Columbia joins the "Ivy League arms race."

In a pinch? Here's John Kluge's wallet.

Centralized planning, Soviet-style!

If a facade falls on 110th street in the middle of the night, does anybody hear it?

Burma Coalition shows some saffron muscle.

Although the formal announcement in all of our inboxes is still pending, the Times has already reported the details of Columbia's big financial aid plan this morning.

The main points:

• Families making $60,000 or less per year will no longer pay tuition, room and board, or fees as of Fall 2008
• Grants will replace loans in financial aid packages, including those offered to current students.
  
• Families making between $60,000 and $100,000 will have unspecified expanded aid opportunities.

Word has it these policies apply to this year's admits, including those who have already received Early Decision letters. Lucky dogs. There's no statement posted on the CU website yet, but since the Times quotes PrezBo, we surmise that it can't be far off. Full statement after the jump. Bottoms up!

You can watch coverage of their discussion below, including the results from a GS-wide survey about debt and aid—according to GSSC President Niko Cunningham, an average GSer's debt is three times that of an average CCer. Just another piece of Double Secret Financial Aid News puzzle, which Prezbo is maybe (probably!) solving for us today.

A self-described "mega-anonymous" tipster informs Bwog that CC and SEAS will be annnouncing a "huge" change in financial aid, tomorrow or late today. (GS's change will be of a more minor nature).

Perhaps Andrew Delbanco might have gotten his wish after all?

Bwog will update with details as soon as some materialize.

Much in the news today about paying for college and college paying for you. American studies director Andrew Delbanco and former dean of students Roger Lehecka co-wrote a New York Times article about Harvard and Yale's distribution of financial aid. Our Ivy brethren to the north, in an attempt to make attending college possible for "families across the spectrum", have re-calculated their financial aid allocations to benefit families earning between $120k and $180k per year.

They argue that this decision will compel other universities to do the same--helping out more middle class and upper-middle class families. The problem is that most (read: all) schools simply do not have Harvard or Yale's budget. In all likelihood, the money going towards funding an upper-middle class student's education is going to prevent many poorer students from receiving aid at all. The article also argues that most upper-middle class and middle class students are deserving of aid, but most "find a way to attend college." Most poorer ones do not.

The New York Post has picked up a story in which Brian Baxter, who graduated from Columbia in 1990, is suing the University, claiming he's being subjected to "modern-day slavery" in the form of high student loan rates. Citibank—Columbia's partner in crime and "preferred lender"—is also involved in the suit.

Baxter, who likens himself to a "mouse on a treadmill"—which to Bwog's understanding is not actually at all the same thing as a slave—is riling against the inflated rates of his student loan.

Columbia and Citibank—who are, just to clarify, the treadmills of the "mouse on the treadmill" analogy—could not be reached for comment, though one could presumably characterize their retorts as something along the lines of: "Let them eat cheese."

- JNW

The other shoe in Columbia's financial aid boondoggle dropped in Bwog's inbox this morning: a few weeks after jettisoning former Dean David Charlow, the University has recieved its comeuppance from New York State, which threw the book at us harder than any other school. "We believe Columbia's employee was acting illegally," said Attorney General Andrew "Enforcer" Cuomo. "A corporation must police its employees." As such, Columbia will pay up a cool $1.1 million, and sign the College Loan Code of Conduct--but only because they wanted to, not because they had to. Or at least that's how Low Library is framing it.

"Columbia University does not admit, and expressly denies, that it has violated any law in connection with its student loan practices," read the statement from Public Affairs director Robert Hornsby. "Columbia is not paying a fine or making any restitution as part of the settlement, but will contribute $1,125,000 to the Attorney General's national fund for educating and assisting students and their parents about the financial aid process."

One tipster opines: "You know that somehow the increased oversight is going to result in more paperwork for students. Thats what happens everytime Columbia gets busted for poor oversight- they pass the new 'rules' on."

Spec got to the story first, while Bwog was having technical difficulties. Look for more backstory from them imminently. UPDATE, 2:15 EST: Sexy details in expanded article!

