Cops crack Columbia drug ring

With another semester ending at Columbia, most students are trying to stay focused on their final exams. This task became more daunting on Tuesday morning, when 5 students were arrested on campus for selling illegal drugs.

The drug deals took place in fraternity houses and dorm rooms belonging to the arrested individuals; and more than your typical mom-and-pop shop, each student specialized in selling specific drugs and referred customers to one another.

When the police searched the students’ rooms, they seized a bottle of LSD, 50 Ecstasy capsules, 15 Adderall pills, more than half a pound of marijuana and about $6,600 in cash.

Bridget Brennan, New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor, remarked that "drug deals were going down in fraternity living rooms, in the bathroom, in the bedroom quite openly. It appeared that there was no awareness of the fact that this was illegal and that there are consequences for it."

The group of arrested students includes Joseph Stephen Perez, a Gates Millennium Scholar, Michael Wymbs, former vice president of the Engineering Student Council, Adam Klein, a former member of the university fencing team, and Chris Coles, a Junior in Columbia College.

The fifth student arrested was Harrison David, a third-year student in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He was the target of the police investigation after anonymous tips alerted police of the drug sales. David, once a salutatorian of his Massachusetts prep school, is accused of dealing with the group’s alleged off-campus drug suppliers, who have also been charged. According to reports, these suppliers were not petty college drug dealers.

Raymond Kelly, the New York City Police Commissioner, stated that “one of the individuals arrested wanted to get our undercover officer involved in kidnapping and perhaps more one of the rival drug sellers.”

The investigation was carried out by the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, which prosecutes an average of 3,000 felony narcotics arrests each year. However, the school attached to the arrest of these five students has caught the attention from worldwide news coverage to high-profile criminal lawyer Michael Bachner. At the moment, it is uncertain how this drug bust has altered Columbia’s reputation.

The involvement of other fraternity members in this drug ring is also unclear, but the three fraternities involved – Alpha Epsilon Pi, Pi Kappa Alpha, and Psi Upsilon – have been suspended and forced to cease all activities temporarily. The Dean of Student Affairs, Kevin Shollenberger, commented that this decision is in the best interest of the university, with a campus that is still reeling from the news.

Some of the arrested students have cited financial reasons as the motive for selling drugs. All five students have pled not guilty, despite video and photographic evidence against their crimes. With the exception of Mr. David, the students have been released on bail, with some of them already being seen returning to campus. Although the university has not made a decision on disciplinary action against the undergraduates, they are fully cooperating with authorities during this ongoing story.

Operation Ivy League: The Legit Deal

Students on campus feel that the "Operation: Ivy League" drug bust has tarnished what Columbia represents to the community. In an effort to display the charity that does exists at Columbia, four students have founded "Operation Ivy League: The Legit Deal."

The project will be a semester-long effort to counter Columbia's recent negative publicity. These collegiate entrepreneurs will sell t-shirts for $15 in order to raise $11,000, money they say will be used toward addressing the issue of substance abuse in the community. If you wish to show your support for this effort, you can find all the details by visiting their facebook page.

Seriously, Incest?

This Wednesday morning, Columbia professor David Epstein was arrested on charges of incest. A professor in the political science department since 1997, Epstein allegedly had a consensual relationship with his 24 year old daughter over a period of three years. A graduate of Harvard and Stanford Universities, Epstein was a distinguished member of the Columbia community, most recently receiving the "Decade of Behavioral Research" award in 2005. Currently on leave from his post at the university, he will face one count of incest in the third degree.

SIPA Dean rescinds WikiLeaks advice

More news this week about Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and their situation regarding WikiLeaks, the controversial website that has been releasing government documents, most recently, a set of over 250,000 US diplomatic cables.

Last week, CTV reported that SIPA, one of the most prestigious graduate schools of public policy, sent students an email warning them that commenting on these leaked cables would call into question their ability to deal with confidential information, which is a part of most positions with the federal government. The ethics of the WikiLeaks release have been the subject of much debate across the nation.

After the letter received national media coverage and sparked outrage by some people who cried censorship, Dean of SIPA John Coatsworth sent a second email to students in which he rescinded the first email and defended their right to free speech. In the email, he said:

“Freedom of information and expression is a core value of our institution. Thus, SIPA’s position is that students have a right to discuss and debate any information in the public arena that they deem relevant to their studies or to their roles as global citizens, and to do so without fear of adverse consequences. Should the U.S. Department of State issue any guidelines relating to the WikiLeaks documents for prospective employees, SIPA will make them available immediately.”

CTV reached out to several SIPA students who received the emails to see what they thought about the issue.

Student 1: I am confused because we got an email saying that apparently we would not be able to get jobs in the government if we linked our Twiter or Facebook to the WikiLeaks page, but then we heard that they took it back.

