VOL. CXXXIII—NO. 35 INSIDE

VOL. CXXXIII—NO. 35 INSIDE

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2009

WWW.COLUMBIASPECTATOR.COM

Roller Coaster Finish for Basketball

BY LUCAS SHAW Spectator Senior Staff Writer

A&E, page 6 Postcrypt’s New Exhibit Bares All Postcrypt Art Gallery’s new exhibit displays art portraying the secret lives of Columbia students, with elements inspired by Internet sensation PostSecret.

A&E, page 6 History Repeats Itself At Book Culture Talk Modern Arab studies professor Rashid Khalidi will speak on the relationship between Middle East policy and the Cold War, as detailed in his recently published book.

CCSC Action Potential Party Hopes to Beat Voter Apathy

The Lions were just 1.9 seconds away from their first season over .500 since 1993, when Penn’s Kevin Egee took a cross-court inbounds pass and launched a deep 3-pointer. As it passed through the net, the Quakers earned a 5150 victory and gave Columbia its third consecutive 7-7 season.

“I’m sad for them to have to lose their final game like that,” coach Joe Jones said. “I lost my fi nal game like that in college and it still haunts me. I wake up sometimes hoping that that guy missed the shot.”

It marks the first time since 1979 that Columbia has won at least seven games in a season three years in a row, but Jones made clear the night before that an 8-6 record would have put his team on another level.

“It’s time for us to be in the argument about who are the better teams in this league,” he said Friday night. “We haven’t been in that argument. I felt a few years ago after going 7-7 we could challenge and we just weren’t good enough the next year. We feel like we are in position where we should be in the argument but we have to prove it. Going 8-6

BY ALIX PIANIN Spectator Senior Staff Writer

Ajit Pillai / Senior Staff Photographer

LAYING IT IN | The men’s basketball team came from behind to defeat SEE BASKETBALL, page 2 Princeton on Friday only to lose at the buzzer to Penn the next night.

While Columbia was able to put Princeton away with a 14-0 run at the beginning of the second half, the Quakers were able to stay in the game, setting up the opportunity for a miracle shot at the buzzer. Missed free throws cost the Lions a chance to put away the game.

14 3-5

Obama to Pick Genachowski, CC ‘85, as FCC Chair

Sports, page 8 Women’s Basketball Loses Four The Light Blue dropped both its games this weekend to Princeton and Penn, finishing the season with a four-game losing streak and final Ivy record of 6-8.

President Barack Obama, CC ’83, announced on March 3 that he plans to nominate Julius Genachowski, CC ’85, as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Genachowski would replace current Acting Cha irma n Michael Copps.

Genachowski earned his B.A. in history magna cum laude from Columbia College and later attended Harvard Law School. While at Columbia, he attempted to resurrect a weekly newspaper, Acta Columbiana— defunct since 1885—as a rival to the Columbia Spectator.

Genachowski is the seventh Columbia graduate that Obama has nominated for a position in his young administration, and if confirmed, Genachowski will be the sixth to actually assume a position.

Eric Holder, CC ’73, Law ’76, and a University trustee, won Congressional confi rmation and was sworn in as U.S. attorney general on Feb. 3. Trevor

W. Morrison, Law ’98, was appointed associate White House counsel to the president. Jeh C. Johnson, Law ’82, was chosen as general counsel to the Department of Defense. Lanny A. Breuer, CC ’80, Law ’85, is Obama’s nominee for assistant attorney general, and Jared Bernstein, Social Work ’94, is the chief economist under Vice President Joseph Biden.

In February, Obama nominated New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), CC ’69, for commerce secretary, but Gregg ended his candidacy less than two weeks later.

Despite the extensive homage Obama has paid to Columbia in his administrative nominations, he has visited the Alma Mater only once since he declared his presidential candidacy, when he appeared at the Service Nation Presidential Candidates Forum alongside Republican opponent Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) last September.

—Maggie Astor

8 14-22

Sports, page 8 Baseball Drops Three Games to UNC Charlotte The Columbia baseball team was swept by UNC Charlotte in a three-game series this weekend. The Lions were outscored by the 49ers 18-6 during the series.

ONLINE ColumbiaSpectator.com

Your Source for News Around the Clock JULIUS GENACHOWSKI

WEATHER

Courtesy of Harvard.edu

Today

Tomorrow

47 / 32

42 / 38

After years of cutthroat council battles, Sue Yang’s greatest opponent may very well be student apathy.

This weekend, Yang, who is junior class vice president and CC ’10, revealed her ticket Action Potential as its members filed to become candidates in the upcoming Columbia College Student Council elections.

They will run uncontested, and for a council that has had close and bloody elections in recent years, it might not be politics as usual for Action Potential.

The Action Potential ticket is composed of relative council outsiders, a team of student leaders culled from diff erent areas of campus life who may be less familiar with the Satow Room than previous candidates.

After floating the idea of running past Sarah Weiss , another junior Yang had met in the Columbia Urban Experience, the two began to reach out to student leaders who might be interested in joining the ticket. Weiss, head of CUE, was one of two students to serve on the search committee that selected Columbia College Dean Michele Moody-Adams, and has held leadership positions in the Barnard/Columbia Hillel.

“We wanted to find people who shared our personality too,” Yang said. “We like to have fun. None of

us are really politically motivated at all, so we wanted to go out there and find people who shared that same kind of energy.”

While it was difficult to drag away some student leaders who were already committed to their own posts, Yang finally pulled together a ticket consisting of Weiss; Nuriel Moghavem, CC ’11, who has had experience as representative-at-large at the Activities Board at Columbia and treasurer of CIRCA; Deysy Ordonez, CC ’10, who is president of the dance group Sabor, and the treasurer of Student Organization of Latinos and the Secretary of Organization of Pakistani Students; and Student Governing Board representative and Ahimsa Intergroup Chair Sana Khalid, CC ’11.

“It feels like all the planets and stars have aligned,” Yang said, though she did acknowledge that the ticket didn’t represent every facet of campus.

Moghavem, the candidate for vice president of funding, met Yang during their time as leaders with the Undergraduate Recruitment Committee, and she had heard his name thrown around by mutual acquaintances. “I was sitting in my room one day and I got an e-mail from Sue,” he said.

“I really thought it was time for us to bring in some new perspective to the council,” Yang said.

SEE CCSC, page 2

Budget Cuts Place Limits on TFA

BY LIZZY FOYDEL Spectator Staff Writer As graduation approaches and many seniors look ahead to a grim job market, the nonprofit Teach for America program presents an appealing post-graduation path. Yet even TFA is feeling the brunt of bleak economic circumstances—especially in New York, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed significant budget cuts to city schools.

A popular choice for many Columbia graduates, TFA is a national corps that places recent college students in salaried public school teaching positions around the country. If accepted, TFA program participants become employees of the district in which they are placed. Yet as many areas look to strip their budgets of all nonessentials, the need for these teaching recruits is in question.

With about 15,000 teachers and Department of Education employees on the chopping block of Bloomberg’s proposed budget

cuts, TFA in New York City has had to significantly reduce the number of accepted applicants this year.

Although in past years, TFA has accepted 500 students to its New York program, only 350 will make the cut this time around.

“We have been planning aggressively and very far in advance,” David Stanley, recruitment director for TFA’s Northeast Recruitment Team, said. “We have seen this issue of teacher placements coming up for awhile.” But the acceptance cutbacks, he noted, are a measure to ensure that TFA does not accept anyone whose school placement is not guaranteed.

“I am not worried about losing my job [for next year] because they sent us an e-mail assuring us that we would all be placed and that they reduced the corps size for this year to 350 from 500 in order to make sure that we will all have placement,” said TFA acceptee and Engineering Student Council President Peter Valeiras, SEAS ’09. Valeiras, who was guaranteed a spot in a New

Photo Illustration by Daniel Lasry

York school for next year, is still waiting to hear which school he will be placed in.

Columbia students interested in applying to TFA in the future need not worry about a decrease in the acceptance rate in general, according to Stanley. Despite cutbacks in the New York City public school district, Stanley SEE TEACH FOR AMERICA, page 2

Cool Columbia to Scrutinize Energy Use

BY KATHERINE MEDUSKI Spectator Staff Writer

Just like you, the news never sleeps. Check out our Web site 24/7 for campus and city news that matters to you.

Yang’s Ticket to Run Unopposed

As warm weather approaches, Columbia is looking for ways to stay cool.

Since last spring, the University has been developing Cool Columbia, a pilot program that researches greenhouse gas emissions across 50 University households in an effort to drive down energy consumption.

“It was a small attempt, I think, to really begin to tap into the power of behavioral adjustments,” explained Executive Vice President of Facilities Joe Ienuso.

“Everything from consuming electricity to closing drapes, curtains, blinds, and shades during the day to keep out the direct or indirect sunlight when spaces aren’t occupied, which can ultimately reduce or increase your heating or cooling bill.”

The program will allow residents of faculty and graduate student housing to submit their

INDEX

News A&E

2 6

ConEd bills from the past year and have them recorded and evaluated by the University. Cool Columbia will then measure levels of consumption against resident behavior to see how lifestyle relates to energy use.

“Now, the benefit of that is, maybe you get a lower electric bill,” Ienuso said, though he added, “But our vision was bigger than that. I mean, saving money on your electric bill is great, but if we could help by changing behavior to drive down the need to produce more fossil fuels, that’s part of what was behind it as well.”

