Columbia College class president Seth Flaxman asked Václav Havel to autograph a Czech flag at the welcoming reception, Oct. 26. NEWS AND IDEAS FOR THE COLUMBIA COMMUNITY NOVEMBER 10, 2006 VOL. 32, NO. 4 A nyone who walked into the personal office of Michelle Brown-Nevers this summer wouldn’t have found her there. Instead, they would have come across six members of her staff processing diplomas and trying to keep up their spirits despite the unexpected flooding of their build- ing, Kent Hall. On the weekend of June 23, flooding caused by renovations to Kent Plaza forced Brown-Nevers, assistant vice president for student administrative services and University Registrar, to displace 61 people. At one point, she even vol- unteered her own office to accom- modate half-a-dozen staff. Call it a baptism in disguise, but as the water seeped through the sec- ond floor of Kent, Brown-Nevers and Lisa Hogarty, executive vice president of student and administra- tive services, were finalizing phase one of their Student Services Transformation Initiative, which involved tearing down many walls, both physical and bureaucratic. “In a way, the flooding helped accelerate the work of our renova- tions,” Brown-Nevers said. A few weeks ago, with the restoration of the staff to their orig- inal offices and a dry floor, Student and Administrative Services hosted an open house to celebrate the newly transformed Student Services Center. “We wanted to cut the time that students spend here and we wanted to create an environment that was warm and inviting,” Brown-Nevers explained. To accomplish the transforma- tion, Brown-Nevers took a number of bold steps. First, she had the center’s navigation signs amended for consistency, its walls repainted and its lighting improved. She also expanded the self-service corridor from four to 10 kiosks. On the per- sonnel front, she arranged for the cross-training of employees who had previously worked in the registrar’s office and student accounts, two separate areas. The idea was that anyone at the front desk should be able to field diverse continued on page 8 continued on page 8 CONVERSATION Gregory Mosher takes initiative | 4 AT ISSUE The concept of the citizen-artist | 5 SCRAPBOOK Anniversary bashes | 8 Extreme Makeover: Student Services By Dan Rivero www.columbia.edu/news If last year’s Columbia-hosted panel discus- sion on the intelligent design controversy made one thing clear, it’s that the stakes in the debate are much higher than simply arguing about whether the world was created in six days a few thousand years ago. For Akeel Bilgrami, even though he is a secu- larist and an atheist, such spiritual yearnings are not only understandable but also supremely human. Columbia’s Johnsonian professor of phi- losophy has argued in many essays that in our modern world, “religion is not primarily a matter of belief and doctrine but about the sense of community and shared values it provides in con- texts where other forms of solidarity—such as a strong labor movement—are missing.” Invited by President Bollinger and Provost Alan Brinkley to deliver this semester’s University Lecture on Oct. 25th, Bilgrami chose to focus on the roots of modern society’s “dis- enchantment,” a term coined by German philosopher Max Weber in reference to the process through which all aspects of the world become explainable by natural science. Bilgrami argued that there is a distinction between a “thin” and “thick” notion of scientific rationality. The former is politically and culturally innocuous whereas the latter views nature in essentially predatory terms—as something that is to be conquered with nothing but material gain as its end. Many of us recoil from this “thick” concept, claimed Bilgrami, because it supports the destruction of nature and has disastrous cultural and political consequences. Bilgrami devoted much of his talk to tracing the origins of “thick” rationality as well as the cri- tiques it has received over the years. He identified the 17th century as the critical turning point, when scientific theorists such as Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle put forward the idea of matter By Mary-Lea Cox Bilgrami Conjures a World Re-enchanted LECTURE SERIES VÁCLAV HAVEL’S COLUMBIA OPUS TOMKI NEMEC A t long last, the curtain has risen on Václav Havel’s residency at Columbia— a performance that has been several years in the making. CU Arts Initiative director Gregory Mosher, who is coordinating all the events associated with the visit of the Czech playwright-turned-president, remembers when President Bollinger first floated the idea. “President Bollinger suggested a Havel resi- dency to me in the second conversation we ever had,” Mosher said. “Havel is an exemplar of everything the CU Arts Initiative is trying to accomplish because he energizes the arts on campus while also connecting the campus to the wider culture.” The opening act finally came on Oct. 26, when Havel turned up at the Stone Rose, an upscale bar in the Time Warner Center, for his official welcome to Columbia. And now we’re reaching the climax of the show as the former Czech president delivers the Core lecture on Contemporary Civilization to sophomores today, the first of three scheduled performances during his seven-week residency, which ends on Dec. 15. The other two are a dia- logue with President Clinton on Nov. 15 and a discussion on human rights with Nigerian writer and dramatist Wole Soyinka on Dec. 6. The campus, meanwhile, is gripped by a kind of Havelmania, with “Havel at Columbia” gigs happening almost daily, taking advantage of the artist-president’s presence to explore new con- nections between the arts and the world of ideas. As Gustavo Pérez Firmat, David Feinson profes- sor of humanities and one of Havel’s many Columbia fans, put it: “Havel’s life and work demonstrate that conduct and performance can go hand in hand. Even though in contemporary American society the citizen-artist seems to have been replaced by the citizen-celebrity, Havel’s example is a powerful reminder that the arts can still be transformative.” For event details, go to: havel.columbia.edu. By Mary-Lea Cox and Dan Rivero Two years of behind-the- scenes work helped cut red tape for students. MICHAEL DAMES Václav Havel, then president of the Czech Republic, attempts an unfamiliar art form at Prague Castle, circa 1997.
Transcript
Columbia College class president Seth Flaxman asked
Václav Havel to autograph aCzech flag at the welcoming
reception, Oct. 26.
N EWS A N D I D E A S F O R T H E C O L U M B I A C O M MU N I TY NOVEMBER 10, 2006VOL. 32, NO. 4
Anyone who walked into thepersonal office of MichelleBrown-Nevers this summerwouldn’t have found her
there. Instead, they would havecome across six members of her staffprocessing diplomas and trying tokeep up their spirits despite theunexpected flooding of their build-ing, Kent Hall.
On the weekend of June 23,flooding caused by renovations toKent Plaza forced Brown-Nevers,assistant vice president for studentadministrative services andUniversity Registrar, to displace 61people. At one point, she even vol-unteered her own office to accom-modate half-a-dozen staff.
Call it a baptism in disguise, but asthe water seeped through the sec-ond floor of Kent, Brown-Neversand Lisa Hogarty, executive vicepresident of student and administra-tive services, were finalizing phase
one of their Student ServicesTransformation Initiative, whichinvolved tearing down many walls,both physical and bureaucratic.
“In a way, the flooding helpedaccelerate the work of our renova-tions,” Brown-Nevers said.
A few weeks ago, with therestoration of the staff to their orig-inal offices and a dry floor, Studentand Administrative Services hostedan open house to celebrate thenewly transformed Student ServicesCenter.
“We wanted to cut the time thatstudents spend here and wewanted to create an environmentthat was warm and inviting,”Brown-Nevers explained.
To accomplish the transforma-tion, Brown-Nevers took a numberof bold steps. First, she had thecenter’s navigation signs amendedfor consistency, its walls repaintedand its lighting improved. She alsoexpanded the self-service corridorfrom four to 10 kiosks. On the per-sonnel front, she arranged for thecross-training of employees whohad previously worked in theregistrar’s office and studentaccounts, two separate areas. Theidea was that anyone at the frontdesk should be able to field diverse
continued on page 8continued on page 8
CONVERSATIONGregory Mosher
takes initiative | 4
AT ISSUEThe concept of
the citizen-artist | 5
SCRAPBOOKAnniversary bashes | 8
ExtremeMakeover:StudentServicesBy Dan Rivero
www.columbia.edu/news
If last year’s Columbia-hosted panel discus-sion on the intelligent design controversy madeone thing clear, it’s that the stakes in the debateare much higher than simply arguing aboutwhether the world was created in six days a fewthousand years ago.
