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VOL. 32, NO. 12 NEWS AND IDEAS FOR THE COLUMBIA COMMUNITY APRIL 30, 2007 Seeking the Work-Life Balance A PERFECT By Dan Rivero

arol Hoffman’s appoint- ment as Columbia’s first- MESS ever associate provost and director of work-life Csignals a new era for the University’s family friendly policies, programs, benefits and services. Hoffman, a trained clinical social worker and a native New Yorker, comes to the University from the San Francisco Bay Area. She spent 20 of her 35 years on the West Coast at UC Berkeley, initiating and administering the employee assistance program and work-life office. At Columbia, she will be using her expertise to help faculty and staff address the some- Professor Eric times conflicting responsibilities of Abrahamson, at career and family life. work in his office. She reports to both Provost Alan Brinkley and Vice President of Human Resources Cindy Durning, because her job will support the needs of faculty and staff alike. EILEEN BARROSO “Hiring Carol and opening our By Bridget O’Brian ior, there are very few about the lack of organi- up with an equation to represent mess, pictured first work-life office is such an zation, or mess. Abrahamson’s 2002 paper, above.) In layman’s terms, mess is “the failure to exciting and important step for Eric Abrahamson, a professor of management “Disorganization Theory and Disorganizational live up to one’s idealized conception of order,” Columbia,” said Durning, who at Columbia Business School whose specialty is Behavior: Towards an Etiology of Messes,” drew he says. This refers not merely to messy desks praised Hoffman as the best work- organizational theory and change, grew tired of and offices—the most obvious way most people life officer in the country. hearing the same refrain when visitors took in A TOUR OF confront mess—but to entire companies, organ- Hoffman is clear that her the sheer magnitude of the mess in his office: PROFESSORS’ OFFICES izations and even governments. Piles and piles of papers, books sliding across the “People say order is better; I don’t necessari- approach to work-life is to address pages 4–5 issues from birth to death. shelves, telephone messages stacked up. ly think so,” Abrahamson says, and not just “Shouldn’t you be more organized?” they asked. because mess may be his default mode. “In The question inspired him to write an aca- the counterintuitive conclusion that messy sys- terms of time, reorganizations are prone to fail- demic paper on mess. “It started as a bit of a tems are frequently more efficient than those ure and risk. There’s the question of ‘What ben- joke, and it turned out to be really fascinating,” that are highly organized. efit do I get?’” Some people, or companies, may he says. While there are hundreds of academic Abrahamson defined mess as “a disorderly spend all their time getting organized, but don’t studies about organizational theory and behav- accumulation of varied entities.” (He even came manage to accomplish the tasks that really are continued on page 6 Padma Desai’s Russian Retrospective By Adam Piore and widely read articles. In 1995, she served as a U.S. Treasury advisor to the Russian Finance At a time when the threat of nuclear Ministry. Armageddon loomed large, many young schol- On April 26 and 27, scholars from around the

EILEEN BARROSO ars took up Soviet studies because they hoped to world gathered on campus for a scientific Carol Hoffman understand and help defeat the communist foe conference held in her honor. Guests included “What are some of the life Ronald Reagan would later dub “the Evil former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, events that affect your work? Empire.” Nobel Prize-winning economists, former Relationship formation, relation- But for Columbia economist Padma Desai, a finance minister and chair of Russia’s central ship dissolution, children, aging professor of comparative economic systems and bank Sergey Dubinin and Jack Matlock, former parents, disabilities and illness—I director of the Center of Transition Economics, U.S. ambassador to Russia. work to support the needs of indi- it was always about something more. Desai was The conference title, “Russia: Soviet Past, viduals who provide care for a precocious teenager, growing up on the West Present Performance and Future Prospects,” someone in their life,” she said. Coast of India, when she discovered seemed especially timely due to the recent death Columbia already has the infra- Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. of former President Boris Yeltsin. structure of a robust work-life pro- “When you are only 13 years of age and read Desai knew Yeltsin personally, as well as gram to address these problems, its themes of sin and redemption, suffering and many of the others involved in post-Soviet Hoffman said, but it needs coordi- murder, it touches you to the core,” she said. “I Russia as it shifted to a freer market. Her latest nation to attract and retain faculty, a was so bowled over, I said ‘I have got to read this book, Conversations on Russia: Reform from top priority for the provost’s office. in the original Russian.’” Yeltsin to Putin, provides interviews with many In order to achieve this, the Desai plunged into Russian (and economics) of them. University is looking at ways to as soon as she arrived at Harvard in 1955, and Yeltsin’s legacy, she says, “on the whole is today is a leading authority on the former Soviet positive. [He] planted the liberal idea in the land continued on page 8 Union and Russia, penning a number of books EILEEN BARROSO of Lenin and Stalin. And in my view, history continued on page 8 www.columbia.edu/news 2 APRIL 30, 2007 TheRecord

RECENT SIGHTINGS MILESTONES

LILA ABU-LUGHOD, professor of anthropology, has been named a 2007 Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Abu-Lughod is among 21 recipients this year to receive grants of up to $100,000 to research the ethics and politics of Muslim women’s rights in an international field. All scholars will focus on research themes relating to Islam and the modern world over the next two years.

