Engineers celebrate E-Week

The Engineering Student Council has been planning E-Week, a national celebration of engineers, for months.

"So it's usually very hectic and planning is a couple months in advance. Once we get down to it, it seems a little difficult but it really pulls itself together and this year it did," said Heidi Ahmed, Secretary Student Life.

"I really enjoyed it. The opening ceremonies, the guest speakers were very impressive and eloquent. It made me glad I was an engineer," said Zachary Bullart

With at least one event per night, SEAS students had plenty of activities to choose from including a Blender, Speed Networking and a Mixer.

"A night out at Campo for all engineering students, we have, currently going on right now, actually is battle of the band," said Heidi.

As part of the E-Week experience, students can also participate in the annual tradition of CU Assassins which takes over campus. Students practice their creativity and ingenuity and try to acquire kills by shooting each other with water guns.

"I can't, you know, say all the stories that have been told about these kills but they've been pretty extravagant, like people go on spring break and kill each other," said David, senior in SEAS.

With Closing Ceremonies and a Battle of the Bands back in Roone Arledge, the students sat back to enjoy their free pizza and the kick-off of CU Assassins to mark the end of a successful E-Week.

"The goal of the week is just to celebrate being engineers for us because it's a really stressful position but all of us are kind of pulled together by this common theme of being an engineer," said Heidi.

Gender-neutral housing on hold

On Thursday, students learned that gender-neutral housing, which would permit mixed-gender doubles, will not become a reality. Despite support from CCSC and ESC, as well as numerous student groups, administrators did not feel ready to make the proposed changes to the housing system. The announcement came as a disappointment to the student leaders who had developed and supported the new policy. Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger stated that there is a possibility of implementing a pilot program for the 2011-2012 school year. According to administrators, this deferral will allow for more discussion on the issue and for better implementation of gender-neutral housing.

Meryl Streep to speak at Barnard Commencement

Meryl Streep will take on a new role in May, but not in Hollywood. She'll be speaking at Barnard's Commencement instead.

Barnard's president, Debora Spar made the announcement to students on Thursday. Spar praised Streep's acting skills as well as her extensive humanitarian work.

The sixty-year-old actor will also add the Barnard Medal of Distinction to the awards she's received. The medal is Barnard's highest honor.

Streep attended Vassar College and received an MFA at Yale.

Professors honored with Distinguished Columbia Faculty Awards

On Tuesday, Columbia honored seven professors at the Distinguished Columbia Faculty Awards. The awards are given annually to a few professors in recognition of teaching skills and strength in mentoring students. This year's honorees specialize in a variety of fields, from DNA coding to religious history.

Each professor will receive a stipend of $25,000 per year for three consecutive years. University alumnus and trustee, Gerry Lenfest established the awards so that faculty members could be honored for their achievements.

Varsity Show previews in Havana

This year's Varsity Show has already started making a buzz on Columbia's campus. This past weekend, the Varsity Show gave a preview to their upcoming spring show. As a 116 year old Columbia tradition, the Varsity Show provides entertainment for students before final exams in the spring semester. Students packed into Havana Central to get a glimpse of what the show will look like.

"We had a great time, that’s basically how we’re measuring our success," explained Ameneh Bordi, Director of the Varsity Show. " Just trying to amuse people; we heard people laughing."

For those who saw the show and expected more, the Varsity Show was only performing a preview of their upcoming show. The recent coordinators have tried to maintain the Varsity Show tradition.

"We’re not trying set any molds and we’re not trying to break any molds, we’re just trying to make some theater. So that’s what I think, we’re different about."

A lot of preparation goes into making the Varsity show a reality.

Bordi went on to describe the process of casting: "We cast in the first semester to go up in the second semester. When we cast already we sort of had a plot in mind and then we all go away over the winter break and sort of write the basic plot of the show."

For those who were not at the Havana Central preview, they'll just have to wait until the actual performance later this semester. As one of Columbia's oldest traditions, the key to the Varsity Show's success is getting students excited about the upcoming performance.

"Getting people amped up and getting people hyped up about it and West End was one of those and then we do another show for a lot of the alumni at the Columbia Club later on in the semester."

Fire forces evacuation of BC dorm

A minor fire forced residents of 616 West 116th Street out onto the street Thursday afternoon. According to Housing officials, the fire in a room in suite 2D started when clothing left to dry on a lamp ignited. The fire spread to clothes on the floor, but caused no other damage.

Firefighters smashed windows in the room to release smoke and threw the burning items down the building's air shaft. Residents of the suite will not relocate.

Last year, two fires in Columbia residence halls caused major damage. A dryer fire in the basement of Hartley closed the building's laundry room for weeks, and a kitchen fire at Community Food and Juice caused major damage to the floor above and closed the restaurant for months.

What's in your wallet?

A new law slated to go into effect tomorrow will make it more difficult for people under 21 to get credit cards.

Those under 21 will need an adult co-signer or will need to prove that they are able to pay off the card.

The law also prohibits tangible "inducements," used to lure students to a life of credit. Some states already have stronger laws in place. In New York, colleges must prohibit on-campus credit card marketing to students.

Proponents of the new law say it will cut down on the number of students and recent graduates burdened with debt. Many banks already issue fewer cards to students and other "risky" groups.

According to student loan issuer Sallie Mae, the average student credit card balance in 2008 was $3,173, up from $1,879 ten years earlier.

Sports Roundup

On Saturday, the Columbia archery team competed in the Cupid Classic, earning the top-seven scores in the recurve division and taking the top-two spots in compound.Sydney Shaefer and Emily Genatowski led in the compound divsion, with scores of 553 and 503, respectively. In the recurve division Sarah Chai and Sara Goshorn competed for the top spot.

Today, Columbia's fencing team began competition in the Ivy League Championships for men's and women's fencing. In round one, the men's team lost to Yale 18 to 9 and the women won 21 to 6. As the tournament takes place over two weekends, final results will not be available until next Sunday.

The Harvard Crimson held on for a 69-67 victory over the Columbia University women's basketball team this Saturday. The Lions had three opportunities in the closing 20 seconds to tie or take the lead, but failed to convert as they fell to 15-9 and 6-4 in conference play.

99 Columbians: Behind the lens

Angela Radulescu and Bennett Hong had a camera and a vision. Over the course of two months, they photographed 99 students in their dorm rooms.

"It started out as a very simple idea. I looked at Bennett's pictures and very much liked the way he photographs his friends and people and so on, and I thought it would be kind of cool to do this for 99 people," Angela told us.

Bennett added his vision for the project. "We realized that it had a lot more potential; we could essentially create a space where people could talk about themselves, people who normally would not have the chance to meet each other."

Although technical challenges make dorm rooms difficult to shoot in, Angela and Bennett wanted an environment where their subjects would feel at home.

Angela divulged her secrets for making subjects feel comfortable. "The project is self-selected, as in people wanted to [be photographed]. It's very hard to tell someone, 'OK, I want you to now do what you usually do in your room.' The object works pretty well, because it gets them in the mood; it gets them started. Or, have them play some music, have them move around, have them stand in different places. I generally consider it a successful shoot when I get the really candid shots that I want to get."

"It's actually a very intimate project. We sit there for a few hours talking to these people. These topics range from their hobbies to their fears, to their hopes and dreams, to their bad habits," Bennett told us.

And what do Bennett and Angela want to see in portraits of themselves?

Angela told us, "I would just be content with someone portraying a certain aspect of my personality. I really do not expect any photograph, or any series of photographs to convey who I am."

Later this year, Angela and Bennett plan to display their photos in a gallery setting and hope for a more interactive exhibit as well.