For Akeel Bilgrami, even though he is a secu-larist and an atheist, such spiritual yearnings arenot only understandable but also supremelyhuman. Columbia’s Johnsonian professor of phi-losophy has argued in many essays that in ourmodern world, “religion is not primarily a matterof belief and doctrine but about the sense ofcommunity and shared values it provides in con-texts where other forms of solidarity—such as astrong labor movement—are missing.”
Invited by President Bollinger and ProvostAlan Brinkley to deliver this semester’sUniversity Lecture on Oct. 25th, Bilgrami chose
to focus on the roots of modern society’s “dis-enchantment,” a term coined by Germanphilosopher Max Weber in reference to theprocess through which all aspects of the worldbecome explainable by natural science.
Bilgrami argued that there is a distinctionbetween a “thin” and “thick” notion of scientificrationality. The former is politically and culturallyinnocuous whereas the latter views nature inessentially predatory terms—as something that isto be conquered with nothing but material gain asits end. Many of us recoil from this “thick”concept, claimed Bilgrami, because it supports thedestruction of nature and has disastrous culturaland political consequences.
Bilgrami devoted much of his talk to tracingthe origins of “thick” rationality as well as the cri-tiques it has received over the years. He identifiedthe 17th century as the critical turning point,when scientific theorists such as Isaac Newtonand Robert Boyle put forward the idea of matter
By Mary-Lea Cox
Bilgrami Conjures a World Re-enchantedLECTURE SERIES
VÁCLAV HAVEL’S COLUMBIA OPUS
TOMKI NEMEC
At long last, the curtain has risen onVáclav Havel’s residency at Columbia—a performance that has been severalyears in the making. CU Arts Initiative
director Gregory Mosher, who is coordinating allthe events associated with the visit of the Czechplaywright-turned-president, remembers whenPresident Bollinger first floated the idea.
“President Bollinger suggested a Havel resi-dency to me in the second conversation we everhad,” Mosher said. “Havel is an exemplar ofeverything the CU Arts Initiative is trying toaccomplish because he energizes the arts on
campus while also connecting the campus tothe wider culture.”
The opening act finally came on Oct. 26,when Havel turned up at the Stone Rose, anupscale bar in the Time Warner Center, for hisofficial welcome to Columbia.
And now we’re reaching the climax of theshow as the former Czech president delivers theCore lecture on Contemporary Civilization tosophomores today, the first of three scheduledperformances during his seven-week residency,which ends on Dec. 15. The other two are a dia-logue with President Clinton on Nov. 15 and adiscussion on human rights with Nigerian writerand dramatist Wole Soyinka on Dec. 6.
The campus, meanwhile, is gripped by a kindof Havelmania, with “Havel at Columbia” gigshappening almost daily, taking advantage of theartist-president’s presence to explore new con-nections between the arts and the world of ideas.As Gustavo Pérez Firmat, David Feinson profes-sor of humanities and one of Havel’s manyColumbia fans, put it: “Havel’s life and workdemonstrate that conduct and performance cango hand in hand. Even though in contemporaryAmerican society the citizen-artist seems to havebeen replaced by the citizen-celebrity, Havel’sexample is a powerful reminder that the arts canstill be transformative.”
For event details, go to: havel.columbia.edu.
By Mary-Lea Cox and Dan Rivero
Two years of behind-the-scenes work helped cutred tape for students.
MICH
AEL D
AMES
Václav Havel, then president ofthe Czech Republic, attemptsan unfamiliar art form at PragueCastle, circa 1997.
FIDDLER ON THE STEPSBusking on the steps of Low may not make Rob Hecht a rich man, but the Illinois native, now a resident of Brooklyn, found it a pleasant way towhile away his time after the piano lesson he was supposed to teach got cancelled. “Usually I busk on the subway platforms,” he said, “but itwas such a beautiful day, I decided to sit outside and fiddle. I enjoyed the sun and watching little kids dance.” Asked about his Columbia con-nections, he reported that Barnard music student Hannah Kreiger-Benson is the vocalist for his band, House of Isness. But could he have alsobeen drawn by the spirit of Jack Kerouac (CC’44), whose memory is being celebrated on campus this month? The band’s Web site lists thefamed beat poet as one of its influences.
Dear Alma’s Owl,I was in Bard Hall the other day and
heard piano music—what’s that about? — Music to My Ears
Dear Music Appreciator,
You might think that I never leavethe comfort of Alma’s gown, but I do flyuptown from time to time, and one ofmy favorite perches is the balcony ofthe P&S Club lounge in Bard Hall. Ilove that view. If the undergrads inMorningside Heights knew about it,they might stop bragging about theview from East Campus.
Bard Hall is a superb Art Deco struc-ture designed by James Gamble Rogers,who took full advantage of its cliffsidelocation to provide sweeping views ofthe Hudson River and the newly com-pleted George Washington Bridge. Bothbridge and hall are 75 years old this year.
But I digress. You were asking aboutmusic. Just the other day, while perchedon my preferred balcony, I heard ayoung medical student singing:“Chronic organic symptoms/Toxic orhypertense/Involving the eye, the ear,the nose and throat.”
At first, I thought she was studying foran exam—is singing a new mnemonicdevice for weary medical students? Butthen I caught the refrain: “In otherwords, just from worrying if the weddingis on or off/A person can develop acough”—at which point I realized thatshe must be practicing “Adelaide’sLament” for the Bard Hall Players’upcoming production of Guys and Dolls(to be held in the Alumni Auditorium,650 W. 168th St., Nov. 16-19).
No, medical students don’t spend alltheir time in operating theaters. Manyof the uptown students can act, singand dance. They also have the good for-tune to be able to practice on a pianoonce owned, according to Bard Halloral history, by Russian composer SergeiRachmaninoff.
It helps that several Medical Centerfaculty have taken an active interest incultivating students’ artistic bents. AfterGuys and Dolls closes, the actressAngela Lansbury is scheduled to talk tomedical students about her craft. She isspeaking at the special invitation of JayLefkowitch, a professor of clinicalpathology who is also a P&S graduateand a former Bard Hall player.
For more information on Bard Hall,the Rachmaninoff piano, the Bard HallPlayers, and Ms. Lansbury’s upcomingvisit, go to: www.cumc.columbia.edu.
Columbians sometimes ask Alma Mater forguidance, but to whom does she turn whenshe needs information? Minerva’s familiar isthe wise owl, hidden within the folds of hergown. Send your questions for the owl [email protected]. Authors of let-ters we publish receive a Record mug.
TheRecord
ROGER BAGNALL, professor of classics and history, is oneof 10 corresponding fellows elected this year to theBritish Academy.
Among the 65 newly elected members to the Instituteof Medicine are four from CUMC: SUZANNE BAKKEN,alumni professor of nursing; BETTY DIAMOND, chief ofrheumatology; SHERRY GLIED, professor and chair ofthe Mailman School’s health and policy managementdepartment; and STEPHEN GOFF, Higgins professor ofbiochemistry and molecular biophysics.
MEDHA BHALODKAR has joined CUIT in the newly cre-ated role of chief information security officer.
