Looks like the first-years aren't the only ones taking shortcuts. A tipster forwarded us an e-mail from a nameless, irate Music Hum teacher, threatening dire consequences for the miscreant who swiped a pile of final papers. Bwog cowers on your behalf, paper-thief. Here's the e-mail:

"Dear all--

"I apologize that there has been a delay in submitting final grades for graduating seniors, and that there may be an extended delay in submitting final grades for all other students. This delay is due to an incident involving theft of a handful of final papers from my mailbox, and for reasons that I am not at liberty to disclose, it is now clear that these papers were stolen by a student from our class, presumably for his or her own benefit. Though I have already communicated with several of you whose papers were stolen, the majority of you know nothing about this. One of you, however, knows exactly what I am talking about.

I regard this as a very serious offense. It involves not only theft of personal property--papers belonging to individual students--but almost surely plagiarism. I will absolutely get to the bottom of this, no matter how long it takes to resolve. I have already contacted the Music Humanities Chair about the incident, and we are about to assemble a team of administrators to investigate the matter thoroughly.

Spec's reporting that freshmen will have the option to retake the lit hum exam or to receive a grade based on the rest of their work this semester. Apparently, it was all the professor's fault... So the choice is obvious for most.

But what about all those C students who have already jet off for the Caribbean?

Full text of the email after the jump. (Don't worry, the article is still on the Spec site.) You'll notice they said they released it "to the press"- check the New York Post, Daily News, AND New York Sun tomorrow for doubtlessly enlightening information, some of which was gathered through Facebooking freshmen.

NOTICE, Tuesday 4:20 PM: As noted in a previous post, comments with full names will be deleted at the request of the target.

UPDATE: Here's some Spec coverage to tide you over.

UPDATE 5:29PM: A new email has been released by the Core Office:

The following e-mail was sent to all Lit Hum teachers earlier today:

Dear Colleagues,

There has been an unfortunate breach in Lit Hum final exam security.

Notes identifying the quotations and sketching out the essay questions circulated among students prior to the exam. (We have one copy of these notes.)

You probably didn't hear it here first: the freshman class, according to numerous sources, is buzzing with the knowledge that content from the Lit Hum final was leaked to at least one class prior to the exam.

Details are shady, but first-years tell of widespread indignation when the exam let out at 3:30 on Friday that many students had received a "study guide" with areas to look for passage IDs and vague ideas of essay topics. The most solid information Bwog has been able to obtain indicates that a female seminar leader gave the information to her entire class, and that it spread via floors and sports teams until hundreds of students had seen the notes, which one source spotted lying around Butler Café after the exam.

"Anybody could have gotten 10 out of 10 on the IDs," said one source.

The Associate Dean of the Core Curriculum has been informed of the prevalence of alleged leaks. Bwog will update you as more information becomes available.

NOTICE, 4:45 PM: As part of a pending comment policy revision, comments with full names will be removed at the request of the target, no questions asked. We live in the age of Google, kids. If you must name names, use initials or something.

This just in from Bwog correspondent Addison Anderson:

"There are two male high school kids standing on College Walk, one of whom wants a Columbia student to take the SAT II for him. He asked me if I was a Columbia undergraduate, and when I said yes, he said "Okay...so the SAT II is tomorrow...and I haven't studied. I'm ready to lay out a thousand bucks for someone to take it for me." Meanwhile his friend looked around like this was a drug deal. I was shocked, intrigued, then ultimately wary of the possibility these 'kids' were undercover Daily News reporters, so I passed on the offer and mumbled something about a very important naked party I needed to get to. Anyway, I saw them still out there later. The kid ready to lay out the grand is short, stocky and sullen, and his friend is tall, skinny and sullen."

Bwog would not be averse to a cut of the profit if a successful match is made.