As a collaboration between the Office of Environmental Stewardship, CU Facilities, and the Sierra Club, a national environmental organization, Cool Columbia began when Assistant Vice President of Environmental Stewardship Nilda Mesa approached the Sierra Club about its Cool Communities campaign.

Ienuso was planning a similar initiative at about the same time.

Opinion Sports

4 3, 8

Ienuso convened his staff with Mesa to hash out a joint plan, and worked with the Sierra Club to tailor its pledge drive to University households. Mesa said that Cool Columbia’s goal was “to raise awareness and act as a call to action, as well as coach and monitor conservation efforts.”

Ienuso added, “Part of my thinking at the time, with the Cool Columbia program, is there are many things that we can do, from a building infrastructure perspective—mechanical systems, heating and cooling. That’s not enough. There are also things that we need to do from a personal responsibility perspective.”

Cool Columbia began tabling sessions in University apartments and sent out letter mailings to attract volunteer residents for the program. Currently, 20 out of a possible 50 households have enrolled in the program. Households can complete registration to join SEE COOL COLUMBIA, page 2 Classifieds Contact Info

5 5

PAGE

March 9, 2009

EVENTS — MARCH 9

World Leaders Forum: Vàclav Klaus In a forum hosted by University President Lee Bollinger, Czech Republic President Klaus will speak on “Europe, Global Warming and the Current Economic Crisis: As Seen from Prague.” The speech will be followed by a question and answer session.

Rotunda, Low Memorial Library, 3 p.m.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The Episcopal Lecture: Schori Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, will discuss topics such as religion, custom, and science in a presentation called “The Episcopal Church: Its Relationships and the Future.”

Schermerhorn, Room 501, 7:30 p.m.

“ It feels like all the planets and stars have aligned.”

—Sue Yang, CC ’10, on her CCSC ticket, Action Potential

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION Columbia Spectator 2875 Broadway, 3rd Floor New York City, NY 10025 info@columbiaspectator.com Daily Spectator (212) 854-9555 Editorial Fax (212) 854-9611 Business (212) 854-9550 Business Fax (212) 854-9553

For more information about the Columbia Daily Spectator and editorial policies, visit http://www.columbiaspectator.com/about. For more information about advertising visit http://spc.columbiaspectator.com/.

Miracle Shot Costs the Light Blue Winning Season BASKETBALL from front page would do that. Going 7-7 would not do that. No one is going to be talking about us if we go 7-7.”

Coming into the weekend 6-6, the Light Blue set itself up on Friday night against Princeton to fulfill Jones’ wishes with a 58-44 win.

Despite the hot shooting of K.J. Matsui, who sank a trio of 3-pointers in the first twenty minutes, the Tigers built a small lead and took a 24-20 lead into the half. Princeton managed the pace of the game, due in large part to their 15-7 advantage on the glass.

“We’re just not rebounding the ball great,” Jones said. “I’m not too happy about it, but what are we going to do?

The rebounds we did get in the first half we kind of blew some chances and some fast break opportunities.”

Just as they did in the first half, the Lions came out early in the second period and took control of the game. Led by two players looking to correct past mistakes—Niko Scott and Jason Miller—the Light Blue mounted a 14-0 run to take a 34-24 lead.

Scott, who committed a pair of costly turnovers early in the first half, hit two 3pointers and Jason Miller, who struggled mightily the last time Columbia played Princeton, sank a pair of buckets.

The Tigers finally snapped the run when Pawel Buczak made a free throw seven minutes into the half.

Princeton would never get closer than five again as they were held to 32 percent shooting in the second half. After their poor performance on the boards in the first half, the Lions matched the Tigers rebound for rebound in the second period.

“We were doing a good job in the first half but we just needed to rebound,” Scott

said. “We were playing great defense, but we were giving up second chances and that really hurt us. We need to make sure they got one shot and then we’d get the rebound and push it.”

Saturday night the Lions came out and did far better than match their opponents on the boards, outrebounding the Quakers, 38-29.

Reversing a seasonal trend of slow starts, the Lions jumped out to an early 7-2 lead after Matsui celebrated senior night by hitting an open 3-pointer from the wing a minute in.

Penn then used strong shooting from the outside to build a lead of its own, holding an 18-13 advantage midway through the half.

On the next possession, Joe Bova took the team’s sixth offensive rebound of the half and laid it in, sparking a senior-led 10-0 run.

“That was a point of emphasis coming into the game,” Bova said. “Coach was stressing our rebounding because we haven’t been a great rebounding team all year.”

The Lions took a 25-22 lead into the half, and the game remained close the rest of the way. The beginning of the second half was marred by a spate of fouls and turnovers, with both teams moving within a foul of the bonus by the 13:19 mark.

“It changed everything,” Jones said of the fouls. “There was no flow to the whole game.”

Penn got what could have been a gamechanging call when Zack Crimmins was called for an intentional foul after elbowing Cameron Lewis with 12:35 to play.

With just over six minutes to play, the Light Blue led by eight. However, Penn battled back again and finally tied the score with 2:04 to play on a pair of Zack Rosen free throws. Free-throw shooting would prove to be a deciding factor down the stretch with Columbia and Penn combining

to take 42 second-half free throws.

“I can’t say what I want to say but I felt like both teams competed,” Jones said.

“It was an ugly game—lots of fouls, no rhythm to the game,” he added. “I don’t have control over a lot of the things that were happening.”

Though the Quakers struggled from the line, making just 17 of 28, it was the Lions’ late struggles from the charity stripe that doomed them. After Rosen’s free throws, Noruwa Agho made just one of two to give Columbia a 47-46 lead.

Up one with 40 seconds to play, Agho again missed one of his free throws, making it a two-point game and leaving an opening for the Quakers with three seconds to play.

“That’s been one of our weaker points all year,” Bova said. “We’ve been shooting extra foul shots every day in practice. They say it comes down to foul shots and its the small things that matter, and we didn’t shoot that great from the foul line and came up short at the end.”

After Agho’s free throw, Penn called timeout as soon as they moved far enough to earn a side inbound. The ensuing inbound was delivered straight to Egee who caught it deep on the right wing and sank his gamewinning shot.

“It’s a tough way to go out, especially when we’ve been through what we’ve been through,” Bova said, fighting tears. “I love these guys and to go out on a shot like that—all the credit in the world to Kevin Egee—but it’s not the way I imagined it.”

The loss drops the Lions into a tie with Dartmouth for fourth at 7-7 but the result of the final Penn-Princeton game could forge a four-way tie with Penn at 6-7 and Princeton at 7-6.

The Light Blue was without the service of Pat Foley and Asenso Ampim, both of whom were sidelined with injuries.

Students Stress Greater Need for Funds to Secure Teach for America TEACH FOR AMERICA from front page said, “We have a much greater and increasing placement in rural areas.”

Areas like the Mississippi Delta and New Orleans are scaling up the number of TFA teachers they hire. For instance, New Orleans, which typically takes 60 to 80 TFA teachers, took 250 in the 2008-2009 school year and will take 250 again in the upcoming 2009-2010 school year.

“We are actually accepting more people than we did last year,” Stanley said. “The number accepted nationally into TFA is increasing, not declining, but the ratios in certain areas are changing along with the economic landscape.” TFA funding comes from both public and private sectors, and this diversity of funding sources has helped the program weather the nation’s economic storm.

While TFA’s organizational operations are not changing much as a result of the recession, a number of the schools to which the program sends teachers have been impacted. Students

selected for teaching positions are employees of the school district in which they work, not of TFA as an organization, so economic downturn and NYC budget cuts will affect the roughly 70 schools in Columbia’s surrounding area—including Washington Heights, the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights, and Harlem, where TFA sends teachers.

TFA might be placing more teachers nationally, but concern lingers about the results of cutbacks in inner-city schools. “I am worried about the effects that this recession will have on the New York City public school system,” said TFA acceptee Hannah Johns, CC ’09, who will also be placed in the NYC area. “It’s exciting that the Obama administration is making education a priority and that the stimulus package is providing funding for education, but I think we need to make an even bigger commitment to get money flowing to the states so that they don’t have to take even more precious resources away from students who need them most.” news@columbiaspectator.com

HOW TO REACH US

Have a question? Criticism? News tip?

You can contact us directly by emailing info@columbiaspectator.com.

CORRECTIONS

The Spectator is committed to fair and accurate reporting. If you know of an error please inform us at copy@columbiaspectator.com.

For general comments or questions about the newspaper, please write to the editor in chief and managing editor at editor@columbiaspectator.com.

Election Board to Review Debate Format, Rules CCSC from front page Moghavem said he thinks bringing in candidates with limited council experience will allow for a fresh view and a possibly more active future council.

To beef up on campus political know-how, ticket members are working to educate themselves, appealing to council members, students, and alumni resources on how to best fit into their jobs when the time comes to take office.

While the ticket is running unopposed, the candidates say that their greatest opponent may be the indifference from student voters that seems to have permeated the elections in recent years. Hoping to launch something of a “grassroots” campaign, the candidates see their job as one to keep students as engaged and excited half-hearted voters.

But without the need to beat out another ticket, Yang said Action Potential could focus on the positive outreach portions of campaigning while leaving behind the negative aspects.

“I don’t think we need to print out a thousand fliers,” Moghavem said, instead underlining his commitment to engaging students, and “finding out exactly where the opponents are.”

“We still have a long campaign ahead of us,” Yang conceded.

