Around 3:30 PM, the men's bathroom on the 5th floor of Butler (the one by the east elevator) was promptly closed, locked and surrounded by two police officers and a CU Security official. One B&W staffer overheard the policemen saying that an incident had occurred around 3 PM and heard the cops muttering the words "hate crime." The staffer also reports that the police have not questioned any students on the 5th floor of Butler.

Bwog just finished talking to the police officers and security official, who hastily doled out three "No comment"s and suggested we call Public Safety. Public Saftey, was "not at liberty to say anything." According to the policemen and security official, they have no knowledge of any Univeristy plans to release a statement about the incident.

Check back as the story (maybe?) updates.

UPDATE 6:50 PM: Two more Public Safety officials just showed up to the bathroom, one of whom directed Bwog's questions to James McShane and refused to comment. However, as Bwog was walking away, conversation started up again. The Public Safety official asked the policeman, "How were you guys even notified about this?" The policeman replied that someone had sent an email. "There's a swastika on the wall," he said.

UPDATE 7:11 PM: Another staffer tipped Bwog off to the fact that the second floor men's bathroom has also now been locked. The staffer explains that he was in the bathroom, men rushed in and began photographing the wall of a stall. The men left, locking the door behind them. The third and fourth floor bathrooms remain open. Bwog's been scurrying around Butler for ten minutes and has also noticed that inconvenienced male studiers are not pleased.

UPDATE 8:10 PM: About eight official-ish looking people with reporters' notepads (including two cops) are standing around the second floor bathroom. A third B&W staffer reports that he saw the group looking at printed photographs of the fifth-floor swastika. Both bathrooms are now open, despite signs on their doors proclaiming otherwise.

As the New Year is still dawning, the Council is coming back with a renewed vigor that only 31 blissful days can create. No new resolutions, however, events and notices abound.

To the dismay of many a late-night glutton, the University's survey on JJ's Place determined that it would not be financially viable to expand the establishment's hours on weekends or weekdays.

In partnership with EcoReps and the Office of Environmental Stewardship, CCSC is sponsoring a school-wide Go Green Initiative where dorms compete in the months of February, March and April to see who can decrease their per capita energy consumption the most. Prizes have not been officially announced, but Bwog has reason to believe that each winner will be given a brand new 2008 Ford F-150.

How has 2007 been the year for Columbia's prevalence within the mainsteam media? Let Bwog count thy ways...

Ahmadinejad's remark about homosexuality in Iran (namely lack thereof) was noted in Salon's Year in Sex. The same comment was also included in City Room's 2007 synopsis under the heading "Widely noted denial of sexual identity", as well lists of 2007's most memorable quotes according to The Guardian, AP, and Dave Barry.

Gothamist also included Columbia in its Top News of 2007. As well as the requisite nod to Ahmadinejad, the University was also noted for its rampant hate crimes and foray into Manhattanville. Go Lions?

In brief pockets, the press also recognized Columbia for its academics and not for its Ahmadinejad. We landed the #9 spot on US News and World Report's annual ranking of America's Best Colleges, while a right-wing resource for matters concerning American families, the succinctly-named Family Security Matters, honored Issues Dividing America as the 8th "Most Dangerous College Course in America." All the godless communists out there with competitive streaks take note: You're going to need to step it up a notch in order to match DePaul University's Islam in Global Contexts course that was honored as #1.

To the protesters, supporters, studiers, slackers, liberals and conservatives, a warm thank you from the press.

The above picture is from The New York Times' year in pictures.

There's no fall break when it comes to press conferences. Somehow, Justin Vlasits woke up for it.

It was a chilly morning on the steps of the Arthur Zankel Building of Teacher's College as reporters from every major television and radio station crowded onto the sidewalk to hear TC Jewish Association Co-President Rebecca Pasternak and Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky address the recent anti-Semitic hate crimes, and in particular the swastika painted on Midlarsky's door on October 31.

This was the first time that Columbia affiliates put this most recent hate crime into a larger context of anti-Semitism, including three incidents in which Midlarsky found Holocaust-denying propaganda in her mail box in the weeks leading up to the graffiti as well as anti-Semitic graffiti and drawings in Lewisohn, Lerner, Watt, Butler (twice) and the Law School. Pasternak also said that, in her opinion, this incident was an escalation of the same environment that puts Nadia Abu El-Haj and Joseph Massad up for tenure and invites You-Know-Who to speak. She called for Bollinger, Shapiro and TC President Fuhrman to amend their constitution to read that "Columbia University will not accept anti-Jewish policies, curriculum, faculty, organizations and speakers on our campuses."

Everyone's got their own ideas for how to deal with nooses and the like. Let's compare!

New York City has declared November 29 to be a "day against hate," when presumably no cars will honk and New Yorkers will throw off their prickly demeanors to live in harmony.

On Friday, the mainstream Columbia establishment (the student councils, SDA, the Chaplain's office, etc) are hosting a Community Summit to "create substantive connections and relationships between both individuals and communities," at which participants will "focus on how we can best understand and appreciate the different lenses of experiences at Columbia, respectfully engage and challenge each other particularly around difficult topics, and create an environment that is supportive of all voices."

And next week, the newly-created-but-still-highly-amorphous "Columbia Solidarity" group/movement/thingy is promising "a series of actions and escalations" to address the litany of grievances articulated last week. The people will run Columbia, indeed.

Look out for coverage of a graffiti-oriented press conference at Teachers College later this morning.

- LBD