History professor MATTHEW CONNELLY is currently afellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center forScholars, doing research on the history of how peoplethink about and prepare for the future.
RAY FISMAN, professor of finance and economics at thebusiness school, has earned a Rising Star Award fromthe Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program forhis promising work on corporate social responsibility.
VINCENT GUILAMO-RAMOS, an associate professor atthe School of Social Work, has received the 2006Comite Noviembre “Lo Mejor de Nuestra Comunidad”[The Best of Our Community] Award, in recognition ofhis work with Puerto Rican and other Latino families.
JOSEPH HARNEY has been appointed to serve in thenew role of vice president for procurement services inthe Finance Division.
JACQUELINE VAN GORKOM, professor of astronomy andan expert on the evolution of galaxies, has been elect-ed as a corresponding member of the Royal DutchAcademy of Sciences.
Phi Beta Kappa has honored CHARLES TILLY, Joseph L.Buttenwieser professor of social science, with its 2006Sidney Hook Memorial Award.
FRANCES VAVRUS, associate professor of education atTeachers College, has received a Fulbright scholarshipto lecture and conduct research in Tanzania.
Major Investment in Clinical Science
WHO GAVE IT: National Institutes of Health (NIH)HOW MUCH: $54 millionWHO GOT IT: Columbia University Medical CenterWHAT FOR: To improve medical care by developing newapproaches to reaching underserved populations.Columbia is one of 12 initial academic participants.HOW IT WILL BE USED: To establish an Irving Institutefor Clinical and Translational Research.
Aid for Africa
WHO GAVE IT: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,Global Development ProgramHOW MUCH: $15 millionWHO GOT IT: Earth InstituteWHAT FOR: To advance scientific research and efforts toend poverty, disease and hunger in Africa.HOW IT WILL BE USED: To help ramp up the EarthInstitute’s efforts dedicated to achieving theMillennium Development Goals.
Fostering Science Careers
WHO GAVE IT: Amgen FoundationHOW MUCH: $4 millionWHO GOT IT: Columbia University/Barnard CollegeWHAT FOR: To provide research experience for studentsinterested in pursuing a career in science. Columbia/Barnard is one of 10 initial program partners.HOW IT WILL BE USED: To fund a science research pro-gram for undergrads from Columbia/Barnard as well asother colleges and universities, to be held every sum-mer for four years.
Another Boost for Diversity
HOW MUCH: $2 millionWHO GOT IT: Diversity Council for Professional Schools,chaired by Jean HowardWHAT FOR: To encourage the creation of a more inclu-sive faculty at Columbia’s professional schools.HOW IT WILL BE USED: To fund 10 short-term visits bypotential candidates for hire, three semester-long visit-ing faculty positions and 10 research fellowships peryear for three years.
USPS 090-710 ISSN 0747-4504Vol. 32, No. 4, November 10, 2006
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Front-page photo of Seth Flaxman by Elena Lagoutova (BC’07)
NOVEMBER 10, 20062
M I L E S T O N E SR E C E N T S I G H T I N G S
EILEEN BARROSO
ASK ALMA’S OWL
G R A N T S & G I F T S
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Is Bard Hall a musicaloasis for medicalstudents?
Václav Havel became one of the transformational figures ofour time for his victorious David-and-Goliath battle againstcommunism. His example has special meaning forfilmmaker Milena Kaneva, who recalls growing up in her
native Bulgaria dreaming of living in a democracy and feeling inspiredby Havel’s courage and creativity.
What Kaneva didn’t realize was that she would oneday earn the admiration of her childhood herofor her own work in promoting humanrights. That moment arrived earlier this yearwhen Havel himself presented her with aspecial human rights award at the OneWorld Film Festival in Prague for her docu-mentary drama Total Denial: Doe v. UNOCAL.
Now Kaneva will be linked with Havelagain, as Columbia Law School haspartnered with the CU Arts Initiativein sponsoring a screening and dis-cussion of her film as part of the“Havel at Columbia” residency.
The film, which was also fea-tured at this year’s Human RightsWatch Film Festival at LincolnCenter, tells the story of humanrights activist Ka Hsaw Wa and thehistoric lawsuit he helped a group ofBurmese villagers bring all the wayto the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004,under our country’s Alien Tort ClaimsAct. The villagers claimed that humanrights abuses were committed by theBurmese army when two multinationalenergy companies, California-basedUNOCAL and the French-ownedTOTAL (hence the “Total” of the film’stitle), built a natural gas pipelinethrough the Burmese jungle. The vil-lagers provided compelling evidencethat the army burned their homes,forced them into slave labor, and evenraped and killed their relatives. In this glob-alized version of A Civil Action, Ka HsawWa and the “John Doe” plaintiffs, whoseidentities remained confidential in orderto protect them from reprisals in Burma,claimed that UNOCAL knew about andtolerated these offenses.
While the event is open to the entireUniversity community, Kaneva said, “It’svery important to me to have the filmscreened in front of law students, whowill one day be the defenders of the valuesit presents.”
Those who were avid viewers of the recent PBSseries To the Ends of the Earth, based on the best-selling sea trilogy by William Golding, may be inthe mood for another salty tale of high jinx on
the high seas—a tale brought to us via a doctoral thesis byEmily Erickson, GSAS’06, which recently took the form ofan article in the Journal of Sociology, co-authored withColumbia sociologist Peter Bearman, director of theInstitute for Social and Economic Research and Policy.
Erickson and Bearman plumbed a treasure-trove ofdata from the 4,572 voyages commissioned by the EastIndia Company between 1601 and 1833, totaling over28,000 port-to-port journeys. They discovered thatmany of the sea captains in command of these tripstook advantage of the company’s resources to engage inillicit trading for their own personal gain—smugglinggoods such as liquor and guns and trading them for
commodities like tea and spices.While this finding in and of itself might seem unre-
markable, Erickson and Bearman went the further step ofshowing that the personal trading undertaken by theserogue sea captains marked an important step in the for-mation of a global free market. They credit the enterpris-ing seamen for having driven the changes that led to theIndustrial Revolution, giving individual entrepreneurs theopportunity to accumulate wealth.
The pair of sociologists were able to reach these con-clusions using social network analysis. As they wrote intheir journal article: “By focusing on the micro level, weare able to observe the development of complex multilat-eral exchange circuits that give rise to densely integratednetwork components.”
Next, perhaps they should pitch a new PBS series: TheEnds of the Earth, The Beginnings of Global Trade.
TheRecord NOVEMBER 10, 2006 3
Call it an out-of-this-world thermometer.
An international team of scientists working on NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has made the first measure-ments of the day and night temperatures of a planet 40 light years away from Earth. The team, which includ-ed Columbia astronomer Kristen Menou, used infrared data from Spitzer to reveal that a gaseous Jupiter-like planet (Upsilon Andromeda b) circling very close to its sun (Upsilon Andromeda) is always ashot as fire on one side and potentially as cold as ice on the other.
Menou, whose research at Columbia focuses on how wind affects planetary temperature,is interpreting data from the Spitzer telescope showing the extrasolar planet’s“phase curve” (plotting of the amount of light emitted by the planet as itorbits its sun). Menou believes the telescope’s findings offerhope that it can be used to study the diversity of awhole new class of planets.
T A L K O F T H E C A M P U S
Jupiter-Like Planet Makes aHot and Cold Sensation
Compiled by Mary-Lea Cox
IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE
The Beginnings of Global Trade
For the online version of the paper published in the journal Science,go to: www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/314/5799/623.