Elections Chair James Bogner, CC ’10, said that while it is unclear how the campaigning rules themselves will be determined in

a one-party election—those, he said, would be up to the party to decide—a change in the debate format, which had been mentioned even prior to the candidate filings, should be in the works in the coming weeks.

“We would want to move...more toward a kind of town hall meeting where the candidates can field questions,” Bogner said, later continuing, “You change the debate format ever so slightly to hopefully allow parties to have more of a conversation and really dive deeper into the issues.”

The election for the 2011 class council is also uncontested, and the Elections Board may have to make some similar accommodations.

“It’ll become a greater responsibility for the Elections Board as well as the party to take some control over the situation because in the past...The fear has always been that to change it [the debate format] would be to allow chaos to ensue,” Bogner said. Instead, he said, they were “hoping to get a little more out of it.”

The class of 2010 Clear Party ticket is headed by Cliff Massey, CC ’10 and a candidate for vice president student life on last year’s Connect Columbia E-board ticket. He will go up against The Party, where junior class president AJ Pascua is gunning for a re-election. The 2012 class council races are the most contested of elections, with five separate parties vying for a win.

Alix Pianin can be reached at alix.pianin@columbiaspectator.com.

New Initiative Accompanies PlaNYC COOL COLUMBIA from front page the program on Cool Columbia’s Web site.

“We never meant it to be an end-all. We meant it to be a starting point,” Ienuso said, and explained of Cool Columbia’s outreach to University residents, “If you selfidentify, if you raise your hand, and you’re interested in this topic, we want to work with you.”

In the thus-far yearlong process of its households program, Cool Columbia has been able to implement cheaper energy alternatives for volunteers, most noticeably through the replacement of incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. Donations from multiple sources, including the Sierra

Club and Facilities, have funded the switch.

Cool Columbia’s other energysaving strategies include turning off lights before leaving a room, unplugging unused appliances, and turning off computers instead of leaving them in sleep mode.

“If we can educate building residents and occupants as to how every little thing that we do can contribute to the bigger picture—whether it’s unplugging a PC or unplugging a coffee pot that’s unattended,” Ienuso said, “All of those little bits of energy that are consumed in ways that are not even obvious to us, in the aggregate, can begin to make a very, very big difference.”

The program serves as an accompaniment to the University’s PlaNYC pledge to reduce green-

house gas emissions by 78,765 tons by 2017, though it is not directly related because it works with households as opposed to campus facilities. PlaNYC, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s initiative to cut down on energy consumption across the city, aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030.

The household program will end this spring, after which Cool Columbia will reassess its findings and proceed with a plan of action.

“We want to answer the question, ‘What is it that works?’,” Mesa said.

“It’s a work in progress, and we’re still learning.” She did note that the project is “doing well.”

“It was a very small, I would say, first step. But by no means a last step,” Ienuso added. news@columbiaspectator.com

SPORTS

March 9, 2009

Columbia Daily Spectator

Men’s Swimming Fifth at Ivy Championships

BY BART LOPEZ Spectator Staff Writer The Columbia men’s swimming and diving team competed at the 2009 Ivy League championships this past weekend in Princeton, N.J., finishing fifth with 862.5 points. Princeton won the team championships with a dominating score of 1663.5 points, taking the title back from Harvard, who won last year’s championships by finishing just a few points ahead of the Tigers.

While the Lions may not be happy with their overall fifth place finish, many of the individuals that competed not only broke personal records, but school records as well.

Senior Zach Glassman took fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a final time of 1:59.42, breaking Columbia’s school record for the event. Sophomore Adam Powell took sixth in the 100-yard freestyle, an event dominated by Yale’s Alex Righi who finished with a final time of 41.91 seconds. Senior Kevin Wakefield finished 13th in the event as Columbia’s only swimmer in the B finals for the 100 free.

Senior Cedric Cheung-Lau posted an impressive time in the 200-yard butterfly, in which he took ninth. Cheung-Lau finished the event in 1:48.46, placing him second on Columbia’s school record book for the event while also eclipsing his best time from last

year of 1:50.07. Freshman Robert Eyckmans finished 16th in the same event, rounding out the B finals for the 200 fly.

The Lions had several swimmers earn points in the 200-yard backstroke. Junior Darren Pagan led Columbia in the event with an 11th place finish. Cheung-Lau took 13th, senior David Collier took 16th, and sophomore Stephen Yang took 18th. In the grueling 1,650-yard freestyle event, freshman Alex Smith finished 13th place with a final time of 15:34.77. The Light Blue finished the last day of competition off strong with a fifth place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Columbia’s relay team consisted

2008-2009 MEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE

of Powell, senior John Dragelin, Pagan, and Wakefield.

In diving, Columbia sophomore David Levkoff and senior Jeff Hull finished 17th and 18th respectively. The pair ended the competition within four points of each other as Levkoff finished with 213.05 points and Hull with 209.30 points.

With the end of the EISL championships the 2009 season ends as well. The Lions finished 5-6 overall, and 3-4 in the Ivy League. As the seniors graduate after impressive careers at Columbia, the remaining swimmers and coaches have months to prepare for next year’s men’s swimming and diving season.

Lessard, Moriarty Provisional Qualifiers TRACK from back page in their respective events and hit the NCAA provisional standard is an amazing accomplishment. Megan has established herself as the top female distance runner in the Ivy League and as one of the nation’s top runners. As only a sophomore, Jeff has become the league’s top middle distance runner and is among the top underclass 800-meter runners in the nation.”

Both runners have a good chance of representing Columbia in the NCAA Indoor Division I Track and Field Championships next weekend.

The athletes who achieved automatic qualifications will register for the championship, and then the rest of the competitors will be comprised of the top provisional qualifiers in each event—a category into which both Moriarty and Lessard fall.

At the Last Chance meet, Moriarty and juniors Mike Mark and Chris Hays gave the Lions what Wood referred to as the “three of the top four individual performances in the Ivy League this year.” Mark and Hays finished the 800-meter run in 1:51.15 and 1:51.53 respectively.

Freshman Kyle Merber barely missed the NCAA qualifying standard with his finish of 4:05.72 in the one-mile run. However, Merber accomplished the fastest time run by a freshman and second-fastest time overall in school history.

In Boston, sophomores Mike Weisbuch, Dylan Isaacson, Matt Stewart, and freshman Philip Pierott broke the school record in the 4x800meter relay, finishing the relay in 7:30.37 and earning all-east honors at the IC4A championships.

If selected by the NCAA, Moriarty and Lessard will be competing in the NCAA Indoor Division I Track and Field Championships from March 13 to March 14 at Texas A&M University in College Station.

Page 3

Date

Opponent

Time / Result

Record

Nov. 14

at Fordham

65-62, W

1-0

Nov. 16

at Seton Hall

50-71, L

1-1

Nov. 21

vs. Bryant

70-54, W

2-1

Nov. 22

vs. UMBC

52-66, L

2-2

Nov. 25

vs. Albany

49-66, L

2-3

Nov. 29

vs. Stony Brook

60-62, L

2-4

Dec. 3

vs. Wagner

84-69, W

3-4

Dec. 9

at St. Francis

57-59. L

3-5

Dec. 20

at Virginia Tech

52-64, L

3-6

Dec. 21

at Marist

63-58, W

4-6

Dec. 29

vs. Sacred Heart

79-84 (OT), L

4-7

Jan. 2

at Lehigh

59-73, L

4-8

Jan. 5

at American

50-62, L

4-9

Jan. 9

vs. NJIT

73-50, W

5-9

Jan. 17

vs. Cornell

59-71, L

5-10 (0-1 Ivy)

Jan. 24

at Cornell

72-83, L

5-11 (0-2 Ivy)

Jan. 30

vs. Yale

53-42, W

6-11 (1-2 Ivy)

Jan. 31

vs. Brown

65-59, W

7-11 (2-2 Ivy)

Feb. 6

at Penn

74-63, W

8-11 (3-2 Ivy)

Feb. 7

at Princeton

35-63, L

8-12 (3-3 Ivy)

Feb. 13

vs. Dartmouth

65-52, W

9-12 (4-3 Ivy)

Feb. 14

vs. Harvard

60-59, W

10-12 (5-3 Ivy)

Feb. 20

at Brown

70-57, W

11-12 (6-3 Ivy)

Feb. 21

at Yale

49-57, L

11-13 (6-4 Ivy)

Feb. 27

at Harvard

63-72, L

11-14 (6-5 Ivy)

Feb. 28

at Dartmouth

53-67, L

11-15 (6-6 Ivy)

Mar. 6

vs. Princeton

58-44, W

12-15 (7-6 Ivy)

Mar. 7

vs. Penn

50-51, L

12-16 (7-7 Ivy)

IVY LEAGUE STANDINGS IVY LEAGUE

OVERALL

W

L

PCT

W

L

PCT

Cornell

11

3

.786

21

9

.700

Yale

8

6

.571

13

15

.464

Princeton

7

6

.538

12

14

.462

Columbia

7

7

.500

12

16

.429

Dartmouth

7

7

.500

9

19

.321

Penn

6

7

.462

10

17

.370

Harvard

6

8

.429

14

14

.500

Brown

3

11

.214

9

19

.321

SPECTATOR PIXBOX FINAL STANDINGS

Brian Chan / Staff Photographer

NCAA HOPEFULS At two separate meets this weekend, senior Megan Lessard and sophomore Jeff Moriarty posted NCAA provisional qualifying times in the 3,000-m run and 800-m run, respectively. |

Overtime Thriller Gives Lacrosse Fourth Straight LACROSSE from back page answered, giving the Light Blue its fourth consecutive win.

