Comments on: Criticisms of Columbia University’s President http://www.bloggernews.net/15331 High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news. Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:22:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: emilia http://www.bloggernews.net/15331#comment-10640 emilia Tue, 03 Apr 2007 23:07:48 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/15331#comment-10640 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. 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.

]]> By: CU Alum http://www.bloggernews.net/15331#comment-5677 CU Alum Mon, 19 Mar 2007 02:35:32 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/15331#comment-5677 Columbia 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. Columbia 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.

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