Bwog received an email early this morning from "ted" at CampusGrotto.com. We had never heard of CampusGrotto.com because honestly, have you? Still! They have heard of your Columbia, which they rank 39th in their list of the one hundred most expensive colleges.

CG estimates your tuition to be $37,470, which is about five grand less than the list-topping Bates ($43,950) and only a couple hundred less than the most expensive Ivy, University of Pennsylvania, whose $37,526 in tuition has earned it the #37 spot. Barnard's $35,973 comes in at #75.

Things switch up a bit when room and board comes into the picture: Columbia ($47,450) ranks 56th and Barnard ($47,898) ranks 39th, but both are less expensive than #30 UPenn, #31 Cornell, and #3 NYU.

An anonymous Bwog tipster has forwarded us the following farewell email, which details the departure of Dr. Ajay Nair (right), Associate Dean of Student Affairs/Office of Multicultural Affairs. Dr. Nair will be returning to UPenn (where he was Director of the Pan-Asian American Community House) to serve as Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs.

So say hello to new (but interim) Associate Dean of Student Affairs for the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Melinda Aquino. (That's her on the left.) You might remember Aquino from her position as Senior Assistant Dean of Multicultural Affairs. According to the OMA website, Aquino has previously worked at the University of Florida, the University of Miami, and Washington Sq.-based archenemy NYU. Also, "her current work examines cultural hybrity and 'techo-Orientalism' in cyborg science fiction literature and films."

Email after the jump.

Want extraneous ephemera? We've got extraneous ephemera!

• Bwog missed it while QuickSpecking, since the classic headline "Penn to Teach at Penn" ran under today's College Briefs in the print edition only. "Sean Penn?" one student was overheard wondering. Not quite, and if seniors here are upset about Matthew Fox speaking on Class Day, we wonder what they'd think if Columbia signed the star of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and Van Wilder: Rise of Taj as an adjunct professor (okay, okay, he was in The Namesake too...and we're still waiting for Fox to take on a similarly respectable role...)

• We're not going to go beyond providing the link: Radar's...saucy interview with Matt Sanchez

• Dean Quigley, overheard leaving Low around 6PM yesterday: "One of my favourite* things in life is that time in between jobs." Following in Zvi's footsteps? Say it ain't so, Austin...

• Are the SDS, progenitors of the 1968 protests, on the rise again? We guess we won't know for sure until attending tomorrow night's meeting. Until then, we offer a synopsis of their logo from Bwog's very own semiotician, reporting from the Hamilton stairs: "They appear to be lacking a sense of irony. The flyers have George Bush doing a clenched fist and 'Is this what democracy looks like?' -- but then two inches away, the SDS fist logo, in almost exactly the same position."

*We like to imagine he both thinks and speaks aloud in the spelling of the Queen's English. -CJS

Why Lee C turned the Harvard job down? Whopping salary still derided for paucity by admiring SEAS kids

Free downloadable music! Just for us! No, wait, scratch that, you can only stream it. And it doesn't work on your iPod. Student reaction: as long as it "isn't mainstream" or "have janky strings"

After Bwog commenters' aesthetic assault fails, LCD screen permanent in Butler. Religion student worships at altar of technology, but plagued by doubt

M. Six Silberman, architect of civilizations, plots path to sustainable future: "heinous...labor-intensive...technocultural mess"

PLUS: Yet another reason why we'll never be comparable to Penn...

We like to think Columbia can scoff at such things as superfluous interinstitutional rivalries. Not only are there enough warring factions between 120th and 114th to feed our hunger for conflict for ages, but in truth, we're too sophisticated and busy for that.

But we may be at a crucial junction in Columbia history. The sexually frustrated lurkers on Bored at Butler (the site is at this moment broken) have proposed a rivalry with Penn:

"click on newsworthy on your Official Vote so that it gets displayed on the side and doesn't just disappear. And write a DP article on it. And click share to post it on your facebooks. And find a good offensive phrase. Cuck Folumbia kind of sounds dumb. And the Chinatown bus from Philly to NYC is really cheap, take it up here for the games and we'll return the favor. Looking Forward to RIVALRY!"

Penn accepted on their B@B franchise Bored at VanPelt:

HEY COLUMBIA - ITS ON.

Pro: Maybe a fun football game once a year.
Con: We'd have to go to Philadelphia. Lame.

-Thanks to Layla for the tip

Another reason why a rivalry with Penn would be grossly unmatched, in the form of a "have some fries" Ivy League joke after the jump...

Bwog football correspondent CML reports on the Lions' dismal loss to Penn, of all places.

This last Saturday, among the verdant foliage, obtrusive infrastructure, and thoughtless mélange of architectural styles that defines University City, Philadelphia, PA, an epic gridiron confrontation took place. Coming off a 24-0 blowout of the enigmatic yet pitiable Iona, Columbia looked to knock off a decent opponent while notching its first Ivy win of the season. Facing them, a Quakers team seeking to improve its conference record to 2-0, and impress the parents in town for the annual UPenn family weekend.

The game started on an auspicious note for the Lions, who received the kickoff flawlessly and proceeded to obtain two first downs in quick succession. But the usually moribund offense soon found itself facing a fourth down situation on the Penn 34-yard line — too close to the end-zone to punt, and too far to kick a field goal with significant chance of success. The Quakers' defense stuffed the conversion attempt, and the Penn offense took over. The Lions' defense held, but after the offense busted out what has become its signature move — the three-and-out — the Quakers were able to advance up the field far enough to kick a field goal, putting the score at 3-0.

Along with freshmen, in September Columbia will welcome its newest flight of replacement administrators, stepping into posts vacated at Teachers College, the Medical Center, and JTS. Most recently, Dean of Student Affairs Chris Colombo announced that the University had lured Dr. Ajay Nair from Penn to head up the Office of Multicultural Affairs, one of the hottest seats in the Columbian pantheon.

Currently working on a book about "the potential of hip-hop for crafting solidarities between racial/ethnic groups in America," Ajay sounds like a pretty cool guy. Let's just hope he lasts longer than his predecessor.

A few days ago, the University of Pennsylvania rolled out its shiny new plan for a huge construction project on its eastern edge. Bwog's mind jumps to Columbia's own troubled efforts in Manhattanville—but the parallels are a little more complicated. A few facts:

- The cost of Penn's expansion is about the same, $6.7 billion to Manhattanville's $7.

- The area to be developed is about twice as big, at 42 acres to Manhattanville's 17.

- Unlike Manhattanville, nobody lives in the Postal Lands, the 20-acre parcel that Penn just purchased to build on--it really is an industrial wasteland.

- The community doesn't care. Even the main gadfly group, Neighbors Against McPenntrification (which fought previous expansions as well as Penn's deal with McDonalds) seems to be okay with it, as are Penn students.

- Two of CU's recently-appointed Executive Vice Presidents, David Stone (Communications) and Maxine Griffith (Government and Community Affairs) have intimate experience with previous Penn expansions, he as a strategic communications and community outreach consultant for the University and she as Director of the Philadelphia Planning Commission. PrezBo seems to think the two schools have some commonalities.

- The two universities are facing completely different zoning situations. Whereas CU has to wade through layers of tape in an area that's zoned for mixed residential and commercial use, Philly has essentially no city plan, which makes it a lot simpler for Penn to take over 42 acres with little to no serious complaint.

Pennhattanville? Not quite.