After several application deadline postponements, our dead-tree friends at the Spec have finally chosen their new set of opinion columnists. Some old Bwog favorites have returned, some fresh faces have been added, and it's not known who gets the Friday death slots.

• Anthony Kelley, CC '09, who wrote what IvyGate called "The Batshittiest Spectator Column You Will Ever Read."
• Jonathan Hollander, CC '10, whose most recent Spec piece called out Kelley.
• Adil Ahmed, CC '09, CCSC VP for Policy and former MSA president.
• Andrew Lyubarsky, CC '09, one of the hunger strike negotiators, whom Bwog interviewed in Novermber.
• Lauren Salz, BC '11, CUGOP President Executive Director and CPU Communications Coordinator.
• Kate Redburn, CC '10, and Sarah Leonard, CC '10, former Dems board members writing a joint column.
• Marissa Mazek, BC '10, one of the organizers of "Love Your Body Week."
• Jonathon Grant, GS '08, actor and dancer.
  
• Catherine Madeo, GS '10, a yoga instructor (and the oldest columnist at 33).
• Becky Davies, CC '10, leader of the Columbia University Food Sustainability Project.
• Dan Blank, CC '09, who directed KCST's King Lear, and who hasn't written for the Spec since Saddam was executed.
• Alexios Shaw, CC '09, former Managing Editor of The Birch, and water-polo enthusiast.

UPDATE 9:27 PM: Ask for a schedule, and ye shall receive. All mysteries will be solved after the jump.

Chief Course Directory tipster Jake Miller informs Bwog that this morning, for the very first time, students have access to a full list of this year's CC professors. For the confused Elevens, we've asked some informed upperclassmen (all of who received passing grades in CC!) with whom they recommend taking the class.

Powerhouse celebrities Max Frankel and Dick Wald (both CC '52) will be co-teaching a section, though some cautious Bwoggers worry that maybe this would be too great, and we're just setting ourselves up for disappointment? Anyway, if you've ever wanted to take a class with the entire news staff of the Columbia Daily Spectator, now's your shot.

Other favorites include Mark Mazower, Roosevelt Montas, Katja Vogt, Matthew Jones, and Anthony Corsentino. Feel free to leave your own suggestions in the comments, the Elevens will thank you.

UPDATE: For you Terrible 12s out there, Lit Hum profs have been unmasked as well. Bwog recommends Denise Milstein, who won last year's graduate preceptor award and is reportedly unsafe for silent students and those who would skip class, as well as law school admissions dean Harry Kavros.

Let the shuffling begin.

The New York Times is reporting some big news for Marcus Brauchli, the positively dapper gentleman pictured to your right. Brauchli, CC '83 and Spec alum, is on the brink of being named the executive editor of the Washington Post. He was formerly the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal but resigned in April.

In other masthead turnover news, fellow Spec alum Andrew Martin, CC '08, and some other kid from Brown are the next up in IvyGate's roster of rotating summer editors. Martin and Kid From Brown are replacing Nina Shield and Kid From Harvard.

Over at Gawker, which time and time again has displayed a curious fascination with the Good Ship Spectator, it seems there's been a tiff between Speccie Alexandria Symonds and star of MTV's delightfully realistic The Paper/soon-to-be NYU student Amanda Lorber.

Lorber apparently took issue with Symonds' review of The Paper published nearly two months ago in the Spec, which characterized Lorber as "a fundamentally lonely girl. Sure, she's overbearing and annoying, but it's obvious that it all stems from crippling self-consciousness and a terminally unfulfilled desire to be liked." Retaliated Lorber to Symonds in a most unkind (and what should be noted as formerly private) email:

"I'm not saying I don't have enemies, obviously I do. You seem to be one of them, but as I write now, I'm starting to see where it's coming from. It's a different kind of jealousy. The type spewed from young women who resent teenage girls that get their names out there. You, Ms. Symonds, are obviously a fundamentally bitter woman. You degrade the work ethic and academic values of a 17-year-old in order to cure your self-consciousness and upset at perhaps never being recognized for your work when you're through with "The Specator." In fact, if my staff hadn't been excitedly 'googling' every article written about our (national television) show, I would never had come across your disgusting piece."

Is this finally the NYU-Columbia rivalry we can all get behind? Perchance!