DAVID MAGIER has been appointed director of the Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research (CHRDR) at Columbia University Libraries, an interna- tional documentation center for the global human rights movement. In addition to this new role, Magier will continue as director of area studies at the Libraries, a position he has held since 1990. Since 1987, he has also been Columbia’s South and Southeast Asia THE IVY LEAGUE Librarian and has served as an adjunct professor. TRIUMPH ON THE GREEN SAMUEL MOYN, associate professor of history, has received the 46th Annual Mark Van Doren Award for Since the inaugural Ivy League Women’s Golf Championship in 1997, the title has been passed between the same two teams— teaching. The award was established in 1962 in cele- the powerhouses of Princeton and Yale. But on April 22, the Lions pulled off a long-awaited upset and defeated second-place bration of Mark Van Doren, a renowned scholar of the Princeton by 10 strokes for the win. In just its fourth season as a varsity team, Columbia posted a three-day winning total of 933 art of writing literature. SHELDON POLLOCK, the William B. strokes. The Lions earned three of the top five spots, including an individual title for Sara Ovadia (CC’09), who edged out team- Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, is the mate Stevy Loy (CC’10) by four strokes. Carly Nathanson (CC’09) finished fifth. By virtue of their top-seven finishes, Ovadia, Loy winner of the 32nd Annual Lionel Trilling Book Award and Nathanson each earned All-Ivy League distinction. for The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India. This award is given to a professor whose book published in the previous year best exhibits the standards of schol- Neither Here Nor There. arship found in the work of Lionel Trilling, an author and longtime Columbia faculty member. The two awards are bestowed annually by the Academic Awards Committee of the Columbia College Student Council. Dear Alma’s Owl, USPS 090-710 ISSN 0747-4504 Recently a friend suggested we meet Vol. 32, No. 12, April 30, 2007 at the Van Am. Not knowing where that GRANTS & GIFTS was, I suggested in front of Hamilton Published by the Hall. But where is the Van Am? Office of Communications — Hiding Behind Hamilton HIV Prevention Training Program and Public Affairs for Minority Researchers Dear Hamilton Hugger, WHO GAVE IT: National Institute of Mental Health The Van Am Quadrangle is the area HOW MUCH: $800,000 TheRecord Staff: in front of Hamilton Hall stretching to WHO GOT IT: Dr. Nabila El-Bassel, professor, and Dr. Elwin John Jay Hall and bordered by Hartley Interim Editor: Bridget O’Brian Wu, assistant professor at the School of Social Work. Graphic Designer: Scott Hug and Wallach (née Livingston) to the east WHAT FOR: A training program aimed at increasing the Staff Writer: Dan Rivero and South Field to the west. I suspect, University Photographer: Eileen Barroso growth of racial ethnic minority (REM) investigators however, that your friend meant the Van focused on HIV prevention science. Am Memorial for which the quad is Contact The Record: HOW IT WILL BE USED: Dr. El-Bassel and Dr. Wu have t: 212-854-3282 named. The memorial is the small stone assembled a network of multidisciplinary mentors f: 212-678-4817 gazebo in front of the Taint Gate. ASK ALMA’S OWL e: [email protected] from Columbia and a scientific advisory board who will (By the way, if you’re curious about assist and foster a more rapid growth development of The Record is published twice a month during the name of the gate between Hartley designed by McKim Mead & White, the promising new ethnic minority researchers capable of the academic year, except for holiday and and Wallach, it’s called the T’aint Gate architectural firm for the original vacation periods. Permission is given to use conducting scientifically rigorous, federally funded because “’T’aint part of Hartley and Record material in other media. Morningside campus, was dedicated at health disparities research. ’t’aint part of Wallach.”) the commencement ceremonies of The memorial is dedicated to John 1918. Ever since, Van Amringe’s bust has David M. Stone Howard Van Amringe, a Columbian Executive Vice President stood under a canopy of what he would through and through. A graduate of the for Communications have known as Royal Blue, or what we EDITOR’S NOTE class of 1860, he was a professor of call Columbia Blue. mathematics in the School of Mines Correspondence/Subscriptions The bust is by the sculptor William Because of a production error, some copies of the Anyone may subscribe to The Record for $27 from 1865 to 1910, and a beloved dean Ordway Partridge, who was also April 16 edition of The Record Earth Week supplement per year. The amount is payable in advance to of the College from 1896 to 1910. He responsible for the sculptures of incorrectly attributed a quote to Nilda Mesa, Columbia’s Columbia University, at the address below. also was president of the University Allow 6 to 8 weeks for address changes. Hamilton and Jefferson in front of director of environmental stewardship. The misattrib- Club and chair of the Alumni Council. Hamilton and Journalism halls, respec- uted quote came from a prior issue of the paper. Van Amringe defended his alma mater In answer to the question, “Other universities have Postmaster/Address Changes tively. I’ve often seen, on rainy days, Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and in an 1889 speech, when then- groups of prospective students and people doing jobs similar to yours. Do you talk to additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send Columbia President Frederick A.P. their parents huddled amid the 12 pil- them?” the correct answer should have read as follows: address changes to The Record, 535 W. Barnard proposed eliminating the 116th St., 402 Low Library, Mail Code 4321, lars that hold up the dome of the “There are a couple of different organizations, and one New York, NY 10027. College (then called School of Arts) in memorial as their tour guide tells them has an annual meeting to discuss environmental issues. favor of more professional schools with about “the Core,” the Core Curriculum We go through everything. People talk about what their greater academic rigor. As Columbia survey courses in science and student groups are working on. Everybody faces differ- began to develop into a modern univer- humanities required for Columbia ent challenges. At some colleges, the issues may center sity with graduate and professional undergraduates. Students have Van around developing a transportation plan that helps schools, it was Van Amringe who Amringe to thank for paving the way eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from autos. We reminded the Trustees that the for that liberal arts tradition. don’t have that issue here. But we do have aging build- University was there to make men, not ings that aren’t the most efficient when it comes to TheRecord welcomes your input for news merely professional men. energy. We’ll trade names of architectural groups with items, calendar entries and staff profiles. After his death in 1915, a group of 25 expertise in the environment, suggest solutions for You can submit your suggestions to: alumni from the College and the School each other. We exchange information about what [email protected] of Mines donated the funds for what is Send your questions for Alma’s Owl to works and what doesn’t. Because, in the end, we’re all today called the Van Am. The memorial, [email protected]. after the same thing.” TheRecord APRIL 30, 2007 3

