[I listened to the Bollinger interview the other day on Brian Lehrer’s WNYC interview program — with two strong critical responses to him from Anne Whitman (who operates one of the Manhattanville storage businesses which Bollinger wants to eradicate) and Michael Henry Adams (author of Harlem Lost and Found whose most recent exhibit appeared in the Museum of the City of New York).
As a Columbia Ph.D., I was embarrassed by Bollinger. He was rude in his false “outsider” characterizations of Anne and her business (See below). Anne employs only women and minorities; she is a Community Board member and area resident doing wide service here. Her firm also provides working space for artists and artisans. One could not ask for more in the way of responsible public service and a model for how businesses should be run.
Bollinger proposes removing all such from the area for his biotech things and a few others. Let’s be honest here. Columbia’s real estate oriented endowment is in poor shape compared with its major competitors. It boasted making some $200+ million in biotech profits this past year — presumably its primary aim with this new center. As a Columbia alum I suspect that the institution is yet once again unwisely putting all its eggs in the wrong basket. I will not comment on monies made through medical copyrights — enough is in the air to make us all aware of the shoddiness involving drug companies and university researchers profiting hugely from others’ illnesses.
Biotech competition by the time Columbia had uprooted its proposed 17+ acres would be far ahead globally. The 6,000 jobs (up from 2,000 projected a year or two ago) would presumably be high tech, not neighborhood, unless one compares the minimal pay scales and benefits that Columbia leases have provided for service workers in Morningside Heights (I did a comparative study when the new Columbia leased University market moved in and found that all the others in our neighborhood offered better terms to their workers). What follows are the critical comments of Tom DeMott who is one of the small group designated by Jordi Reyesmont, board chair, to negotiate with Columbia. CB#9 has a community oriented 197A plan for Manhattanville which should take precedence over or at least hold in check Columbia’s proposed eminent domain grab. Ed Kent]
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Subject:
Fwd: Re: These are Great Times to be a Woman Entrepreneur!!
From:
“J Reyes-Montblanc”
Date:
Sat, 17 Mar 2007 20:37:15 -0400
To:
bfrappy24@aol.com wrote:
To: reysmont@yahoo.com, NYC-CB9M@juno.com
Subject: Re: These are Great Times to be a Woman Entrepreneur!!
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2007 19:45:14 -0400
From: bfrappy24@aol.com
CC: BFrappy24@aol.com
Dear Jordi,
In regard to what you sent out: These are Great Times to be a Woman Entrepreneur!!
Well the Chamber of Commerce (and those on your list) need to know that it might be “great times” for women entrepreneurs but that depends on where your business is located. Here in West Harlem, we have the president of an Ivy League institution, Mr. Bollinger of Columbia, a man who has been designated as an affirmative action advocate by the press and others, who decided to attack local business women who have been in the neighborhood for 35 years - calling them “outsiders” on the Brian Lehrer show on 3/8/07 - because he wants to push them out and because they are not folding to his eminent domain pressure. His decision to escalate to this type of attack is a calculated one, no doubt developed by his coterie of advisers from near and far, and it is yet another indication of the desperation Columbia is feeling as they attempt to pretend they are working with the community, all the while adopting an “all or nothing” position that flies in the face of the compromises already arrived at in the community to open the way for Columbia to share it with us in the 197A plan. The contradictions in Bollinger’s affirmative action ideas, and his non-affirmative action deeds, are more and more evident. It would be great if the CU Board of Trustees made these times “great times” for the women entrepreneurs who want to stay, and whose businesses support other women (and other “minority” members) in terms of employment and careers, and overuled their frustrated leader.
Please pass on this observation to others on your list. Thanks, Tom DeMott
–
“A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope.” (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
–
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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2 users commented in " Criticisms of Columbia University’s President "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackColumbia is not building “biotech things and a few others” in Manhattanville. The first phase of its plans will include new homes for its business school and school of the arts, along with a neuroscience institute and some administrative offices. There will also be a public science magnet school for grades 6-12, built by the city on Columbia-owned land and run in conjunction with the university. Its future plans include housing, an athletic center and other academic and research facilities. See the development website here: http://www.neighbors.columbia.edu/pages/manplanning/index.html
Because this won’t be a biotech project, the jobs will not “be high tech” as the author presumes. Aside from faculty posts (of which, admittedly, few will be filled by local residents), there will be administrators, research scholars, librarians, office managers, accountants, bookkeepers, scientists, technicians, laboratory assistants, maintenance workers, secretaries, custodians, cooks, and any number of other types of jobs. The university will also dedicate much of the street-level space to local retailers and restaurants. Presumably, most of these will fill their job openings from the local community. And even if some of them do end up giving “minimal pay scales and benefits” this will not be Columbia’s fault; the university is forbidden by law to interfere with its tenants’ employment policies.
The author says Columbia “boasted making some $200+ million in biotech profits this past year — presumably its primary aim with this new center.” Columbia is a non-profit institution, has never made a dollar of profit at all. Last year, it received a DONATION of $200+ million, which was expressly dedicated to beuilding the neuroscience lab I mentioned earlier. The University has been very open about the purpose of this donation, to the point of issuing a press release (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/06/03/science_center.html) announcing the plans.
The author is also misinformed about the performance of Columbia’s endowment. As of the middle of last year it was just below $6.1 billion (see page 12 of this document: http://finance.columbia.edu/controller/resources/reports-33061-TheTrusteesofColumbiaUniversityintheCityofNewYork.pdf). Displaced its seventh in the entire country. (http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:bB5eIbv9ys0J:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_colleges_and_universities_by_endowment+%22Columbia+University%22+endowment+billion+2005+2006&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us.) Its investment portfolio earned an 18.4% return last year — also seventh in the nation (and the world) — and a very respectable 17.7% the year before. (See http://www.thebizofknowledge.com/2006/12/the_top_ten_colleges_with_retu.html.)
With so many of his factual premises so demonstrably incorrect, the author’s conclusions really aren’t very meaningful.
After 4 years living on 135th street and having to pass the ugly ORANGE storage buildings owned by Ms. Whitman, I must admit that Ms Whitman is most certainly an outsider to the Manhattanville community. Her properties are not well kept and make the community look like a slum. Where does Ms. Whitman live? Certainly not in the Manhattanville community - for if she did live WITH us, she would clean up her properties and perhaps even LEAVE us alone.
Ms. Whitman, just like Columbia, is fighting for HER OWN interest - not the community’s. Perhaps, Columbia should consider giving her a bigger payout so this silly dispute stops.
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