Student 2: I’m a PhD student in political science, so from my perspective, the WikiLeaks [release] is a very good event because it gives us more data to work with and a chance to really look at the processes behind a lot of the things that we have been studying more in depth. Obviously, it doesn’t really affect our job prospects at all.

Student 3: I don’t feel that Career Services was censoring people. I think that they were giving important words of wisdom to American students especially, students from the United States, to be thoughtful about how they were engaging the WikiLeaks.

Student 4: I thought that Dean Coatsworth did a great job at reaffirming the institution’s and the student’s view in general that we want to be able to have freedom of information at Columbia and be able to use this information that has come out and is available publically as academic evidence.

Student 5:  More of the fact is that we should be worried about why prospective employees of the federal government should be worries about it, but it doesn’t really bother me about SIPA sending [the warning] out.

Student 6: I don’t know if it was sent down from on high in the State Department, but I do believe it was inappropriate and very ‘Big Brother-esque’ and I was disappointed that it wouldn’t stop at OCS, that OCS forwarded it to students thinking it was a good idea.

Barnard smoking ban

Last Monday, the Student Government Association at Barnard College passed a campus-wide smoking ban that will add to the existing partial smoking ban on Barnard's campus. This ban was implemented as a result of a survey which involved about ten percent of the Barnard student body. Critics of the ban cite the low number of participants as not representative of the entire population of Barnard.  This ruling follows Columbia's recent ban on smoking within twenty feet of public buildings.

Dirty mouth? Clean it up (for the sake of your pregnancy)

A recent study conduct by the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine found that women who received preventive dental care had fewer birth complications than women who received no treatment. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health and carried out between 2003 and 2006, found links between dental treatment and women having babies who were pre-term or who had low birth weights. Aetna's chief dental officer, Mary Lee Conicella, noted that “These findings lead us to believe that pregnant women who actively seek dental care are more likely to adopt a wellness philosophy which carries over to other areas of their health.”

Columbia Professor on TSA body scanners

When the fall semester ends, many Columbia students will be heading to the airports. Increased security measures by the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, includes the use of new body-scanning X-ray technology. But the question many have been asking: is it safe?

CTV News spoke with Columbia University radiation expert Dr. David Brenner, Head of Columbia's Center for Radiological Research.

"If you went through an airport two years ago, you would go through a little archway. That was basically a metal detector, so it would detect a gun or a knife or something like that. Post the 2009 Christmas bomber, the homeland security - the TSA - decided to implement a new generation of Advance Imaging Technology (AIT) devices. One is called a millimeter wave scanner: millimeter waves are radiations that are similar in energy to a microwave. Basically, you are flooded with low fluence of these millimeter waves and the machine looks for the reflectents in the detectors. From that, they can figure out whether there are any explosives on you.

"The second type also uses the same technique of bouncing radiation off you, but here the radiation is X-rays; that's usually called the X-ray Backscatter System. They both work on much the same principle of bouncing some radiation off you and looking at the reflected radiation. Our concern is that one of these two devices - the X-ray device - uses ionizing radiation, which we know to have significant potential cancer risks."

Dr. Brenner points out that the levels of radiation are relatively low. The main concern is not for college students - who fly less frequently - but for pilots, flight attendants and the TSA workers themselves who are exposed to radiation everyday.

"Your risk of cancer going through the scanner once is probably about 1 in 10 million, so from the point of view of someone who doesn't fly very often and goes through the scanner only occasionally, I don't think there are any real health concerns that I would be worried about.

"There are a couple of scenarios that we do worry about. The first is the very frequent fliers, air flight personnel also go through many times. An air host or hostess is going through maybe 300 times a year. We take that very small risk and if you go through it a hundred times, your risk will be multiplied by a hundred, if you go through it three hundred times, your risk will be multiplied by three hundred.

"That being said, even if you multiply a very small risk of 1 in 10 million by 300, it's still a very small risk. Where the real issue occurs is that these machines are now front-line screening technology, with the goal of everybody going through these scanners, and that's a lot of people. The number of enplanements - the number of times people get on airplanes - in the U.S. last year was about 730 million, and by 2020 it's going to be 1 billion, so that's an awful lot of scans. Take that very small risk of 1 in 10 million and then multiply that by a billion - the number of potential scans - and what you end up with is the conclusion that probably, some years down the line, some people will develop cancer as a result of these X-ray scans."

It is still too early to identify the long-term impacts of using X-ray technology on large segments of the population. Regardless, Dr. Brenner concedes that in a post-September-11 world, exposure to low-levels of radiation outweighs the risk of a security threat in the air.