TALK OF THE CAMPUS Action! CU Film Festival Begins By Dan Rivero

Next stop, Sundance, Cannes and Tribeca. Before they hit the film festival circuit, short films by Columbia students will have their premiere at the School of the Arts’ (SoA) film festival, which starts April 30. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the Columbia University Film Festival will showcase 40 short films as well as readings for 13 screenplays, the thesis work from SoA’s advanced M.F.A. students. The festival will run in New York until May 10 and then travel to Los Angeles for the West Coast leg June 6–8. Shot around the world using techniques from 35mm film to the latest digital technologies, this year’s work reflects the film division’s focus on narrative storytelling as filtered through the vision of each student filmmaker. The film divi- sion is building on Columbia’s success at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where Columbia students and alumni were invited to screen a record-breaking 20 films and walked away with top prizes, notably the Grand Jury Prize for best dramatic film, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, and the Audience Award for best documentary. “The judges at this year’s Sundance Film Festival were impressed not only by the quality of our Columbia films but by their variety,” said Dan Kleinman, acting dean of SoA. Columbia’s entries at Sundance represented 10 percent of the short films invited to show there. “We don’t have a ‘house CARLOS GUTIERREZ style’ at Columbia, and because of this, there’s no predicting what our students will come up with. We are proud of this diversity and proud to be known as the best single source for short films in America.” UNIVERSITY’S SHIP COMES IN The judges for the CU Film Festival have viewed the films twice and have voted on the six that will be featured at the By Dan Rivero vessel, was acquired in 2004 and has been refitted as a general May 10 Faculty Selects screening at Symphony Space. Other purpose research vessel. It has new laboratory spaces, far larger awards are also selected by sponsors, students, and audience his summer, Columbians will cruise to the Gulf of than those on the Ewing, and its deck space is better config- members. Mexico, Pacific and any ocean worth exploring—but ured to optimize ocean-bottom seismometer operations or The films will screen at the IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave., not on a trip they booked through a travel agent. general oceanography. from April 30 to May 3. The screenplay readings will take After a three-year retrofit, the R/V Marcus G. Langseth Lamont-Doherty scientists who sail on the Langseth will see willT hit the high seas in June, prepared to take Columbia sci- improvements in several areas: A higher-resolution, deep- place at the McGraw-Hill Theater, 1221 Sixth Ave., on May 7, and the festival will culminate with awards and screenings of entists to new depths, research-wise. water multibeam bathymetric swath mapping system that will the winning films at Symphony Space, on Broadway and Langseth is a 235-foot, 2,578 gross ton research vessel enable the study of underwater depth; the ability to tow up to 95th St., on May 10. owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by four separate hydrophone arrays, which pick up sound in the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. It is the fifth research ship ocean; and sophisticated seismic source arrays—specialized air For tickets, times, and information about the screenings and in a series operated continuously by Lamont-Doherty since guns—that can create energy waves in the ocean that dupli- readings, please visit the festival Web site at www.cufilmfest.com. 1953. Currently anchored at the 14th Street Pier in Galveston, cate the waves caused by earthquakes. Langseth’s extensive Texas, the ship is set to sail in June on its first science expedi- geophysical capabilities will help uncover knowledge about tion. It’s headed to Asia—specifically to Taiwan—next year, as seafloor spreading, earthquakes, magma flow, gas hydrate LDEO scientists conduct marine geology and geophysics sur- deposits, and continental drifts, according to Lamont’s office veys as well as marine mammal research. of marine operations. “The purchase of this new ship is the beginning of a new Dr. Langseth, the ship’s namesake, worked at Lamont in the era in Lamont ship operations,” said G. Michael Purdy, director late 1950s and early 1960s, with Robert “Sam” Gerard and of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Lamont founder Maurice Ewing. They developed one of the Langseth is named for Marcus Gerhardt Langseth, a pio- first modern instruments and techniques for measuring the neering Earth scientist at Lamont-Doherty for 40 years. It flow of heat through the Earth’s upper layers. On numerous replaces the R/V Maurice Ewing, which traveled more than a cruises in the 1960s aboard Columbia’s legendary research ves- half million miles in its 15 years of service, before being retired sel, the Vema, Langseth methodically gathered heat flow meas- in 2005. One of the ship’s most notable experiments included urements from all the world’s oceans. With these data, he and taking multi-channel seismic profiles, which simulate earth- Richard Von Herzen at the Woods Hole Oceanographic quake waves, over 20,000 nautical miles. That technology is Institution compiled the first global picture of how and where used to research the nature and origin of the rocks making up heat flowed near the Earth’s surface. The picture they painted

JEFFREY K. MILLER the Earth’s crust. helped prove the emerging theory of plate tectonics and Jamie Iglehart, a first-year film student. The Langseth, originally built as a petroleum exploration revealed how the ocean floor evolved. Columbia’s Own Constant Gardener

