Vol. CXXXIV—No. 111
Monday, November 8, 2010
Greek life student poll opens to Barnard
Group seeks to revive Harlem marketplace
Sorority recognition debate hits the Quad in fliering campaign
BY EMILY NEIL Columbia Daily Spectator Fresh bread—and an economic boost—is on its way to Harlem’s La Marqueta. Hot Bread Kitchen Incubates, an entrepreneurship program developed by the Brooklyn-based nonprofit Hot Bread Kitchen, is set to open its commercial kitchen spaces and central offices in January 2011 between 111th and 112th streets. The program aims to provide kitchen space and training for local entrepreneurs interested in starting their own culinary businesses. Selections from the first round of applications to the multistage program, due at the end of November, will give priority to Harlem residents. It’s also an effort to revive a marketplace and a neighborhood that were once considered Harlem icons. The largely defunct La Marqueta is now mostly made up of empty buildings. Jessamyn Waldman, founder and director of HBK, said that the organization hopes that locating HBK Incubates in Harlem will help revitalize the local economy. “There’s a lot of food entrepreneurs in Harlem who are limited in their ability to grow their businesses by the fact that they don’t have access to commercial kitchens. What we’re really hoping to do is to help those people grow businesses into cash-positive businesses, into profitable businesses, and eventually graduate them into the community, and in doing so, create jobs and additional revenue in a community that could use it,” she said. Ramon Flores, a lifelong resident of Harlem, now works on Saturdays at a dry fish stand, one of three remaining vendors from the original La Marqueta that are now located beside the HBK Incubates construction site.
“There’s a lot of food entrepreneurs in Harlem who are limited in their ability to grow their businesses by the fact that they don’t have access to commercial kitchens.” —Jessamyn Waldman, founder and director of HBK “I don’t really know too much about it,” Flores said of the project, although he expressed support for the program “if it builds the clientele back up.” Flores also felt that the program could bring attention back to the area, particularly since the decline of the once-bustling La Marqueta venue. “Nobody, nobody made no effort. All those years, nobody made no sacrifices,” Flores said. Currently, the core of the Hot Bread Kitchen organization is the bakery, where low-income women, many of them immigrants, are paid and given training as they practice and perfect bread-making recipes from their own cultural traditions. The bread products are then sold at markets and businesses throughout the city.
SEE HARLEM, page 2
columbiaspectator.com
BY MADINA TOURE Spectator Senior Staff Writer
PHOEBE LYTLE / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
BREAKING BREAD | Jessamyn Waldman of Hot Bread Kitchen wants to bring her program to Harlem.
SEAS admins consider co-op program BY SAMMY ROTH Columbia Daily Spectator According to one administrator, a co-op program might be in the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s future. But others say such a program is simply unfeasible at SEAS. Yannis Tsividis, who recently became the SEAS Undergraduate Curriculum Advisor to the Dean, said that
starting a co-op program “is among several ones [issues] I will be considering in the next several years.” “Such programs exist at several other universities, so it’s natural that people would consider them for possible implementation here,” Tsividis said in an email. Co-op, which is short for cooperative education, is a program in which students take
Greek life pushes to make groups more LGBT-friendly BY CONSTANCE BOOZER Columbia Daily Spectator Diatre Padilla, CC ’13, did not think he’d have a place in campus Greek life when he first came to Columbia. “I never actually expected to be bidded by any fraternity, especially considering my preconceived notions of homophobia and misogyny in fraternities,” he said. To Padilla’s surprise, being gay was not a problem when he bid Psi Upsilon last year. “They gave me a bid here, and I just figured, ‘What the hell?’ and went for it,” he said. “Something about joining a fraternity, which I considered an option inherently closed off to someone as non-manly as me, seemed like it could be an interesting experience, and a fulfillment of my preconceived notions of a fun college experience.” For some students like Padilla, Greek life has become more of an opportunity on campus—and representatives from fraternities and sororities on campus say they are actively pushing to make their organizations more accepting of LGBT students. Lalit Gurnani, CC ’11 and president of the Interfraternity Council said members of Greek life have taken strides to become more inclusive and diverse over the years, specifically citing Greek participation in the “Safe Space”
campaign, a student initiative to get every student to hang a pink flier in their window stating that their room is a safe space for the LGBT community, as evidence of their outreach efforts. Avi Edelman, CC ’11 and the president of Everyone Allied Against Homophobia, said that Greek life on the whole has gotten better and less homophobic since he arrived on campus.
“Our pledge as Sigma Nus was to accept our brothers as they are.” —Sean Leahy, CC ’12
“Greek life on all campuses has a reputation as being very heteronormative and, often, homophobic as well,” he said in an email. “We applaud any efforts that sororities and fraternities are taking to reach out to queer students.” A representative from the Office of Student Affairs said Columbia does not keep demographic records of those who participate in Greek life, but some SEE LGBT, page 2
time off from school to work full-time, while still receiving college credit. Schools with co-ops, like Cornell University, University of Cincinnati, Drexel University, and Northeastern University, foster close relationships with employers to make sure that their students can get co-op jobs. SEAS does not currently offer such a program.
SEE SEAS, page 2
It’s time to pick courses for the spring semester—but as Barnard students put together their schedules, they will also be able to determine the future of sororities on campus. Today, Barnard students will have the opportunity to vote on whether or not the Student Government Association should recognize Greek life. The nonbinding student poll will be available online during program filing. The SGA Representative Council will vote to pass the results on Nov. 29. Currently, SGA—which acts as a governing board as well as a council—does not officially recognize the InterGreek Council, the three-branched Greek life governing board. According to its constitution, SGA cannot recognize groups that choose members on a “discriminatory basis.” Last year, however, SGA donated $1000 to support students involved in Greek organizations through the Panhellenic Council, one of three councils that make up the IGC. This semester, the Barnard Student Government Association created an internal committee, co-chaired by Vice President of Finance Priyata Patel, BC ’11 and Representative for Community Affairs Rachel Ferrari, BC ’13, to decide how to move forward on the issue before eventually deciding on a student poll. SGA also sponsored a town hall and several round tables to discuss the possibility of sorority recognition. Last month’s town hall was dominated by students who supported recognition, though a smaller group spoke out against the idea. This past weekend, fliers urging students to vote in favor of recognition were posted around
dorms within the Barnard Quad, though there was no indication of who was behind the campaign. Patel said that the fliers were most likely posted by members of sororities. “No, it’s just sororities,” she said. “There’s no way somebody on SGA is doing that.” Pa n h e l l e n i c Council President Nora Feinstein, BC ’11, who is also a student services representative at SGA, would not comment on the poll. By Sunday, many of the fliers had been taken down. In April, the IGC sought official recognition from SGA, which would enable IGC to receive additional privileges, including financial support and access to more spaces for events. An SGA vote left the IGC unrecognized. Barnard students in sororities represent 10.4 percent of the student body, but they make up half of the sorority population. The day before the poll opened, students still shared mixed views on the issue. “I understand both sides of the argument, and I think that Barnard students should kind of acknowledge the huge presence of sororities on campus because it is here and it’s a part of our community,” Kathryn Maslak, BC ’12, said. “Whether or not they choose to participate in the sororities is a totally different story, but continuing to ignore sororities and not officially acknowledging them further divides the Columbia community.” “I’d like to vote ‘yes’ because if Barnard students are part of it [sororities], they should be funded,” Elaine Gottesman, BC ’14, said. Camille Simoneau, BC ’14, however, said that the outcome of the poll would have no effect SEE GREEK, page 2
Lerner lights up for Diwali celebration BY SONALEE RAU Columbia Daily Spectator Students decked out in flowing, glittery outfits got a taste of India on Saturday night inside Lerner Hall for Columbia’s celebration of Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. This year marked the first time the Sikh Student Association officially cosponsored the event with two other religious groups—the Hindu Students Organization and Ahimsa, Columbia’s Jain organization. Organizers said that there was a high turnout this year for the event, which was funded by the Student Governing Board, CUArts’ Gatsby Charitable Fund, the Columbia College Student Council, the Engineering Student Council, and the President’s and Provost’s Student Initiative Fund. The event gives Columbia students a chance to celebrate Diwali with arts and crafts, cultural presentations, food, and dancing. In Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism alike, the festival marks the beginning of the new year, even though the significance of Diwali and its customs vary between different regions and religions in India. “Our theme this year is a journey through India,” Nina Paddu, BC ’12, co-coordinator of the Hindu Students Organization, said. They wanted to represent
ZARA CASTANY / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
SHEDDING LIGHT | Students gathered in Lerner on Saturday for the annual celebration of Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. both the cultural side and the religious side of Diwali, she said. Ansh Johri, SEAS ’13 and an organizer from HSO, said that the attendance was at capacity. “We were sold out on the wait list,” Johri said. Booths at the event featured Rangoli, an Indian art form, and mehndi, a traditional form of body art. The sponsoring student groups also collaborated to make a charitable contribution, as they do each year. This year, Child Rights and You America was the nonprofit organization selected to receive the donation. Students from different backgrounds said they enjoyed the festivities—for some, a welcome
break from studying. “The food is beautiful. It makes you feel happy … from the stress of midterms,” Maxim Vershinin, GS, an international student from Russia, said. Anirban Poddar, CC ’14 and an international student from India, said that though he enjoyed the event in Lerner, he was nostalgic for the Diwali celebrations in his native country. “Not only a lot of South Asian people have come out to celebrate, but a lot of international people as well,” Poddar noted. “Although I wish we could get approval for fireworks and firecrackers, since that’s what Diwali [in India] is all about.” news@columbiaspectator.com
OPINION, PAGE 4
SPORTS, BACK PAGE
EVENTS
WEATHER
The scientific method
Football comes up short in Cambridge
Procrastination Workshop
Today
An interdisciplinary approach is necessary for the fundamental questions of life.