Bwogger Lydia DePillis noticed that attempting to reach the Spec's website now brings one to the following message:

Ruh-roh. Has Spec not been footing the bill's for its web presence? Or perhaps it simply went the way of the Barnard Bulletin, whose foray into the world of the Internet was all too brief.

As the spring semester came to a screeching halt all too quickly yesterday, levying reading week and an ignominious batch of finals upon Columbia students quite eager to enjoy the pre-summer sunshine, Columbia Daily Spectator production also came to a halt yesterday, with an equally cheery promise to resume coverage in the fall. While Bwog has very much enjoyed offering you a daily dose of Spec this year, sadly today there is no Spec over which Bwog editors may voraciously pore.

Therefore, in lieu of QuickSpec this morning, Bwog invites you to have a gander at its very own Columbia news roundup trawled from a Gmail inbox chock-full of Columbia University Google Alerts. Speaking of Google, Bwog also recommends that readers check out Google's device called Google Reader to stay caught up with and organize all of the blogs, news, and gossip that might ever suit your fancy.

Wait, Columbia doesn't already own the NYT?

How hard is it to get a Columbia degree?

City Journal is still silly over 1968.

Graduate! It'll do the economy good.

Superhumans and Columbia's supercomputer.

Save water to avoid eating your neighbor.

Did Lindsay Lohan steal your $11,000 coat?

The front page of today's Spectator features an article about George Krebs' plan to file a rules violation against Alidad Damooei in response to a comment made by outgoing CCSC President Michelle Diamond's that Damooei and his party were "a stronger ticket."

The Spec article (and Damooei, when Bwog spoke with him) claims that a rules violations deal was struck between Damooei and Krebs. The deal, which was facilitated by Elections Board Chair Andrew Ness, specified that Krebs would not file a rules violation against Diamond's statements (Diamond is not allowed to endorse any candidate), if Damooei would not file a rules violation against Krebs' party for posting a campaign flyer on the glass window of an EC computer lab, which is a violation.

According to Damooei, Ness explained to Krebs and him that if either of them were to file rules violations this late in the game, hours-long judicial hearings would prevent them from going outside and getting people to vote. Krebs and Damooei agreed that avoiding this was appealing, and the three shook hands.

Gawker, whose staff apparently checks all the Columbia news websites every ten minutes for changes, is muscling onto Bwog's turf a little bit this afternoon. Namely, catching Spec with its pants down with the following correction tucked at the bottom of yesterday's caustic anti-Tibet editorial:

CORRECTION: This submission misstates that one Dalai Lama admitted to having sex with hundreds of men and women while knowing that he had AIDS. Additionally, the submission misstates that many monks participated in the dismemberment of female bodies. In fact, there is no factual evidence to substantiate either of these claims. Spectator regrets the error.

Well, yes, that's amazing. Good enough for Gawker to walk its fancy self above 96th Street (and to note that relevance, the current Dalai Lama has held his position for fifty years, which means the number of Dalai Lamas an editor has to look up to verify that claim is approximately one). We won't even mention that Spec tagged the article "ignorance."

Anyway, we applaud Gawker on their nice catch. However, stealing our headline from earlier today? Man. Clearly, somebody should be paying us. We're looking in the general direction of your faux-loft penthouse, Denton.

Current Blue and White editor-in-chief Anna Phillips attended the annual Blue Pencil Dinner in Low Rotunda last night to see how the other half lives. Her impression follows.

At 8:30 on Saturday night, the staff, alums, and distinguished guests of the Columbia Daily Spectator traipsed into Low Library in their finery for an evening of hobnobbing and a speech by Leonard Downie, executive editor of the Washington Post. A dinner (if networking can be called dining) preceded the event.

Editor-in-chief emeritus John Davisson C'08 began the evening with a speech about Spec in the last year, during which he referred to the newspaper's critics and fans who have both lauded the paper and called its reporters "pedestrian hacks" and "accomplices to the destruction of mankind."

But things seem to be looking up for the campus rag. In Spring of 2007, the Spec had 1.7 million page views and in the Fall of '07 it had 7.96 million, which could be attributed to the website redesign or the presence of an Iranian dictator on campus soil-- it's a toss up. The paper's circulation holds steady at 10,000 a day, and Spec has recently agreed to host Wiki CU after Bwog declined the offer.