Besides scoring five times to top the previous record of 101 career goals, Glynn also added five draw controls and two assists. Shannon also had five goals, while contributing two draw controls and one assist.

Senior midfielder Stephanie Garland and junior midfielder Erin Wilson led the Red Foxes’ offensive effort with three goals each.

Columbia will now return home to face

American on Tuesday. The Eagles are currently 1-4, with their only win coming against George Washington University on Feb. 25.

American is coming off a 18-6 loss to Colgate this past Saturday. The Red Raiders took the lead just over a minute into the first half and never relinquished it.

While the highest scorer on Colgate, Megan Lawler, had five goals, American’s leading scorers, senior midfielder Leslie Fischer and junior midfielder Amanda Makoid, each only had two goals.

The game is scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm on Tuesday at Baker Field.

1

Max “Pure Overtime” Puro

38-26

2

Lisa “That’s What She Said” Lewis

37-27

3

Jelani “Can’t Knock the Hustle” Johnson

36-28

2

Jonathan “You’re With Me Leather” Tayler

34-30

5

Jonathan “Full Court Press” August

33-31

5

Matt “The X-Factor” Velazquez

33-31

7

Charles “Charles in Charge” Young

31-33

8

Jacob “Put it On the Board” Shapiro

28-36

9

Michael “Bad Newz, Mike” Shannon

26-38

Lion Wins First EIWA Title Since 1995 WRESTLING from back page only EIWA champion of 2009 and the school’s first in 14 years.

The Lions finished the tournament with a team score of 43 points, landing them in tenth place. Cornell ran away in the team standings with 138 points, 35 more than secondplace Lehigh.

Ten Lions entered competition on Saturday morning, but only Flores survived the day in the championship bracket. Five of his teammates were eliminated altogether, while Lou Miller, Eren Civan, Derek Sickles, and

Shane Strumwasser remained alive in the consolation bracket.

Miller came up big for the Lions, finishing third in the 197-pound class after entering the tournament with the eighth seed. He went 4-0 on Sunday, defeating Brown’s Branden Stearns 5-3 in the final battle for third place.

At 157 pounds, Sickles finished the weekend in fifth place for the Lions after losing to Matt Dragon of Penn in the consolation semi-finals.

Flores (31-3 on the season) came into the tournament ranked No. 9 in the country and first in the EIWA. En route to his thrilling victory, he knocked off Princeton’s Stephen

Turner, D. J. Russo of Rutgers, ESU’s Chris Birchler, and Rey. Turner and Birchler both succumbed to Flores’ pins.

In the final round, Flores and Rey wrestled scoreless until the second period, when Rey took a 1-0 lead with an escape. With his back to the wall in the third, Flores also earned a point with an escape to force overtime. Flores’ overtime takedown came with under 25 seconds remaining in the extra period. The Lions have next weekend off as they prepare for the NCAA championships, which will be held March 19 to 21 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

Page 4

EDITORIAL / OPINION

Columbia Daily Spectator

The 133rd year of publication Independent since 1962 Staff Editorials Represent the Views of the Editorial Board MANAGING BOARD MELISSA REPKO Editor in Chief

ELIZABETH SIMINS Managing Editor

JULIA FELDBERG Publisher

BETSY MORAIS News Editor

JOY RESMOVITS News Editor

SHERI PAN Editorial Page Editor

ANGELA RADULESCU Photo Editor

DINO GRANDONI Head Copy Editor

JULIA HALPERIN Arts & Entertainment Editor

RYAN BUBINSKI Online Editor

LARA CHELAK Online Editor

BEN COTTON Design Editor

YIPENG HUANG Design Editor

GIZEM ORBEY Sales Director

AKHIL MEHTA Finance Director

CHRISTINA PATTERSON Alumni Director

DEPUTY BOARD: News Editors Maggie Astor, Alexa Davis, Kim Kirschenbaum, Alix Pianin, Lydia Wileden La Página Editor Ana Bobadilla Sports Editors Max Puro, Jacob Shapiro, Jonathan Tayler, Charles Young A&E Editor Shane Ferro Editorial Page Editor Amin Ghadimi Editorial Board Editor Abigail Lowin Photo Editors Jenny Hsu, Ian Kwok, Lila Neiswanger, Ajit Pillai Copy Editor Marissa Grossman Online Editors Zack Sheppard, Zachary Sims, Cindy Zhang Multimedia Editors Nilkanth Patel, Alanna Vaughns Staff Training Editors Tom Faure, Amanda Sebba Photo Training Editors Mira John, Joey Shemuel ASSOCIATE BOARD: News Editors Danny Ash, Jessica Hills, Tabitha Peyton Wood, Madina Toure, Liza Weingarten News Broadcast Editor Simone Foxman La Página Editor Carolina Martes Sports Editors Michele Cleary, Kunal Gupta, Jacob Levenfeld, Bart Lopez, Sara Salzbank, Michael Shapiro Art Editor Hannah Yudkin Books Editor Yin Yin Lu Dance Editor Catherine Rice Film Editor Peter Labuza Food & Drink Editor Devin Briski Music Editor Rebecca Pattiz Spectacle Editor Kevin Ciok Style Editor Helen Werbe Theater Editor Ruthie Fierberg TV Editor Christine Jordan Editorial Page Editors Shira Borzak, Cornelius FitzPatrick, Sophia Merkin, Daryl Seitchik, Emily Tamkin, Elaine Wang Editorial Board Writers Alejandra Aponte, Jia Ahmad, Aries Dela Cruz, Mason Fitch, Aseel Najib, Haley Negrin, Amanda Parsons, Christopher Puleo, Leslie Ribovich, Ivette Sanchez,, Jennifer Thum Commentariat Editors Noah Baron, Mary Kohlmann Copy Editors Anna Arons, Marissa Barbaro, Elizabeth Brittain, Marissa Grossman, Lucy Hunter, Emma Manson, Lusia Zaitseva Photo Editors Mallory Lance, Matthew Sherman, Colin Sullivan, Rachel Valinsky, Mary Ye Design Editors Jin Chen, Hannah D’Apice, Rebecca Eis, Peter Lee, Steven Wong Alumni Ding Ding, Julia Kantor, Emily Lampert, Xu Shenjun, Danfeng Wu, Yu Xiao Finance Andrew Colvin, Aditya Mukerjee Sales Cristina Astigarraga Copy Staff Nimra Azmi, Raissa Arguelles, Ana Baric, Christine Anderson, Maggie Astor, Devin Briski, Michaella Chung, Sophia D’Ignazio, Victoria Diza-Bonilla, Katherine Duh, Elizabeth Gemdjian, Kate Haley, Jon Hill, Aarti Iyer, Rebekah Kim, Ali Krimmer, Frannie Laughner, Cindy Law, Hannah Laymon, Margot Lazow, Sasha Levine, Katie Mas, Christina McCausland, Raphael Pope-Sussman, Matt Powell, Nina Priya Sudarsan Design Staff Samantha Ainsle, Rachel Allen, Lily Cedarbaum, Betsy Feldman, Daniel Lasry, Yufei Liu, Rocio Lopez, Jennifer Oh, Kylie Rogers, Khalil Romain, Eduardo Santana, Felix Vo

Staff Editorial

A

BY JOSHUA GLEIS In recent weeks, Columbia University has played host to an astounding number of antiIsrael activities. The university has become inundated with a biased and one-sided perspective to the Arab-Israeli conflict in the form of meetings, online petitions, posters, “teach-ins” and opinion letters. Surveying these activities, one might think that Israel was the single greatest abuser of human rights in the world today, and that its policies were developed in a vacuum—void of any security obligations for its civilian population. One might believe that the disturbing picture being painted by a minority of Columbia University students and faculty is an accurate one.

The truth is that certain groups are attempting to turn one of the most complicated foreign policy issues in recent history into a black-and-white campaign, wherein Israel is the sole wrongdoer. Don’t worry—there is

A Shift in Approach

Midterms Madness

s the semester reaches the halfway point, Columbia students feel the stress of having multiple examinations and papers due in a short period of time. Midterms week, for some, means taking at least three exams on a single calendar day. Professors should make an effort to accommodate the needs of students who have two or more tests on one calendar day by providing alternative examination dates.

The University Registrar has no clear policy regarding midterm examinations, except that instructors generally offer them in late October and the middle March.

Final examinations, on the other hand, are officially scheduled in the master University examination schedule for the last week of the semester. If students have three finals scheduled during a single calendar day, they can formally arrange with their instructor to take the exam on an alternate day. During the midterm period, there is no parallel policy, leaving students with multiple tests on one calendar day at the mercy of their instructors, without an official appeals process.

Because instructors and departments can schedule their own midterms, they should accommodate students with con-

The Hypocrisy Of Columbia’s Israeli Divestment Campaign

flicting schedules by providing alternate dates for tests, papers, or projects. Providing alternate dates is necessary to alleviate the unnecessary stress of having two or more exams in one day, a problem that is already recognized by the school through its policy on fi nals rescheduling.

The informal policy of providing more than one examination date has already been implemented in some introductory lectures, and other instructors should take on similar initiatives. Those who teach large sections can use their teaching assistants to proctor exams administered on alternative days. Seminar instructors, who have fewer students and therefore probably fewer conflicts, can arrange for students with loaded schedules to take midterms during the instructors’ office hours.

