SPRING 2014 COLUMBIA MAGAZINE Columbia RISING A historic capital campaign lays the foundation for the University’s future. C1_FrontCover_vFINAL2.indd C1 4/6/14 7:02 PM C2_PlannedGiving.indd C2 3/29/14 10:10 AM CONTENTS Spring 2014 42 36 22 DEPARTMENTS FEATURES 3 Letters 14 Breaking Through By Paul Hond 6 Primary Sources What will cannabis legalization mean for public health? A new section of the magazine offers assorted Columbia researchers attempt to clear the air. snippets from books, lectures, and exhibits. 22 Going Places 8 College Walk Columbia insiders tell us how the University managed to A brain in the hand . Chocolate’s raise a record-setting $6.1 billion for its capital campaign dark side . After Fukushima . –– and where that money is going. The boy in the band . Poetry 28 The Evolving University 50 News President Lee C. Bollinger discusses the Columbia Jonathan D. Schiller to lead Trustees . Campaign and why great institutions need to grow. Jed Foundation assesses mental-health programming on campuses . J-school panel 36 Object Lessons weighs Edward Snowden’s leaks . Columbia By Nina Berman launches entrepreneurship initiative . What is photojournalism’s role in the age of the iPhone? Men’s hoopsters have best season since 1968 A journalism professor shows that the camera can tell stories in surprising new ways. 54 Newsmakers 42 The Blue Unholies 55 Explorations By Paul Hond The moody, masterly writer Jerome Charyn sings a 56 Reviews presidential lament. 63 Classifi eds 46 Defi ne Intervention By Jean-Marie Guéhenno 64 Finals A SIPA professor and former diplomat calls for rethinking 14 the way we approach geopolitical crises. Cover photograph of the Jerome L. Greene Science Center by Ashok Sinha ’99SEAS 1 ToC.indd 1 4/6/14 6:18 PM IN THIS ISSUE COLUMBIA MAGAZINE Executive Vice President for University Development and Alumni Relations Fred Van Sickle Nina Berman ’85JRN is an associate professor at the Graduate Publisher School of Journalism. Her documentary photography has Tim McGowan appeared in two monographs, many of the world’s leading Chief Editorial Adviser magazines, and major museum exhibitions. More of her work Jerry Kisslinger ’79CC, ’82GSAS can be found at ninaberman.com . >> Page 36 Editor in Chief Michael B. Shavelson Managing Editor Rebecca Shapiro Senior Editor Jean-Marie Guéhenno is the director of Columbia’s Center David J. Craig for International Confl ict Resolution. He is a former French Associate Editor diplomat and was the United Nations undersecretary-general Paul Hond for peacekeeping operations from 2000 to 2008. >> Page 46 Copy Chief Joshua J. Friedman ’08JRN Contributing Editor Eric McHenry Art Director Eson Chan Margaret Haney is a professor of clinical neurobiology at Assistant to the Editor Lauren Savage the Columbia University Medical Center, where she is the director of the Marijuana Research Laboratory and the Editorial Assistants Juwon Kim, Alessio Mineo, codirector of the Substance Use Research Center. >> Page 14 Elisabeth Sherman Mailing Address Columbia Magazine Columbia Alumni Center 622 W. 113th Street, MC 4521 New York, NY 10025 Tel. 212-851-4155 Fax 212-851-1950 Carl Hart is an associate professor in the Departments [email protected] www.magazine.columbia.edu of Psychology and Psychiatry at Columbia and a research scientist in the Division on Substance Abuse at the New York Address and Archive Assistance [email protected] State Psychiatric Institute. He is the author of the memoir 212-851-4155 High Price. >> Page 14 To update your address online, visit alumni.columbia.edu/directory, or call 1-877-854-ALUM (2586). Advertising: 212-851-4155 [email protected] Michael I. Sovern ’53CC, ’55LAW is the Chancellor To download our advertising brochure or Kent Professor of Law. He was president of Columbia from submit a classifi ed advertisement online, visit www.magazine.columbia.edu/advertise. 1980 to 1993. >> Page 60 Columbia Magazine is published for alumni and friends of Columbia by the Offi ce of Alumni and Development. © 2014 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York 2 Columbia Spring 2014 2 Contributors.indd 2 4/6/14 6:18 PM letters HEALING POWER world a better place. Thank you for put- relatively peaceful South African transition I am writing to express my gratitude for ting together such an enjoyable and stimu- was an enormous contribution, he did not “The Wages of Health,” by Paul Hond lating resource. do it single-handedly. The ANC, with Nel- (Winter 2013–14). I work at Columbia and Kate Townsend ’11SCE son Mandela playing a key role, had been studied at the School of Continuing Educa- New York, NY working diligently since the adoption of the tion, so I am always interested in the Uni- Freedom Charter in 1955 to ensure that the versity’s initiatives and news. I read every What’s required to maintain health is transition would be