Anti-pollutant agents infiltrated Low Plaza on Oct. 25. They were there to take part in CampusSustainability Day, part of the nationwide effort to celebrate the work being done by collegecommunities across the country to advance sustainability. Columbia marked the occasionwith a five-hour-long event, which also signaled the official launch of the Office ofEnvironmental Stewardship under Nilda Mesa, a former Washington environmental official.
Participants visited information tables for tips on reducing energy and water consumption andrecycling waste, while case studies showing how various campuses have achieved their envi-ronmental objectives were projected on a jumbo TV screen situated on College Walk.
Meanwhile, Columbia’s sustainability efforts are extending beyond its campus into greaterNew York. Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced that the Earth Institute will advisehis new Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, and that he’d asked SIPA’s EsterFuchs to serve on his Sustainability Advisory Board.
Blue Goes Green
TheRecord
Gregory Mosher knows the mean-ing of “You’re only as good as yourlast performance.” He has fol-lowed this directive religiously
during his 30-year involvement with thetheater world, where he now has nearly 200acclaimed productions to his name. His man-telpiece boasts nearly every major theateraward, including two Tonys, and he can dineout on stories of having directed and pro-duced the works of countless theater greats,from Samuel Beckett and Tennessee Williamsto Mike Nichols and David Mamet.
At Columbia, Mosher is performing in anew role both for him and for the University:that of arts coordinator. Nearly three years ago,President Bollinger invited him to campus tojumpstart a new arts initiative. Thanks toMosher’s efforts, Columbia students can nowvisit major museums for free, take guided toursof the city’s trendiest galleries, and learn aboutthe latest arts events on and off campusthrough an online portal, cuarts.com.
In addition, Mosher has been arrangingresidencies on campus for legendary artists.The director Peter Brook spent four weeks in2005 producing a play at Columbia, and thisyear the campus is hosting playwright andformer Czech Republic president VáclavHavel for a series exploring the connectionbetween the arts and citizenship.
Q.What did President Bollinger have inmind when he asked you to start an
arts initiative?
A.He posed a provocative question:“Would it be possible to make the arts a
part of the experience of attending Columbia?”He didn’t mean the students who intended tobecome painters, actors or filmmakers; hemeant the historians, the diplomats, thebankers, the French majors and so on. To thebest of my knowledge, no one had ever askedthat question in the context of a majorAmerican university before. I told him I didn’tknow the answer but would be pleased to try.
Q.What did launching an arts initiativemean in practical terms?
A.First, we had to identify all the artsgroups at Columbia—not just those
everyone knows about, like the MillerTheatre and the School of the Arts, but stu-dent art groups made up of future bankers,historians, dentists, social workers and physi-cists. There are more than 150 such groups
on campus, and we wanted to contact all ofthem to offer our support. Second, welooked for innovative ways to connect thecampus to the city’s culture. We know thatstudents come to Columbia because it’s inNew York. And yet you can spend four yearsat this university and never get any closer tothe arts scene in the city than if you’d goneto Stanford. One of the main CU Arts pro-grams is “Passport to the Arts.” Thirtymuseums, including every major institutionin the city, have agreed to admit Columbiastudents for free, no strings attached. We alsohave something called the “art train” to takestudents around to galleries with guides fromthe School of the Arts. Galleries can be veryintimidating, and I thought it would be greatto try to demystify them.
Q.Do you also offer discounts to theaterperformances?
A.Performing arts people are a hardersell when it comes to student dis-
counts. I come from that world, so I know.Whether it’s Broadway or not-for-profit, the-ater people assume: “Students don’t come.They’re too busy. They have their headsburied under their iPods.” But the reason stu-dents don’t come is that the theaters don’tinvite them and the tickets are too expen-sive. We keep telling them: “Offer tickets for
$15. We’ll do the rest.” Then we go to the stu-dents—we reach many of them through ourWeb site, cuarts.com—and show them howto access these groups.
Q.How do you meet the challenge ofreaching the students who otherwise
wouldn’t think of going to galleries and plays?
A.Your question speaks to the ArtsInitiative’s third—and broadest—imper-
ative: we try to show Columbia students howart can give you other ways of looking at theworld. Bringing Václav Havel to campus—aman who is not only a brilliant playwright andartist but also the former president of theCzech Republic, an activist who was jailedrepeatedly in the 1970s and 1980s for hisideas—embodies all the connections the CUArts Initiative is trying to make.
Q.What went into planning Havel’s resi-dency?
A.Following up on conversations Presi-dent Bollinger had been having with
Havel, I met with him in Prague last Januaryand told him I would like his visit to beinformal and not a series of state dinners—something refreshing for him, a change ofpace. I told him what I hoped the studentsmight get out of it: the opportunity to examinehis life and feel inspired by his example.
Q.Did you also work with other groupson campus?
A.Perhaps the most important lessonI’ve learned in the past nearly three
years is the need to work with faculty andstudents in the existing and already incredi-bly rich programs here on campus. Whenplanning the Havel residency, we startedwith the faculty and administration in theCore Curriculum. The students in LiteraryHumanities are reading Havel’s first majorfull-length play, The Garden Party. TheContemporary Civilizations students arereading his hugely influential essay, “ThePower of the Powerless.” Havel will deliverthe Core lecture on Nov. 10, followed by aquestion-and-answer period for the students.This event puts Havel’s work right in the cen-ter of a Columbia academic experience.
Q.Besides the Core lecture, there are myr-iad other “Havel at Columbia” events.
How do you connect them all thematically?
A.The Arts Initiative invited groups allover campus and around the city to
put on events that reflect the ongoing con-cerns of Havel’s life, which are moral, philo-sophical, political, civic and creative. Theresponse was tremendous—not because wegave anyone an assignment but because LeeBollinger, by inviting Havel, floated an idea,one that struck a chord with so many people.Our responsibility has been to stage managethe residency, not direct it. We remain at theservice of students, faculty, staff and thewider community.
Q.How close have you come to answeringPresident Bollinger’s question of three
years ago?
A.I don’t think that the day the Havel res-idency is over, on December 15, we’re
suddenly going to say: “That’s it! We nowknow how to integrate the arts into theColumbia experience.” Still, I sense that we’recoming closer to one of our goals. By the timethe Arts Initiative hits its five-year mark, Ihope to see incoming students arrive on cam-pus and feel as though they’ve enrolled notonly in the curriculum of Columbia Universitybut in the culture of New York City.
For more on Gregory Mosher’s views onVáclav Havel as citizen, go to: havel.colum-bia.edu/gregory_mosher. html
NOVEMBER 10, 20064
I N C O N V E R S A T I O N W I T H . . .
AS DIRECTOR OFCOLUMBIA’S ARTS
INITIATIVE, THISTHEATER DIRECTOR
IS NOW STAGE MANAGING VÁCLAVHAVEL’S REPRISAL
OF HIS ROLE AS CITIZEN-ARTIST.
GREGORY MOSHERInterviewed by Anne Burt
“We want to see incoming students arrive oncampus and feel as though they’ve enrolled notonly in the curriculum of Columbia University
but in the culture of New York City.”