Though the Lions were able to hang with Harvard through most of the first half, the Crimson went up 16-0 with a touchdown just before halftime and went on to win 23-7.
Tomorrow
Come to a hands-on workshop on time management. 8th Floor Conference Room, Lerner Hall, 5:30 p.m.
Research Town Hall Join the Department of Defense’s director for basic research for a discussion. Davis Auditorium, Schapiro Center, 2 p.m.
45°/ 40°
56°/ 43°
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NEWS
Nonprofit enters Harlem marketplace HARLEM from front page Jose Garza, executive director of the East Harlem Business Capital Corporation and a member of the Community Advisory Board for Hot Bread Kitchen, said that through access to affordable commercial kitchen space, entrepreneurs “can produce a higher quality product more efficiently … [which] increases their sales and profits, and thereby in the long term increases the wealth of the community.” Residents of the area expressed support for any program that could possibly stimulate the local economy. Arianna Hughes, who lives in the Johnson building across the street from the HBK Incubates’ construction site at La Marqueta, knew that there was something being built, but had not been told what it was. “I guess if it’s providing training for the community, it would be helpful to those who are trying … to get into the culinary business, if that’s what they’re looking to do,” Hughes said, when told about the program’s plans. “I just wish I had a little more knowledge about it,” she added. news@columbiaspectator.com
PHOEBE LYTLE / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
REVIVAL | A nonprofit, Hot Break Kitchen, hopes to bring its business incubation project to La Marqueta, above, in Harlem.
Greek life poll opens as sorority debate continues at Barnard GREEK from front page on her, and that she thought students were on the whole apathetic about the issue. “I don’t want to join a sorority, so it doesn’t affect me either way, so I guess I don’t really care what happens,” Simoneau said.
“It seems like the only people who care about this are people who are in a sorority and no one else cares about it particularly.” The results of the poll will be announced following program filing. madina.toure @columbiaspectator.com
SEAS admins consider merits of co-op program SEAS from front page But SEAS Vice Dean Morton Friedman cautioned that the establishment of a co-op program is unlikely. It would take years to implement one, he said, as the entire school would have to be restructured. Schedules would have to be changed dramatically to allow students to stop school for long periods of time, he said. Friedman added that a co-op program is also probably not appropriate at Columbia, because “usually it’s not the top schools” that have them. “It’s just not the kind of thing that Ivy League schools do,” he said. But some engineering students say they think Columbia would benefit from starting a co-op. Daniel Braz, SEAS ’11, said that while Columbia offers many career-building opportunities, like career fairs, he would support the creation of a co-op program because it would make it “less difficult to actually get your foot in the door.” “All of these things that Columbia offers are seemingly beneficial towards us, but it really doesn’t help all too much in the end, because they have
large amounts of students that participate in the career fairs,” Braz said. Hesam Parsa, a third-year biomedical engineering graduate student at SEAS, said that a co-op would benefit undergraduates. Spending a longer time working would help students “to choose better what they like before they go to graduate school,” he said. Rebecca Rodriguez, the senior associate director for the Engaged Entrepreneurship Program at the engineering school’s Center for Technology, Innovation and Community Engagement, which helps students gain real-world engineering experience by giving them opportunities to work in the neighborhood, said that hands-on work is particularly important for engineers because “the engineering mindset is best learned through tangible experiences.” Still, not all engineering students said they thought a full coop is necessary to advance their careers. Frank Golub, SEAS ’11, said that while he does not think Columbia needs to institute a full co-op program, he does think that SEAS should grant credit for internships in order to improve standing with potential employers.
“It wouldn’t have to count toward graduation in the slightest—it could be a half-credit course,” Golub said. “But [we should have] something where we could tell employers that we have a co-op program.” Under current policy, Columbia will issue an “R credit,” or registration credit, to students who need to show employers that they are getting credit for their jobs. This credit appears on a student’s transcript, but is not worth any points toward graduation. Golub also agreed that experience is important for engineers because not finding jobs early “can be at least a $10,000 hit,” both because of lost pay, and because it puts them at a disadvantage later when looking for work. Friedman said that the engineering school already works closely with the Center for Career Education to help find jobs for engineering students. But in a bad economy, when jobs are hard to come by, he said he understands a co-op’s appeal to students. “Today, because of the job business, it might seem it’s a good process,” Friedman said. “But normally it’s not appropriate, and difficult to introduce in a school that doesn’t have it already.” news@columbiaspectator.com
MARIA CASTEX FOR SPECTATOR
GOING GREEK | Diatre Padilla, CC ’13, said that being gay did not stop him from joining Psi Upsilon.
Greek life pushes to make groups LGBT-friendly LGBT from front page students said Greek organizations at Columbia are not like their heteronormative counterparts at other schools. Sean Leahy, CC ’12 and a straight member of Sigma Nu, said that LGBT students live in the fraternity and that it has not been a problem. “What allows this to occur without difficulty, awkwardness, and embarrassment, is the stronger concept of brotherhood, and collective intimacy in the fraternity,” Leahy said. “Brotherhood is also the reason that gay brothers
and straight brothers face essentially no issue with one another. Our pledge as Sigma Nus was to accept our brothers as they are.” Padilla said it meant a lot to him that his sexuality did not get in the way when he was bidding. “It just became obvious that they didn’t care and didn’t consider that when choosing to offer me membership, which made my day.” A Barnard junior, who considers herself bisexual and requested anonymity for herself and her sorority—due to her organization’s policy that members can’t speak to the media as part of
the group—said that having the love and support of her sisters has made her more comfortable exploring her sexuality. “My sisters are my main support system. When I have relationship problems, it helps to talk to the girls in my sorority. Padilla added that ultimately no one will fit in perfectly with every single Greek organization. “Each fraternity provides a different experience, and therefore looks for a different type of member who fits the mold of the fraternity. Some molds are more flexible than others,” he said. news@columbiaspectator.com
CORRECTION In Friday’s issue, the caption for the photo labeled “Basketball Mania” misidentified Noruwa Agho as Van Green. Spectator regrets the error.
