An investigation into Columbia Daily Spectator reveals no staff constitution or written HR policy When the 143rd Managing Board of the Columbia Daily Spectator was announced in a post on their website on Dec. 8, one position was noticeably absent from the new board: sports editor. That is because there is not currently a sports…
Introducing the 25th Editorial Board
With the turn of the calendar year, we introduce the Editorial Board of the 25th volume of The Blue and White
Postcard from Morningside, December 2018
Postcard by Jennifer Bi
Nature’s Invisible Hand
A conversation with Paul E. OlsenBy Mary Elizabeth Dawson Paul E. Olsen is the Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia. Olsen currently teaches Dinosaurs and the History of Life, but his research focuses primarily on the evolution of continental ecosystems. He is particularly interested in mass extinction events and…
Letter From the Editor, December 2018
You think you know someone until it comes time to buy them a Christmas gift. You’re frantically browsing Oprah Winfrey’s Amazon gift guide, realizing that you actually have no idea what the perfect gift would be because you actually might not know this person well at all. And though Oprah probably does not know your…
Strangers in Their Own Homes
Not all residents in 620 go to BarnardBy Ursula Murray-Bozeman When Victoria Sullivan moved into 620 W 116th St. in 1965, it was like any other residential building in Morningside Heights. But when Barnard bought the building just a year later, things started to change. “They, early on, were very aggressive in wanting people out…
SoHo’s Siltiest Spot
A look at De Maria’s perplexing Earth RoomBy Gaby Edwards A room full of dirt? Art? I asked myself as I made my way down to SoHo. My destination was the Earth Room, an interior sculpture installation by Walter de Maria that has been on the second floor of a building on Wooster Street since…
Measure for Measure, December 2018
Black Coffee She served the coffee black to me, he said. And I heard the cicadas hissing from outside and the slurp of his noodles and I stared at the stained rim of his mug, which was printed with Japanese I wondered if the cement hissed, if there was an audible rise of smoke off…
Scrambling for Funds
The culture and controversy of Columbia’s marching bandBy Grace Adee and Billie Forester The Columbia University Marching Band may sardonically call itself “the cleverest band in the world,” but lately it has become one of the most underfunded: in October, the administration announced its decision to cut $15,000 of the organization’s $25,000 budget for next…
Campus Gossip, December 2018
We approve Columbia, in its good judgement, has given the space formerly belonging to the Columbia Daily Spectator to the Alumni Development Office and the School of Professional Studies. We disapprove Someone decided to play Kerbal Space Program in the back of a Columbia lecture with an external mouse, going boldly where no student has…