2 C o l u m b i a U n i v e r s i t y RECORD May 3, 2002
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(UPS 090-710 ISSN 0747-4504)Vol. 27 no. 15, May 3, 2002
A Glimpse of Columbia History . . .
The First Varsity Show, 1894—The Varsity Show began as a fundraiser for the varsity athletic teams, but later evolved into an annual comedic tradition,written and performed by Columbia students. The first production of the Varsity Show, “Joan of Arc,” was written by Guy Wetmore Carryl and was performed in April1894. Cast members included, from left: Franklin B. Ware, Adolf Provost, Kenneth M. Murchison, Don Barber, Dave Armstrong, Dick Hanson and Donald MacGre-gor. Murchison went on to become a successful architect responsible for designing the Baltimore Union Station, Hoboken and Buffalo railroad terminals. This year'sVarsity Show, the 108th, was held April 26-28 in Lerner Hall’s Roone Arledge Auditorium.
—Jennifer Ulrich
State and Federal Budgets on Track but Affected by Lower Tax Receipts
PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES AND COLUMBIANA LIBRARY
Legislative Update
Passage of the state bud-get, already a month late, isexpected within the next fewweeks if the GovernorGeorge Pataki, Senate Major-ity Leader Joseph Bruno andSpeaker of the AssemblySheldon Silver can agree onthe amount of availablefunds for programs with statetax receipts reduced.
Reports indicate that flatfunding will exist for studentaid programs, but academiccenters with economic devel-opment proposals are likelyto be funded as will matchingfunds for grants such asColumbia's nanotechnologycenter.
At the federal level, thebudget is on track, but dis-agreements also exist as tohow the amount of availablefunds will be allocated.Other issues still remain highon the agenda include inter-national students, access tosensitive material, researchfunding and student aid.
The federal fiscal year2003 budget begins on Octo-ber 1, 2002. At this stage,the non-binding budget reso-lution has passed the Houseof Representatives; in the
Senate a majority only billpassed the Senate BudgetCommittee.
These resolutions set broadspending guidelines andallow the committee to allo-cate target funding for eachof the 13 annual fundingcommittees. Budget resolu-tions require no Presidentialsignatures; in recent years theHouse and Senate have pro-ceeded without an agreed-upon resolution. This isexpected to be the case thisyear.
Protection of Human Sub-jects was the focus of a Sen-ate Health, Education, Laborand Pensions Committeehearing held recently. Issuesraised included oversightcentralization of human sub-ject research, additionaltraining in medical ethics forstudents and restrictingresearchers from holdingfinancial stakes in theirresearch.
Unrelated Business IncomeTax: Last week the IRS pub-lished final regulations con-cerning revisions to unrelatedbusiness income tax (UBIT)which implement a law enact-ed five years ago. The reportis accessible on one atwww.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces140.html.
The US Senate passed aborder security and visareform bill (HR 3525) thatexpands the tracking of for-eign students and scholarsthrough the Student Exchangeand Visitor Information Sys-tem (SEVIS) that is scheduledto be in place by 2003.
The bill is expected to beadopted by the House of Rep-resentatives through unani-mous consent. Supported bythe higher education commu-nity at large, the bill requiresexpanded background checksfor students from countriesthat sponsor terrorism;expanded information fromstudents about previous histo-ry; and notification of theImmigration and Naturaliza-tion Service (INS) if a studentdoes not appear on campus 30days after the deadline forclass registration.
A new provision addedthrough amendment wouldrequire the Department ofEducation, Department ofState and INS to monitor col-leges and universities thatenroll foreign students andscholars to make certain thatrecord-keeping is up-to-date.If not, institutions could losetheir right to admit scholarsand students.
Legislators are still work-
ing on bills related to accessto dangerous materials in lab-oratories (bioterrorism) bythose from nations producingterrorists and with varioushealth conditions.
The university communityhas been working closelywith the staff to make certainthat adequate protections,occasional waivers, andappeals are included in theprovisions. Reports alsoindicate that some federaldepartments are evaluatingwhether or not to place addi-tional limits on access to sen-sitive materials by foreignnationals.
A Statement on HumanCloning was issued recentlyby the Association of Ameri-can Universities (AAU). Thepresidents and chancellors ofthe major US research uni-versities strongly opposehuman reproductive cloning,but the AAU indicated itsstrong support for basic andapplied stem cell research,including nuclear transplan-tation for cell production(nonreproductive or thera-peutic cloning.)
A bill in opposition to anytype of research in this area isexpected to be voted upon inthe Senate before the end ofMay.
BY ELLEN S. SMITH
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