EILEEN BARROSO
Living at a time when “regime change”has become an official tool for pro-moting democracy and when manyartists have become obscenely rich,
we can perhaps be forgiven for wondering:was a “velvet revolution” perpetrated by “citi-zen-artists” something unique to VáclavHavel’s own time and place or can these con-cepts be generalized across time and cultures?The Record posed this and several relatedquestions to the following participants:• CARMEN BOULLOSA, Mexican poet, novel-ist and playwright, and former visiting pro-fessor. Her work focuses on issues of femi-nism within a Latin American context.• GIL EYAL, associate professor of sociology. Hehas written on the transformation of EasternEurope from communism to capitalism.• JOHN FRANKFURT, educational technolo-gist, Columbia Center for New MediaTeaching and Learning, and adjunct assistantprofessor, Film Division, School of the Arts.Frankfurt is project manager for the “Havelat Columbia” Web site: havel.columbia.edu.• CATHARINE NEPOMNYASHCHY, Ann WhitneyOlin professor of Russian literature, chair of theSlavic department, Barnard College, and direc-tor, Harriman Institute.• RICHARD PEÑA, associate professor of film atColumbia and program director, Film Societyof Lincoln Center. He is moderating a panel onfilm and citizenship in honor of Havel’s visit.• PETER ROSENBLUM, Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann& Bernstein clinical professorship of humanrights law. He is hosting the screening of TotalDenial, which received Havel’s human rightsfilm award earlier this year (see page 3).• MARCELA RYDLOVA-EHRLICH, adjunct lec-turer in the Czech language.
The New York Times recently reported thatdancing is now a courageous act in Iraq,particularly for women. Do you think thatHavel’s landmark essay, “The Power of thePowerless,” speaks to the dancers’ situation,especially his concept of the citizen-artist?
EYAL: Havel’s concept of the citizen-artist waspremised on the initial valorization of art bythe communist regime. More importantly, thereal target of Havel’s art was not repressionand censorship but the silent compromisesand unspoken deals between the regime andits citizens—the greengrocer who puts the sign“Workers of the world unite!” in his shop win-dow even though he could care less about it.Neither the prior valorization of art nor thetacit compromises of the post-revolutionaryphase obtains in contemporary Iraq.
NEPOMNYASHCHY: I am currently work-ing on a book on how censorship in literatureand the arts differs across geographical andtemporal boundaries. As Gil points out, cen-sorship in Czechoslovakia, as in the rest of theEastern Bloc and the Soviet Union, was par-ticularly invasive. Indeed, one of the mostpowerful images in Havel’s essay is that of thesimple greengrocer who daily displays the
sign “Proletarians of the world unite!” Artistshad to make similar concessions to ideologi-cal cliché if their works were to reach thepublic. But even though the ways and meansof censorship differ across time and cultures,I personally believe that the impulse to resistcensorship—and to do so by exercising thevery creativity it seeks to curb—is universal, asdemonstrated by the women who continueto dance in Iraq despite being deprived of anaudience and the Iranian women who findfreedom of thought through reading litera-ture (see Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita inTehran: A Memoir in Books).
FRANKFURT: Havel’s essay was writtenunder very different political conditions thanthose of today, but one of its central ideas,“living in truth,” remains quite relevant aswell as universal. In many societies today, itcan be very dangerous for an individual tolive in the truth, as Havel himself found outwhen he landed in jail. But as he writes in“The Power of the Powerless,” such a life ismore fulfilling and, more importantly, con-tributes to the greater public good. Societiesare stronger when their citizens are activelyengaged in the world around them.
RYDLOVA-EHRLICH: The repression ofwomen’s artistic expression in Iraq is a resultof the growing power of conservative religiousgroups. This kind of repression differs fromwhat we experienced in communistCzechoslovakia, where women were never tar-geted as a group and where limits on artistic
expression had to do with the requirementthat art must support the regime’s ideology.
PEÑA: In Iraq the problem is not the gov-ernment but religion. A certain religious posi-tion forbids dancing, and the government inIraq either refuses to challenge the religiousauthorities or actively sides with them.
ROSENBLUM: Popular art forms can chal-lenge the dogma of a regime, even inadver-tently. Havel reminds us that it was the crack-down on a rock band that precipitated thecreation of Charter 77, which led to theunraveling of the communist regime. But thissimilarity shouldn’t blot out the tremendousdifferences between artists’ courageous actsin the “post-totalitarian” state described byHavel in 1978—where disingenuous unifor-mity was the rule and state violence largelyinvisible—as compared to today’s Iraq. Norshould we ignore how much the new battlesof fundamentalism are fought over women’sbodies. The Iraqi folk dancer may be themost courageous dissident of them all.
BOULLOSA: Iraq is going through a uniquelyhellish situation. Though I’m normally opti-mistic, I’m left only with a hope that comesfrom my memory of the Mexican Revolution,where art played a key role in reconstruction. Ihope that somewhere in Iraq artists are at workfashioning new voices and constructing newimages of a more hopeful future—maybe in iso-lation, without an audience, but, we hope, sur-rounded by an underground art community.
Iraq needs the arts more than ever. Art will beits only source of light for years to come.
Is the citizen-artist being supplanted by the“citizen-celebrity” in the United States?
BOULLOSA: Writers have always been associ-ated with power (ask Virgil) as much as withrebellion (ask Havel). The issue gets more com-plicated in our era, where there is a new tyrant:King Market, or the global arts industry. Writersand artists worldwide face a new situation: howcan they do art that’s not intended to give easypleasure and immediate gratification; that’s nota hired servant but an inquisitor; and that ques-tions all you are, think and feel?
EYAL: Havel himself wrote that there wereimportant similarities between post-totali-tarian socialism and advanced capitalist soci-eties. The main pressure on the artist in bothkinds of societies is not repression and cen-sorship, but the pressure to “sell out,” namelyto please—the party, the public, the founda-tions, the TV ratings.
NEPOMNYASHCHY: In the “maturedemocracies,” the majority of writers andartists may indeed write to sell, but the cru-cial question is not whether artists have “soldout” but whether they are being drownedout in a marketplace supersaturated with allmanner of entertainment and celebrities.The market sends the message that conform-ity as opposed to invention is more likely tosucceed. Hence the age-old paradox thatcensorship may promote free thinking andcreativity, while freedom may inhibit them.
PEÑA: We have placed such a premium onart as self-expression that the idea of artistsbeing actively engaged in a dialogue with theirsociety is often frowned upon. Certainly thereare many artists who engage with Americansociety, but their work gets relegated to thecategory of “political art.”
What is the most important lesson studentscan learn from Havel during his residency?
EYAL: Havel is a dissident-become-presi-dent, so he can teach us all about the para-doxes and ironies of, also the responsibilitiesthat come with resistance.
FRANKFURT: While project managing the“Havel at Columbia” Web site, I had theopportunity to learn about Havel’s life fromhis friends, all of whom said that the core ofhis appeal is the courage he’s shown instanding up to intolerance, many times atgreat personal risk.
NEPOMNYASHCHY: Havel can remind us,through his art and his example, that litera-ture—the art of putting fictions into words—is dangerous. Perhaps he can help us reclaimthe magic of words and pass it on to a newgeneration.
TheRecord NOVEMBER 10, 2006 5
A T I S S U E
VÁCLAV HAVEL’S “CITIZEN-ARTIST”
The Amazing Race: Election 2006
Lincoln Mitchell, professor of international affairs:Tuesday’s election was the beginning of the end of the Bushera. Smart Republican operatives, in addition to trying todetermine who to blame for their defeat, are already lookingtowards 2008. It is in this context that Rumsfeld’s resignationmakes the most sense. The Bush team is looking for a pro-warcandidate who can win in 2008. Their best hope is SenatorJohn McCain. McCain has worked to create a pro-war anti-Rumsfeld niche in the Senate. It is therefore easier for McCainto campaign as a more thoughtful pro-war candidate.
