Columbia is a Big Meanie!

November 15, 2006

Columbia is a Big Meanie!

Who would residents say is the worse neighbor - Columbia or NYU? For today, at least, the controversy surrounds Columbia, plus the Department of Education. Columbia and the DOE will be opening a secondary magnet public school this fall for sixth through twelfth grade. The school will eventually be located on the university's planned Manhattanville campus, but until the building is completed, the DOE has decided to put the school in PS 36, a pre-K to second grade school on Morning Side Drive and West 121st. Enter the angry parents.

The Columbia Spectator reports that though the DOE sees that PS 36 has enough capacity to house the Columbia Secondary School temporarily, parents believe that there would still be overcrowding, not to mention safety issues by bringing kids over the age of 12 into the mix.

Here's a sampling of quotes:

"I don't want them to take our school away." - Second-grader Julissa Beralto agreed.
"It'll be dangerous for the littler kids. No offense to the Columbia kids, but I think that they can find another location." - Shereen Jackson, herself a graduate of P.S. 36 and the mother of two current students and two graduates.

"They're just babies. They're just babies in this class. They're not supposed to kick babies out. It's wrong." - 8 year old Daniel Pelaez whose brother is a pre-kindergartener at the schoolNow we have the image of Lee Bollinger literally kicking babies. The DOE rescheduled a meeting about the planned move.

Just today, the Observer profiles law school professor Tim Wu. And from another hall of academia: Hunter College is getting raked over the coals thinking about selling off its Kips Bay campus.