Columbia baseball kicked off its 2009 campaign this weekend in Beaumont, Texas as the team took on non-conference foe Lamar University. While the Lions suffered losses in the first three games of the series, they broke out the offense and avoided a sweep with a 15-8 victory on Sunday. Despite a strong pitching performance from Joe Scarlata, the Lions’ offense was unable to match Lamar’s in game one. The Cardinals got on the board early with a solo home run from senior outfielder Tyler Link and an unearned run after a fielding error by Columbia in the first inning.

The story of the day was Cornell, which successfully defended its 2008 title on the men’s side while ousting the defending champion Tigers on the women’s side. The combined Big Red victory was the first sweep of Indoor Heptagonals since the 2007 season, when Cornell last accomplished the feat. No team besides Princeton or Cornell has won either a men’s or women’s title at Heptagonals since the Brown women’s team took home a championship in 2001.

Despite missing a number of starters, Columbia fencing excelled this past Saturday at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships, the oldest collegiate athletic competition of any sport. The Lions earned the women’s team title, along with three individual gold medals, one silver, and one bronze.

The sweet scent of pancakes and eggs in the morning. Or maybe it was frittata and buttered toast. No matter what the smell, for many of us, some of the fondest memories of childhood were waking up to the inviting aromas of food cooking in the kitchen.

With its 15-8 victory over Lafayette on Sunday, the Columbia lacrosse team did something it hasn’t done in three years—open the season with consecutive wins. Behind the offense of Brittany Shannon and Holly Glynn, the Lions took their home opener against Monmouth by a 14-10 tally before doubling up the Leopards on the road. The victories give the Light Blue back-to-back wins to start a season for the first time since 2006.

Behind a plethora of strong individual and team efforts, the Columbia men’s track and field team took home an impressive third-place finish at this year’s Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships. The Lions finished the meet with 82 points—the highest men’s finish in school history—behind overall winner Cornell and second-place Princeton, who finished with 176.5 and 121.5 points, respectively. The women’s team, meanwhile, tied with Dartmouth for with a total of 41 points despite several impressive individual finishes.

The Columbia men’s swimming and diving team competed in the ECAC championships this weekend in Cambridge, Massachusetts, finishing in fifth place with a total of 287 points. The Naval Academy finished in first with 703.5 points, followed by Harvard with 512.5. Despite the fifth-place finish, the Lions posted some impressive times throughout the three days of competition.

The Columbia men’s tennis team continued its fantastic spring season this weekend by sweeping Stony Brook and Binghamton. The Lions (8-2) began the weekend strongly, defeating Binghamton, 6-1. The match got off to a quick start for Columbia, as it swept the doubles point easily. “We actually played pretty well against SUNY Binghamton,” said head coach Bid Goswami. “We started the doubles really well. I mean, that was the best doubles we have played.”

When asked what he thought of the FOX show Bones in relation to his anthropology major, one CC ’11 student, who wished to remain anonymous, responded, “I would go gay for David Boreanaz. And then straight. And then gay again.” While that wasn’t quite the answer I had anticipated, I certainly agree that Boreanaz’s hotness can make anyone watch any show, even one about forensic anthropology.

Behind a plethora of strong individual and team efforts, the Columbia men’s track and field team took home an impressive third-place finish at this year’s Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships.

Updated: 3:02pm March 2, 2009

Each year, dancegoers eagerly anticipate the beginning of the Paul Taylor Dance Company’s season at the New York City Center. Taylor is widely considered to be among the greatest American modern dance choreographers, and he reliably offers performances that are both challenging and beautiful.

It isn’t news to anybody that news desks across the country are cutting their numbers. My hometown paper, the Rocky Mountain News, said goodbye to its role as the “other side” news source in Colorado this past Friday. It’s a tough business, for sure. It’s hard to charge people for information because of ease of access, but there certainly have to be some costs to produce it. (It’s Xavier’s Time Inconsistency problem with a public good playing itself out on a national scale!)

After three days of intense competition, the Columbia women’s swimming and diving team placed fifth behind Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Penn on Saturday at the 2009 Ivy League Championships. With a final score of 916, the Lions finished 667.5 points behind first-place Harvard.

