Gray Matters
considering rape on columbia's campus
T he September 2007 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine looked at first glance like most other issues of that glossy, sex-drenched magazine. A tanned, moisturized Jessica Alba pouted on the cover, next to hot pink text: “His #1 Sex Fantasy,” “Feel Sex More Intensely! A Guide to Your Body During the Deed.” It wasn’t all so glamorous: a smaller headline lamented, “My Boyfriend Didn’t Change His Boxers for 3 Months!” The life of a Cosmo woman isn’t all orgasms and mascara, after all. Sometimes laundry rears its ugly head.
The real surprise was tucked in the bottom right corner,…
Malaise on Campus
what prefrosh don't know about freshman year
For the past two weekends, Columbia’s campus has been inundated with wide-eyed high school seniors, all here for Days on Campus. Their schedules have been crammed full of bus tours through New York, activity fairs, campus tours, performances in Low Library, a special preview of the Varsity Show, and countless other activities. It’s Columbia’s chance to show prefrosh just how fun the University can be, and according to Vincenzo, they’re succeeding.
Jessica Marinaccio, dean of undergraduate admissions, says that about 30 percent of accepted students head to Morningside Heights every year to participate in Days on Campus.…
The Manhattanville Project
one writer and three photographers traveled above 125th street to see how manhattanville really feels about columbia's expansion
State of the Stage
the great white way vs. regional theater
To appreciate the power and scope of New York theater, we needn’t look any further than recent history. On the first day of what would be a 19-day strike that hit all but seven commercial houses, angry patrons, stoic house managers, empowered stage hands, and a few bleary-eyed young stars demonstrated Broadway’s place in the Big Apple. In an online statement released by Charlotte St. Martin, executive director for the League of American Theaters & Producers, it was reported that the strike would cost the industry nearly $17 million a day—an impact of show-stopping proportions.
When I…
Shaking the Invisible Hand
jeffrey sachs sustains world interest
Jeffrey Sachs thinks it’s about time the study of economics—and the U.S. government, for that matter—gets a makeover. “I’ve been trying to suggest that economics itself needs to expand its vision considerably if it’s going to be useful,” he explained, when he sat down with The Eye to discuss the ultimately hopeful message of his new book, Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet.
Though the book looks to the future, it can also help us deconstruct misconceptions of the past—and not just about our approach to sustainable development but about the man behind the term.
…This Charming Man
welcome spring with an assortment of bright ethnic prints, flower appliqué, sheer details, and the best luxury accessory of all—
Seizing the Initiative
what the community principles statement means for columbia
“Columbia University is a community of students, faculty, alumni, staff and visitors,” the Community Principles Statement begins dryly. It’s a pretty uncontroversial preamble as they go, but the 159 words that follow—along with the two-year effort spent on one of the school’s more enigmatic and quietly controversial projects—seem to engender a bit less agreement.
Across almost two dozen interviews conducted with current and former student leaders, the statement was labeled “a set of principles we can all gather around,” “an agenda by administrators,” a catalyst “for respectful dialogue,” “sterilized ideas of feeling implemented by skilled bureaucrats,” a…
Record Numbers
A pictorial guide to the best and strangest places to find vinyl in Manhattan
“So I asked to take this guy Bob’s picture, and he insisted upon taking his hair out of his raggedy-ass ponytail and putting dolls on his shoulders.”- Staff Photographer Molly Crossin
Bob’s Bleecker Street Records (118 W. Third Street)
Due to higher rent prices and the prevalence of digital downloads, many Lower East Side record stores have gone the way of Footlight, pictured here.
Foodlight Records (113 E. 12 Street)
“Our problem is from the real estate…
Fashion Week Fall 2008
Carmen Marc Valvo
With many designers reverting back to a more lady-like and demure aesthetic, it came as no surprise that Carmen Marc Valvo’s Fall 2008 line drew inspiration from old Hollywood glamour. Lingerie inspired pieces could be seen throughout the collection in corseted gowns and satin cocktail dresses. The line as a whole was beautiful though at times repetitive. All of the cocktail dresses were draped in slimmer proportions eschewing the prominent trend of volume of the past few seasons. While the overall result was a stream of well-executed evening wear, the…
Sundance Rundown
columbia's presence in park city
I’m at the Columbia University reception at the Sundance Film Festival, and a handsome, scruffy-looking fellow in a Ramones-worthy leather jacket asks me to help him get a drink. When I oblige, he lets me in on a secret—he’s crashing Columbia’s party. A self-proclaimed free-loader (though also an actor, as if that’s surprising), he boasts that he also crashed NYU/Tisch’s reception earlier today—but he thinks that Columbia’s party has a much better ambience, crowd, and cocktails. His comment could be seen as a gauge of Columbia’s presence at Sundance this year—the achievements of students, alumni, and faculty have gained…
The Active Voice
why columbia grads choose the picket over the podium
The only thing America has heard about presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s time at Columbia is that he doesn’t want to talk about it. He rarely mentions his time at the University. Even though he’s been invited by several wide-eyed and eager senior class presidents in search of a graduation speaker, he hasn’t been back to hobnob since he graduated.
When I placed a call to one of his many press secretaries, she was surprised herself at his lack of enthusiasm for the Light Blue. “He hasn’t gone back to Columbia? You mean at all?…
She’s Lost Control
Last spring, Deira Inouye, SEAS ’09, went to the Health Services at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR expecting business as usual. Every three months, Inouye went to receive her supply of birth control, as she had done for the past two years. She was shocked to find that there was virtually nothing left in the college’s dispensary. “I was going into them [Health Services] to get birth control,” Inouye recalls. “I was only going in every three months, so nobody warned me about the price increase. When I went in during the middle of spring semester there…
She’s Lost Control
Last spring, Deira Inouye, SEAS ’09, went to the Health Services at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR expecting business as usual. Every three months, Inouye went to receive her supply of birth control, as she had done for the past two years. She was shocked to find that there was virtually nothing left in the college’s dispensary. “I was going into them [Health Services] to get birth control,” Inouye recalls. “I was only going in every three months, so nobody warned me about the price increase. When I went in during the middle of…
Interdisciplinary Action
It’s a hot, sticky day in early September and the Kent lecture hall is much too small for the growing crowd inside. Anthropology professor Mahmood Mamdani’s undergraduate course, Major Debates in the Study of Africa, is meeting for the first time and every seat is filled. People without seats crouch or lean against all four walls of the room.
You could dismiss the huge turnout as part of the course shopping rush. But Mamdani’s class isn’t the only popular course on Africa. History professor Gregory Mann, who teaches Main Currents in African History and sections of the…
Filling Shapiro’s Shoes
Every three weeks or so in a secret location off-campus, four tenured members of the Barnard faculty, a Barnard dean, two Barnard students, two Barnard parents, and several influential alumnae are meeting for four hours. They’re picking Barnard’s next president.
We’ll never know who is being reviewed as a potential candidate or the precise reason why a certain candidate’s résumé is being placed on the “no” pile at the end of each meeting. The process is highly secretive, but the committee has given the Barnard community the chance to voice feedback through five forums this September—one each…