- LBD

Bwog returned home to find the following announcement from Director of Media Relations Robert Hornsby in its inbox:

"Last month, Columbia promptly brought information received about David Charlow's relationship with former preferred lender Student Loan Xpress to the Attorney General's attention and suspended Mr. Charlow from any engagement in the affairs of the University. As of today, Mr. Charlow has now been dismissed from his employment at Columbia College.

We have been working cooperatively with the Attorney General's office to provide documents and materials related to Mr. Charlow's tenure as the head of financial aid for the undergraduate College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. As these matters are now appropriately in the hands of the Attorney General, we cannot comment further on Mr. Charlow at this time."

Charlow follows on the heels of the UTexas guy, and will add nicely to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's trophy case. Spec has more here, and the New York Post (they are useful sometimes) has some serious dirt here. Our favorite quote:

"I want by its design to lead the students to [the] best decision in an idiot-proof way," wrote Charlow to the CEO of Student Loan XPress, the company that earned him over $100,000 in stock sales.

Who's the idiot now, David?

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"

Low press briefings, Bwog is aware, are typically not very interesting. This one didn't disappoint--PrezBo took a few softball questions from a few journalists in his low, almost subsonic tones--but we did get to meet Mr. Kluge himself, a charming old man whose death will bring the University more money than we can really comprehend.

Sounding like PrezBo on loop, Kluge talked about the importance of making Columbia a global university, and a bit about his experience as a scholarship student, which accounts for his focus on financial aid programs.

"I'm not interesting in buildings. I'm interested in minds," Kluge said, noting that other alums should belly up to the bar: "An institution like Columbia is really dependent on its alumni. And I would like to have this gift a token of what alumni can do and should do. That's the only way an institution that's private can exist in the future."

Following the briefing, the entire administrative apparatus of Columbia (Robert Kasdin, Zvi Galil, Nick Dirks, Austin Quigley, and Nick Lemann all sighted), plus enough Kluge scholars and others to create a standing-room-only event, schmoozed in the Rotunda to the beats of a three-piece lounge band. Bwog had to skip out for the actual announcement, which ran a half hour late, but Mayor Bloomberg, Congressman Rangel, and Truman winner Ron Towns were all on the agenda. Check Spec and every other New York media outlet a bit later for the congratulatory pablum.

We'd heard that there was going to be a super big announcement tomorrow in Low Rotunda. We figured that it had to do with money. We didn't know it was going to be this much money: according to the Wall Street Journal, media mogul John Kluge (the minority scholarship guy, Forbes' #25) is forking over between $400 and $600 million, which pretty much takes care of that whole financial aid drive. By Bwog's rough calculations, that leaves Columbia a little over halfway to its goal of $4 billion for the capital campaign and dwarfs Jerome Greene's $200 million "largest private gift ever" of last March.

Full WSJ article after the jump.

In retrospect, how did no one figure out this was going on?

EC "excluded" from many seniors' plans.

Repeating a meaningless phrase fourteen times in one article doesn't make it funny.*

From Rajasthan with love.

*Unless that phrase is "purple monkey dishwasher."

In a nutshell: Associate Dean of Financial Affairs David Charlow, who deals with financial aid, is in the doghouse for having invested heavily in Student Loan XPress, which Columbia recommends to students for their loans. Here's MSNBC coverage, and more from 1010 Wins. On campus, CTV got the story first, and Spec was hot on its heels (leaving Bwog pathetically in the dust).

After 20 years of safe subterranean spelunking, admin. to shut off access to fun...oops, dangerous chemicals...

...and will make damn sure you stay in your boring science and math classes...

...but the utter thrill of manipulating financial aid loopholes remains. Go agency!

Er...go agency?

Meanwhile, GS students, as always, find a "nontraditional" way to cheat the system

And, oh right...don't forget to resist Man Law...or expansion, because of...uh, yeah, you've read this all before

Just Another Nobel Prize—but What Do You Figure Fox Will Comment on Tomorrow?

Remember that Increase in Financial Aid?

SAC Commands CUC to Stand Firm in Its Commitment

Marvin Stewart Packs Pepper, Unidentified Minuteman Kicks Protester on National Television; You Heard It Here First

Spectator Photo Coverage Foreshadows Varsity Show Publicity, Other People Get Nastier Mail Than We Do

Immigrant Has Read Atlas Shrugged, Makes Opinion Page History