By Melanie A. Farmer During the tour, she referred to her plants with careful atten- tion and warmth, much as someone would talk about chil- Before landscape designer Lynden Miller first dug her dren or loved ones. Her face lit up when she discussed her hands into the soil at Columbia University’s Morningside ideas for future plantings. Heights campus, the hedges were unkempt and the lawns On the tour and later at a lecture she delivered in were a sea of mud and dust. Schermerhorn Hall called “Making Magic In the City: Parks, Now, 10 years later, the campus is far more verdant and Plants and People,” Miller underscored the challenges of con- lush than she found it. On any given day, tourists pose in front vincing people that beautiful parks make a difference. One of of Miller’s “centennial beds” of blue-and-white-themed pan- her most notable projects is the revitalization of the sies on lower College Walk. She has since planted oak leaf Conservatory Garden in East Harlem—once a neglected public hydrangeas throughout campus, beds of jasmine near the Law space of weeds and overgrown shrubs, it is now a thriving, ever- School and daffodils on Low Plaza. changing garden that thousands of New Yorkers enjoy each year. “It’s a natural thing. Human beings respond to plants and As co-chair of New Yorkers for Parks, an advocacy organi- nature,” Miller said. “People in the city deserve more than con- zation, Miller helped develop the Neighborhood Parks crete and grass, and that’s what I’ve devoted my 25-year career JO LIN Initiative, an innovative partnership that provides gardeners Lynden Miller leads a tour on Morningside campus. to; giving them that.” for park maintenance in underserved communities. Her mes- Miller is a well-known public garden designer who has cre- 2005, combines the history and theory of garden design with sage: If you make it beautiful, they will come. ated gardens for the Central Park Zoo, Bryant Park and The studio work and horticulture and technical knowledge. In the future, Miller also hopes to liven up Ancel Plaza on New York Botanical Garden. On April 18, she led a landscap- Twenty students will be graduating this May. East Campus, currently home to more concrete than foliage. ing tour of campus for a small group of faculty and students Miller, who is on the program’s advisory board, began In keeping with the adage that a garden is never finished, she enrolled in the Master of Science in Landscape Design at the designing the campus landscape in 1997 and maintains the would like to do more work with SIPA Plaza, behind Casa School of Continuing Education. The program, launched in grounds in conjunction with Columbia’s facilities department. Italiana, around Low Library and the Journalism School. 4 APRIL 30, 2007 TheRe

Assistant Professor Karen Duff, of the Department of Pathology, apologizes for her neat office Chaos T but points out that she hasn’t KAREN finished unpacking since joining ust as there are all kind Columbia University Medical of offices. To illustrate Center last October. Indeed, her mess, The Record unde shelves still contain moving and very unscientific DUFF boxes and her office couch had offices. Academia being just arrived. Now with the Taub to find. Some messy offices are Institute for Research on And, conversely, just because a Alzheimer’s Disease and the mean its occupant can find an able to provide some of the Aging Brain, she also has a mess. One was occupied by a stuffed mouse or two perched high on every available surfac on her window sill, a reference politely, and firmly, declined to her groundbreaking research tographed. But a number of pr devising a method for inserting the pictures on these pages re human disease-causing genes into mice. She received the prestigious Potamkin Prize for her research into Alzheimer’s, but a testament to her prospects for future awards may

CHRIS TAGGART be found in the gift from her JOSEPH former colleagues that hangs behind her desk—a Nobel medallion, made of chocolate. STIGLITZ THOMAS Professor Joseph Stiglitz was perturbed to learn his ate in economics admitted cheerfully that he can’t DIPRETE home is “much messier.” Computers help, and hurt more copies of what he knows he already has, som pleasure in periodic archeological digs, when you r EILEEN BARROSO

Thomas A. DiPrete, chairman of the Department of Sociology, has a smaller stack of papers before him than usual. “This goes up and down,” he said, referring to the piles on his desk. As for the line of bookshelves along one wall, it may look neat, but the books are out of order. He points to a pristine table with chairs around it in the middle of the room. “The key is having a space where you can meet with people,” he said.

University Professor Richard Axel, another Nobel Prize winner, works in an office with a floor-to-ceiling whiteboard— every inch of which is covered in equations. Although he has a sleek glass desk at one end of the office, “I never use it,” he said. Rather, he sits at the long, leather sofa, with his computer and stacks of papers in front of him crowding a glass coffee table. Other papers and his briefcase are beside him on AN RICHARD the couch. INS Annette Insdorf, a professor of film at the School studies, shares an office with a colleague, but it’s AXEL end and her office mate’s begin. She’s been in he CHRIS TAGGART this up I’d go bonkers,” she said. “What a mess!” ecord APRIL 30, 2007 5 Theory ds of minds, there are all kinds Eric Abrahamson’s theory of rtook its own totally random survey of faculty members’ what it is, tidy ones were hard e actually fairly well-organized. an office might be neat doesn’t nything in it. Alas, we were not e most dramatic examples of a professor with papers piled ce and heaps on the floor. He d to let his office be pho- rofessors cheerfully obliged, as veal. EILEEN BARROSO s office wasn’t the messiest, but the Nobel laure- t find anything in it.“Not at all,” he said, and his Robert G. O’Meally is the t, efforts to keep things straight, he said, by adding Zora Neale Hurston Professor mewhere.“On the other hand, there is a certain of English and Comparative rediscover what you couldn’t find,” he said. Literature and the head of the Center for Jazz Studies. ROBERT That means he has two offices, but he uses the one on the Morningside campus (pictured here) to meet with O’MEALLY students and get most of his work done. “I write here,” he said, apologizing for the pile-up of books on a chair, saying they’re out because

he was trying to get organized. EILEEN BARROSO

NNETTE ERIC SDORF

EILEEN BARROSO KANDEL CHRIS TAGGART of the Arts and director of undergraduate film s hard to distinguish where her piles of papers University Professor Eric Kandel says the tidiness of his surroundings has little to do with any sense of orderliness. His office has a panoramic view of the Hudson er current office for 14 years. “If I had to clean River and the George Washington Bridge. “If you have a lot of space, it’s less cluttered,” he said. Kandel, who won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Medicine, added “scientists spend so much time at work. Unless you make it attractive for yourself and others, you don’t enjoy it.” 6 APRIL 30, 2007 TheRecord

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS APRIL 30 – MAY 11 ARTS TALKS CAMPUS SPORTS SCIENCES

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY April 30 May 1 May 2 May 3 May 4 May 5 May 6