NOVEMBER 8, 2010
NOVEMBER 8, 2010
SPORTS MONDAY
PAGE 3
SQUASH
At Ivy Scrimmages, squash debuts as varsity program Men’s and women’s squash concluded their first contests as varsity teams this weekend. Both teams traveled to New Haven, Conn. for the annual Ivy League Squash Scrimmages, a series of unofficial matches in which all eight Ivy teams congregate for friendly competition to get the squash season started. This year, the men’s team faced off against No. 2 Yale, No. 7 Dartmouth, and No. 15 Brown while the women’s team competed against No. 1 Harvard, No. 7 Cornell, and No. 10 Brown. Matches between teams
featured nine players that counted for the official results, with each individual match lasting five sets. Although both the men’s and the women’s team went winless in their matches, women’s head coach Kelsey Engman was still pleased with her team’s performance. “The women did really well considering that of the top 10 teams in the country for squash, seven of them are the Ivies.” Engman said. “It’s a tough first weekend for us, but all the women were really competitive.” Engman said that the team
Women’s soccer suffers 2-0 defeat against Harvard WOMEN’S SOCCER from page 9 eight-game unbeaten streak after the second. But the Lions fell to Dartmouth on Oct. 23, to Yale on Oct. 30, and then to Harvard. Harvard scored its first goal when the ball deflected off Columbia defender Kelly Hostetler and into the net. “Unfortunately, those things can happen,” McCarthy said. “And unfortunately, it happened to us.” By yielding the own goal, Columbia found itself fighting a deficit almost as soon as the game started. “The early goalagainst was especially difficult because it was a pretty good first half,” McCarthy said. “And that wasn’t even a chance for them— it was a cross.” Harvard (8-7-1, 4-3-0) netted its final goal late in the second half, with senior forward Katherine Sheeleigh finishing a pass from junior midfielder Melanie Baskind. The goal was Sheeleigh’s leaguehigh ninth of the year. “When we got under 10 minutes and switched to an even more attacking [style] and put more numbers forward, it left us even more vulnerable at the back,” McCarthy said. “And they
took advantage of that.” Columbia was held scoreless for the first time since Oct. 2, when the Lions battled Brown to a 0-0 draw. Harvard outshot Columbia 17-10 and took seven corner kicks to Columbia’s five. “We hit the post, we had a couple of good chances and a few half-chances, but they didn’t have to take any risks at the back, having been up the whole game,” McCarthy said. “I would say we didn’t generate enough, but again, defending with a lead is a much better spot to be in.” Senior goalkeeper Lindsay Danielson started for Columbia in place of junior Lillian Klein, who sustained a concussion against Yale. Danielson made seven saves. “She was excellent,” McCarthy said. “The first goal was obviously not her fault, and there’s nothing she could have done about it. The second one, the girl got in behind the defense in a one-on-one situation. But otherwise, she was excellent.” But a season that began with nonconference successes and an Ivy championship run ended with a devastating three-game skid. “It’s tough,” McCarthy said. “It was a season of a couple of different streaks.”
fared much better at this weekend’s competition than at last year’s, highlighting the performances of Columbia’s freshmen as a reason for this improvement. In particular, Engman said that freshman Katie Quan performed well at the No. 2 spot, and Engman praised her play in the Harvard match. “The people there said that they are surprised that in one year we could make such a big change,” Engman said. “Last year we really just got killed in Ivy tournaments, and this year it was completely different.” —Michael Zhong
Women’s tennis fails to advance in tourney WOMEN’S TENNIS from page 9 team of Vicky Brook and Lindsay Clark won its first match before falling to Alabama, while Penn’s Connie Hsu defeated her Florida opponent only to lose in a close second matchup against No. 4 Denise Muresan from Michigan. This championship marks the end of a historic fall season in the women’s tennis program. After having the chance to finally compete in the National Indoors, No. 1 Bartnik has the right kind of motivation to push forward into the spring season. “I am optimistic about my game going into the spring season” Bartnik said. “I have not had a lot of match play recently, and in both singles and doubles, I had some very close matches with top players. Of course, some of the results were not favorable, but as long as I feel that my game is improving with every match, I am happy.” The Lions will now prepare for the spring season and will be back in action on Jan. 29 to host Fairleigh Dickenson at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.
EDITORIAL & OPINION
PAGE 4
Partners in education?
Science is not a clique BY YANG HU The 134th year of publication Independent since 1962 CORPORATE BOARD BEN COTTON Editor in Chief THOMAS RHIEL Managing Editor AKHIL MEHTA Publisher
MANAGING BOARD ALIX PIANIN Campus News Editor SAM LEVIN City News Editor EMILY TAMKIN Editorial Page Editor RAPHAEL POPE-SUSSMAN Editorial Page Editor CHRISTINE JORDAN Arts & Entertainment Editor MICHELE CLEARY Sports Editor
About 50 years ago, the English physicist and novelist C.P. Snow delivered a lecture at the University of Cambridge titled “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” This was his famous lament that “the intellectual life of the whole of Western society is increasingly being split into two polar groups,” with scientists on one side and the literary scholars on the other—a Core Curriculum nightmare. C.P. Snow blames the literary scholars for perpetuating this “gulf of mutual incomprehension” by their sustenance of shameless ignorance of fundamental ideas like the Second Law of Thermodynamics when, according to Snow, this would be the scientific equivalent of blowing off Shakespeare. But when science is the basis of pieces like biologist Francis Crick’s “The Astonishing Hypothesis,” which claims that “your sense of personal identity and free will are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules,” it’s no wonder that science could seem unappealing, even standoffish, to anyone but the most die-hard natural scientists. Through provocative contributions like “The Astonishing Hypothesis,” which some opine vastly understates the substance of the human soul, science raises doubts in its adequacy as the single authority on truth. However, from scrutinizing works like “The Astonishing Hypothesis,” we pounced on scientific thought in general before examining any single discipline’s capacity to explain our humanity.
MAGGIE ASTOR Head Copy Editor EMBRY OWEN Photo Editor HANNAH D’APICE Design Editor YIPENG HUANG Staff Director ADITYA MUKERJEE Finance Director
Much scientific progress comes from interdisciplinary accomplishments.
NILKANTH PATEL Online Content Editor
We did not hear, for instance, that much scientific progress comes from interdisciplinary accomplishments rather than from the achievements of disciplines in isolation. A recent article in The Economist describes how insights from the study of natural vision have helped advance the state of art in computer vision. The computer vision challenge
DEPUTY BOARD
STAFF EDITORIAL
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has been to devise ways to construct scene awareness from a mere collection of pixels, and Yann LeCun, now at New York University, pioneered an approach that imitates certain aspects of our own visual cortex. I also know a linguistics student, who to Snow would probably be more like a literary scholar, who contributes to natural language processing at our Center for Computational Learning Systems. The deep and narrow approach to problem solving has lost some potency. Therefore, the monochrome attempt by “The Astonishing Hypothesis” to explain human identity demonstrates its own anachronism as much as it hints at science’s limitations. Regardless of what science can or cannot answer at the moment, the dedication of people who live to seek better answers should at least deserve the benefit of the doubt. Science has shown us where difficulties lie, and so far it’s been science that has addressed them. Science’s current shortcomings don’t bind its potential. Reaching out to Snow’s literary scholars and not restricting our associations with science to the world of computers, test tubes, and particle accelerators would be a step toward realizing science’s full potential. Especially at Columbia, no student should feel caught in a crossfire between Frontiers of Science haters and Literature Humanities rebels or even fire the shots to start. Harboring frustration is understandable, but having it devolve into this recent divide, postured as debate but identified by how science is pitted against nebulous alternatives, incarnates Snow’s unfortunate vision where, in the face of difficulty, one concedes to science’s constraints before inviting more participation. If Snow couldn’t guess that our new divide was sparked by a scientist, what would that say about the severity of the nightmare in the school of the Core Curriculum? No one should wait for a breakthrough in any scientific field to better understand our humanity—such a profound achievement takes scientific effort from all human disciplines, literature not excepted. It might be in the mold of the literary scholar to continue the journey to truth from Crick’s hypothesis by posing, say, this simple but scientifically spirited rejoinder: Though many animals are similarly endowed with vast neural networks, why do no other animals on this earth write? The author is a Columbia College junior majoring in computer science and statistics.