The Columbia women’s tennis team was swept this weekend, falling to UMass, 4-3, and to Boston University, 7-0. The losses put the team at 3-5 for the spring. The Lions got off to a fast start against the Minutemen by winning the doubles point. Eliza Matache teamed up with Natalia Christenson at No. 3 singles, and the duo won, 8-6, but Nina Suda and Linnae Goswami lost at No. 2 doubles, 8-2. The point came down to No. 1 doubles, in which Columbia’s top players, sophomores Stephanie Zilberman and Natasha Makarova, won a tight match, 9-7, to capture the point for Columbia.

It was business as usual for the University Senate at Friday’s plenary monthly meeting, which included discussion of Columbia’s unsure economic situation and squabbling over the semantics of a resolution. Following last month’s somewhat contentious yet well-attended meeting, Friday’s plenary was less eventful, but still displayed concern for the future of the University’s financial situation and the Senate’s role in it.

Hundreds of eager parents and children stretched out the door of Nat Holman Gym at City College on Saturday, waiting to get into the Harlem Education Fair.

One week after the $787-billion federal stimulus package was signed into law, the offices of Gov. David Paterson and other New York officials announced the first state projects that will be funded—though the extent of Manhattanville’s financial gain has yet to be seen.

At the 34th annual Scholar and Feminist Conference on Saturday, Barnard College President Debora Spar and other expert panelists expressed concerns about the lack of regulation in the field of reproductive technologies and the unanswered moral, social, and political questions that ensue.

Updated: 1:42pm March 2, 2009

Three rabbis of different Jewish denominations walked into the Hillel Center Sunday evening. They discussed everything from homosexuality to the future of Judaism in the United States.

In the past, Columbia students had to venture downtown to the IFC Center or Film Forum to see independent films and documentaries. But the opening of the small, non-profit Maysles Cinema on 128th Street in January 2008 brought underground flicks up north to Harlem.

Images from the International Artexpo 2009, New York. Click here for slideshow.

As Gene Rhee puts it, “Relationships are something everyone can relate to—straight or gay, man or woman. What is life without relationships?” The Trouble With Romance, Rhee’s debut feature film that was released last Friday at Quad Cinemas Theaters, attempts to answer this question.

On Monday night, an eclectic mix of students, retirees, francophones, and francophiles will gather at Columbia’s Maison Française. They gathered to hold a stimulating and informal conversation about French literature.

Columbia is inundated with young culinary talent. After busying themselves with oft-broken dorm kitchen appliances, these food wizards can conjure dishes whose quality surpasses that of most Morningside Heights offerings.

Do I feel that my position as the president of Columbia Catholic Undergraduates and my sex as a woman conflict with the fact that I, as a woman, cannot lead the congregation in the Holy Mass, the most fundamental celebration in the Catholic faith? This was the question posed to me when I agreed to write this article on being a Catholic woman on Columbia’s campus.

Updated: 11:22am March 5, 2009

After Kim’s Video and Music closed in September, students were somewhat comforted by the store’s decision to donate its movie collection to Butler Library. Unfortunately, due to Butler’s strict movie-checkout policies, students will not be able to take full advantage of Butler’s new movies.

When I was first asked to write a piece on the hijab, I was unsure of where to start. Perhaps I should begin with a definition of what the hijab is. Or a historical lesson on the hijab throughout the centuries. But maybe a personal narrative would be more interesting?

Colleges have the potential to be the birthplace of ideas and liberalism, and Columbia University has often been at the forefront of this onward push in the name of equality for all. The recent expansion of the Equal Justice Center of the Roosevelt Institution serves to further the cause of progressivism and provides more students than ever with the unique opportunity to harness their ideas in order to shape national policy by writing it.

The photographer is a Columbia College freshman. She is the deputy news photo editor for the Columbia Spectator.

I was born and raised a devout agnostic. I never really knew what I believed and never took the time to think about it. So many people around me had a relationship with this thing called God, had such faith, and although I was always curious, religion never played a role in my life, even when I was completely immersed in it. It was really only until I came to college that I realized Quakerism was my truth.

There is something to be said for the number of exclamation points in the postings on Hillel’s new blog, “And Thou Shalt Blog.” They are really all over the place, sometimes two or three next to each other, dancing amid giant words of all colors.

Living a religious lifestyle on campus can be tough—living as a religious woman can be even tougher. This Monday, Spectator Opinion asked some of Columbia’s women of faith to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by their respective religious traditions.