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"

According to the latest breaking news from the Spec, President Bollinger announced today that Thomas Alva Edison Professor of Applied Physics Gerald Navratil will serve as interim dean of SEAS for the 2007-2008 school year. Navratil has served on Columbia's faculty since 1977 and specializes in plasma physics. He is currently being funded by the U.S. Department of Energy for fusion energy research and is also a recipient of the 2006 Fusion Power Associate Leadership Award. Just in case you were wondering.

On a slight side note, Bwog discovered some photos of new Interim Dean Navratil in the depths of Columbia's website -- judging from that demeanor inhis smile, we think he'll do just fine.

(As long as he can write a good e-mail, of course.)

Outgoing Dean Zvi Galil sent out this bundle of love just a few hours ago. Bwog hopes you're gutsy enough to step up to his challenge:

To SEAS students,

Since Bwog has been designated as the unofficial Zvi-mail chronicler, here's another gem from our outgoing buddy at SEAS.

Hi All

In the first day of teaching evaluations we already have over 22%. Since we have about 10 days to do it, I expect to have participation be well over 200%.

So please do it soon, and win an iPod.

Thank you

Dean Galil

It's the kind of email where you're not sure if the grammar is right or wrong...

Dean of SEAS Zvi Galil, spam robot extraordinaire, strikes once more with an idiosyncratic personal e-mail before he leaves to take over the presidency of Tel Aviv University. Just another example of what we'll be missing...

Hi All,

SEAS is hot. (Don't hold it without gloves, you may get burnt.) We now have final numbers of Early Decision. Last year we had a record. This year's new record is 51% higher. This is beyond anyone's expectations. As for regular applications, we are "only" 40% higher than the number of last year at the same time. It is too early to predict the final number, as most applications arrive early January.

Every Thanksgiving I read the piece below, which is now 17 years old, and laugh again. Every few years I send it to the students. So if you have received it from me, it perhaps means that you have been here too long... Anyway, you can delete it as any other spam.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Dean Galil

Read more of his e-mail after the jump.

Well, it happened: Dean Zvi Galil has decided to leave "the best job in the world" and accept the position as President of Tel-Aviv University. Bwog and SEAS are sad. Mass emails at Columbia—and indeed, Columbia herself—will never be quite the same. Bwog knows not what to say. Emptiness abounds. Resonates. Echoes. Echoes. Echoes.

Galil made the official announcement today in an email to the SEAS community, here reproduced (after the jump) for your reading displeasure.

You didn't want it to be true, but Dean of SEAS Zvi Galil has been unanimously selected as the new president of Tel Aviv University in Israel by its presidential search committee. Now Galil must be approved by the University's senate on Wednesday and their Board of Directors for approval, the Jerusalem Post reports. Bwog saw it coming...

Read the Spec article for more details.

In loving veneration, BWOG presents its Best of Zvi:

Meet the Bureaucrobats!

Zvi the Spam Robot

Harvard and SEAS?

Feel free to add any warm, fuzzy memories of your own.

Update: Alex Weinberg writes in to say, "We're not going down without a fight!" And how does SEAS go down fighting? They warm up their laptops. Post a note to the Save Zvi Galil project ("Because we love him more than Tel Aviv does.")

Every semester, President Bollinger brings about 40 students off the street into his swanky abode at 60 Morningside Drive to find out what's going on in the collective student consciousness. Registration is competitive, and as Bwog mounted the cushy staircase to PrezBo's elegantly appointed receiving room, we realized why: the snacks are phenomenal. During a 20 minute schmooze session, the undergrads fed on miniature hamburgers and peeled asparagus served up by a flock of smiling attendants. Here are some highlights from the discussion:

- The Opener: PrezBo began with his standard global university patter, covering the by now familiar tropes of how we need more international students, how much we NEED more space, and how committed we are to educational opportunity.

- On African Studies: Bollinger pinned the blame for the department's termination on erstwhile SIPA Dean Lisa Anderson, but said that we should be expecting a "major announcement" regarding the leader of a new department.

- On Athletics: "I really care a lot about athletics. One of the things I'm been troubled by is the sense that Columbia athletics has not been sufficiently respected or that it's losing." Just focus on water polo!

- On the distinctiveness of a Columbia alum: "You're more in debt than the others." Uneasy laughter. "That was a joke."

- On the works of Shakespeare: "You actively read them every day. You build a life with them...he had the ability to create characters who are truly, truly real. To do that is an act of genius."

- On the potential departure of Dean Galil: "Besides being extraordinary, he's lovable. I would wish him the best, and would work with him as the president of an institution. I think it would be good for the world."

- On the disinvitation of President Ahmadinejad: Bollinger abandoned the pretense that the Iranian leader was asked not to speak because of "security concerns." New version of events: he was informed on a Wednesday morning that Dean Anderson had invited Ahmadinejad while working in a small group setting at the UN to speak Friday morning. The President's office couldn't get a line of communication that would have assured him that Ahmadinejad would consent to a question and answer period, which Bollinger said was essential for this event to have academic merit. Especially considering Ahmadinejad had, one night earlier, implied that the Holocaust did not occur. "Are you unfathomably ignorant, or are you brazenly insulting?" PrezBo asked rhetorically.

Tel Aviv taps Zvi...

...After mysterious disappearance of CB...

...While Republicans shed party loyalty

Take Back the Night hands out "pens, highlighters, chapstick, lollipops" at 1020, patrons confused

Play includes "chicken farming", "a fringed belt assembled from a shredded copy of the Columbia Daily Spectator", "a Bible-quoting triple-murderer turned pizza boy", "freedom"

Spec serials continue their march toward the inevitable Pulitzer: "You must bless the round before you pound"

Miriam explores, vicariously, the world of the "spank-ee," who offers up "ass and self"

Hi All,

I thought you would like to know that early wednesday morning, shortly
after 1AM the time and date at that very second will be:

01:02:03 04/05/06

I hope you will be be up at that time to mark the occasion of a lifetime.

Dean Galil