“Purple Hearts” Astronomy Lecture Seminar ILAS Symposium Workshop House of Harper Nina Berman’s Lecture The Samuel Rudin Jeffrey D. Sachs, Historians from Let’s Do It Better Exhibit documentary por- Francesca Distinguished Pedro Sanchez, Latin America and Workshop on the An exhibition to traits show the human cost of Rochberg of UC Riverside Visiting Professorship Lectures and Cheryl Palm speak in the the U.S. present the most coverage of race and ethnicity highlight the Harper & war on an intimate scale. delivers a lecture on “The on “Thank Goodness for Earth Institute Seminars on exciting research within Latin in America. All day, May Brothers Archive at Columbia, Through June 29. School of Place of Babylonian Gnotobiotics: Defining the Sustainable Development: American history in the 3–May 5. Joseph Pulitzer including correspondence Social Work, 1255 Amsterdam Astronomy in the General Operations of Our Very Millennium Villages. Open to Institute of Latin American World Room. with authors such as the Ave., 4th Floor. History of Science.” 11:30 Complex Gut Microbiota.” the public. Reservations rec- Studies symposium, “Common [email protected]. Brontë sisters, Wilkie Collins, [email protected]. a.m. Italian Academy, 5th 12:30–1:30 p.m. CUMC, ommended.10:00 a.m.–12:00 Vocabularies, Different Charles Dickens, William Dean Floor Conference Room. Hammer Health Sciences p.m. Alfred Lerner Hall, Perspectives—New Political ILAS Symposium Howells, Henry James and Statistics Center, Room 401. Luncheon Lerner Auditorium. History on 19th Century Latin Historians from Queen Victoria. All day, March Seminar Health Sciences to follow, HHSC 13th Floor [email protected]. America.”All day. Philosophy Latin America 28–June 30. Chang Octagon, Jane Ling-Wang of Lecture Conference Room. Hall, Room 301. and the U.S. present, Rare Book & Manuscript UC Davis speaks in the weekly The Samuel Rudin 212-304-7216. CRLT Players 212-854-4643. “Common Vocabularies, Library, Butler Library 6th series. 12:10–1:00 p.m. 1255 Distinguished Visiting Players from the Different Perspectives—New Floor East. Amsterdam Ave. (between Professorship Lectures on Undergraduate Univ. of Michigan Spring Seminar Political History on 19th 121st & 122nd Sts.), “Dining in With a Few Trillion Information Center for Research on Series Century Latin America.”All Overlook Concert Room 903. Tea and coffee at Friends: Exploring the Human Session Learning and Teaching pres- “Causal day. Philosophy Hall, Room Columbia’s 11:30 a.m., Room 1025. Gut Microbiota and Small group information ses- ent “Faculty Advising Faculty,” Explanation of Indonesian 301. 212-854-4643. Bluegrass Band 212-851-2132. Microbiome.” 4:30–5:30 p.m. sions cover important details an examination of the faculty Forest Fires: Concepts, plays “Lion in the Grass.” 2:00 CUMC, Hammer Health about the School of General mentoring process. Wine and Applications, and Research Spring Fair p.m. 116th St., Riverside Symposium Sciences Center, Room 401. Studies and the application cheese reception to follow. Priorities,” with Andrew P. Rides for kids, Park, lower level. Celebrate the 212-304-7216. process. Seating is limited. 4:00 p.m. Barnard College, Vayda of Rutgers. homemade food opening of the 5:30–7:00 p.m. Lewisohn Minor Latham Playhouse. 12:15–1:15 p.m. Marine and BBQ, rummage sale of Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Round Table Hall, Room 408. www.earth.columbia.edu. Biology/Seismology Bldg, children’s items, fun games Research Center at Columbia. The Columbia 212-854-2772. Seismology Seminar Room, and crafts for kids. 11:00 2:00–5:00 p.m. CUMC, NY Center for High Chemistry 2nd Floor, Palisades, New a.m.–4:00 p.m. 116th St. and State Psychiatric Institute, Density Development presents Concert Colloquium York. [email protected] Amsterdam Ave. 212-666- Hellman Auditorium, 1st Floor. their research results as part The Italian Matt Jacobson of bia.edu. 4796. (Rain date: May 6). 212-304-7214. of the Real Estate Roundtable Academy for UC San Francisco on Series. 6:30–7:30 p.m. Wood Advanced Studies at “Electrostatic switches in pro- CRLT Players Concert Auditorium, Avery Hall. Columbia University presents teins,” hosted by Prof. Richard Players from the Go online! Nonsequitur, a co- “Music for the New Century,” Friesner. 4:30 p.m. Havemeyer Univ. of Michigan ed a cappella Concert performed by Kathleen Hall, Room 209. Tea and Center for Research on Complete event listings: group, presents a concert Music Supové on piano and Jennifer cookies before the seminar in Learning and Teaching pres- www.calendar.columbia.edu benefiting the Center for Anti- Performance Choi on violin. Free. 8:00 p.m. Room 328. 212-854-2202. ent “Scientists Advising Violence Education. Program end of semester The Italian Academy, 1161 Scientists,” a portrayal of the 9:30–11:00 p.m. Alfred Lerner chamber concert. Free and Amsterdam Ave. For reserva- Lecture subtle factors that affect Hall, Room C555. open to the public. 8:00 p.m. tions: 212-854-1623. Collins/Kaufmann mentoring in academic Perfect Mess [email protected]. Casa Italiana. forum presents science. Wine and cheese Ken Oshima from the Univ. of reception to follow. 3:30 p.m. continued from page 1 Lamont-Doherty Earth Washington on “A Tale of required. “There’s a tendency for people to go too Three Pavilions.” 