As one commenter pointed out, this week's New York Magazine Daily Intelligencer section features a short piece that references an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that speculates that Joseph Massad might be up for a second round of tenure review. Both the New York piece and the Chronicle piece have no on-the-record information to indicate such, though Columbia PR director cryptically explained that "it is consistent with our review process that cases sometimes extend beyond a single academic year or committee." In addition, the Chronicle piece quotes Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, as saying "that while it is 'highly unusual' for a university to establish a second ad hoc review committee, 'it seems to me a good thing in this case, if questions have been raised about the decision making.'"

According to the Chronicle article -- which is only able to be read with a subscription but was luckily forwarded to Bwog in full by tipster David Judd -- "[Alan Brinkley's] decision [to deny Massad tenure] followed what professors describe as a narrow [3-2] vote in favor of Mr. Massad by an ad hoc committee of five scholars who judged his tenure file. When the provost subsequently rejected the bid, professors say, the decision prompted an angry letter from senior faculty members at Columbia who support Mr. Massad. They apparently have persuaded the provost to reconsider the case and give the professor the unusual opportunity of a second chance at tenure at Columbia."

vs.

Today, New York Magazine's blog the Daily Intelligencer linked to a Dartmouth student blog that calculated the number of drinking infractions per Ivy League college. Fratty and backwoods-y, Dartmouth was naturally crowned champion. Our fair Alma Mater, came in second to last, just narrowly beating out Penn. New York theorizes that this number is exceedingly low given Columbia's environs and population. The theory is demonstrated using the extremely mathematical formula:

Hundreds of Freshman + Dozens of Places to get IDs x Thousands of Delis Where Owners Don't Care If You Are Underage / Limited Entrances And Exits To Dorms That Are Monitored For Safety = Easily Detectable Drunkenness

Given the formula, New York attributes our low frequency of drinking infractions to our lameness.

Bar fight!

Check newsstands tomorrow, and you'll see something familiar: a shiny New York Magazine cover story digesting the last 40 years of crazy activism at Columbia, featuring glamour shots of David Judd, Chris Kulawik, Karina Garcia and a smattering of other rabblerousers. Take a seat, because it's a doozy, reaching back to the SDS protests of the 60s, racing through Minutemen, and parsing every protest and meeting since then for a larger point about College and the Left (it is New York Mag, after all).

Here are the takeaway points, in case you're too mired in papers to read the whole thing: Radical kids today don't have the energy of Mark Rudd & Co. Career-oriented Democrats don't have the energy of the radicals. Kulawik doesn't need energy, because he's got skillz. Columbia has historically been riven by identity politics--mostly around Israel-Palestine--but now the lines are starting to blur.

Well, now everyone else knows.

- LBD

Columbia student (and Spec style editor) Xiyin Tang '09 was featured in New York magazine's feature "Say Everything," discussing her use of LiveJournal and, of course, Facebook.

"Xiyin clicks to her Facebook profile, which features 88 photos... 'To me, or to a lot of people, it's like, why go to a party if you're not going to get your picture taken?'" How very Edie Sedgwick.

In this week's issue of New York Magazine, Provost and American History professor Alan Brinkley follows in the steps of department collegue Eric Foner by slamming President Bush. Brinkley's commentary is a part of the issue's "psychopolitical survey" in which "a team of historians, Oval Office veterans, and psychotherapists tries to figure out whether Bush is depressed or delusional—and what combination of poor parenting and personality disorders brought things to this point."

To digress, in the same issue the magazine also offers a brief review of restaurants within three blocks' range of Amsterdam and 113th. Whether or not the enticing dining descriptions are accurate is your call.