Sharyn Lee O’Halloran, George Blumenthal professor ofinternational and public affairs: The election results should beviewed as a referendum on the Republican Party, not as anendorsement of the Democratic platform. We should
anticipate a pause in the Republicans’ push to pass a conserva-tive agenda: bans on gay marriage, stem cell research and abor-tion rights all faced defeat. From now, to entice a broad-basedelectoral coalition, Democrats will need to address issues ofnational security, income disparity, economic competitiveness,workforce displacement and environmental degradation—macro trends that are all exacerbated by globalization.
Dorian T. Warren, assistant professor of political science: Interms of African American politics, I didn’t expect Harold Ford,Jr., to win in Tennessee, though I thought it would be veryclose. Black Republicans running in Maryland (Steele for U.S.Senate) and Ohio (Blackwell for governor) lost, just as I’danticipated—though Steele was able to get a larger share of theAfrican American vote than most pundits predicted (about 25percent, according to exit polls). Deval Patrick made history inMassachusetts as only the second black governor to be electedsince Reconstruction.
V I E W S O N T H E N E W S
SCOTT HUG
Compiled and edited by Mary-Lea Cox
TheRecordNOVEMBER 10, 2006
EVENT H IGHL IGHTS NOVEMBER 13–24
6
MONDAYNovember 13
EquityCampaign’s 2006Symposium
Two-day event on strategiesfor closing achievement gaps.Sponsored by the Campaignfor Educational Equity.Teachers College, [email protected].
the University’s AdvisoryCommittee on SociallyResponsible Investing, opento the entire CU community.To speak, register a day inadvance. 6:00 p.m. SchapiroCESPR, Davis [email protected].
Bezuidenhout, harpsichordand fortepiano. 8:00–10:00p.m. Miller Theatre. Tickets:$35. 212-854-7799.
WEDNESDAYNovember 15
Memorial ServiceA celebration ofthe life of
Geoffrey Howe, a renownedcancer epidemiologist at theMailman School of PublicHealth. 2:00 p.m. Pauline A.Hartford Memorial Chapel.
Kraft ProgramSeries: Havel Václav Havel and
Bill Clinton discuss chal-lenges faced by new democ-racies. 3:00–5:00 p.m. AlfredLerner Hall. [email protected].
Film ScreeningPilots (1935,USSR), directed
by Iulii Raizman. Introducedby Scott Palmer. 6:30–9:00p.m. International AffairsBldg., Room [email protected].
Book TalkEdwardMendelson reads
from his new book, The ThingsThat Matter. 7:00–8:30 p.m.Labyrinth Books, 536 W.112th St. Free and open tothe public. 212-865-1588.
THURSDAYNovember 16
Boit LectureVan Mow, chair ofbiomedical engi-
neering, on “The Role ofBiomechanics in CartilageTissue Engineering.”2:30–3:30 p.m. SchapiroCEPSR, Inter-school [email protected].
IGERT FallColloquium Alexey Fedorov of
Yale on global warming.2:45–3:45 p.m. Seeley W.Mudd Building, Room [email protected].
Buddhist StudiesSeminarWith Columbia’s
Kao professor in Japanesereligion, Bernard Faure.5:30–7:30 p.m. [email protected].
Sumner RosenMemorialLecture
Roberto Pollin of U. Mass.-Amherst on full employment inan era of globalization.7:00–9:00 p.m. FacultyHouse. [email protected].
FRIDAYNovember 17
“Science ofDiversity”All-day symposium
on advances in the study ofinclusive environments.Sponsored by the the ViceProvost for Diversity Initiatives,the Earth Institute’s ADVANCEProgram and others. 501Schermerhorn Hall, 5th [email protected]
LASA InauguralConference“Latin America at
the Crossroads.” 8:00a.m.–4:30 p.m. InternationalAffairs Bldg., Room 1501.212-365-4886.
AncientMediterraneanStudies Seminar
Shadi Bartsch of U. Chicagoon “Persius, the CannibalSatirist.” 11:00 a.m.–1:00p.m. Casa [email protected].
Men’s Basketballvs. NJITFirst round, Tyler
Ugolyn Columbia Classic.7:00 p.m. Levien Gymnasium,Dodge Fitness Center.
SATURDAYNovember 18
Jazz SeriesWith trumpeterNicholas Payton
and his newest quintet.8:00–10:00 p.m. MillerTheatre. 212-854-7799.
M.F.A. acting class. 8:00 p.m.Theatre of Riverside [email protected].
SUNDAYNovember 19
Havel PanelFilm professorRichard Peña
moderates a discussion of filmand citizenship. Cosponsoredby the Film Society of LincolnCenter, where Peña is programdirector. 6:30 p.m. LincolnCenter,Walter Reade [email protected].
Ann Ledgerwood JazzEnsemble. 6:00–7:00 p.m. St.Paul’s Chapel. 212-854-0480.
Havel Panel Moderated by J-school Dean
Nicholas Lemann. 7:00–8:30p.m. Journalism Building,Lecture Hall. [email protected].
Men’s Basketball vs. Long IslandUniversity
7:00 p.m., Levien Gymnasium,Dodge Fitness Center.
THURSDAYNovember 23
ThanksgivingBreakHoliday
Teachers CollegeThanksgivingDinner
“Traditional American” holi-day fare: roast turkey with allthe trimmings, mashed pota-toes, sweet potatoes, greenbeans, tossed salad, cake,sweet potato pie and bever-ages. Special activities:music and raffles. Dinner:12:00–1:30 p.m., followed bydesserts. Teachers CollegeCafeteria. Tickets: $12 foradults; free for children 5and under. 212-678-4164.
WEDNESDAYNovember 22
Report onGenderedViolence
With Mexican womenactivists Andrea De LaBarerra Montppellier, MirianRuiz Mendoza and VerónicaCruz Sánchez, in residence atColumbia until December aspart of the Human RightsAdvocates Program.12:30–1:30 p.m. School ofSocial Work (1255Amsterdam Avenue at 121stSt.), Room [email protected].
PhotographyExhibitionFeaturing Peggy
Jarrell Kaplan’s portraits ofRussian artists who were sub-ject to persecution under theSoviet regime. InternationalAffairs Bldg., 12th Floor.(Closes Dec. 15.)
MONDAYNovember 20
ComputerScience LecturePaul Debevec of
USC on virtual cinematography.11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m.Schapiro Center, DavisAuditorium. [email protected].
Conversation withAngela Lansbury Jay Lefkowitch of
CUMC moderates a discussionwith the legendary star ofstage, screen and television.2:00–3:30 p.m. AlumniAuditorium, 650 W. 168th [email protected]
Where can Václav Havel’s dog getpresidential treatment in New York?
I’m from Poland, the country right next door to Havel’s. We don’t spoil ourdogs like you Americans, but I do recommend a walk in Riverside Park. Havelshould also be careful and wipe his dog’s paws if the streets have been salted.
— Maya Haddow (dog: Ginger), Program in Economic Policy Management,School of International and Public Affairs
I like to go down to the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. It’s an outdoorcafé where you can have a glass of wine and share a burger with your pet. It’salso a great place to meet other dog owners. — Maria Meade (dog: Phyllis), Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology
Morningside Heights is a great place for dogs, even if they are not supposed tobe on either the Barnard or Columbia campuses. I also take my dog to artgalleries in Chelsea. Many of them are dog friendly.
