World leaders descend on Columbia

As world leaders descended on the UN this week, some heads of state found time to speak at Columbia as well.

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner kicked off the events on Monday in Low Library. Her speech focused on the economy, but also touched on media freedoms in South America, as well as the political upheaval in Honduras.

She told the crowd, "The day that President Zelaya was arrested in his pajamas in his house, put on a helicopter, which also landed on an American military base in Honduras, before being deposited in Costa Rica, the main media channels in Honduras were showing cartoons...

I believe that really freedom of the press and freedom of expression cannot be held by big corporations, and that the big corporations cannot own the media corporations...

I believe that liberty of expression and of thought, should be in charge of their rightful owners, which are the citizens, and who have a right to know all the information."

However, there was one question which the president found difficult. Asked about the possibility of a player making it to the national team, she responded, "This is the hardest question I have received in my life."

The same evening, Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland and UN official spoke to an audience at the Italian Academy.

Much of the address focused on past issues he had dealt with, but the former diplomat also spoke about Turkey's struggle to enter the EU.

He told the crowd, "I have been very critical with my European friends. I say, "where is our self-confidence? Why can't we accept Turkey, which plays a very important role, and...if we can't get Turkey into Europe, what sort of message does it send to the Muslim world?"

Atassari also stressed the need to engage with Hamas. He posed the question, "How credible are we, if we say "sorry, wrong guys won; we don't want to talk to you." It can't be that way."

On Tuesday, attendees gathered in Low Rotunda to hear the Thai prime minister speak about his country, post-crisis.

The prime minister's speech focused on the future of Thailand. "We have to remind ourselves", he said, "in these days where we tend to be faced with day-to-day problems, sometimes even day-to-day crises and forget the bigger picture, and I believe that you have to know where you want to go before you know what you have to do."

The session's moderator, Joseph Stiglitz heaped praise on the prime minister for his economic acumen, commenting to the audience that he "didn't think there are many political leaders who had to suffer through reading through [his] papers on credit rationing and who really understand the limits of market fundamentalism."

Boris Tadic of Serbia also spoke on Wednesday. His speech, as well as the question and answer session, focused on the Kosovo conflict and reconcilaition. "The most important contribution we can make to securing regional stability is increasing efforts at regional reconciliation. Reconciliation corrects the twisted, false view of the other side. The Kosovo UDI case is currently before the court. let me emphasize that its deliberations should not be prejudged and its work should not be obstructed."

Kofi Annan, former UN secretary general and Nobel peace prize winner, spoke to a packed house on Wednesday. His speech focused on climate change, and its effect on other pressing social issues.

Before showing a video to the crowd, he told them, "Climate change is of course not the only grave threat we face. Conflict, famine, disease, the endless scandal of over a billion people living on less than $1 a day should spur all of us to action. Each of these conflicts will be made worse by climate change.

In advance of the Copenhagen meeting in December, [we must] create the political momentum required for complex and detailed negotiations to succeed. By success, I mean establishing a strong political framework for ambitious, cooperative action to confront climate change."

The new prime minister of Nepal, Madhav Kumar Nepal spoke to students on Wednesday. Although the prime minister did speak about the economy and the integration of Mao dissidents into the democratic process, a large portion of his speech was taken over with praise for Columbia.

He pointed out that "Columbia is one of the few universities in the United States where there are several faculty members who are specialists on Nepal. [Columbia] even offer[s] Nepali language courses, and many Nepalese have acquired quality higher education from this great university."

Guyana's president, Baharrat Jagdeo wrapped up the week's events on Friday morning although he departed from tradition, telling the audience, "I have deliberately stayed away from a prepared statement, so that we can have an interaction, so that we can learn from each other today."

The president devoted his address to global warming and the need for developed and developing nations to work together to reverse the effects of climate change.

Of the ongoing talks he said, "It is because of a set of underlying principles or mistrusts between the developed world and the developing world, and this lack of concord between the two groups is affecting the negotiation."

President Bharrat outlined the four primary causes of climate chance, but focused his attention on deforestation, explaining "about 20% of greenhouse gases come from deforestation and forest degradation. That's more than the entire European Union emission; that's more than all the vehicles across the world. So, it's a big source of emission. We also know that it's the cheapest abatement solution and that it can deliver immediate results."

Although most of the world focused on the events at the General Assembly in midtown, the world leaders forum allowed Columbia students to widen their perspective on global affairs.