Dean Michele Moody-Adams Columbia College Dean Michele Moody-Adams, School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora, and Provost Claude Steele have all been at Columbia for at least a full year. This week, the Editorial Board, after speaking to administrators, professors, alumni, and students, will offer our evaluation of their first years and what we hope to see from them in the years to come.
B
efore she arrived at Columbia, Dean Michele MoodyAdams served as vice provost for undergraduate education at Cornell. In her job in Ithaca, N.Y., she was responsible for the academic lives of 13,000 students in seven undergraduate schools. Cornell’s undergraduate population dwarfs Columbia’s, and its undergraduate mission is distinctly different from Columbia’s focus on the liberal arts. Dean Moody-Adams came to Columbia—a large and tremendously complicated, bureaucratic organization— from a different world. Her first duty, obviously, was to familiarize herself with our structure and our culture, and she has done so admirably. She has been more accessible to students than her predecessor was. She holds frequent teas and movie nights and has maintained open channels of communication with the student government, and by all accounts, she has worked well with her colleagues in the administration. We are impressed with the reputation Dean MoodyAdams has built for herself in only a year, and we are hopeful about the goals she has set out. In an email, Dean Moody-Adams identified three priorities for her tenure. She hopes to “enhance undergraduate science programs,” to “strengthen … the global dimensions of the curriculum,” and to “ensure the health and integrity of the Core Curriculum.” The first goal will take time, energy, and money to achieve, but it seems realistic. The second is rather vague. It echoes the administration’s constant advocacy for all things global, but it lacks a concrete set of initiatives. It is the third goal that we believe to be most important for the future of Columbia College. We also see this third goal as the most challenging, particularly in light of the exact nature of Dean Moody-Adams’ role at the University. She is not only dean of Columbia College, but also vice president for undergraduate education, which makes her responsible for undergraduate education and programs across the University. That the dean of Columbia College is in charge of undergraduate education at Columbia has a certain logic. Columbia College is the largest and oldest division of the University, and it is also very much this school’s face to the world. In many ways, it sets the tone for undergraduate life at Columbia. It is critical to have a sense of unity in the undergraduate experience at Columbia. Under Dean Moody-Adams, Columbia has finally gone forward with a unified Committee on Instruction. Long a faculty priority, the unified COI is an inter-school body designed to coordinate the curriculum and rationalize policies between schools. The COI has already overseen a move to standardize the disciplinary process for undergraduates. The unified COI was not Moody-Adams’ idea, but it was realized under her leadership. We are encouraged by this development, and we believe it serves as an example of the advantages of Dean MoodyAdams’ dual roles. Because Dean Moody-Adams is at the center of undergraduate education at Columbia, she is in a unique position to improve it. She has the opportunity to carve out a space for the college within a more efficient, collaborative, and internally complementary undergraduate program. But there is also a real danger intrinsic to Dean MoodyAdams’ dual roles. It is no mean feat to juggle two jobs at once. And while one might assume that what is good for Columbia College is good for the University and vice versa, that is not always the case. Dean Moody-Adams has the difficult task of ensuring that her two roles complement each other. While we trust that Dean Moody-Adams speaks in good faith when she says she is fully committed to protecting and preserving the identity of Columbia College, we have not seen any concrete evidence of how she plans to achieve this goal.
Grading the Administrators
NOVEMBER 8, 2010
What is the identity of Columbia College? It is, above all else, an institution focused on the liberal arts. Its robust Core Curriculum represents its commitment to a truly liberal education. We cannot imagine a Columbia College without the Core. But the Core is not invincible, and we should not take for granted that, because it has endured as long it has, it always will. It is incumbent upon Dean Moody-Adams to demonstrate that the Core will be strengthened. The Core is exceptionally expensive to maintain, and, with 120 sections of Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization alone, it is more than just a logistical headache. It seems improbable that the Core would disappear, but it could change or be diluted. Larger class sizes, fewer professors teaching Core classes—we fear these changes because we have already seen them. If we continue in that direction, in 20 years, the Core we know today could be a shell of its former self. The same can be said of Columbia College as a stronghold for liberal arts education. Historically, there have been no pre-professional majors at Columbia College. But this year alone, we have seen the introduction of a special concentration in business management and a major in financial economics, as well as the announcement of a potential major in public health. These developments alone do not represent a sea change in Columbia’s mission, but we need to know that what is true today will remain true. If Columbia College moves away from its commitment to the liberal arts, the intellectual and academic experience it offers will necessarily be compromised.
It is incumbent upon Dean MoodyAdams to demonstrate that the Core will be strengthened. That is not to say we should fear change. We need not hold on to what is old simply because it is old. CC, now considered an untouchable and essential part of the Core, took years to gain acceptance at Columbia, as Dean Moody-Adams wisely noted. She has spoken of efforts to further develop Frontiers of Science and the Global Core—efforts we would welcome. Dean Moody-Adams may be a vice president, but her primary role at Columbia is dean of Columbia College. As such, it is her responsibility to serve as the guarantor of Columbia College’s mission. We would be naïve if we said that hers was an easy job. She faces tremendous pressure from every direction—from alumni, from faculty, from students, and from her fellow administrators and superiors. She is expected to bring in huge amounts of money through fundraising, a daunting task for a new face in Morningside. She must work within the context of a larger university, where turf and resources are always up for grabs. And, of course, Dean Moody-Adams arrived here in the midst of the greatest financial turmoil the nation has seen since Nicholas Murray Butler’s presidency at Columbia. The University has fared better than its peers through the financial crisis, but these are still difficult times. Yet, these are also times of unprecedented opportunity. Thirty years ago, Columbia College had not yet admitted a woman as a student. Twenty years ago, our global presence was limited mostly to international students and professors, as well as long-distance phone calls. Ten years ago, some people saw Columbia’s lack of space into which to expand as an existential threat to the University. Today, the dean of Columbia College is a woman. We have almost instantaneous access to information—or to people—anywhere on earth, and we are expanding both within Manhattan and around the globe. We do not doubt the University’s ability to adapt to a changing world. It is Dean Moody-Adams’ job to ensure that as we adapt, we also preserve. Until she makes concrete her promises to further the mission of Columbia College, we will maintain a healthy dose of skepticism. But we will also remain optimistic. Columbia College may be 256 years old, but it still has room to grow.
L
ast week found me in my adviser’s office. The topic at hand was my frantic search for a spring internship. Rather than discuss the available internship options, though, the dean questioned the motivations of the search. Why, she inquired, do I want DEREK an internship? What benefit is there TURNER to yet another dreary semester-long Opening occupation? Perhaps, she continued, I would Remarks use my semester better if I pursued academic interests. After all, I have a lifetime of office work to look forward to, and my time at college is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop my mind in ways that become unavailable after graduation. Why not take a painting class or that public speaking class at Barnard? Why not do something that would otherwise be impossible had I not taken four years to cultivate my mind? Looking beyond my seemingly primal need for that extra line on my resume, I saw that she had a point—a compelling one. After all, would one additional internship really benefit me substantially in the long run? I began to think that developing an unused side of my mind might serve me better for a longer period of time. Instead of developing myself only as a careerist, why not grow in ways that will benefit every facet of my life? What I found more compelling, though, was the interaction that had just taken place. I had walked into the office with a very solid conception of what I should do during my college career and left having abandoned that conviction in favor of one that would serve me better. Disappointingly, it had taken an external force to correct my shortsighted pursuit. I can’t help but extend this scenario to our campus and find that we suffer from this mindset on an institutional level. As the 1968 riots and 2008 hunger strike suggest, we students frequently think that we know what is best for our college education. When the administration doesn’t comply with our visions for a Columbia education, we revolt and coerce our way into our ideal. We often get our way, as indicated by the emergence of the global core and the business concentration. I can’t help but wonder, though, if we students aren’t susceptible to the shortsighted perspective I displayed in the adviser’s office. After all, we can really only see what seems to be best for us now—a viewpoint dominated by the ever-nearing prospect of graduation and the ever-narrowing job market. It is extremely difficult for us as students to take a lifelong perspective and ignore the perceived needs of today in favor of the development of tomorrow.