— Alfred MacAdam (dog: Bill), Spanish and Latin American cultures professor, Barnard College
I take my dog for agility training at Andrea Arden, on Centre Street in Soho.It’s a lot of fun to run obstacle courses with him.
— Leslie Woodard (dog: Jimmy Dean), Writing Division, School of the Arts
AROUND TOWN
Do you have suggestions for things to doaround town to share with other Record readers?
Look for Opus 118 to come to Low Library onDecember 7th for their annual FiddleFeast benefitdinner. Opus 118 Harlem School of Music, a private,nonprofit organization, was established in 1991 byviolin teacher Roberta Guaspari to save music pro-grams in three East Harlem public elementary schools.Meryl Streep, who played the role of Guaspari in the1999 movie Music of the Heart, will be honored at theevent. For more info, call 212-831-4455.
Editor’s Pick
World Premiere: 3 Lbs.Columbia Medical Center will host the premiere ofthe new CBS drama series 3 Lbs. on Monday, Nov. 13,at 8:30 p.m. The series, which will air on CBS the fol-lowing night, concerns two elite neurosurgeonswho have different takes on how to treat theirpatients. The title refers to the weight of an adulthuman brain. A panel discussion follows with cast,series creator and series medical consultant.
The Record welcomes your input for newsitems, calendar entries, and staff profiles.
You can submit your suggestions at:www.columbia.edu/cu/news/
newcontent.html.
FRIDAYNovember 24
Thanks-givingBreakHoliday
BREAK T IME STAFF Q&A
TheRecord NOVEMBER 10, 2006 7
TAYAMUELLER
Interviewed by Dan Rivero
For Taya Mueller, the best part aboutworking as the administrative coor-dinator for the CU Arts Initiative isthe chance to hook up all kinds of
people who might not otherwise meet. On arecent Art Train trip, for example, she intro-duced a Barnard undergrad to a journalismpost-doc and his wife. The threesome subse-quently engaged in a lively conversationabout the art they had seen that day.
In Mueller’s experience, random introduc-tions like these can spark new ideas as well asthe possibility for future creative partner-ships. Ultimately, she sees her networkingactivities as a necessary step in cultivatingmore of an “arts culture” on campus.
Indeed, it’s the excitement of running anarts networking hub that sustains Mueller onher long commutes every day from Ft.Greene, Brooklyn, to Prentis Hall inManhattanville, where CU Arts is housed.Mueller, who grew up in Minneapolis, is ofmixed Cuban, German and Korean heritage.She first moved to New York in May 2004with Music for America, a group committedto working with rock bands to promote aprogressive political message. A year later, shedecided to enroll in the School of GeneralStudies and begged CU Arts to take her on asa part-time intern. She is now a full-timeofficer working directly with students.
Q.What is your role with CU ArtsInitiative?
A.I work mostly on the campus level.Typically, I meet with 3-4 students and
student representatives per week. I constant-ly try to find ways to connect students to thearts, and to each other through the arts.
Q.Upper Manhattan, where you worknow, is filled with museums. How do
you introduce Columbia students to artsinstitutions in their own neighborhood?
A.We brought a number of students upto Studio Museum, Triple Candie,
Classical Theatre of Harlem and the Morris-Jumel Mansion this fall. Their response was
terrific. One of the medical students wasthrilled to discover that Jumel Mansion,Manhattan’s oldest house (GeorgeWashington slept there), is so close to themedical school campus. She has now appliedto CU Arts for Sainsbury funding to co-pro-duce a series of chamber concerts in one oftheir period rooms. I’d say she has a prettygood shot at getting approved.
Q.With Havel’s arrival, how have youreached out to students?
A.We formed a Havel Student AdvisoryCommittee earlier this semester, and
they provided terrific feedback on the Website as well as on programming. Our constantchallenge is to find ways to reach beyond“the choir,” so we host a lot of focus groups
and try to employ a diverse range of studentinterns every semester. Fortunately, PresidentHavel’s life story is incredibly compelling andmulti-faceted, so it’s been an easy sell.
Q.What do you do outside of work?
A.I’m part of a team of writers, teachers,and artists who produce an online
publication called guernicamag.com. AsHoward Zinn said recently, it’s a “bouquet” ofarts and politics—something different everyweek. I also book music for a venue in Tribecacalled The Tank (www.thetanknyc.org),another cooperatively run nonprofit. Sothere isn’t much disconnect between my 9–5life and my extracurriculars—but then Iwouldn’t have it any other way!
“We are constantly building relationships withmajor arts organizations in NYC, from the StudioMuseum up here to the Brooklyn Art Museum.”
VITAMIN DEE
POSITION:Administrative Coordinator, CU Arts Initiative
LENGTH OF SERVICE:1 year
COLUMBIA HISTORY:School of General Studies, history and politicalscience double major, with a concentration in
Spanish, Class of 2009.
GivingThanks inthe CityBy Erich Erving
Tradition has it that the pilgrims heldthe first Thanksgiving feast to cele-brate the fruits of their harvest andto thank the Indians for teaching
them survival tactics for the New World,such as how to plant corn.
More than 300 years have passed, butsome of us remain as helpless as the originalpilgrims. We couldn’t cook a Thanksgivingdinner if our lives depended on it, havingfailed to master basic culinary skills, let alonethe fine art of roasting a turkey.
But the good news is, plenty of the city’srestaurants are offering prix-fixe menus forthe holiday. Here are some of my top choices(a couple are outside the Heights, but we doget the weekend off!):
KITCHENETTE1272 Amsterdam Ave. between 122nd and123rd Sts.As close as you can get to dining in yourgrandmother’s kitchen, circa 1935,Kitchenette receives high marks for servingup comfort food in large portions. ForThanksgiving you can enjoy a full turkeymeal with all the fixings, served between 3:00and 9:00 p.m., $48 per person.
PICNIC MARKET AND CAFÉ2665 Broadway between 101st and 102nd Sts.Some may know PicNic from Café Science, butyou may not have heard that this organic mar-ket will be offering both dine-in and take-outThanksgiving meals. The food is mostly French,which means delicious if not entirely tradition-al. For details, go to: www.picnicmarket.com.
YE WAVERLY INN16 Bank Street (at Waverly Place)As one of the oldest places to eat inManhattan, Ye Waverly Inn seems an appro-priate setting for Thanksgiving: roaring fires,cozy rooms, plenty of Revolutionary charm.But will it be open in time for the holiday?The inn closed about a year ago, but rumorhas it that it might reopen mid-November.Keep calling for updates: 212-243-7900.
CHUMLEYS86 Bedford St. (at Barrow St. in the West Village)A onetime Village speakeasy and literaryhangout, Chumleys may not feel like much ofan escape from Columbia—its patrons haveincluded four Nobel Prize winners, 40Pulitzer Prize winners and 22 AcademyAward winners—but I heartily recommend itsreasonably priced ($40) Thanksgiving dinner.Note: Look for the door with a brass “86.”
The University Senate devoted its entire Oct. 27 meeting toManhattanville, including 40 minutes of discussion open tonon-senators.
The meeting was not a special convocation or hearing, buta regularly scheduled plenary with some routine agenda items.The plan to allow non-senators with a CUID to participatewas enacted by a unanimous vote at the start of the meeting.The Executive Committee had decided not to send out abroadcast e-mail, preferring to have senators spread the wordamong constituents. About 30 non-senators attended, includ-ing several administrators.
