Pride, a sophomore in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, has died, SEAS Dean Shih-Fu Chang announced in an email to the community Tuesday morning.
Join Ortomare Ristorante Pizzeria at 994 Columbus Avenue
Pizza Margherita $10, Tuesday - Friday, 4-6pm
Before Democratic activist Jack Cocchiarella, CC ’25, transferred to Columbia College, he was accused of r**e and sexual assault at Dartmouth by various social media accounts. Cocchiarella denies the allegations and claims that they are a response to a viral video in which he confronted conservative Rep. Madison Cawthorn at a Dartmouth College Republicans event. He is now suing a current Dartmouth student, who has admitted to owning some of the accounts, for defamation in an attempt to “finally clear his name.”
Democratic activist Jack Cocchiarella faced multiple sexual assault allegations at Dartmouth. Now he’s at Columbia—and suing for defamation.
BREAKING: Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital have come to a $165 million agreement with the remaining 147 former patients of Robert Hadden who reported instances of sexual abuse or misconduct after settling for $71.5 million with 79 others last year.
https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2022/10/07/columbia-newyork-presbyterian-hospital-to-pay-165-million-to-former-hadden-patients/
Ortomare Ristorante Pizzeria, located in the Columbia neighborhood, at 994 Columbus Avenue, is offering a special promotion to Columbia students and staff, 10% off the bill. Ortomare serves wood fire brick oven pizza with a smoky flavor and healthy toppings. Ortomare serves homemade pasta, fish, meat, veggies, homemade desserts and also has a full bar. Buon appetito!
BREAKING: Masking will no longer be required in Columbia classrooms beginning Oct. 1, senior administrators announced in an email to Columbia affiliates this morning.
Masking will no longer be required in classrooms beginning Oct. 1, senior administrators announced in an email to affiliates Wednesday morning. The requirement will also no longer apply on Columbia shuttles. Barnard’s COVID-19 restrictions, including its mask policy, will remain in effect.
Jane Watson, CC ’22, who spent her years on campus producing and performing original music, passed away Monday at the age of 23. “When she walks into a room, I feel like everyone feels seen,” Gigi Russo, BC ’22, the director of the last Varsity Show, said of Watson in an April interview.
Jane Watson, CC ’22, who spent her years on campus producing and performing original music and graduated with honors last spring, passed away Monday. She was 23.
The presidential search committee offered a glimpse on Tuesday into what thousands of staff, alumni, and students are looking for in University President Lee Bollinger’s replacement, and this week also revealed the makeup of four subcommittees advising the search.
The presidential search committee on Tuesday offered a first-time glimpse into what thousands of University staff, alumni, and students are looking for in University President Lee Bollinger’s replacement. The committee also revealed for the first time this week the rosters of the four subcommittee...
Two years after the Columbia University Marching Band dissolved due to allegations of sexual harassment and racism, the University has announced the creation of a new band, directed by a Columbia employee that “will provide a fun, engaging, inclusive and family-friendly atmosphere at select Columbia Athletics contests and events.”
Columbia Athletics is launching a new, University-led spirit band to perform at sporting events, the athletic department announced on its website. The announcement comes nearly two years after the Columbia University Marching Band
“That’s when a question hit me: Could I ever exist on and off the field as an openly gay man and still make friends?” In the first piece of the second volume of his column “Sex in the City,” Tristan Espinoza, CC ’25, recounts his time as a q***r man on the Columbia men’s rugby team. From wanting to quit and avoid being himself, to feeling “embraced, accepted, and protected” for who he is, Espinoza depicts what it means to be authentically himself and urges incoming first-years to do the same.
Read While Listening To: “Summer 91 (Looking Back)” by Noizu
“I realized that belonging, finding your own community, and calling a place your home starts with investing in it.” In her Advice from the Editor, Editorial Page Editor Senem Yurdakul reflects on what her time working in Opinion taught her about belonging and advises incoming first-year students to invest in their community to make it their home: “There is no competition or quota. You do not have to prove anything to anyone to feel deserving of your place here. All you have to do is realize that this space is yours to claim, and yours to transform.”
Dear incoming first-year students,
“You’re here on the same merit as anyone else; your opinions, thoughts, and emotions are just as valid as theirs are,” Colin Roedl advises incoming Black students in an op-ed dedicated to sharing the lessons he learned over the course of his first year at Columbia. “Walk confidently through the halls of Hamilton. Ask every question imaginable in Frontiers of Science. Although I can’t deny that Columbia is a white-dominated space, I can say that we have the power to change that.”
I came to Columbia apprehensive about my identity. I graduated high school on a military base in Germany with an all-Black friend group, which was often the only semblance of normalcy within our abnormal high school experience. My former safe place was now scattered throughout the world, and I felt....
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