It takes external guidance to get us to work on our foundational development. Given this, it may be in our best interest to defer to the people who have a better perspective. As empowering as it feels to make dramatic stands for what we think are the most beneficial aspects of education, it may be time to listen to what our professors and other established individuals have to say. It may be time to embrace the role of pupil and leave the teaching to the teachers. This concept shouldn’t be foreign to Columbia students. After all, the Core Curriculum is a program that compels students to become educated in areas that would not otherwise be attractive to them. If students had a better conception of what it means to cultivate one’s mind, then the administration wouldn’t have to force us to read “The Iliad,” listen to Mozart, or compute the distance to the nearest star. In actuality, students have very strong incentives to do what serves them best in the short term. It takes external guidance to get us to work on our foundational development. This stance puts me in a difficult position since it seems to oppose the belief in freedom for the individual. If, for example, I suggested a University-wide ban on internships for the first three academic years, how could I defend it? What it comes down to is the nature of the University. Think of it as buying a service. By paying tuition, we are essentially hiring Columbia to develop us into individuals ready to contribute meaningfully to the world by the time we graduate. If we come into our college experience thinking that we know what is best for our education, we deny the experience and expertise of the professionals here. While I don’t think that every instance of student activism for curricular changes is misguided or ineffectual, I do think that we as a student body should start giving the faculty the benefit of the doubt. It may irk us to acknowledge that they may know better than we do what is best for us, but we ignore them at our peril. Derek Turner is a Columbia College junior majoring in anthropology and political science. He is director of intergroup affairs for the Columbia University College Republicans. Opening Remarks runs alternate Mondays.
jody’s drawings!
JODY ZELLMAN
NOVEMBER 8, 2010
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Volleyball freshmen make history GLUBIAK from back page one senior, Martina Kajanova. What’s more, the roster boasts eight freshmen, including star libero Katherine Keller. To put that in context, there are only 17 players on the roster. The team’s star, Megan Gaughn, is only a sophomore. Second-team allIvy last year as a freshman, she became the first player in Ivy League history to win both Ivy League Rookie of the Week and Player of the Week honors in the same week (we’ll count that as program record number three). She led the Ivy League in points (422) and finished third in kills (4.00 per set) after leading the conference in that category for much of the year. This year, she has not disappointed, winning Ivy League Player of the Week honors in September and turning in a blazing October that included double-double performances in all but one match, all of which were against Ivy competition. Not coincidentally, Columbia’s October included an upset win against Dartmouth and wins over Brown, previously unbeaten Princeton, Harvard, and then Dartmouth again. Not to be outdone, Keller has taken Morningside Heights by storm in her first season on campus. As Michael Zhong reported in a Spectator feature earlier this fall, she was one of the most prized recruits in program history, choosing Columbia over No. 2 Stanford , No. 6 UC Berkeley, and No. 10 UCLA. Big ups to head coach Jon Wilson for landing her here and to Keller for making the cross-country leap of faith. Since arriving at Columbia she has not disappointed. She is the first freshman to start at libero for the Lions in four years, and Wilson has been so impressed by her performance he told Zhong that she could very well be the best libero to ever play Ivy League volleyball. “Given where she’s starting, she could end up being, if not the best libero in the history of the conference, then one of the best,” Wilson said. (That doesn’t count as a program record but you can’t tell me it’s not worth a parenthetical.) In short, there is some serious business going on in Levien Gymnasium. While the core of this team will be sticking around for several years to come, there are only two games left of what has already been a historic 2010 campaign. Forget all the program firsts—volleyball is just fun to watch. Bump. Set. Spike! It’s even fun to say. Seriously, give it a try. So while you may think volleyball is off the beaten path—and maybe it is—at the rate this team is taking down both opponents and the record books, it shouldn’t be. Don’t believe me? That’s fine. Show up this weekend to see the Lions take on league-leading Yale and Brown and see for yourself. Zach Glubiak is a Columbia College junior majoring in history. He is a member of the varsity men’s soccer team. sports@columbiaspectator.com
SPORTS MONDAY
FIELD HOCKEY
Light Blue defeats Harvard, finishes fourth in Ivy League On Saturday, the Light Blue field hockey team (10-7, 3-4 Ivy) ended the 2010 campaign with a 3-1 win over Harvard in Cambridge. S o p h o m o re G a b by Kozlowski scored the first goal of the game at 12:23, putting the Lions up 1-0 and breaking the team’s single-season scoring record as she registered her 16th goal of the season. Senior Caitlin Mullins continued the Lions’ early dominance of the Crimson with a goal that put Columbia up 2-0 during the 18th minute.
HARVARD
1
COLUMBIA
3
The Lions scored their final goal 33 minutes into the game as senior Julia Garrison netted a low shot, leading them into halftime with a 3-0 lead. Harvard started the second half fighting hard and eventually got on the scoreboard during the 58th minute with a goal from senior Chloe Keating, giving the game its final score of 3-1.