While there is a clear need for adjudicating students’ understanding of course material, too many assessments in a short timeframe can be detrimental to the students’ overall performance, thereby undermining the point of measuring students’ performance.

Professors should take heed of their students’ dilemmas when setting their schedules to ensure that all students have a fair chance at academic success.

Spectator Opinion accepts submissions from diverse areas of interest. Submissions should be between 700 and 900 words and express an opinion that does not perpetuate stereotypes or unfairly label groups or individuals. All writers meet with an associate editor to edit their submission before publication. Submissions may be sent to opinion@columbiaspectator.com.

For more information, come to our meeting Sundays at 2:30 p.m. in the Spectator office on the corner of 112th Street and Broadway.

POLITICS ON STILTS

SHAINA RUBIN

BY ELIZABETH KIPP-GIUSTI The green movement now has its Woodstock.

From February 27 to March 2, the National Lawn in Washington DC became to tree-huggers what upstate New York farmland was for the hippie generation: a field of dreams. For more than 12,000 participants, including 43 Columbia students, the youth summit Power Shift 2009 provided an opportunity for communication and education about national environmental initiatives and their proponents, as well as workshops about the practical aspects of activism—how to fundraise, organize, and advocate.

Like its ’60s parallel, the weekend had rock stars, of a sort. Instead of the wailing guitar licks of Jimi Hendrix or the screechy scream of Janis Joplin, though, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s speeches echoed over the loudspeakers. To be fair, music was not completely absent from the festivities—The Roots and Santogold played an exuberant opening ceremony—but it seemed that even they knew they were not the stars of the event.

Instead of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, the gathering praised organization, conversation, and information.

Movement leaders like Van Jones and Majora Carter —who support constructive advocacy, seeking the creation of solutions rather than just the identification of problems—drew an image of the movement’s trajectory. It is visually represented as a tree of change, whose low branches of education and planning must be climbed before the high-hanging fruits of labor

March 9, 2009

plenty of blame to go around. The silent majority is being sidelined by a growing minority, which has called on President Lee Bollinger and Columbia University to divest from and boycott the state of Israel, and has accused the Jewish state of apartheid and genocide.

Israel is by no means a perfect state. As a country whose very existence is renounced by countries near and far—and one under a constant threat of war and terrorism—it has taken actions that have not always been correct and certainly have not always made for pretty pictures. But what’s so disconcerting is the lack of vociferous criticism by University professors, students, and human rights groups about the injustices carried out against Israel.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Sudan, the Palestinian Authority—these are just a handful of governments that have worse human rights records than Israel. All have carried out mass killings, arrests or torture in the name of national security. Yet there are no calls here at Columbia for boycotts, or allegations of apartheid. Sudan is committing genocide, the Kurds remain the largest population in the world without a state of their own, and the Chinese just cracked down even more harshly on ethnic Tibetans. Where are the teach-ins? The outcry?

What’s more, a deafening silence remains with regards to the Palestinian Authority’s responsibility for their problems, specifically those in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian people themselves democratically elected a terrorist organization. Hamas openly denies Israel’s right to exist, and carries out acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians. While Hamas was elected in part because it was less corrupt

than Fatah and had more effective social welfare programs, there is no ignoring the fact that the Palestinian people were well aware of Hamas’ acts of terrorism, or that polls consistently show that the majority of Palestinian people support these attacks.

If professors in fields as wide-ranging as urban planning, medicine, art history, and anthropology can take the time to write a letter to President Lee Bollinger voicing their concern with Israel’s military activities in Gaza impinging on Palestinian academic freedom, surely they can sign another letter expressing their disappointment at the fact that over 100 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israeli civilian communities since Israel declared a ceasefire, according to the foreign press spokesman of the Israel police. These rockets have landed in kindergartens and playgrounds. How’s that for academic freedom? Where is the letter criticizing the lack of responsibility that Hamas holds for using its own civilians to carry out its insurgency and terrorist campaigns?

According to a Freedom House Organization report on worldwide freedom and democracy, Israel is the only country in the entire Middle East listed as “Free.” I am guessing you won’t hear that mentioned at the next “Israel Apartheid” meeting. Israel—like the United States—is not perfect by any means, but let’s keep things in perspective; it is fighting an adversary that is astute and cunning and that will stop at nothing to see its goals reached. Let this be some food for thought.

can be plucked. Whereas Woodstock hoped to imbibe the juices of such fruits and revel in their sweetness, the green movement has yet to truly experience their ideas come to bloom, although their actions have brought the fruits of their labor tantalizingly close. Baseline goals must be accomplished before the higher ideals can be realized. Power Shift is a small step towards those initial accomplishments.

Rock and roll is youthful, sexy, and loud.

Rock and roll rebels and revolutionizes—it is about improvisation and experimentation. It is music to revolt by. For this reason, Woodstock appealed for a particular age demographic.

Power Shift, too, is referred to as a youth summit on its Web site. The idea, it seems, is that activism is an intrinsically young action. Students from Columbia College , Barnard , SEAS , and the School of Social Work represented the University, seeking ideas on how to work with the administration and new ways to be environmentally conscious. They were part of an informal mass of more than a thousand students on Saturday, Feb. 28, in a throwback to the days of sit-ins, to peacefully display the movement’s determined efforts. It is this level of energy that Columbia’s green groups wanted to bring back to campus. It will create new ways of reaching a broader student base of interest, drive the activities run out of the special interest house Green Borough brownstone, and bring dynamic ways of working within a University budget that is clamped tight. The 43 attendants of Power Shift bring back the spirit of the ’00s: enthusiastic but prepared action.

Perhaps that makes the new Bohemia “square”—that it has lost the inherent coolness

that makes the hippie generation so romanticized. Times have changed, certainly, and the high-flying idealism of peace and love seems infantile now, or at least blindly naïve. The sentiment of the ’60s, that social change could be accomplished through a cultural awakening, has proven itself ineffective. By emphasizing the pragmatic instead of the ideal, the new crop of activists seek a new, more grounded path towards progressive action. Power Shift is indicative of a shift in approach.

I see it as a natural progression of a mentality, rather than the revolution of a revolution. Flower power defined the idealistic intangibles that still linger as vestiges of the liberated reaction to the socially restrictive 1950s. Thoreau wrote, “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

The author is a visiting scholar at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.

ILLUSTRATION BY ALEXIS YUEN

The green movement, and the spirit of summits like Power Shift, is foundational. It represents the realization that significant change must be informed, prepared, and willing to play the political game. Hippie radicalism only took society so far—Woodstock believed change had arrived in our society. Power Shift realized that it has yet to come.

The author is a Columbia College first-year.

She is a member of EcoReps.

Why Are College Students—and Bwog—So Clever?

E

arlier this year, veteran film critic David Denby published Snark, a hastily written polemic against those lonely pseudo-intellectuals PHILIP who—instead of PETROV producing ideas of own—prefer I L L U M I N A T E D their to mock, ridicule, M A N U S C R I P T S or dismiss the work of others. Denby’s book diagnoses “snark” as a pathology, a writing style ideal for sexdeprived nerds who lack the courage to do anything but post anonymous insults online.

Writers who rely on snark, Denby argues, hope to appear clever, cynical, and cool, but they’re little more than timid imposters who make fun of others in order to conceal their own creative inadequacies. Snarky writers have little to say, so they ridicule more serious authors and pretend to be too jaded to take part in meaningful discussion. This, quite frankly, is the essence of Denby’s critique.

Denby’s book is not exactly a masterpiece of polemic, but it’s noteworthy for at least one reason. It represents one of the first systematic attacks on the hordes of pseudoauthors who specialize in trying to pack as many insults as possible into 200-word gossip articles.

Surprisingly—or unsurprisingly, perhaps—Denby’s book has been mocked, ridiculed, and dismissed by much of the intellectual establishment. In an attempt to appear trendy (and stave off financial implosion), several of the old guard publications have made it their business to announce— subtly, of course—that snarky writing is cool, edgy, and relevant. Last month, in an unusually fashionable move, the New York

Times derided Denby as a “neo-Victorian” and insinuated that he’s just a geezer who’s scared of becoming the victim of a snark attack. Commentary magazine—which might have been expected to sympathize with the aging Denby—was equally dismissive.

Laughing at Denby is in season—perhaps even the Wall Street Journal will muster enough energy to publish a snide critique of Denby’s book.

Among Denby’s many detractors, New York Magazine’s Adam Sternbergh actually managed to distinguish himself. Sternbergh used the opportunity given to him by Denby’s book to make an argument for the usefulness of snark. Sternbergh’s argument, which bears the stamp of self-delusion, is not new. Snark, Sternbergh claims, is a natural response to the bland doublespeak and neutered discourse that characterize mainstream politics. Internet writers have become snide and snarky, in other words, because they’ve been disillusioned by the dull and impotent language of the public sphere. It follows, according to Sternbergh, that snark has the potential to reinvigorate public discourse by injecting it with a healthy dose of irony and sarcasm. Sternbergh seems to believe that vitriolic blog posts—which almost always betray the infantile desire to hurt others’ feelings—are the “antidote” to the blandness of the mainstream media.

College students who insult people in online articles are going to revitalize our political discourse? Bwog and IvyGate are going to rescue America from the tedium of mainstream journalism? How many sweet, democratic-sounding lies need to be poured into one’s ear before one can begin to believe this nonsense?