6:15 p.m. Observatory, Monell far on the order level,” he says. Schermerhorn Hall, Auditorium. This year, Abrahamson followed up his research Room 930. www.earth.columbia.edu. with a book aimed at a wider, nonacademic audi- ence. A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder—How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better May 7 May 8 May 9 May 10 May 11 Place (Little, Brown) has received a great deal of media attention, as well as a number of requests for Symposium Socratic Psychiatry Career-In-Review OCD Lecture Abrahamson to visit newspaper and television news- The Earth Institute Conversations Lecture Synthesis Literary Blair Simpson, rooms (themselves known for slovenliness) to cri- Fellows “Cheating: A With speaker Rolf Group Career-In- MD, director of tique their levels of messiness. Symposium presents “Building Socratic Conversation,” com- Loeber of the Western Review of Paul Wender, pre- the Anxiety Disorders Clinic Abrahamson sees, and his research confirms, Global Sustainability Through plete with diet hemlock and Psychiatric Institute and sented by Laura Schacherer. and OCD Research Program, that mess has its advantages. Mess tends to promote Interdisciplinary Scholarship,” cookies. 4:00–5:00 p.m. 2nd Clinic, Univ. of Pittsburgh 3:30–5:00 p.m. Havemeyer will discuss “Maximizing creativity. “When you juxtapose things that with presentations by Earth Floor Salon, Gottesman Medical Center. 11:30 Hall, Room 717. Treatment Outcome in OCD.” wouldn’t normally be together, there’s an ‘aha’ Institute Fellows. Open to the Libraries, Teachers College. a.m.–1:00 p.m. CUMC, NY 212-854-2202. 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. public. 8:30 a.m.–1:15 p.m. Reservations at State Psychiatric Institute, CUMC, NY State Psychiatric Alfred Lerner Hall, Room 555. http://library.tc.columbia.edu. 1st Floor Auditorium. Biostatistics Institute, 1st Floor Hellman 212-543-6816. Colloquium Auditorium. 212-543-5182. Remove the entity? Lecture An Evening with The Department In “Travel to Iran: Ian McDiarmid HPM Brown Bag of Biostatistics presents a lec- Undergraduate No Yes a Front Page Tour,” Spend an evening Health Policy and ture in its Seminar Series with Information Roozbeh Shirazi, recipient of with the Tony Award-winning Management James Hodges from the Univ. Session Organize it now? the 2004–2005 Elihu Rose actor most famous for his por- presents a Brown Bag of Minnesota. 4:00–5:00 p.m. Small group information ses- Fellowship, discusses newspa- trayal of the nefarious Seminar with Peter Muennig. Judith Jansen Conference sions cover important details No Yes pers from Iran and recent Emperor Palpatine in Star Open to the Columbia com- Room, 722 W. 168th St., about the School of General To-organize mess Properly organized? To-remove mess events. 4:10–5:00 p.m. Wars. Open to Columbia munity. 12:00–1:00 p.m. 600 4th Floor. Studies and the application Everett Cafe, Gottesman University Club members and West 168th St., 6th Floor process. Seating is limited. No Yes Libraries, Teachers College. their guests. 7:00 p.m. Conference Room. Ethics for Lunch 3:00–4:30 p.m. Lewisohn Reservations at Columbia University Club, 15 Drs. Kenneth Hall, Room 408. Organized mess Order http://library.tc.columbia.edu. West 43rd St. Concert Prager and Paul 212-854-2772. 212-596-1261. The Claremont Appelbaum discuss difficult Three types of messes, from Abrahamson’s study. Strings Ensemble, cases from the New York- Theatre made up of musicians in the Presbyterian Hospital ethics The Patriot Project moment for the new combination,” he says. It is Teachers College community, committee. Lunch provided. 10 Minute Plays also an instrument of power, as people who work in plays classical music with a 4:30–6:00 p.m. CUMC, presented by Columbia or create mess can remain in power because others gypsy swing. 5:00–6:00 p.m. Hammer Health Sciences School of the Arts MFA can’t figure out how things are structured. “That’s Everett Cafe, Gottesman Center, Room 401. students. Free. 5:00 p.m. also true of organizations, like al-Qaeda,” he says. Libraries, Teachers College. 212-342-0452. Horace Mann Theater. There also are efficiencies in mess. “You lose time 212-854-2388. if you have to constantly interrupt yourself to file,” Lecture he says. When Abrahamson did a Web study (which Information Steven Ley of the Session Univ. of he admits was not a random sample), people who School of General Cambridge presents the reported having clean desks said they spent more Studies Postbaccalaureate Gilbert Stork Lecture on time looking for things than those with messy desks. Premedical/Pre-health “Natural Product Synthesis: Then there are aesthetic advantages. Would you Program: small group An Inspiration for Discovery,” rather live in the neatly ordered streets of Levittown, information sessions cover hosted by Prof. Sam or in a glorious Frank Gehry building? As important details about GS Danishefsky. 4:30–6:00 p.m. Abrahamson points out, “there are beautiful messes.” and the application process. Havemeyer Hall, Room 209. Recently, he received a phone call from a woman Seating is limited. 5:30–7:00 Tea and cookies before the complaining that her boyfriend was using his book p.m. Lewisohn Hall, Room seminar in Room 328. as an excuse not to clean up anymore. “My research 408. 212-854-2772. 212-854-2202. doesn’t say you should be a slob, but to stop beating yourself up,” he says. “Mess,” he adds, “is in the eye of the beholder.” TheRecord APRIL 30, 2007 7 WOODBRIDGE FACULTY Q&A TO BECOME EDUARDO 1ST “GREEN” MACHADO Interviewed by Adam Piore