Commercial colleges' recruitment practices affect veterans

The Government Accountability has released a study on the recruitment of veterans by for-profit universities such as the University of Phoenix.  According to the study, these institutions are taking up 36 percent of the post-9/11 G.I. Bill's tuition payments, while only enrolling nine percent of university students nationwide.  Analysts and politicians say that for-profit schools, which offer extensive online courses, offer little applicable educational value and are just in the business to make money.  Educating veterans has long been a part of Columbia tradition, with the School of General Studies being designed as a response to the World War II G.I. Bill.   As studies continue, we will learn more on the impact of for-profit institutions on veterans and the national academic communities.

Sports Roundup

Ten Columbia student-athletes were named Academic All-Ivy League for the fall season. In order to be eligible for the Academic All-Ivy League squad, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.0 GPA and be a team starter or key reserve. In football, Linebacker Alex Gross now adds to his remarkable season by receiving this honor. Defensive back Adam Mehrer was also named Academic All-Ivy League, along with three members of the cross country teams, a pair of student-athletes from the men's soccer squad, and one student-athlete from the field hockey, women's soccer, and volleyball teams.

On the competitive side of sports, women's basketball remains winless after losing to #15 Iowa State. The Lady Lions were unable to contain the Cyclones on offense or defense, losing 73-27.

Basketball: Columbia vs. Wagner

After a nail-biter of a victory against Stony Brook, Columbia men's basketball kept their unbeaten home record in tact. Would the 4-3 Wagner Seahawks be the first team to put a "1" in the Lions' L column?

Columbia demonstrated no fatigue from the Stony Brook game three days earlier and would put up 11 points before their opponents scored a basket. John Daniels had nine rebounds in the game and was a major contributor in a big scoring day where three of his teammates reached the double-digit points total.

Wagner woke up in the second half, led by a 24 point scoring surge from Chris Martin, and narrowed the seemingly insurmountable gap to four points.

Columbia refused to relinquish the lead. As time started to dwindle, Wagner would resort to fouling the Lions in order to stop the game clock. However, Columbia's steely free throw shooting foiled this plan.

With a few ticks left on the clock, Aseno Ampim would punctuate the inevitable victory with his signature shot.

On Saturday, Columbia would meet a stern challenge in the Bryant Bulldogs. Losing by three points with 25 seconds left, Ampim had a critical blocked shot, and free throws by Steve Frankowski and Noruwa Agho sealed the victory 76-72. Columbia's record now improves to 6-4, and 5-0 at home.

CC 2011 Class Day Speaker

The 2011 Columbia College Class Day Speaker has just been announced: Alexandra Wallace Creed, Senior Vice President of NBC News and Executive Producer of NBC Nightly News, will become only the second female Class Day speaker in Columbia's history.

Ms. Wallace graduated from Columbia in 1988, and in 2008 was recognized for her professional achievement with Columbia's John Jay Award. In March 2007, Ms. Wallace was named executive producer of NBC Nightly News, becoming the first woman to lead a weeknight network evening newscast in a decade. She has been honored with eleven News and Documentary Emmy awards, a Gracie Award, and a Peabody Award. I'm sure many students are looking forward to her speech.

Northwest Corner Building Opens

This week marks the official opening of the Northwest Science Building.  The new building will provide much needed space for the science and engineering departments as well as updated facilities and laboratories.  Built in response to complaints of inadequate space and technology by the faculty, the new structure marks a bridge between Columbia's history and future with science.  With more room to grow, there have been talks of increasing the faculty in sciences and in the School of Engineering.

Eminent domain protest

You may have noticed the large banner on the gates of College Walk that reads “Support Columbia Community Service: We’re Neighbors Helping Neighbors.” Although this message is part of a university effort to increase donations for community nonprofits, students and neighborhood residents reinterpreted the message "Neighbors Helping Neighbors" to protest the Manhattanville expansion, possibly for the final time. Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court discussed re-evaluating the legality of eminent domain for Columbia’s 17-acre Manhattanville campus expansion. If the court refuses the case, Columbia's expansion efforts will have jumped their final hurdle. A decision on the case is expected by Monday.

Weather Update

The lights on college walk are lit, the lawns have been covered with tarp, and everyone is anxiously awaiting the first snow shower. With a high of 55 and a low of 43, today's rain will sadly not lead to snow. Tomorrow, though, there's around a 40 percent chance of precipitation, with a high of 43 and a low of 23. Perhaps there will be more than just a small flurry. Tuesday through Saturday are going to be party cloudy with highs in the mid 30s and lows in the mid 20s. If we're lucky, we will have snow showers on Sunday and Monday of next week. Make sure to see XMAS! 5 tomorrow at 8 or 10 PM, for it is sure to get your mind off finals and put you in the holiday spirit.

Columbia Holiday Candlelight Concert