Like all creation myths, Sternbergh’s account of the rise of snark is a disingenuous attempt to conceal a shameful truth.

Snark is not the response of “the masses” to the inane doublespeak of politicians. It’s a

defense mechanism for writers who, having nothing to say, are absolutely terrified of being criticized or derided. Snarky writing reflects a primal fear—the fear of being laughed at. Snarky writers don’t want to be mocked, so they strike first by mocking everyone in sight. Snickering at others’ ideas is the simplest way to protect oneself against criticism, for it’s hard to seriously criticize a writer who does nothing but hurl insults.

Snarky journalism appeals to those who were teased in grade school and don’t ever want to be made fun of again. One might say, in fact, that snarky writing is a wish-fulfillment for compulsive masturbators.

What’s more interesting, perhaps, is that the giants of the journalistic establishment seem reluctant to dismiss snark. One might have expected old guard outlets like the New York Times to defend Denby, but they did the opposite—they tried to make a fool out of him. There’s something comical about the fact that the Times—whose approach to journalism accords with Denby’s—found it necessary to publicly distance itself from Denby’s rearguard attack on snark. Is the Times worried that it’ll appear outdated unless it embraces sly put-downs, snide remarks, and all the other tactics used by the resentful?

It’s almost funny. The very publications that might have been expected to defend Denby instead made the strategic decision to snark him. In the case of the Times, one almost wonders whether the paper is attempting to forestall its decline by pandering to the very people who, if given the chance, would gladly bury it beneath a mound of semi-clever insults.

Philip Petrov is a Columbia College senior majoring in political science. He is the Literary and Arts Editor of The Current. Illuminated Manuscripts runs alternate Mondays. opinion@columbiaspectator.com

March 9, 2009

CLASSIFIEDS

CLASSIFIED AD RATES: $8/00 per first 20 words.

25¢ each additional word.

Ad in all boldface $4.00 extra.

All ads must be pre-paid.

2 business day deadline.

Call 854-9550 for information; or fax ad to 854-9553.

SIX CLASSICALLY BUILT condominiums. 3 blocks from Central Park, 1.5 from Morningside Park. 2, 3 & 4 BRs, light and outdoor space from $699 to 1799. (212) 595-4549. www.west113. com

HEALTHY WOMEN 19-29: Egg donors needed. Help women with infertility create families. Be compensated for doing good! To apply, e-mail info@mydonor.net or call (212) 6916600. Info will be kept confidential. www.MyDonor.net

BE A STAR Join Stefania Rubini Quartet live every Thursday and different artists every Tuesday performing at Covo Lounge. www.covony.com. 701 W 135 St (and 12th). (212) 234-9573.

ACTIVISTS: Become an intricate part of a leading humanitarian relief organization. Work for Grassroots Campaigns Inc on Save the Children campaigns to help them create positive and lasting change for children in need worldwide! Earn $1400$2200/mo. FT/PT and career opportunities available. Great for students!

Call Jess: (212) 219-1502.

Columbia Daily Spectator

LOOKING FOR A LIFE-CHANGING summer internship? Eager to work with talented peers and high school students? Want to stay on campus and explore NYC while testing and developing your leadership skills? CU’s Internship in Building Community can make all that possible. For more info go to www.ce.columbia.edu/ibc. Application deadline is March 13, 2009.

MAN NEEDS SOFTWARE SAVVY assistance w/LEGOTM MINDSTORMSTM computer aspect of Rubik’s Cube Solver—tiltedtwister.com. E-mail contact info to: mnemonicshouse@hotmail.com

PIANISTS: LIBERATE your technique!

Play without strain and facilitate expression. (718) 434-1218 or philolog@ netzero.com for details.

P/T PSYCHOTHERAPY OFFICE avail: 86 St & Amsterdam Ave. Mon 8 am-5 pm; Thurs 1-5 pm; all day Friday and weekends. Contact Phyllis Lowinger, LCSW (212) 666-3400. E-mail phyllow @aol.com

COUNSELING—DEEP Psychotherapy.

Faculty/Staff/Students for relief of inner conflict, sadness, anxiety, fears, social challenges, intimacy, and gay & lesbian issues. W 97th St. (914) 632-7111; (914) 393-5506.

WEIGHT OR EATING PROBLEMS? St Luke’s Hospital (114 St & Amsterdam). Overweight individuals, 18-65, weekly individual or group counseling.

Low fee. (212) 523-4180 or stlukes. weightloss@gmail.com

Page 5

PROFESSIONAL EDITING by Columbia Ph. D. Dissertation and academic style expert (APA, Turabian, MLA, etc.).

Typing services available. (212) 3711272.

TYPIST EDITOR Do you wish there were more time in a day? I will type and/or edit any paper for you at a reasonable rate. Just call me at (917) 664-2132.

GET RID OF YOUR ACCENT...NOW! Gain an edge for the competitive job market. Improve communication with colleagues for presentations, conversation, and the telephone. Individualized training. Close to CU. Licensed speech and language therapist with special training in accent reduction.

Experienced in ESL and Adult Ed. wellsaid123@verizon.net; (212) 9323047.

CLEANING Yorkshire Cleaning Services. Cleans apartments and rooms. We provide all supplies. Prompt, reliable—and very inexpensive! Call (646) 241-1633.

RICH FORTUNOFF Book & Tax Prep Svcs. Great fan of Columbia and great price for Columbia. RFortunoff@richfortunoff.com or (212) 678-1065.

Page 6

ARTS ENTERTAINMENT Columbia Daily Spectator

March 9, 2009

ART

Postscrypt Hangs Dirty Laundry

BY LIZA ELIANO Columbia Daily Spectator

Ian Kwok / Senior Staff Photographer

SECRETS OF THE CRYPT | Skeletons in the Closet, Postscrypt’s latest exhibition, features art inspired by students’ secrets, bringing them out of the darkness and into the spotlight.

BOOKS

Reconsidering Economic Themes Of Literature

A

New York Times article a few months ago focused on the current influx of Wall Street types into creative industries. The United States as a nation on credit was bound to collapse.

There was nothing holding up our rampant spending, and LUCY the markets crashed—hard.

TANG Banks that had been enduring enterprises, like Lehman S E N T I M E N T A L Brothers and Merrill Lynch, E D U C A T I O N were shuttering and dispensing with flocks of confused employees. The article quoted Richard Florida as saying: “The economy couldn’t survive on speculation and what really amounted to advanced financial alchemy... We are now realizing it is our human creativity that is our real capital.”

This quote is reminiscent of Canto XI of Dante’s Inferno, in which Dante condemns usurers to the seventh circle of hell: “After what manner Nature takes her course/ From Intellect Divine, and from its art.../That this your art as far as possible/...And since the usurer takes another way, /Nature herself and in her follower/Disdains he, for elsewhere he puts his hope.”

What Dante knew during the Medieval Ages still resonates strongly today. He finds usury distasteful because moneylenders generate money from money—not actual work. Like St. Thomas Aquinas once said, “It is in accordance with nature that money should increase from natural goods and not from money itself.” The crash was a huge wake-up call for former investment bankers—it essentially revealed to them that their life source had no grounding. Everything they dealt with dissipated within days.

Dante’s vocation as a poet, while considered laughable by many today, has a sense of enduring purpose. He can at least point to his poems and declare, “Here, I wrote this. These words are mine!” God, or nature, or maybe even DNA has endowed people with imagination and creative inspiration, and what could be more wonderful than revealing this innate potential?

Finally, we are realizing—even if it was a long time coming—that there is something deeply disturbing about investment banking. With Bernie Madoff fleecing Kevin Bacon, Steven Spielberg, and countless others, it may not be that reductive to liken him to a money launderer. Perhaps writers and painters are not creating works with concrete worth—perhaps their artistic endeavors are simply expressions of humanness. Sure, money is great, not to mention essential for subsistence, but most fortunes are evanescent.

Our current economic crisis is certainly not the first time that a market crash has sparked such a cultural reconfiguration. The forefather of stock market crashes occurred with the introduction of paper money in Sweden in the 1670s, which catalyzed a period of wild speculation. The transformation from a culture dependent on coinage to one with the freedom of paper money gradually spread to other countries, and this growing globalization influenced literature with the popularization of travel narratives.

The first stock bubble—the South Sea bubble—burst in 1720. The middle class and the aristocracy’s frenzied investment increased the stock value fourfold, and after the burst, many were left in financial ruin. While the new culture of credit and speculation allowed for social fluidity, people were also shocked by the newfound instability of life, in which fortunes could be made and lost in a day.

Novels, like Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders, saw writers taking on the widespread struggle of re-conceiving the self.

Our current situation is also spurring individuals to reposition themselves. People with previous pre-professional dreams of grandeur on Wall Street must search elsewhere—Patrick Bateman is no longer in the cards.

We need to rebuild the economy on items of value and permanence, like literature and art. After all, we’re still reading Dante 700 years later, but in another 700 years, Madoff will, at most, be a five-line blurb in a high school American history textbook.

Lucy Tang is a Columbia College junior majoring in English.

Sentimental Education runs alternate Mondays.

BOOKS

Postscypt’s new exhibition, “Skeletons in the Closet”, is one giant heart-toheart, allowing Columbia students to expose their darkest secrets on the brightly lit walls of the art gallery. The exhibit combines painting, photography, and installation pieces along with small cards floating between the artworks that display hand-written confessions.