DORM POSITION: Associate Professor of Playwriting, School of the Arts By Barbara King Lord

Come fall, perhaps Woodbridge Hall LENGTH OF SERVICE: should be called Greenridge. 10 years After a summer facelift—Columbia’s first major effort at sustainable renovation of a HISTORY: residence hall—Woodbridge will be the first Author of more than 40 plays that have been green dormitory on campus where biofeul presented in New York, London and regional will heat students’ rooms. theaters throughout the United States. Energy use and conservation are key ele- ments in Woodbridge’s renovation, says Scott Wright, associate vice president for ong before he’d heard of the Student Auxiliary Services. Kennedys, Theatre Arts Associate After several problems last winter, the Professor Eduardo Machado knew Woodbridge boiler will be replaced with an the story of the Chibases, Cuba’s ver- energy-efficient unit capable of using biofu- sionL of the tragic first family. el as well as heating oil and natural gas. At Raul Chibas co-wrote the manifesto for the same time, new windows will be the Cuban revolution with Fidel Castro. His installed, providing better insulation. brother, Eddy Chibas, was the frontrunner for “In faculty and graduate student build- the Cuban presidency in 1951—before com- ings when this system has been installed in mitting suicide during a live radio broadcast. conjunction with a new boiler and new win- Machado was so fascinated by the story, he dows, we’ve found that fuel consumption once tried to write it himself. Luckily, Raul’s has dropped between 12 and 20 percent,” daughter, Marissa Chibas, is a talented play- says Mark Kerman, assistant vice president wright and actress. And Machado—in addition for Residential and Commercial Operations. to heading Columbia’s playwriting program—is Replacing the old boiler with one that the artistic director of the Latino theater com- can burn biofuel “is a big step forward in pany Intar, which will feature Chibas’ play terms of using less environmentally intrusive

“Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary,” from May MICHAEL DOMITROVICH products,” Wright says. While some ques- 9 to June 2, as part of the Teatro Stage Festival tions remain regarding the use of biofuel, the of New York. “I just wrote my memoirs. I saw how being an hope is that by the end of this year or early Machado has written some 40 plays of his in 2008, the Woodbridge boiler will be using own, schooled countless students in the art of outsider, a refugee from Cuba, how much that some form of it. storytelling, and made a life’s work of bridging The biofuel heating oil will be derived the cultural divides he found when he left dictated everything I’ve written.” from organic matter in part rather than sole- Cuba at the age of eight. ly from petroleum, says Nilda Mesa, director of Environmental Stewardship. The renova- tions “will go a long way towards decreasing How do you choose the plays you You’ve said you like political plays. How do you connect your work at the greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions Q.perform? Q.Why is that? Q.Intar to what you do at Columbia? of Woodbridge, and should save money over I’m looking for as much of a variety of If you’re a Latin American writer, no In my work here, I’m trying to provide the long run. And what we learn at A.the Latino experience as I can find. A.matter what you write about, it’s inher- A.a home for people I taught at Woodbridge, we can apply to other resi- People in America just put it all under ently political. Politics is so much a part of Columbia. Ten years ago, when I took over dence halls here.” “Latino.” Last year, we produced a play about everyday life there that it is always in plays— from the last playwriting instructor, the Wright says there are other green initia- indigenous people in Mexico. We’ve pro- even comedies. Because the struggle is right student on the bottom of his list of people to tives in play at Woodbridge that will be part duced a play about people being kidnapped in front of you and there’s a dialectical con- accept for the following year was the same of the project’s Phase II, scheduled for 2008. in Colombia and a play about Puerto Rican versation—Fidel is communist and he is very student at the top of my list. And that student They include painting a white reflective roof women who feel repressed by U.S. policies. much a part of Latin American politics. happened to be Puerto Rican. Now he has a to help cool the building and working with a movie opening at the Tribeca Film Festival. furniture company whose products are cer- How does your own life influence your At Columbia, as an Ivy League school, tified by an organization such as the Forest Q.art and teaching? people who are minorities have to make big Stewardship Council or the Sustainable In many ways, it’s the eight-year-old leaps to belong. In the years I taught here, the Forest Initiative. A.that came here that’s the writer. A part playwriting school has become extremely Woodbridge, located at 431 Riverside of me will always feel alienated. But I think racially and ethnically diverse. I raised schol- Drive, “gives us our first chance” to make that’s true of all writers. Mine just happens to arship money, and it made a big difference in these decisions for a residence hall, he says. be ethnically and politically alienated, rather who was coming to the school—that’s the “Moreover, we’ll always keep going than psychologically. thing I feel the best about. somewhere else with them. Three years from I think that my teaching is very influenced The door is still very tightly closed in now the standards of Woodbridge will be by that, and I hope I influence my students to American theater for people who aren’t everywhere and we’ll be having a different ARCHIVES COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY take the personal, which is where everything white—no matter what anybody says. conversation.” Professor Machado teaching a class in 1997. starts, into something that reflects the world. What’s the Future of Undergraduate Education?

