The 2006-07 school year has contained multitudes. In fact, it may just be the most eventful year Columbia's had since... well, the year before. Remember Matthew Fox? The Chung-Diamond "scandal"? "Don't Be a Pussy"? "Epilogue to Our Crime & Punishment: A Petition"? Bwog certainly does, so step into the Wayback machine - you're about to relive nine months of Columbia in a single post.

August

First-years move in. Orientation yields a legendary (to Bwog's mind, at least) week-long burst of posting. Addison Anderson went to a bunch of bars in the name of "journalism." Most literary post: "And now for some disorientation," which reads like early Bret Easton Ellis, if he knew about Koronet's. Orientation week was the best.

September

Facebook went literally insane. Then calmed down somewhat. Harvard abandoned ED; Columbia did not. Columbia Football had as-yet uncrushed high hopes, later crushed. Seth Flaxman declared victory. Best villains: Zuckerberg! Murphy! Ahmadinejad! You know, one of those.

October

Everything was coming up roses for Mark Modesitt. 1968 spirit was invoked by Jim Gilchrist. The fallout was immense - shady disciplinary letters, "news" coverage of all sorts (Jon Stewart, Fox News). Even Bwog had an opinion. But October wasn't all about relevant television coverage of Columbia issues with high production values - we also had "The Gates"!
Best correspondence to Bwog: "Subject: terrorists. your worse then the mooselums who flew the planes into the buildings"

It's not looking good, Dianne.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a national free speech watchdog, has just issued a statement condemning the suspension of men's club hockey. Not that Bollinger typically listens to rights groups; but it's probably a good idea to avoid bad press on the eve of a four billion dollar fundraising push.

And then there's the online petition that's reached 454 signatures, and the Facebook group ("Bring Back Columbia Hockey") that has 460 members. The situation is bad for the Columbia hockey team--according to communications manager Zach Phillips, the suspension will put them out of commission for three years while they rebuild their league standing--but disregarding reason, warning, and due process in making consequential decisions isn't the best way to make friends, either. Student council members are baffled, and Bwog is struggling to fathom just how an administrator could screw up quite so badly.

Nope, it's not looking good at all. Start backpedaling, honey.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute there, Dianne. Did you seriously just cancel the ice hockey team's fall season, and yank half their funding, and put them on probation for two years, over an insensitive poster?

Oh yes she did.

The Club Sports governing board, a group of students and administrators that apparently decides these kind of things, isn't returning e-mails. The Club Sports office itself punted to the Athletics Communications guy, whom Bwog couldn't reach for comment. In any case, while Bwog isn't enamored of the hockey team's boorish word choice, we can't help but worry that the cause of cultural sensitivity is more hurt than helped by Murphy's firepower. Rugby, take heed! The PC police are on alert!

Full press release after the jump.