The secrets, contributed anonymously, range from hilarious and goofy—“My best friend loved dog food as an afternoon snack”—to serious and confrontational—“I am a lesbian and embarrassed by this ... no one knows.” Inspired by the PostSecret Web site that blogs confessions readers send in on postcards, these secrets from the Columbia community reveal that everyone has something to hide.

Crowded into a small room in the basement of St. Paul’s Chapel, the secrets overwhelm the viewer with a sense of cathartic urgency. The abstract artwork in the exhibit visually articulates this need for expression. Columbia College junior and Spectator reporter Julia Alekseyeva’s Apologia

interweaves modern figures with Greek and Romanesque statues painted with smooth lines and watery colors. Words frame the faces of the contemporary figures, who, staring directly into the viewer’s eyes, ask us to question the origins of identity.

In contrast, an untitled series of drawings by Jason Patinkin, CC ’09, exposes the disturbing side of the inner self with crude ink sketches of distorted bodies and violent monsters. A series of photographs

by Paris Haber, CC ’12, also explores the grunge that lies beneath polished exteriors.

Entitled House of Cards, the gray and sepia tone photos display an empty room with chipped and decaying walls, a solitary house, and a decrepit staircase.

The curator of “Skeletons in the Closet”, Kavitha Surana CC ’11, explained that the concept for the exhibit was inspired by the ideal, uptight Victorian family who hides perversion behind its perfect façade. Surana transformed the gallery into a space reminiscent of the fictional family’s secret attic with two unique installation pieces.

On the left side of the room is a beautiful antique desk covered with old photographs, candlesticks, and a knitted shawl.

On the right, a rack of vintage dresses is

surrounded by an old typewriter, books, and a brown box cleverly labeled “Grandpa’s old stuff.” Compiled by both Surana and Jenny Lam, CC ’09, co-president and secretary of Postscrypt, these random items create a mysterious ambiance and remind us of objects that are hidden in our personal closets.

While all of the artwork in “Skeletons in the Closet” is wonderfully executed, some of the pieces do not clearly relate to the main theme. A photo album of past trips by Lisa Danackzo, CC ’10, is more familiar than secretive. The album is attached to the wall with a matrix of white strings and push pins which seems like a last-minute attempt to add more quirks to the display.

Yet in a world where so much is hidden and on a campus where people mostly keep to themselves, “Skeletons in the Closet” is a refreshing look at the hidden truth.

WHERE IT’S AT Time: Gallery open weekdays 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Place: St. Paul’s Chapel Cost: Free

NOT TOO LATE: EVENT PREVIEW

Arab Studies Scholar to Speak at Book Culture

BY CHRISTOPHER MORRIS-LENT Spectator Staff Writer

Everything about Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies and literature and director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, suggests the life of an active and successful public intellectual: his résumé, his office, and his allexpansive manner.

It thus comes as no surprise that the Los Angeles Times has hailed him as “the foremost U.S. historian of the modern Middle East.” Indeed, Khalidi’s scholarship has focused primarily on modern Middle Eastern history, and Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East (Beacon Press, January 2009) is his latest installment in this saga. He will be presenting and discussing the book at Book Culture on Monday night.

Sowing Crisis is about how Cold War conflicts between the Soviet Union and the United States are largely responsible for the current state of the Middle East. “It greatly exacerbated regional conflicts that were already there,” Khalidi said. “Israel-Palestine, Iran-Iraq.”

Was this kind of like how it was in Charlie Wilson’s War ? “Yes, but I also think of Wag the Dog—the phrase, not the movie—in the sense that the little guy is jerking the big guy around. For example, there was Egypt and the Soviets.” In other words, Khalidi claims that the Middle East both partially determined and was determined by the Cold War. Khalidi’s argument seems, on the surface, obvious: there’s no one cause for anything—things always happen due to a combination of factors. For a famous intellectual pugilist, his argument and his presentation are surprisingly circumspect. In our interview, he repeated several times, “It wasn’t all the U.S.’s fault—the Soviets were often worse.”

How does Khalidi feel about some of the criticism of his theory? “There are people who say that if

Asiya Khaki / Staff Photographer

FOG OF WAR | Director of Middle East Institute Rashid Khalidi will give a lecture tonight at Book Culture on his new book Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East. you explain something, you’re justifying it,” he said, before adding, “That’s just stupid.”

He reported with a smile that, nevertheless, the reception of Sowing Crisis has been “overwhelmingly positive”—pugilists need allies as well as adversaries.

When asked about Afghanistan, he explained that it was only our responsibility to chase the “bearded hoodlums,” and that it was ridiculous to expect that the U.S. could go in and establish a “modern-day sandcastle of a 21st-century Jeffersonian democracy.”

What about democracy? “Democracy in the Middle East was badly damaged by the Cold War.” So there was nothing intrinsically inimical to democracy in the Middle East? “No. People there love our values. They love our consumer culture, they love our political ideals...well, not always the reality, but in some cases.”

Khalidi demurred a little when asked what the way forward might be: “As a historian, my bias is towards analyzing the past to explain the present.” And this analysis is much more than just a re-working of the now-familiar narrative of the U.S.’s complicity in its own geopolitical boondoggle. Khalidi’s sharp, jagged insight is part of what has made him such a prominent scholar and a successful public speaker—hopefully it will be in full evidence at his discussion of Sowing Crisis tonight.

WHERE IT’S AT Time: Monday, 7 p.m.

Place: Book Culture (536 West 112th St. between Broadway and Amsterdam) Cost: Free

FILM

Watchmen Jumps From Page to Big Screen But Not Without Stumbling

BY JULIA ALEKSEYEVA AND ISAIAH EVERIN Columbia Daily Spectator

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

READ DON’T WATCH | Watchmen may take the box office by storm, but not necessarily its audience.

Julia Alekseyeva: In superhero comics, topics such as nuclear holocaust and the Cold War are often unpopular—except in Alan Moore’s Watchmen.

It is the only graphic novel to date ever to win a Hugo Award or make Time’s 2005 list of All-Time 100 Novels.

By making a movie of a brilliant comic, director Zack Snyder attempted the impossible.

In an imagined America threatened by nuclear holocaust, where Richard Nixon is still president and we won the Vietnam War, a group of vigilantes wiped the streets of crime and became America’s superstars.

Now in 1985, their heyday is long gone, and when one is found murdered, a new generation of “Watchmen” suspect conspiracy.

Snyder is reasonably faithful to both plot and artistry—although over two hours long, many plot points are eliminated, though the narrative meat remains on the bones. But even if it was highly entertaining, the movie seemed a little useless in relation to the graphic novel.

Could it ever meet our fanboy expectations?

Isaiah Everin: An inevitable fact of adapting any artistic work is that an adaptation is not the same as the original. Although a cinematic translation of Moore’s work is a beautiful thing to see on the big screen, the ethical concern of whether it should have been adapted in the first place is moot to Snyder.

There are liberties that must be taken to accommodate for a feature-length film, but those should not include reducing characters to sexualized Hollywood shells, as was the case with Malin Akerman’s portrayal of the Silk Spectre. And while some plot details must be chopped, this does not excuse Snyder from changing the inherent content of the story’s ending.

Not only were major scenes in the film changed entirely—with only Moore’s most apparent points arising—but the soul of the work never comes across.

The most subtle emphases were crossed out with a big Hollywood Sharpie, leaving an oversimplified representation meant for a lazy audience.

Alekseyeva: But how could a graphic novel ever be represented on screen? The film and comic can never be perfectly synonymous, simply because the act of reading a graphic novel is so different from watching a film. If Snyder hadn’t created an entertaining Hollywood movie, if it was instead longer and more pensive, a significant portion of the population would be isolated. Watchmen is an accessible graphic novel, but it is still no action flick.

Regardless, I also had a few qualms about the film editing. The music directly borrows from the sound track of many classic films, using Dylan, Hendrix, and Wagner. Was Snyder paying homage to films such as Apocalypse Now and The Graduate ?

Regardless, the soundtrack was too much: too epic, too loud, and too self-referential.

Also lost to Hollywood was the highly intellectual feel of the comic. Moore’s comic ends chapters with quotes by Jung and Nietzsche—can one ever do this and still have a box office smash?

Everin: If Snyder is borrowing from old cinema with the soundtrack, most audience members, ironically, may not realize. To me, the music is the only thing that gives the film a place in time besides the presence of Nixon and old television sets.

Many fans will agree that subjecting Watchmen to a standard Hollywood interpretation bastardizes the original intent of the novel. The film fails to meet the nearly impossible challenge of making a movie both for the box office and with artistic integrity at the same time. It simply may not be possible to effectively render Watchmen through a camera lens—especially one as shallow as Snyder’s.

Despite these issues, Snyder did capture several of Moore’s characters flawlessly and created a film that the audience can enjoy. Maybe the extended director’s cut will let the spirit of the novel return.

March 9, 2009

ADVERTISEMENT

Columbia Daily Spectator

Page 7

The Columbia softball team opened its season this weekend, losing all five games in the FAU Miken Classic.

ONLINE

Lions Baseball Swept

By UNC Charlotte

BY JACOB LEVENFELD Spectator Staff Writer In 27 innings of weekend action, the Columbia baseball team held a lead for just one inning as they were swept in a three-game series by host UNC Charlotte. The Charlotte offense put up 18 total runs on the weekend, while two complete game efforts on the mound helped limit the Lions to six runs overall.