Westboro Baptist Church pickets JTS

Members of Westboro Baptist Church picketed Jewish Theological Seminary at 122nd Street among other sites in New York City on Thursday afternoon. The protest at JTS focused on the purported support for homosexuality by Jewish institutions. Founded in 1955 in Topeka, Kansas by Fred Phelps, Westboro Bapist Church has gained national attention for its controversial protest activities. The group frequently pickets funerals of military servicemembers as a means to protest against openly allowing homosexuality in the United States. Further, members of Westboro Baptist Church target other high profile events that they consider as "disobeying the word of god". Various Columbia and JTS groups, including the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, protested in opposition to the group's radical/controversial views by silently holding up placards.

Employers and job-seekers meet at career fair

Columbia's annual Fall Career Fair was held on Friday at Roone Arledge Auditorium. Columbia students and alumni from both undergraduate and graduate schools gathered to meet representatives from industries ranging from finance and media to consumer packaged goods to learn more about internship and job opportunities. Next Friday, the Center for Career Education will be hosting an inaugural International Opportunities Fair in partnership with the Office of Global Programs.

Campus clubs adjust to budget cuts

A handful of New York businesses have been closed, the city’s unemployment rate has already exceeded ten percent, and Wall Street is a mess. Are student groups at Columbia going to start feeling the pressure of the bad economy this year?

"The total amount of money going to student groups has been pretty steady," explained Scott St. Marie, President of ABC. "Where the economic situation has affected, however, is that it has really had an impact on local businesses and on corporations in New York and this means that it is a lot harder to get big Wall Street investment banks or an airline company or the local sandwich shop to donate either money or goods to a student group. What that does is that it means they have to stretch the budgets they get from ABC or the other governing boards a lot further."

"I know Community Impact was having a tough time because their corporate sponsorships have gone down drastically," expressed ESC Vice President of Inner Group, Gunnar Aassen.

Joffre Andandre, Treasurer of the Korean Student's Association, reflected upon the effects the budget cuts will have on his club. "It’s a huge impact on the group. It really limits what we can do in terms of planning and programming. It will really limit our culture show this year."

"Even though this is the beginning of the year right now we are already feeling the pinch because of the economic downturn. Even for Lunar Gala later on in the spring we don’t expect much money from corporate sponsorships."

"We get the same response from every single council that they don’t have much money to give out, especially ABC saying that they are not going to be responding to any appeals this year."

"It definitely affects a lot of our grants because most of the funding we get is from corporations and the fund raising events are actually for publicity. So if we don’t get enough of the funds and the funds mainly go towards our spring break trip, the international service trip to Brazil, then it mainly affects how much help we can actually offer these countries."

SGA first-year presidential elections end in tie

Preliminary election results for the SGA class of 2013 are now in. Candidates were allowed to use Facebook, email, and 75 fliers per ticket to publicize their campaign. With a little over 52% of the class heading to the polls, Rachel Ferrari was elected Vice President, Emily Feinstein was elected secretary and Anya Whelan-Smith selected as treasurer. In a surprising twist to the elections, three candidates for first-year president received the same percentage of votes, so a run-off election will be necessary, beginning on Tuesday, September 29, at 9 A.M., until Thursday, October 1, at 9 A.M.

Medical Center, SEIU near end of contract negotiations

Columbia's Medical Center administration and members of the local 1199 Service Employees International Union are nearing the end of long-drawn-out contract negotiations. Since their previous contract expired at the end of March, the Washington Heights medical campus employees have been engaged in fiery negotiations with the administration to come up with a new contract. Major points of contention involve serious concessions requested by the University in areas like childcare subsidies, job security and health care benefits.

First-years vie for Student Council positions

Election fliers litter the walls and bulletin boards of first year dorms as freshmen candidates bid for seats on the student counsel.

"I decided to run alone," states CCSC candidate, Eleanor Stein. "So I get to do that all by myself. And because I really wanted to name my party the Hiphopopotamus Party. Because I think it's catchy and people who don't really care about the election and will go on and see that name. It'll catch their eye and maybe they will vote.

"We've been doing door knocking, we've been talking to students. We have a suggestion box with little suggestion cards for students to come up with ideas and it can be anything. We actually want to find out what's important to students and then execute them," exclaims Tara Reed, CCSC presidential candidate.