Adelphi and prevented Harvard from creating any real chances in the first period. The defenders were aided by Mazzullo and freshman midfielder Steven Daws, who tracked their runners exceptionally to shut out the Crimson attack. The Lions went into the halftime break with a well deserved lead and had the edge 7-3 in shots. Both teams’ offenses were stifled for the most part in the second half by solid defending, and the Crimson’s only noteworthy chance of the contest was a longrange effort by Kyle Henderson. The save was one of three made by Columbia goalkeeper Alex Aurrichio to earn his fourth shutout of the campaign. Harvard had defender Richard Smith sent off for a foul in the 71st minute, leaving his side facing an uphill battle. The lone goal proved decisive and gave the Lions the three
Saturday’s matchup advances the Lions to a 4-10 alltime record against Harvard. Columbia outshot Harvard 16-10 during the course of the game. Even though they finished fourth in conference play, the Lions still ended the season with a winning record at 107. The 2010 season was the fourth consecutive winning season for Columbia’s field hockey program, which has had five winning seasons in its 15-year history. —Robert Wren Gordon
VOLLEYBALL
Columbia sweeps Princeton for first time in program history Volleyball continued its record-setting 2010 campaign, sweeping its season series with Princeton (13-9, 8-3 Ivy) for the first time in program history. Despite the loss to Penn (13-10, 9-2 Ivy) on the previous day, with the win over Princeton, Columbia (15-8, 7-5 Ivy) positioned itself to break more records next week for its final doubleheader of the season. If the Lions defeat Brown and Yale next week, the team will set a new Columbia record for Ivy and total wins in a season. The 2001 team holds the current record with eight total conference wins, and the 2000 squad set the record for wins— albeit with 29 total games—by
COLUMBIA
3
PRINCETON
1
COLUMBIA
2
PENN
3
notching a 16-13 regular season record. The first time Columbia played Princeton, it pulled out a tough five-set win in which the Lions just survived, prevailing after winning the fifth set 17-15. Freshman libero Katherine Keller recorded a game-high 25 digs in Saturday’s match, and junior Cindy Chen was active defensively as well with 20 digs for the match. Columbia won the first
two sets 29-27, 25-21. The Lions then lost the third set 25-20 and won the deciding set 25-22. The win over Princeton helped wash away the team’s painful loss to Penn the day before, which mathematically eliminated the Lions from title contention. Columbia fared worse in its 3-1 loss to the Quakers, the defending league champions. The Lions lost the first set to Penn 25-20 but won the next two sets 25-19 and 25-23 to take control of the match. However, the Quakers responded with a convincing 25-18 fourth set win to set up the final set, which they eventually won 17-15. —Michael Zhong
Lions fail to recover from early deficit FOOTBALL from back page to make plays and that’s what Craig did, and Craig’s been making plays for us all year, and you can’t fault anybody for that—but yeah, it hurts to make the stop and then have to stay out there.” Wilson agreed with this view of the play. “Craig’s hurting as much as anybody else about the fact that he made a good play and then he came back and he had the ball pulled from him for a fumble,” he said. “So I’m not going to fault Craig for not batting the ball down, not at all.” The Crimson wasn’t content to wait until halftime before finding the end zone once more. Columbia punted after failing to move the chains, and the Crimson put together a nine-play, 49-yard drive in under two minutes. Winters capped it by carrying it up the middle himself for another six. Mothander clanged the PAT off the upright, but the Crimson still held a 16-0 edge heading into the locker room. “Letting up that touchdown right before halftime really is what hurt us, I think, the most,” Gross said. Gross, a senior captain, led all players on Saturday with 12 tackles. The Lions received after halftime and marched into Harvard’s zone with a nine-yard Brackett rush and two mid-range passes to tight end Andrew Kennedy. On third-and-six from the 29, Brackett floated one to running back Zack Kourouma, who hauled it in and got down to the
two. The Lions had four chances to go two yards, but they couldn’t do it. A second-down pass attempt was tipped at the line of scrimmage and intercepted by linebacker Alex Gedeon. Harvard pinned the Lions at their own nine with a deep punt and had excellent field position after another three-and-out. The Crimson pushed it 57 yards in just 1:25, and running back Treavor Scales found a hole from 11 yards out for another touchdown. This time Mothander didn’t miss, and the Crimson went up by 23. At long last, Columbia answered with a scoring drive of its own. Two completions to wide receiver Kurt Williams and an eight-yard carry by Brackett brought up first-and-10 from Harvard’s 36. Out of the shotgun, Brackett looked long down the right side to Williams. Harvard had two men in the secondary nearby, but both were focusing on Columbia’s other wideout, Nico Gutierrez, leaving Williams all alone in the end zone. Columbia cut the deficit to 23-7 in the waning moments of the third. “It was a breakdown of coverage, I’d say,” Williams said after the game. “Nico came out on the corner, and the safety flattened out with him and the corner ran with him too, so I ended up just being behind the defense and Sean just kept moving and threw it up.” Columbia’s mini-comeback stalled in the final quarter. Halfway through the fourth, the Lions reached the Harvard 18-yard line on fourth down and three. Trailing
Men’s soccer triumphs 1-0 over Crimson MEN’S SOCCER from back page
points. It was nothing but deserved, as the Light Blue outshot the Crimson 12-9 on their way to victory. The defense played an important role in the win, earning the shutout and recovering from its midweek defeat. “Adelphi wasn’t our best performance by any means,” Faber said. “We all knew we had to do better, and we did that.” “It’s a great feeling to beat Harvard, especially up in Boston,” Faber continued. “It isn’t something we’ve done in a while which just adds to the feeling. We played quite well, executed our game plan, and everybody got rewarded for their work.” Faber’s center-back partner Shaban played his part in defense, and for his troubles, earned a torn shirt that highlighted the physical nature of the contest. He had to finish the game wearing senior co-captain Peppe Carotenuto’s No. 7 shirt. “I think our tackling was a
huge improvement, and we were able to win the ball back from them,” Shaban said. “That helped us control the middle of the field and disrupted their attacks, which was crucial and gave us the win.” “Last time we went to Boston was an unpleasant experience where we lost 6-1. … This just feels incredible, and it shows the progress the program has made in two seasons,” he added. The Lions will be looking to close out the season in style when they host Cornell in the final game of the 2010 campaign. Faber is confident ahead of the season finale. “We can definitely end the season with a win and close our record at .500 in the Ivies,” he said. “We’re confident, and we’re looking forward to it.” The Lions will look to close out the season in style when they host Cornell in the final game of the 2010 campaign. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 13 at Columbia Soccer Stadium.
by 16, Wilson sent his field-goal unit out for a 35-yard attempt instead of gunning for the touchdown. Eddy yanked it left and the Lions wouldn’t threaten again. “We had an opportunity to kick,” Wilson said. “We had been doing a pretty good job in practice kicking PATs and field goals. We missed one in the first half and we figured it might be an aberration, and we thought we had a good shot to get it there early in the second half.” The Light Blue fell to 3-5 on the season and 1-4 in league play, while Harvard kept its title hopes alive by improving to 6-2 (4-1 Ivy). Brackett was 26-42 in the losing effort for 284 yards, one touchdown, and two picks. Williams led the Light Blue in receiving with 123 yards and a touchdown on seven catches. Columbia is back in action next Saturday at home against Cornell at 12:30 p.m. It will be the last time this year’s seniors see action at Robert K. Kraft Field.
NOVEMBER 8, 2010
SPORTS MONDAY
NOVEMBER 8, 2010
PAGE 9
MONDAY MORNING
QUARTERBACK # 8 play of the game
3. Columbia cornerback Craig Hamilton (#25) runs in front of Cook and intercepts the pass at the Light Blue 18yard line.
On fourth down from Columbia’s 35, Harvard head coach Tim Murphy chose to go for it late in the first half. Collier Winters’s pass was tipped and picked off by Craig Hamilton, but Harvard got it right back when Hamilton fumbled.
HARVARD, 2ND QUARTER: 11 PLAYS, 56 YARDS, 2:38 RESULT: 29-YARD FIELD GOAL, 3-0 HARVARD HARVARD, 2ND QUARTER: 4 PLAYS, 19 YARDS, 1:18 RESULT: TOUCHDOWN, 10-0 HARVARD HARVARD, 2ND QUARTER: 9 PLAYS, 49 YARDS, 1:55 RESULT: TOUCHDOWN, 16-0 HARVARD
20
4. Hamilton runs the ball back to the 19-yard line before Cook forces and recovers a fumble. Harvard regains possession and goes on to score a touchdown.
COLUMBIA
Junior wide receiver Kurt Williams had seven catches for 123 yards, his first career 100-yard receiving game. His 36-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter represented the extent of Columbia’s scoring on the day.
best call
key drives
HARVARD, 3RD QUARTER: 6 PLAYS, 57 YARDS, 1:25 RESULT: TOUCHDOWN, 23-0 HARVARD
worst call Trailing by 16 in the fourth, Columbia head coach Norries Wilson went for a field goal on fourth and three from the Harvard 18. Luke Eddy, who has been stellar this year, missed wide left, and the Lions never threatened to score again.
The Lions were down 16 at halftime but emerged with a red zone drive and a chance to make it a one-possession game. But quarterback Sean Brackett had his pass tipped and intercepted on second and goal, stalling the comeback attempt.
14 2. Winters drops back and to his right as wide receiver Mike Cook (#14) runs downfield to receive the pass.
16
10 20 30 40 50 40 30 20 10 G
IVY LEAGUE FOOTBALL STANDINGS
25
1. With Harvard leaading 3-0 late in the second quarter, Crimson quarterback Collier Winters (#16) receives the snap on fourth and 10.