On Saturday at noon, the two teams kicked off an afternoon doubleheader, and the 49ers (7-3) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first with three singles, a walk,

SPORTS

on the corners and two down with the Lions trailing 3-1.

The sophomore center fielder, who had gone 0-for-4 in game one, came through with an RBI single that pulled the Light Blue within one. Eisen, who moved to left field in game two, and first baseman Ron Williams each followed with run-scoring singles to give Columbia their first lead of the series, but third baseman Mike Roberts struck out to end the rally.

Lions starter Geoff Whitaker was unable to hold Columbia’s 4-3 edge. He was replaced by Joey Mizzoni after yielding two singles and a wild pitch, and Mizzoni was unable to

File Photo

THREE STRIKES | Columbia’s bats were unable to come alive this weekend, and the 49ers put up the runs necessary to complete the sweep. and a sacrifice fly off of Lions starter Joe Scarlata. Scarlata, who took the loss and dropped to 0-2 on the season, went on to yield two more runs over a total of seven innings, allowing nine hits, one walk, and notching one strikeout.

Offensively, the Lions were unable to muster a sustained attack on Charlotte starter Joe Yermal, who needed just 88 pitches to go the distance against the Columbia lineup.

The Lions managed seven hits in the game, but could not mount any serious threats in the loss. An abbreviated fifthinning rally materialized when catcher Dean Forthun singled and right fielder Billy Rumpke was hit by a pitch, putting two on with two out. But center f ielder Nick Cox grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.

The Lions f inally broke through with their only run in the sixth, when shortstop Alex Ferrera doubled home second baseman Jon Eisen, who was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning.

But Yermal was able to clamp down in the late innings, allowing one hit in both the seventh and eighth before retiring the side in order in the ninth.

Saturday’s first game marked the season debut for reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year Nick Cox, who sat out last weekend with an injured hamstring as a precautionary measure. Cox’s return pushed Eisen, who hit .412 in four games against Lamar last week, out of the leadoff spot, to the No. 2 slot in the lineup, where the freshman went 2-for3. Cox also forced Eisen out of center field and into the infield at second base.

Game two saw a good deal more offense, as both starters were replaced in the seventh inning. In the top of the inning, Cox came up with runners

stop the Charlotte onslaught, which put four on the board behind a two-run homer by Ryan Rivers. The 49ers put two more across in the eighth, pushing their lead to five. In the ninth, Rumpke and second baseman Chris Meininger led off with back-to-back singles, but Cox fanned and Eisen grounded into a double play to send Columbia to their second defeat of the day.

Although he had entered the bottom of the seventh hoping to earn his first win of the year, Whitaker’s seventh-inning struggles dropped his record to 0-2, as he allowed five earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. Kelly McLain threw an inning of one-run ball in relief for the 49ers to pick up the win.

On Sunday afternoon, the Lions again faced a dominating Charlotte pitcher, this time in the form of Patrick Lawson, who, like Yermal on Saturday, tossed nine innings of onerun ball using just 88 pitches.

Columbia’s sole run came in the second inning on designated hitter Alex Aurrichio’s first collegiate home run, a solo shot to deep center. With the homer and his eighth-inning single, Aurrichio accounted for half of Columbia’s four hits on the afternoon. The others came off the bats of Williams and Forthun.

For the second straight day, Rivers had a dinger for Charlotte, providing a pair of insurance runs in the 49ers’ three-run seventh. Aaron Bray also homered.

Dan Bracey (0-2) took the loss for Columbia, allowing four earned runs in six innings of work.

The Lions next take the field on Friday at UC-Riverside, the start of a 10-game California road trip over Columbia’s spring break.

CU Drops Last Four Games of Season

BY MICAH MILLER Spectator Staff Writer

The women’s basketball team finished out its season on a disappointing note, as the Lions dropped both of their games against Princeton and Penn this weekend. With the two losses, the team ends its season with a four-game losing streak, and a final overall record of 13-15 (6-8 Ivy).

The game against Princeton was a constant back-and-forth battle with eight lead changes.

However, Princeton was able to hold on during the final minutes and capture a 68-63 victory.

The Tigers opened the game with a 9-0 run that was finally ended when sophomore forward Judie Lomax made a layup after over four minutes of play. This layup sparked a 10-0 run by Columbia, bringing the score to 10-9. Princeton then ended Columbia’s surge with one of its own and took an 18-10 lead with just over nine minutes remaining in the half. However, Columbia would control the rest of the first half, outscoring Princeton 25-5 in the final minutes, sending the Lions to the locker room with a 35-23 lead.

The Lions were able to stretch their lead to 13 during the second half but Princeton would slowly start to chip away. The Tigers’ comeback was led by sophomore Addie Micir and freshmen Devona Allgood and Lauren Edwards. Micir scored 23 points against the Lions, 15 of which came in the second half.

Allgood posted a double-double, scoring 13 points while grabbing 12 rebounds. Edwards also scored in double figures, contributing ten points to Princeton’s comeback effort.

Despite a combined 13 second-half points by juniors Sara Yee and Danielle Browne, the Lions were unable to regain the lead after Allgood converted a three-point play with less than 30 seconds remaining.

The Lions came out f lat to start the game against Penn and were down by 20 points with just over 10 minutes remaining in the first half. Columbia managed to cut the lead to nine by the half

Dan Fainstein / Staff Photographer

NATIONAL LEADER | Sophomore Judie Lomax, the nation’s leading rebounder, and the women’s basketball team failed to defeat Penn and Princeton this weekend, ending the season with a losing record. thanks to bench players Melissa Shafer and Kathleen Barry, who scored a combined 16 points in the first half alone.

Columbia entered the second half trailing 44-35 but were never able to take the lead. Two 3-pointers early in the half by Katrina Cragg helped cut the

Quakers’ lead to three, but that was the closest the Lions would get. Missed field goals and costly turnovers late in the game gave Penn the 72-64 victory.

Despite f inishing under .500 in the Iv y League, the final game marked some highlights for the Light Blue. Lomax

recorded 401 rebounds on the season which is third all-time in the Ivy League and a school record at Columbia. Additionally, she currently leads the nation in rebounds per game with 14.3.

Browne totaled 110 assists this season, moving her to eighth place all-time.

Wrestler Flores Captures EIWA Title

BY JACOB LEVENFELD Spectator Staff Writer Lehigh opponent Zach Rey pushed Columbia sophomore Ryan Flores to overtime in the final bout of the Eastern I nt e r c ol le g i a t e Wr e s t l i n g Association Championships on Sunday, but the Columbia heavyweight would not be denied, using a takedown and three back-points to earn a 6-1 victory.

With the win, Flores, who had the No. 1 seed in the heavyweight class coming into the 14-team tournament, became Columbia’s Matthew Sherman / Staff Photographer

EIWA CHAMPION | Ryan Flores entered the EIWA Championships as the No. 1 seed in the heavyweight class and did not disappoint, as he won the first EIWA title for Columbia since 1995.

BY MICHELE CLEARY Spectator Staff Writer

File Photo

ONLINE

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2009 • PAGE 8

Glynn’s Record-Breaking Effort Gives Lions Victory

ALL-TIME LEADER | At Marist, Glynn broke the school record for career goals with 105.

Women’s tennis lost to Temple this weekend while the men participated in a Friends and Alumni Match.

The Columbia lacrosse team extended its season-opening win streak to four with a triple-overtime 16-15 victory over Marist this past weekend. The winning goal was scored by senior attacker Holly Glynn, who scored five goals in the contest, giving her a career total of 105, the most in Columbia history.

While the Lions improved to 4-0 on the season, the Red Foxes dropped to 3-1.

Not only did Glynn score the final goal of the game, but she also scored the first goal, putting the Light Blue ahead just over a minute into the game. Marist responded with three goals of its own, but Columbia

was able to come back and close out the half with an 11-8 lead.

The second half was a different story, as Marist outscored Columbia 7-4. After junior attacker Brittany Shannon scored an unassisted goal less than two minutes into the second half, the Red Foxes went on to score five of the next six goals.

With Marist up 15-14 with less than two and a half minutes remaining, senior midfielder Rachel Ryan scored a clutch goal, sending the game into overtime.

After two scoreless extra periods, Glynn put Columbia ahead 16-15 on an unassisted score. This goal would remain unSEE LACROSSE, page 3

SEE WRESTLING, page 3

Two Runners on Verge of NCAA Championships

BY SABINE SCHULZ Spectator Staff Writer The Columbia track and field team split up this weekend to compete in both the ECAC/IC4A Championships in Boston and the Alex Wilson Invitational at Notre Dame. Despite the small number of participants selected to compete in these two meets, the women’s team’s 17 points left them tied with Seton Hall University for 18th out of the 51 teams at the ECAC/IC4A Championships.

The Light Blue achieved remarkable individual finishes from two NCAA hopefuls—senior Megan Lessard and sophomore Jeff Moriarty. Lessard took first place

in 3,000-meter run in the ECAC/IC4A Championships with a time of 9:25.39.

This performance met the NCAA provisional qualifying standard and also ranks Lessard as one of the top 25 runners in the country at the moment. Moriarty also met the NCAA provisional qualifying standard with his time of 1:49.46 in the 800-meter run, ultimately placing third at the Last Chance meet at Notre Dame. Head coach Wood expressed his praise in an e-mail.

“I am so pleased with Jeff and Megan’s performances this past weekend,” Willy Wood said. “To be able to line up just days after winning the Ivy League Championship SEE TRACK, page 3