By Anne Burt Concern about whether low-income students have access Political Science, addressed the need to make education truly to selective colleges and universities reverberated throughout affordable for those without economic resources. He posed Who gets in to college? Who goes? And why? the day. The recent $400 million bequest from John Kluge for what may have been one of the most provocative questions of The character and purpose of a college education in the Columbia’s financial aid was lauded several times during the the day: Would it ever be possible to eliminate tuition alto- United States today was the subject of an April 13 conference conference. The gift was also cited as an example of how great gether? The answer, he said, was yes. “Maybe 10” colleges in at Columbia, as educators and administrators wrestled with the need is for higher education to find ways to open its doors the U.S. could find a way to eliminate tuition for students, he such essential questions as whether a college education is to all. “Our efforts must be redoubled to bring about an equi- said, but it is unclear what the long-term ramifications of such accessible to all given the growing class divide in the country. table society,” said Roosevelt Montas, a Core Curriculum lec- a move would be, both for the institutions and for the Participants and attendees debated, discussed and threw turer at Columbia and participant on the morning panel. He academy as a whole. out ideas at the conference, called “The Future of urged all present to recapture the “meritocratic ideal that edu- President Lee C. Bollinger welcomed speakers and Undergraduate Education—A Conference on College: Who cation represents.” participants to the packed hall at Casa Italiana for two panel Goes? Who Pays? And What Should Students Learn?” The The two keynote speakers, Nancy Cantor, chancellor and discussions. The first, titled “Who Will the Students Be?” event’s organizer, American Studies program director Andrew president of Syracuse University, and Anthony Marx, president addressed issues of equity in access to higher education, the Delbanco, urged all the educators in the room to be vigilant in of Amherst College, each spoke of the challenges faced at barriers to admission faced by economically challenged both thought and action on behalf of their students, present their home institutions. Cantor implored the audience to students and first-generation college applicants and the and future. consider the impact of higher education on democracy and changing role of community colleges. The second panel, The conference raised questions much on the minds of lib- government. To make students into good citizens, she said, “What Should Students Learn?” engaged attendees with ques- eral arts educators and administrators: Does a liberal arts cur- educators must try to teach a set of “new 3 R’s”: responsibility, tions such as how best to balance science and liberal arts, the riculum teach students to be informed and responsible adults, reciprocity and reflection. challenges of globalization and the best way to foster civic or is it an outdated relic in a fast-paced, global world? Marx, a former Columbia professor in the Department of engagement in students. TheRecord SCRAPBOOK APRIL 30, 2007 8

Community Outreach Day

The 10th annual Columbia Community Outreach (CCO) Day was held this year on April 14.Founded in 1997 by students Allan Ng (CC’99) and Charlie Leykum (CC’99),CCO is a community service initiative that seeks to bring together the Columbia community to raise awareness about volunteerism and to form mutually ben- eficial relationships with the Harlem and Morningside Heights communities.This year,the keynote speakers were Congressman Charles B. Rangel and City Councilwoman Melisa Mark Viverito (CC’90). Volunteers worked on various service projects throughout New York City. DIANE BONDAREFF

Community Impact Law Professor Auction Honored Community Impact held its annual auction on April 11 Patricia Williams (center),the James L.Dohr Professor at the Museum of Arts & Design. The “Make A of Law at Columbia Law School, received the 2007 Difference” honoree was Goldman Sachs Managing Constance Baker Motley Award for Lifetime Director Gregg A. Gonsalves (SEAS’89).The award to Achievement by the Association of Black Women Gonsalves (center) was presented by SEAS Dean Zvi Attorneys. At a March 24 gala celebrating the asso- Galil (left) and Community Impact’s Executive Director ciation’s 30-year heritage,Williams was honored for Sonia Reese (right). As an undergraduate at SEAS, her scholarship on race and gender.Motley (Law’47) Gonsalves was a big brother in what is now Community broke down gender and race barriers as the first Impact’s Big Sib mentoring program. He was also a African-American woman elected to the New York Jackie Robinson scholar at Columbia, an organization State Senate in 1964 and to the Manhattan borough MICHAEL DAMES COURTESY OF COMMUNITY IMPACT on whose Board of Directors he now serves. presidency in 1965.

Work-Life Padma Desai continued from page 1 continued from page 1 refine its benefits package and other offerings to make changes with ideas, and that was his remarkable con- Columbia as competitive as possible. Other universities tribution,” she says. “His legacy was imperfect because are recognizing the significance of the work-life move- he did not implant a system of laws or properly insti- ment, in what Inside Higher Ed recently labeled the “fam- tute checks and balances.” ily friendly competition.” Within the last month, Harvard, Desai’s academic legacy will be her studies, which Stanford, and Yale announced significant improvements employ rigorous quantitative methods and sophisti- to support the work-life balance of faculty and staff, such cated economic models—her work during the 1980s as providing vouchers and grants, and building more was a boon for those seeking to understand the col- local child care centers to accommodate new parents. lapse of the Soviet system. Freshly moved into her Low Library office, Hoffman She examined what impact an American market hopes to build on existing Columbia policies and pro- system would have had on Soviet productivity (it grams to assure its employees that it is possible to mix would have increased about five to seven percent), and parenthood or other family obligations and careers in tried to determine at what rate technological change higher education. For example, the University is look- in various Soviet branches had declined. ing into expanding its child care network, adding In recent years, however, Desai’s understanding of more lactation rooms on campus, adding a national Russian cultural attitudes and history has allowed her back-up care program for family members of any age to serve as a voice of reason as anti-Russian rhetoric and recruiting a housing counselor. heats up anew. She considers current president Putin a If Hoffman’s time at Berkeley is any indication of “pragmatist” rather than an “ideologue of the Soviet what she can accomplish, the next frontier for family days,” and notes that Russian foreign policy has always benefits at Columbia is in able hands. In addition to been independent throughout history, something that developing child and elder care programs, Hoffman is unlikely to change. also helped to establish a broad-based plan for “I sense a mounting and dangerous paranoia about responding to faculty, staff and student deaths, and the re-emerging economic and military power of supported tenure-clock stoppage for faculty and WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? Russia,” Mexico’s former President Ernesto Zedillo domestic partners. wrote in a letter of tribute to Desai, submitted on the “Carol Hoffman brings many years of experience HINT: To stay balanced, he doesn’t need the Core Curriculum or a work-life office, occasion of the conference. “At every international with and knowledge about work-life issues to Columbia, but his core muscles. meeting I attend where that paranoia is present, I find and we are thrilled to have her here helping us improve ANSWER TO LAST CHALLENGE: The Great God Pan by George Bernard Shaw in the Lewisohn Lawn. myself wishing that pertinent policymakers could be the quality of life of our faculty,” said Provost Brinkley. WINNER: Colby Matney, Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach made acquainted with your work.”