A conversation with Michele Moody-Adams By Isaiah Bennett A widely-renowned moral and political philosopher, and both the first woman and the first African-American to serve as Dean of Columbia College, Michele Moody-Adams sat down with Isaiah Bennett, CC ’20, to talk about education, identity, and progress. BW: I was watching this lecture you gave on theory versus practice in philosophy, it was actually the course-wide lecture that you did for Contemporary Civilization in 20

Now Open at 6 a.m. on Sundays Now look here fella, The Lord’s Day never gave me any trouble. None at all. I’d be up the there, right above the shop The cars would ebb in and out with the tide, Which I guess makes sense. All we really sell are towels and fishing lines. You see me and Liz sit above the shop there And find real peace in our sips of tea and sleepy decade-old arguments. It was real holy, like the fookin’ temple veil. I don’t know. Maybe in some pathetic w

These excerpts were culled from documents left on Columbia’s lab computers. We encourage our readers to submit their own digitalia finds to us, via email, at bwgossip@columbia.edu. i. In the event that the Student Body President is unable to perform his/her duties, the following steps are to be taken: ii. The member of the Executive Board in the year of highest academic standing will take on the duties. iii. If multiple members of the Executive Board satisfy the previous requ

For graduate students, #MeToo moment not easy to come by By Helena Ong During the 2017 November plenary of the Columbia University Senate, Chair of the Executive Committee Sharyn O’Halloran remarked that academia had its own Harvey Weinsteins. In the context of #MeToo, the phrase seemed a call to action. And where better to sound the call than at Columbia, which Senator Suzanne Goldberg in a different plenary described as “the national leader on these issues.” This is true, f

The impeachment was a surprise, even to dedicated ESC watchers By Ufon Umanah “Presidential candidate Lu appeared to carry the group with her background as VP of Finance and had the most concrete understanding of each individual role within the executive board,” read the Columbia Daily Spectator’s endorsement of Aida Lu for the position of President of the Engineering Student Council. Indeed, there was little about her that the Spectator could criticize. Lu started off as a f

A look at Columbia’s actual underground music scene By Ruthie Gottesman Outside, it is hailing and wind is howling on this wintery Friday night.Inside, though, the warm red glow of the light emanating from the basement of St. Paul’s Chapel invites lovers of music to gather for warmth at the Postcrypt Coffeehouse, and this is exactly where I find myself. The room is small— a plaque that hangs on the wall declares that the maximum occupancy to be 30 people—and people squeeze th

From the Travel Desk: A jaunt to Manhattanville Chaotically refined, delicately concrete, intimately enormous: the new Manhattanville campus fits each of these descriptions, and the journey to get there presents an invigorating opportunity for exploration of Morningside Heights. While the vibrancy of our neighborhood cannot be understated, every Monday and Wednesday, my endurance and stamina undergo the ultimate test. With only 15 minutes to get from Milbank on 119th street t

In which our hero struggles to write a thesis ‘It’s all dribble,’ thought Verily, as he crumpled up another piece of vellum parchment. ‘It’s all scattered, discombobulated, anarchic dripple.’ With an arch toss, he discarded his document high into the musty air of his Riverside abode and procured another sheet on which to commence his writing. Meanwhile, as our hero muttered arcane expletives under his breath, his scattered, discarded thoughts tumbled down onto the varnished w

Affirmative By Isaiah Bennett Are you fucking kidding me? I March… so hard. You know what March means, don’t you? Shit might as well be synonymous with spring break! Oh baby, I’m talking body shots, beaches, da boys, and blackouts. I can’t go into details because I certainly can’t remember them, am I right? Of course the experiences may now seem fuzzy, but the month and all nonetheless transformative. There are of course naysayers, some might call my stance vapid, but I prefe

by Otillie Lighte From the get-go, it is clear to me that Josh Zweig, SEAS ’18, is much more organized than myself, and much busier. Teaching assistant for Advanced Programming and Computers and Society, Josh is a senior caught up in computer science, but, as I learned during our talk, he is also interested in the humanities. Zweig came to Columbia knowing he would major in Computer Science, but became a teaching assistant for some of the department’s most challenging courses

A wooden desk fades in from black, and a gloved hand delicately places a red rose in frame, forming an ominous triangle alongside a magnifying glass and burned out candle. The camera drifts to a leather bound book, where the words “A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY” glint golden on the cover. The hand turns the pages with all the self seriousness of the ghoulish Victorian mystery from which the video takes inspiration, finally revealing it’s title: “Murder in the Stacks.” Not to be c

The Major League Baseball home opener for my hometown team is April 5th this year. The Yankees take to the diamond on April 2nd—who cares about the Mets, but probably around then as well. For whatever reason, I feel compelled to point out the start of Major League Baseball as the herald of Spring. I would not even consider myself to be a huge baseball fan, but nostalgic memories of bleacher seats on warm nights always come up around this time of year, as school work picks up

When I go to meet Julia Lubey, BC ’18, they are seated on the second floor of the Diana center, fully consumed in their work, just like the rest of campus in midterm season. Amidst the crowd of busy workers, I can spot the quarter notes scribbled on the pages that cover their table. Their over-sized, over-ear headphones are fitting for any prominent radio DJ. Lubey is a co-general manager for WBAR, whose love for radio is matched only by her humility. They tell me that they’v