Posts Tagged ‘Manhattanville’
Housing through the ages
This week housing registration began. Meaning, the war on housing has begun. You may find yourself wishing that there weren’t so many people around, so you could improve your odds at that cushy single. However, thanks to the Spectator
Archives, it is clear Columbia has a long history of housing woes. To put things into perspective, here are some of the highlights:
In 1978, this is how Barnard divided up the city for housing placement.
Looks like their uncanny ability to make sense of student housing lives on.
The slurry wall is done, and other news in Manhattanville
Things are moving along at Columbia’s Manhattanville campus, as Jillian Kumagai tells us in yesterday’s paper.
The Jerome L. Greene Science Center and the Lenfest Center for the Arts are on track to finish by 2016, and administrators are hopeful they can say the same for the academic conference center. The three will be the first buildings you’ll see as you walk north on Broadway from the Morningside campus.
Below, check out a video construction update. Think you know what a slurry wall is? You probably don’t, but even if you do, you’ll learn all about the steps the construction team is taking here:
In case you missed it: This week in news
The biggest news of the week is definitely that I busted out my winter coat and scarf. Besides that, though, there was a lot going around campus and the city. In case you missed it, here’s a quick breakdown of this week’s top stories.
Some administrator/student conflicts were resolved this week, or at least worked toward resolution. Student leaders in the arts said they had a productive conversation with Melissa Smey, the director of the Arts Initiative and Miller Theatre, about what they described as a disengagement between arts administrators and students’ creative pursuits. GS administrators said they were working to expand housing options for students, who are not guaranteed housing. And Nightline, the anonymous peer counseling hotline, reopens tonight after an administrative review kept it closed for the first month and a half of the semester.
As long as we’re talking about nightly news, Harlem played host to the city’s first nighttime farmers market on Thursday evening—jazz musicians and pumpkin patch included. More »
PrezBo on politics, college rankings, and dean searches
University President Lee Bollinger loves to talk about Manhattanville and globalization—a fact he acknolwedged in an interview last week with Spectator.
But he also dished on why college rankings (kinda) matter, what he’s looking for in the new dean for SEAS, and which presidential candidate’s candidates policies would be better from an academic standpoint. Some highlights from the interview:
- There’s a presidential election a month away, in case you didn’t know, and while Bollinger would not express his personal views on the election, he said he thought that the policies of Democrat Barack Obama, CC ’83, were generally more supportive of student loans, funding for research, affirmative action, and other issues in academia and education administration than those of his Republican opponent Mitt Romney.
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The leeway that the Department of Education and Department of Justice granted admissions offices last December with regard to the educational benefits of diversity is something that “you would not expect to come out of the Romney administration,” Bollinger said.
- Many people are skeptical of college rankings, Bollinger included. But he said that it is important that all of Columbia’s schools are in the top 10 in the country. “I think these are crude ways of saying something that’s pretty deep and profound,” Bollinger said. “You do not want to run your institution according to what U.S. News and World Reports says. More »
Harlem expansion plans cause new disputes
In today’s paper, Christian Zhang and Avantika Kumar detail how one gas station owner, Carmie Elmore, is fighting the city‘s West Harlem redevelopment plans, in order to keep his property.
According to Mr. Elmore, the conflict boils down to a disagreement on who exactly controls the 110th Street station and how Mr. Elmore should be compensated for his land:
[Mr. Elmore] acknowledged that his initial contract allowed the city to buy back his gas station for urban renewal purposes, but he said that plan expired in 2008—and as a result, he and his partners fully own the property.
The city offered Elmore the original purchase price of the property plus the cost of improvements he has made since then, rather than its current market price, he said
Though this latest squabble is the result of a city-led initiative, and not related to Columbia’s development plans, it is eerily reminiscent a series of legal problems Columbia has had as it also evicts long time land owners in order to facilitate the University’s various planned expansions. More »
In case you missed it: This week in news
Let’s be honest: You probably weren’t focused on the news around or near campus this week. Between settling back into college life and going to your first classes, you’ve been busy.
At Spectator’s News Desk, though, we’re all about news, all the time, and this week was no exception. So, in case you missed it, here’s a quick breakdown of this week’s top stories.
Financially, it was a good week for Columbia—administrators announced a $25 million donation to the Business School, most of which will help pay for its new buildings in Manhattanville. (Those buildings, by the way, probably won’t be finished until 2020.) The University is still getting sued over the direction of its Italian Academy, although the plaintiffs aren’t actually asking for any money. More »
Columbia’s plan for Manhattanville receives LEED Platinum certification
The U.S. Green Building Council has awarded Columbia’s Manhattanville plan LEED Platinum status—the highest designation that can be awarded under the program.
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the standard benchmark used in architecture and structural engineering to identify excellence in sustainable design practices. The Platinum certification comes in LEED’s Neighborhood Development category, a designation that recognizes environmentally friendly design of entire neighborhoods, rather than specific buildings.
From an urban planning perspective, this is a fairly significant milestone, not only for the University: The Manhattanville campus is the first LEED-ND Platinum certification in New York City and for a university campus nationally. More »
Bollinger on Manhattanville, Core endowment, NYPD, and the V-Show
Remember that time Spectator talked with University President Lee Bollinger the other week? We spent so much time talking about the rescheduling of GS Class Day that we had a follow-up meeting to talk with him about some other big issues, including funding for Manhattanville, the endowment of the Core Curriculum, spying on Muslim students by the NYPD, and attending the Varsity Show. Highlights below!
- Although Bollinger speculated a year ago that the cost of the new Business School in Manhattanville would be about $400 million, he said in the interview that that price tag had gone up, as construction estimates often fluctuate as more details of the design are nailed down. The extra funds would not be provided by the University, though, but through additional fundraising. Recently, Leon Cooperman, Business ’67, donated $25 million to the construction.
- We asked Bollinger if he had seen the Varsity Show this year, or if he wanted to. Although he didn’t make it, he said, “I do think about it actually and I’d like to do it. I mean, for some reason, and this is silly, but I don’t get it on my calendar, or I’m travelling, but I’d like to.” We recounted the plot and he seemed amused, so V119 creative team: get an appointment in the presidential calendar early! More »
Not too hot, not too cold
Happy April 25th, everyone! You shouldn’t need much more than a light jacket when you leave your room–the weather today will be rainy and in the high ’50′s.
Read this: While the School of General Studies starts a fund to make sure students’ families can attend graduation, Barnard raises $2.2 million for financial aid at its annual gala. [News]
Know this: Lend Lease, the company managing the first phase of construction in Manhattanville, will pay up to $56 million for defrauding clients over a period of ten years. [News]
Here’s more: Seniors continue to share their experiences at school and Spectator. Today’s contributors are Embry Owen, Devin Briski, and Amanda Cormier. [Opinion]
In this week’s Canon, writers answer the question, “Should Columbia seek to develop good character, not just intellect?” [Opinion]
Adorable children and teacup pigs ahead
It’s late, you’re up. Can you believe that finals will be over in three weeks?
Actual news:
Uh-oh: Allegations that Columbia has hired sketchy contractors for its Manhattanville project arise. Two Construction, which is one of Columbia’s most important clients, is said to be charged with larceny and falsification of records. Like I said, uh oh.
Higher education struggles: As if finals aren’t enough for us to question if college is worth paying for, NY Times writer David Brooks says that some colleges don’t teach students effectively. More »