30 Rock had a live episode last night. Maybe it’s just because of my well-documented admiration for Tina Fey, or because I once wore a hat with a piece of masking tape that said “Night Cheese” on it to her book signing, or because most people I meet here seem to harbor a secret or overt crush on Alec Baldwin, but a lot of the lines struck me as especially relevant to this moment in Columbia’s history.

“Glamour, excitement, what we today would call alcoholism.”
To the senior class. This one’s pretty self-explanatory.

“Nine out of ten doctors surveyed said, ‘Who is this? Why are you calling so late?’”
To everyone who works for the Senior Fund. Again, this one is fairly obvious. Let’s move on.

“But my way is cheaper, and you only have to work two weeks out of the year!”
To the University Senate, who passed a resolution recommending public course evaluations today. It was their sixth resolution passed this year, and the vote had the largest turnout for the 2011-12 term—56 people voted in a body that has 108 seats. Democracy inaction!

“Oh my god. He’s gonna die in there.” OR “Are you giving me an ultimatum?”
To Feniosky Peña-Mora, (still) Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. If Dean Peña-Mora faces a no-confidence vote from faculty at May 9, I find it hard to imagine that he will be able to continue, despite the efforts of some Spectator online readers. I don’t know much about the inner workings of SEAS faculty meetings, but I know that such a public conflict between professors and the dean can only weaken the dean’s position. And that’s a troubling prospect for whoever is in charge at SEAS, given the implications of Dean Moody-Adams’ departure and the McKinsey report that precipitated it.

“Nothing brings our country together like live television.”
To the CC Student Council, Engineering Student Council, and Barnard SGA, for contributing to the effort to help GS families make it to GS Class Day. As my colleague Caroline noted much more eloquently the other day, it’s not only heartwarming, but also quite significant, to see this level of solidarity and material cooperation among the members of all four undergraduate schools here. Which brings me to…

“GASP.”
There’s a weird feeling on campus—including what I call “online campus,” which consists mostly of Bwog and Spec comments and a few Facebook groups—that we’re actually creating something resembling a legitimate public sphere of students. One unintended consequence of the Graduation Wars has been more students coming together to support the people in our community who have been unfairly maligned, whether by a small group of trolls or by the university’s administration itself. I know these things come in waves, and that this feeling may be fleeting. But right now there’s a sense that students are starting to imagine a university of involved, connected, supportive people.

I want to go to there.

Sam Klug is a senior majoring in History and is a bit of an old soul at 23. He even enjoys listening to old, soul music on a regular basis. We will miss him dearly next year!