COLUMBIA, 3RD QUARTER: 6 PLAYS, 67 YARDS, 2:27 RESULT: TOUCHDOWN, 23-7 HARVARD
G
30
turning point
HARVARD
game ball
week
40
OVERALL
IVY
POINTS FOR
POINTS AGAINST
PENN
7-1
5-0
225
124
HARVARD
6-2
4-1
231
132
YALE
6-2
4-1
189
170
BROWN
4-4
3-2
174
166
DARTMOUTH
5-3
2-3
205
177
COLUMBIA
3-5
1-4
186
173
CORNELL
2-6
1-4
100
223
PRINCETON
1-7
0-5
152
289
GRAPHIC BY FINN VIGELAND AND JACOB LEVENFELD
PIXBOX STANDINGS: WEEK 8
record
GAME ONE VS. FORDHAM L 16-9
GAME TWO VS. TOWSON W 24-10
GAME THREE VS. PRINCETON W 42-14
GAME FOUR VS. LAFAYETTE W 42-28
GAME FIVE @ PENN L 27-13
GAME SIX VS. DARTMOUTH L 24-21
GAME SEVEN @ YALE L 31-28
GAME EIGHT @ HARVARD L 23-7
GAME NINE VS. CORNELL 11/13
GAME TEN @ BROWN 11/20
1
Victoria “Batting a Thousand” Jones
35-29
2
Michele “I Can See Cleary Now” Cleary
34-30
3
Jim “On the Couch” Pagels
33-31
3
Michael “Turn Up the Mike” Shapiro
33-31
5
Lucas “In the Refrigerator” Shaw
32-32
6
Kunal “Moving the Chains” Gupta
31-33
7
Bart “The Tailgating Tales” Lopez
30-34
7
Lauren “Shiver Me Timbers” Seaman
30-34
9
Jacob “Eye on the Ball” Levenfeld
28-36
10
Zach “Boom Goes the Dynamite” Glubiak
22-42
Loss to Harvard drops Lions to fifth place CU duo impresses at championships BY SARAH SOMMER Spectator Senior Staff Writer
MEN’S TENNIS from back page
The Columbia women’s soccer team did not expect to end its season competing for second place in the Ivy League, and the Lions could not have expected their final game to unfold in the way that it did. In just the 10th minute on Saturday, Columbia allowed an own goal that gave Harvard a 1-0 lead. The Crimson scored again in the 80th minute, and the match ended as a 2-0 loss for the Lions. “It was a game where we had to dig ourselves out of a hole from early on,” head coach Kevin McCarthy said. “It was especially difficult against this team, who really plays especially well on the counter. And so the longer the game went with us trying to catch up, the more spread-out it got and the more it played to their advantage.” After starting Ivy play with three wins and a draw, Columbia (9-5-3, 3-3-1 Ivy) ended it with three losses. A win against the
in the nation two years ago and finished last season as No. 51 in the nation. Spencer transferred from Texas A&M this fall and got off to a fast start, winning the first set 6-1 by taking advantage of Schneiderman’s limited mobility. Schneiderman appeared to loosen up in the second set and went toe-to-toe from the baseline, pushed the set to a tie-break. He won the tie-break 7-2, dominating with powerful forehands from the baseline, accurate serving, and an early opening to break Spencer. He raced out to a 0-30 lead in an early service game, but Spencer showed his mettle, battling back to hold serve. Spencer got a break midway through the set and held on to win the third set 6-3. Schneiderman reflected positively on his experience playing the best competition the Lions will face all season. “I thought the average player was considerably higher than what we see in the Ivies, which took some time to get used to,” he said. “I thought I played very well. Whenever you lose, you can’t be that excited, but especially for being out all of the fall, I thought I played loose, and it ended up being the most fun I’ve ever had on a tennis court. This experience builds my confidence in knowing that I can hang with the top players in the NCAA, and I look forward to working hard to eventually not be satisfied with just being competitive.” Kung and Gery fell in the main doubles draw, losing to Matt Allare and Peter Kobelt from Ohio State, 8-5. Columbia was broken at 6-5 in the match and was unable to break the bigserving pair from Ohio State, which lost in the next round. However, it was in the back draw that the team had the most success. Kung and Gery beat Thomas Shubert and Spencer Smith from Brigham Young University, 9-8. The match was on serve the entire way, but with Kung serving to stay in the match at 7-8, BYU held two match points. Kung hit two solid serves and Gery volleyed off two winners to stave off the match points. Kung and Gery battled to force a tie-break, and they were
JASPER L. CLYATT / SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
CRIMSON CRISIS | Fighting Harvard for second place in the league, women’s soccer settled for fifth after a loss in Cambridge. COLUMBIA
0
HARVARD
2
Crimson would have given the Lions a second-place finish in the conference. With the defeat, Columbia fell from third place to fifth. Before Oct. 23, Columbia had suffered just two losses. The first
was in its season opener, and the second was a 1-0 double-overtime defeat by a Hofstra team now ranked 18th in the nation. The Lions had rebounded from both of those losses, winning four consecutive games after the first defeat and building an SEE WOMEN’S SOCCER, page 3
Light Blue fails to advance in tourney BY LAUREN SEAMAN Spectator Staff Writer After over five seasons, the women’s tennis team earned the opportunity to compete in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships. As the host school, Columbia was presented the opportunity to participate in both singles and doubles. Sophomore Nicole Bartnik was selected to compete in singles and in doubles with her partner, freshman Bianca Sanon. The National Indoor titles eventually went to the No. 7-seeded Maria Sanchez of USC in the singles draw and Sophie Oyen and Allie Will of Florida in the doubles draw. Facing fierce competition this week, Columbia could not advance to a second round in any of the draws. The high point for the Lions this weekend, however, occurred in the doubles consolation draw that Columbia eventually lost 9-7. For being a new doubles
team, the women delivered a commendable performance. Friday’s nail-biter against Virginia saw Columbia only five points away from winning when it was up 1540 on the opponent’s serve at 7-7 in the match. During the following point, Sanon missed a forehand wide and made the score 30-40. Then, the Light Blue duo made the score deuce after missing on a poach volley. Winning the game in the next point, the Virginia team brought the score to 8-7. Climbing from a 0-40 hole in the next game, Sanon and Bartnik railed back to 30-40 but were unable to clinch the match, as Virginia eventually won with a good volley on their third match point. In the regular doubles draw, the game played by Bartnik and Sanon did not mirror the same level of closeness as the consolation. In this match, Columbia faced Tennessee and was defeated by a score of 8-4. Along with her play in doubles, Nicole Bartnik also
competed in the singles draw. She was the only player in the Ivy League to represent her team in both singles and doubles. Out of the 32 singles players in the competition, Bartnik was also one of two women to compete for the Ancient Eight in the singles draw. Faced with tough competition, though, Bartnik could not manage a win over her Florida opponent, losing in straight sets 6-2. “Clearly, the competition consisted of the top girls in the nation” Bartnik said about the National Indoors. “But right now, it seems as though the competition in the Ivy League at the number-one position is equal to this weekend.” The other Ivy League players fared similarly to Bartnik and Sanon in this weekend’s competition. No Ivy players were able to advance past the second round of matches. Yale’s doubles SEE WOMEN’S TENNIS, page 3
ALYSON GOULDEN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
TIEBREAKER | Kevin Kung and his doubles partner Nathaniel Gery nearly upset the No. 2 team in the country this weekend. not to be denied. The duo, which had not won a match since midSeptember, ran away with the tie-break, winning the match 9-8. Columbia matched the No. 2 team in the nation shot for shot, all the way into the tie-break. Stanford had a 0-40 chance on Columbia’s serve, but the duo dug out of the hole. In the tiebreak, Stanford grabbed a 5-1 lead, but Columbia continued to fight, making it 5-5. Gery hit a huge serve outside, but Stanford made a great slice return, and he just barely missed a volley into the net. Stanford served out the match on its first chance, bombing a serve that just missed out wide. The Stanford team went on to win the consolation draw. Klahn is ranked No. 3 in singles nationally, and played in the U.S. Open in September. Thacher is ranked No. 59 in the nation. “I think the level of competition this week wasn’t necessarily an eye-opener or shock. However, the professionalism of all players involved was at a much higher standard than I am used to,” sophomore Gery said. “I was very happy with the way Kevin and I played. We went into the tournament looking to play solid and execute the things we had been working on in practice.