"The three of us have a lot to offer," explains Karishma Habbu. "We have a lot of experience in leadership; in student counsel and even outside of student counsel which bring fresh perspectives. And more than that, we're just very enthusiastic people."

While plans to unite the freshmen class and obtain higher quality food in dining halls is a common platform amongst candidates, each party has created a set of goals that they wish to accomplish within their first semester in office.

"We do have our three points of better internet access, access to introductory and core classes, and also transparency so that freshmen can actually know what's going on."

"In want to be a liaison to the general student body so that they know what's going on."

In contrast, the election of ESC representatives ended before it even began with only five candidates running for four available positions.

"It seemed like at first, there were a lot of people who were interested in running," contends Mary Byers, Freshmen ESC President. "It just didn't pan out that way."

"Not many people turned out to run for the election. So, our first action event-wise would be to get people more involved with ESC."

"One of the things we've been thinking about is creating some type of forum online where the people in the class can actually communicate with us in an easier way."

"In order to bring together a class of this size and this nature, you need certain personalities who are able to get through to those people."

Roommates get relief at Tufts

The Office of Residential Life and Learning at Tufts University has added a new clause to its guest policy that prohibits any sex act in a dorm room while one's roommate is present. The stipulation also states that any sexual activity in the room should not interfere with the roommate's privacy, study habits, or sleep. This new regulation comes hot on the heels of many complaints by residents about their roommates' sexual behavior - the most common source of conflict between roommates, according to a University spokesperson.

Bedbugs attack!

Bedbugs have been responsible for the closure of a school building at New York's John Jay College. All classes scheduled to take place in North Hall were postponed till this coming Monday to allow exterminators to treat the building. However, school officials have denied that the problem constitutes an infestation.

Sports roundup

Women's soccer opened Ivy League play with a 1-0 victory over Cornell. Meanwhile, women's volleyball defeated Cornell and Hartford on saturday to put them at their best start since 2000. Football and Field Hockey dropped their contests over the weekend to Central Connecticut State and Cornell respectively.

New football season, same school spirit

Like the dubious origin of the chicken and the egg, it is unknown which came first: a lack of student enthusiasm for Columbia sports teams or these teams’ failures due to a shortage of student support. Students were quoted as saying that “there isn’t much enthusiasm around Columbia about sports teams”. Columbia student Mackenzie Lowen claimed: “A couple people come out to the games but I guess football isn’t the biggest concern at Columbia.”

An obstacle in getting students to come out to the games is that Baker Field is almost half an hour away from campus. Ms. Lowen thinks this “probably has an effect on the amount of people that attend the games, just because you have to go all the way up either on the subway or the shuttle buses.” Columbia sophomore Michael Strickland agrees that “It’s kind of a pain. That’s probably one of the main reasons I haven’t been to a football game.” Katie Meili, another student, argues that “It would be a lot nicer if [the field] was right on campus, but…yea, the subway ride adds an extra experience to our football games.” Fellow schoolmate Ernesto Hernandez, however, makes a point when stating: “I really don’t know where the stadium is, so another reason I haven’t been to any of the football games.”

The Columbia Athletics Department has tried to increase attendance through various means, including the now-defunct “Midnight Mania.” Their latest attempt is the Lion’s Den Students Rewards Program, giving students that attend a variety of sporting events the opportunity to win prizes, a promotion that is sure to gain some attention.

“I have heard of the Lion’s Den Student Rewards Program, but I have no idea what it does or what it entails,” says Mr. Hernandez.

Ms. Lowen has heard of the program thanks to the “people wearing shirts” that promote the Lion’s Den program.

Mr. Strickland, on the other hand, has not been informed about these prizes: “I can’t say that I have heard of the Lion’s Den Rewards Program.”

Still, with the prospects of a new season hope is renewed. Hope that the Columbia football team will surpass all expectations. And who knows, maybe with a little enthusiasm the Columbia community can help lead the team to the top.

At the post-game press conference, Coach Norries Wilson responded to a question about the crowd, saying “I didn’t see or hear any situations where noise was an issue for either side of the football.” A reporter reclaimed that the crowd in the “back of the stands” gets “kind of nasty,” to which Coach Wilson could only respond: “Well, when you pay for a ticket you’re a fan. You’re allowed to say what it is that you want to say.” These remarks should remind the community that, as fickle as school spirit can be, it is nevertheless important to support one’s fellow sports teams, for the sake of the university.