Sen. Sharyn O’Halloran (Ten., SIPA), chair of two committeesstudying Manhattanville, offered a 20-minute overview, touch-ing on Columbia’s space constraints and the complex approvalprocess that lies ahead and providing a “snapshot” of capitalprojects tentatively planned for the first phase. These includedthe new science high school at the southwest corner of 125thand Broadway on the present site of McDonald’s; a new Schoolof the Arts to the west, making use of Prentis Hall; the new Mind,Brain, and Behavior Building slightly north of 125th St. on the
west side of Broadway; and a rectangular open space in the cam-pus area between 130th and 131st Sts., near 12th Ave.
Senior Executive Vice President Robert Kasdin followedwith a warning that confusion is likely to beset public discus-sion of Columbia’s draft Environmental Impact Statement(EIS), which he hoped the city would certify soon. One chal-lenge will be distinguishing what the University actuallyexpects to build in Manhattanville from the worst-case scenar-ios that its EIS is required to contemplate. Another will be thelevels of abstraction involved in comparing Columbia’s rezon-ing plan with Community Board 9’s 197-A Plan, which consistsof a set of principles. To avoid apples and oranges, Columbiaand CB9 officials are working together to figure out hypothet-ical zoning consistent with the 197-A Plan’s principles andhypothetical massing implied by that zoning.
Maxine Griffith, executive vice president for Governmentand Community Affairs, talked about the Community BenefitsAgreement—separate from the zoning approval process—thatColumbia will negotiate with the West Harlem LocalDevelopment Corporation (LDC). The group, composed of rep-
resentatives of various community interests, met with Columbiaofficials in June but has needed more time to work out legalissues, including the role of elected officials in deliberations. Toget discussions started, Columbia has proposed some topics tothe LDC. Griffith said she was encouraged by the response.
Griffith and Kasdin joined President Bollinger in respond-ing to 11 questions and comments from the audience, includ-ing three from non-senators (all students) about Columbia’soption to seek eminent domain, about jobs and job trainingthat the University will provide in connection withManhattanville, and about the need for Columbia to own allthe private property in its 17-acre development site.
Most Senate documents are available online. The next ple-nary will be Thursday, Nov. 16, at 1:15 p.m. in 104 JeromeGreene Hall. Anyone with a CUID can attend.
The above was submitted by Tom Mathewson, manager of theUniversity Senate. His column is editorially independent of TheRecord. For more information about the Senate, go to:www.columbia.edu/cu/senate.
Open Senate Meeting on ManhattanvilleSENATE UPDATE
1. Left to right: Bernard Tschumi, former GSAPPdean; Mark Quigley, GSAPP dean; and Mirko Zardini,Canadian Centre for Architecture.2.Alums and special guests toast GSAPP's 125 years.3. GSAPP professor Karl Chu with an alum.4. Guests peer through a special installation creat-ed by GSAPP students.5. Dean Quigley gives a rousing toast to the school’s125 years.6. GSAPP’s anniversary party in Low featured alighting installation by current students.7. Dean Lisa Anderson addresses guests at SIPA’sgala anniversary dinner.8. Vice Provost for International Relations PaulAnderer (center) chats with SIPA alum Ralph Hellmond,
now serving on the school’s board of advisors.9. SIPA professor Merit Janow moderates a panel oninternational trade and finance, one of many intellec-tual events held in honor of the school’s 60th.10. Former NYC Mayor David Dinkins, now a SIPAprofessor, accepts a souvenir of the occasion fromSIPA alum David Saltzman, executive director of theRobin Hood Foundation and recipient of the 60thAnniversary Global Leadership Award.11. University Professor Joseph Stiglitz exchangesviews with SIPA guest of honor James Wolfensohn.12. SEAS Vice Dean Mort Friedman celebrates 50years surrounded by his civil engineering colleagues.13. Friedman’s grandsons, Chason (left) andAsher, play a Handel duet.
Time Sure Does Fly! The last weekend in October could almost have been a sec-
ond Homecoming, with alumni arriving in droves for two majoranniversary events. The Graduate School of Architecture,Planning and Preservation celebrated 125 years with a glam-orous party in the Low Rotunda, along with several panel dis-cussions, one of which was memorably titled: “Giving a Damn:Architects’ Initiatives in Response to World Crises.”
Meanwhile, the School of International and Public Affairsrang in 60 years with cocktails at the UN; panel debates ontimely topics ranging from the global energy system to roguestates and terrorism; and a gala dinner honoring former WorldBank President James Wolfensohn.
Earlier in the month, the engineering crowd commandeeredLow Rotunda to fete Mort Friedman for his 50 years of service onthe faculty of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering andApplied Science, where he is now vice dean. Speaker after speakerpaid tribute to Friedman for his commitment to the principle thatengineers should also be schooled in the liberal arts.
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?HINT: No need to provide a hint as there’s already a clue on this page. First toe-mail us the right answer receives a RECORD mug.
ANSWER TO LAST CHALLENGE: Eppendorf tube caps. WINNERS: Steven Berman, Scott Lefurgy
S C R A P B O O K NOVEMBER 10, 2006 8
and nature as “brute and inert”—as opposed to the clas-sical notion of nature as being “shot through with aninner source of dynamism, which is itself divine.”
Even at the time there were many dissenters whoaccepted all the laws of Newtonian science butprotested its underlying metaphysics, Bilgramiexplained. They were anxious about the politicalalliances being formed between mercantile interestsand the metaphysical ideologues of the new science—anxieties echoed by the “radical enlightenment” aswell as later by Gandhi.
According to Bilgrami, both Gandhi as well as theseearlier thinkers argued that in abandoning our ancient,“spiritually flourishing” sense of nature we also let goof the moral psychology that governs human beings’engagement with the natural, “including the relationsand engagement among ourselves as its inhabitants.”
Bilgrami expressed a certain sympathy for this dis-senting view, noting that even if we moderns cannotaccept the sacralized vision favored by these earlierthinkers, we should still seek alternative secular formsof enchantment in which the world is “suffused withvalue,” even if there is no divine source for this value.Such “an evaluatively enchanted world” would be sus-ceptible not just to scientific study, Bilgrami argued, butwould also demand an ethical engagement from us all.
To watch Akeel Bilgrami’s lecture, go to: www.colum-bia.edu/cu/news/media/06/477_GandhiNewtonEnlightenment.
Akeel Bilgramicontinued from page 1
Student Servicescontinued from page 1
TheRecord
requests, whether for transcripts, financial aid oraddress changes. Staff were also trained in improvingtheir customer-service etiquette and on team-buildingtechniques.
Next, Brown-Nevers tackled the Web, making the“Ask Us” Web site more user friendly and improvingonline billing. Unlike before, students now get billedlater in the term while receiving information on thestatus of their financial aid disbursements earlier.
“Our data already shows that for two schools, thepercentage of billing collections in receivable hasimproved dramatically,” said Brown-Nevers. “In one,the percentage of billing increased 32 percent and inthe other, 27 percent.”
Brown-Nevers hopes to build on these successes bytackling online registration next. She also plans tohold more meetings with the office’s stakeholders—Columbia students—to solicit their feedback. Sherecently visited the University of Minnesota, rankedhigh in customer-service delivery, to learn about theirtechniques. Another model that she likes was devel-oped by Wells Fargo for its online banking and cus-tomer services. She particularly envies the quick turn-around time at the company’s call center.
“When I came to Columbia in 2002 and walkedaround the center, I noticed that the long lines resem-bled the DMV,” said Hogarty, the project sponsor.“Columbia students come to study, not deal with orga-nizational red tape, and we’ve made it easier for themto do just that.”