We managed the important basics very well. We only got broken once all tournament. Overall, I feel like we improved in every match. We put ourselves into a position to win on each occasion. Playing in a tournament like this and simply showing up because we were invited to play are two very different things. I feel like Kevin and I played three very good matches, and the experience has only given us confidence and the motivation to get better.” “Some of the players we competed against are on-the-rise professionals. They definitely came up with bigger shots, which gave us more pressure to consistently hold serve,” Kung said. “Win or lose, each match came down to one or two key points. Obviously, luck didn’t go our way at 5-5 in the breaker, but we were also lucky to come back from a 1-5 deficit as well. Our match against Stanford couldn’t have gone any closer, and to know that we can compete at this level will give us a lot of confidence and motivation to work hard moving forward.” The tournament was the Lions’ final competition of the fall. The team will be in action again on Jan. 23, when it plays Boston College in its first dual match.
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Volleyball bursting with potential
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ttention, ladies and gentlemen. I present to you the 2010 Columbia ZACH volleyball GLUBIAK team. Haven’t Boom seen them this year? Goes the Well, you Dynamite should have. Here’s why. They’ve spent 2010 racking up both wins and program records this fall, and with only one senior, they look like they’re just getting started. The Lions are 15-8 and 7-5 Ivy, a total that includes a ninegame winning streak (program record number one), and they’re not just doing it against nobodies. This Saturday, they handed Princeton a 3-1 defeat, marking the first time the Light Blue had swept the Tigers ever (program record number two). They are guaranteed to have their first winning season since 2001, but chances are their record will go down as one of the best in—you got it—program history. The team’s seven Ivy League wins are the secondhighest league win total in program history, and the total of 15 wins is the third-highest win total in program history. The night before, the Lions fell to Penn in excruciating fashion, losing out 17-15 in the deciding fifth set to the defending Ivy champs. But that’s what’s exciting about this team—the word “potential” explodes off the page when you read about it. I mentioned that the squad has only SEE GLUBIAK, page 8
JASPER L. CLYATT / SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
MISSED CHANCES Tight end Andrew Kennedy had two receptions shortly after halftime to help the Lions reach the red zone, but they were unable to capitalize on the drive. |
Football falls to Harvard, 23-7, in fourth straight loss BY JACOB LEVENFELD Spectator Senior Staff Writer
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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—When you don’t score for the first 42 minutes, you’re not going to win an Ivy League football game. Two missed field goals, a key fumble, and a huge red-zone interception doomed the Lions to a 23-7 defeat against Harvard on Saturday. Columbia’s rushing game was slow from the start, but the Lions hung tight with a strong Crimson team through almost two quarters. Harvard eventually got its offense going, and Columbia never managed to make the game close after the break. “I don’t know if it quite got
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away from us,” head coach Norries Wilson said at the postgame press conference. “We never quite got a good grasp of it. … I thought we would execute a lot better. Playing right with them for a quarter and a half is a great thing to say, but we want to play with them for the whole game. We want to win the game.” Harvard had the game’s first scoring opportunity after a 45yard pass from quarterback Collier Winters to wide receiver
Lions duo nearly upsets No. 2 team BY KUNAL GUPTA Spectator Senior Staff Writer
at goal in the opening stages but could not find the breakthrough. The match-winner came from Najem, who was on target for the third time this season. His marauding run through the middle coupled with a neat one-two with sophomore forward Will Stamatis to lead to the Lions’ goal. Najem slid the ball to Stamatis, who returned the favor with a first-time pass, and Najem coolly finished past Austin Harms in the Crimson goal to give the Light Blue the lead in the 33rd minute. Stamatis was a thorn in Harvard’s side all afternoon, and he consistently pressured the Crimson defense into giving the ball away and squandering possession. The Lions’ defense, comprised of Johns and juniors Ronnie Shaban, Nick Faber, and Jesse Vella, put on a much stronger showing than it did against
Tennis is a game of inches. Against the No. 2 doubles team in the nation, Columbia’s Nathaniel Gery and Kevin Kung were just two points away from one of the biggest upsets in recent Light Blue tennis history. But Ryan Thacher and Bradley Klahn showed their mettle at the biggest moment in the match with a clutch slice return at 5-5 in the tie-break and a huge serve on their first and only match point, giving the Stanford pair a 9-8 (7-5) win in the back draw of the USTA/ITA National Indoor Collegiate Championships. Columbia hosted the tournament, which featured the top 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams in the nation. As the host, Columbia was awarded a wildcard in both singles and doubles play. Haig Schneiderman received the singles bid, and the duo of Gery and Kung was given the berth for doubles. Schneiderman was playing his first match since mid-September, having been sidelined since the USTA National Tennis Center Invitational with a nagging back injury he suffered toward the end of the summer. Schneiderman drew Alexandre Lacroix from Florida, ranked No. 9 in the nation in the fall ITA rankings, in the first round. The senior from France made the first team all-Southeastern Conference and was named an All-American in both singles and doubles. Lacroix beat Schneiderman 6-2, 6-3, displaying incredible speed around the court. Lacroix made the semifinals of the tournament before falling to the eventual champion, Rhyne Williams from Tennessee. Schneiderman, who went 7-0 in Ivy play last season at No. 3 singles, was entered in the consolation draw and drew Wil Spencer from Georgia. Spencer was ranked as the No. 1 recruit
SEE MEN’S SOCCER, page 8
SEE MEN’S TENNIS, page 9
ANGELA RADULESCU / SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
ON TARGET |
Freshman midfielder David Najem gave the Light Blue its winning goal in Cambridge in the 33rd minute.
Men’s soccer beats Crimson for first time in seven years BY MRINAL MOHANKA Spectator Staff Writer The men’s soccer team (6-8-2, 2-3-1 Ivy) achieved its first road success of the 2010 campaign as it triumphed 1-0 at Harvard (4-7-5, 1-3-2 Ivy) on Saturday. Freshman midfielder David Najem scored the winner as the Lions extended their unbeaten run in the Ivy League to three games and earned their first win over the Crimson since 2003. Prior to the Lions’ visit, last season’s Ivy champions were undefeated at Ohiri Field in conference play this season. The win, regardless of the result against Cornell next weekend, ensures that the Lions will end the season with their best conference record since 2004—maybe even better the 2-4-1 record they achieved back then. The Lions started strong and came out seeking to avenge their midweek defeat against Adelphi. Junior co-captain Mike Mazzullo, senior fullback Hayden Johns, junior attacker Francois Anderson, and freshman attacker Henning Sauerbier all had efforts
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Adam Chrissis. But placekicker David Mothander missed wide right from 36 yards out and the teams remained scoreless through one. Columbia quarterback Sean Brackett had a strong start, going 7-8 in the first quarter with 74 passing yards. The Lions moved into Crimson territory early in the second, but a holding call backed them up and they had to settle for a 49-yard field goal attempt. Luke Eddy, who had hit from 48 yards
against Penn, found the distance but put it wide left. The Crimson finally broke the deadlock on the next drive, moving the ball 56 yards on 11 plays with key 11- and 13-yard rushes by running back Gino Gordon. This time, Mothander was able to connect from 29 yards for a 3-0 lead. The Lions started to run out of gas after the Crimson put a dent in the scoreboard. They went three-and-out on the ensuing possession, and Harvard responded by driving deep into Columbia territory. The defense forced a fourth-and-10 situation from the 35, but Harvard head coach Tim Murphy elected to go for it. In a bizarre play, Winters’
pass up the middle was tipped and picked off by cornerback Craig Hamilton, but Crimson wide receiver Mike Cook forced him to fumble and recovered it, giving his team a first down at the Columbia 19. The Crimson didn’t waste this opportunity, and Gordon put Harvard up by 10 with a five-yard rush to the left side with just under four minutes remaining in the half. “We could have been just as well off if he [Hamilton] would have batted the ball down, because I think that was fourth down,” linebacker Alex Gross said. “But your instincts tell you SEE FOOTBALL, page 8