John Jay Awards

This job has some definite perks.
Beyond the whole "helping to shape the campus discourse while running a staff of 100 and publishing really cool things while getting your name in bold type in every issue and having something to put on your resume" thing, there is the access to PrezBo, the pride of knowing what's happening on campus, and the good Columbia catering cookies that come with every meeting with Robert Kasdin or David Stone.
And, on very rare occasions, there are nights like tonight. After my last class today, I got all dudded up in a tux and took cabs down to Cipriani 42nd Street with some four other MB-level editors and photographer Tina Gao for the John Jay Awards dinner. For those unfamiliar, the awards are a chance for Columbia College to raise a boatload of money for the school--an event that has gained in importance with the University's $4 billion capital campaign underway.
Money was certainly the theme of the night. Cipriani is in an impressive building that used to be a bank (You can still see the teller windows), two of the night's honorees were hotshot investment bankers, and the 700-750 people who RSVP'd raised $1.2 million dollars for the College. Not bad for a night's work.
And not bad for six college kids whose most-regular meal is the free pizza that is delivered every night to the office through an advertising arrangement with V&T. There were roast lamb and fresh fish for the meat-eaters, Eggplant Parmesan for the veggies, some kind of salmon appetizer, and a creamy dessert that nobody knew exactly what it was but everybody agreed was fantastic.
During dinner, the porters ensured that everybody's glasses were always full, and before and after there were at least three fully-stocked bars mixing. There are few things that make a group of reporters salivate more than their most important sources all in a single room with a never-ending supply of alcohol. It was an opportunity for me to shake the hands of a lot of people whom I had covered in some capacity but never personally met, including Norries Wilson (My God that man is huge), Frontiers of Science honcho David Helfand, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Bill Campbell, CC '62, who earned my eternal respect by being the only person in the room drinking beer from a bottle. I also checked in with dozens of others--Alan Brinkley, Kathryn Yatrakis, Marcus Johnson, David Ali, Jerry Sherwin, Hillary Ballon--who I know in various capacities.
As for the event itself, David Paterson gave a phenomenally entertaining speech about his time at Columbia, Eric Foner spoke eloquently about the direction of the American government, and Charles Santoro gave what was perhaps the most intense acceptance speech I've ever heard--in which he expressed more affection for his days at Choate than at Columbia--that had everybody at the table looking uneasily at one another. In one way or another, every speaker--including the winners--subtly asked for money, and President Bollinger, who appears to have gained some weight, gave an address on what makes Columbia College "excellent." (Columbia “has a deep a respect for excellence. ... There is a sense that what we teach is excellence and that we try ourselves … to be excellent.” Awesome!) Got back around 10:45, the first draft of the story was in by 11:30, and I made it out of the office by 1.
All told it was a good night, which is nice because it will likely be the only time I ever get a chance to dine at the John Jay dinner.