peaceful. In fact, even issue of Columbia Magazine from cover to education. Kaur and Singh may feel good while Mandela was in prison, the ANC was cover, never failing to learn about fascinat- about their work, but it robs the “served” working for peace in every place where they ing research and scholarship. population of control over their own lives. were organized, including in the USA. “The Wages of Health” moved me deeply. Ladies Bountiful are destructive, despite I was somewhat active in the anti-apart- Just reading in the news about the attack on all their good intentions. Everyone knows heid movement in the USA in the 1980s, Prabhjot Singh soon after it occurred was dis- with what the road to hell is paved. and I had occasion to meet some of the turbing, but now having had the chance to Dolores Dembus Bittleman ’52GS exiled members of the Southern California learn more about his story, I realize just how New York, NY chapter of the ANC, who were working to tragic that event was. The work that Prabhjot line up American support for their efforts to Singh and his wife, Manmeet Kaur, do to har- TEAM SPIRIT establish a legitimate, elected government in ness the healing power of communities and It was good to see Mamadou Diouf’s South Africa. They made it clear that they fi x the health-care system is phenomenal and refl ections in the Winter issue on the life were strongly in favor of peace between urgently needed. I wish some of the youngsters and work of Nelson Mandela (“Bigger people of different races, and that they who were ignorant enough to attack Singh than South Africa”). It is important for the were as much opposed to black oppression would one day learn about the importance of world to remember the accomplishments of whites as they were to white oppression the work of the man whom they might have of Mandela and the African National Con- of blacks. So when Mandela came out of killed in their brutal stupidity, if not for the gress, and learn to apply those lessons to prison advocating for peace and reconcili- intervention of passersby. Singh’s and Kaur’s the pursuit of peace in the rest of the world. ation, he was not just speaking for himself; generosity of spirit and dedication to bettering There is one statement that needs cor- he was speaking for the ANC. the lives of others are remarkable, and I fi nd rection. Professor Diouf writes, “While The success of any revolution against their story most inspiring. They truly are the most people predicted bloodshed, Mandela heavy-handed oppression has to be a team treasures of Harlem and of the world. single-handedly ensured that South Africa effort, and Mandela was a team player. This expands my appreciation for all the would not go through a racial civil war.” Carl Jakobsson ’62CC, ’63SEAS ways in which Columbians are making the While the contribution of Mandela to the Bremerton, WA Spring 2014 Columbia 3 3-5 Letters.indd 3 3/28/14 4:37 PM LETTERS THE GREAT DIVIDE (ever) seen anything this well written in soon anyway, marginalizes both those who The irony must be lost on whoever wrote the an alumni publication. I would have been suffer from the disease and the importance headline, “Bill de Blasio rallied the fi ve bor- happy to read this in the New Yorker. My of the research being done to address it. oughs with his message of two New Yorks. best regards for a job more than well done. Roger Cunningham ’82BUS He wasn’t the fi rst Columbian to bring the city Lisa Halliday ’83BUS Longwood, FL together” (“Tales of One City,” Winter 2013– Tracy, CA 14). If progressives like de Blasio think that WAR WISDOM they can bring people or cities together by rag- BALD LANGUAGE I was disturbed by the letters in the Win- ing in populist fashion about us versus them, I am disappointed to see the juvenile writing ter issue written in response to the piece and that such agitprop leads to economic that escaped your editorial oversight in the by veteran Michael Christman (“Shades of development, then it’s time for educational Winter 2013–14 issue of Columbia Maga- Green,” Fall 2013). Many of us have good institutions like Columbia to reconsider their zine. In the College Walk article “Drone reasons to oppose this country’s wars. curricula. Rather than advocate for a politi- Onward,” Douglas Quenqua writes, “The An Ivy League education is supposed to cal and economic climate that champions new crowd included several current and former teach us to think and to question. Revelations opportunity, we seem to be in an age in which members of the US military (bald heads and about the Vietnam War and the Iraq War the mantra of politicians is take rather than broad shoulders abounded).” have shown that those who opposed these earn, and on top of it all, we call this fairness Surely you are aware that women, as wars were correct in being suspicious of their or social justice.