Did you know the Spectator editors have a blog? Well, they do! And they have selected a winner! Apparently, Spec conducted a completely necessary survey to examine the relationship between Bwog and Spec, among other things. Some findings? For one thing, we do, in fact have a relationship. "Though its effects haven't been researched, Bwog's QuickSpec seems to help our paper (and possibly Bwog?) reach readers and stimulate dialogue about the content and presentation itself of the news we cover," explained EIC Tom Faure. In other words, QuickSpecs... help. Spec? Maybe Bwog. In some way. Probably.

All month, Bwog has been waiting with bated breath while the Speccie population at Columbia has feverishly shadowed for their desired positions, written long proposals, and faced the firing squad of this year's board. At the end of it all, campus news deputy Tom Faure came out on top for Editor-in-Chief in what was originally a six-person race, following in the illustrious footsteps of his predecessor John Davisson who made a similarly broad leap from News Associate editor to EIC. Welcome to you all!

EIC: Tom Faure
Eye EIC: Alexandria Symonds
Managing Editor: Amanda Sebba
Eye Managing Editor Features: Hayley Negrin
Eye Managing Editor A&E: Alison Bumke
Campus News: Jacob Schneider
City News: Melissa Repko:
Sports: Kavitha Davidson and Matt Velazquez
Opinion: Miriam Krule
Copy Editor: Jordan Fraade
Production Editors: Haley Vecchiarelli and Madeleine Lopeman
Photo Editor: Linda Carrion
Publisher: Manal Alam
Business Manager: Grace Chan
Finance: Darrow Merton
Sales: Michael Topol
Alumni: Julia Feldberg
Online Editor: Lara Chelak

Poor, misunderstood Columbia. No one seems to get the story straight--not even campus media sometimes--and the Hunger Strike of Fall 2007 was no exception. We've compiled what we're sure is a woefully incomplete list of inaccuracies.

We'll let Columbia Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs La-Verna Fountain explain what was wrong with the bit about the $50 million for Major Cultures figure in a Nov. 16 New York Sun article, in a statement she released to CB9 Chairman Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, posted after the jump.

"The Sun has informed us they intend to run some kind of correction of this inaccurate story, but for reasons known only to them have decided to wait to publish this in their next edition on Monday. We look forward to seeing it," she wrote snippily.

While they're correcting, the Sun might want to note that Emilie Rosenblatt is a senior, not a junior, and that the striker who dropped out is named Aretha, not Victoria.

Besides being generally noxious, the New York Post had a similar problem with the $50 million number:

"Columbia agreed to raise $50 million to beef up ethnic studies and expand programs for multicultural students, strike organizers said, but refused to budge on the protesters' biggest demand - killing the school's proposed expansion into Harlem...Columbia's concession will expand the school's multicultural student center and expand the required freshman ethnic-studies class from a several hundred-student lecture to small seminar groups."

Also, the strikers didn't directly want to kill the expansion plan, just withdraw it for revision. And the "freshman ethnic studies class" is neither a freshman nor an ethnic studies class. Too bad it's already reached the right-wing masses!

Touro College Expands Into Harlem

Columbia Expands... into SPACE!

Frontiers of Science expands minds...into SPACE!

An invitation to a "Verses for the Masses"...scheduled with a Lerner event SPACE request

Finally, Columbia students discover "unless you hate freedom," the Holy Grail of rhetoric.

After going down in flames with its first two attempts at opinion blogging, and with a tentative re-entry into the world of instantaneous news coverage with the Orientation blog, Spectator is taking a third swing. A little corner notice in the paper this week read:

"The Opinion Section has launched a blog twice and was unsuccessful both times. Both versions lacked a cohesive voice and were half-hearted attempts at bringing the page online out of necessity to follow the journalistic trend towards the Internet. In its new form, the Opinion blog will feature a limited number of personal voices concerned with specific issues and ideas as well as daily photos and art. The hope is to utilize the Web asa medium for opinion rather than to merely extend the page to a new location. The blog will officially launch on Sunday, Sept. 23."

We're all for introspection. Looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, we've also heard that Spec will soon be launching a blog for Ahmadinejad coverage called...the AhmadineBlog. They'll be sitting around in their PJs growing out their beards soon enough...

UPDATE, via a commenter: It's here!

Advance intel says the site looks really good.

Although it's not that hard to beat CollegePublisher.