WINTER 2018-19 COLUMBIA MAGAZINE COLUMBIA COLUMBIA MAGAZINE WINTER 2018-19 4.18_Cover_F.indd 1 11/14/18 12:17 PM Check in with Columbia everyevery dayday Visit the brand-new magazine.columbia.edu to fi nd the latest research, compelling stories, alumni news, and more @ColumbiaMag @columbiamag @columbiamagazine 4.18_AD_Columbia-Magazine_F.indd 1 11/14/18 4:28 PM WINTER 2018-19 PAGE 30 CONTENTS FEATURES 12 UPPER WEST SIDE STORIES The little-known tale of two Columbia teachers and the classes that inspired J.D. Salinger, Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, and a generation of American writers By Paul Hond 18 BULLET POINTS Anger. Fear. Frustration. Hope? A year in the life of a reporter on the front lines of America’s gun-violence epidemic. By Jennifer Mascia ’07JRN 24 CORE CURRICULUM What deep-sea sediment can tell us about climate change By David J. Craig and Jackie Roche 30 LEAP OF FAITH Dancer Michael Novak ’09GS has been cast in the role of a lifetime — Paul Taylor’s successor By Rebecca Shapiro 36 THE SCIENCE OF HEALTHY AGING A Q&A with Linda P. Fried on the secrets to living a longer, healthier, and happier life By David J. Craig COVER ILLUSTRATION BY JASU HU CREATIVE / LASPATA DECARO / LASPATA CREATIVE COLUMBIA WINTER 2018-19 1 4.18_Contents.indd 1 11/15/18 1:06 PM COLUMBIA CONTENTS MAGAZINE DEPARTMENTS Executive Vice President, 3 University Development & Alumni Relations FEEDBACK Amelia Alverson Deputy Vice President for Strategic Communications 6 Jerry Kisslinger ’79CC, ’82GSAS COLLEGE WALK They Shall Be Rereleased \ The Short List \ The Forum Sets Sail \ Through the Future, Editor in Chief Sally Lee Darkly \ In Memoriam LBB Art Director 40 Len Small EXPLORATIONS Managing Editor New smart helmet could spot concussions in Rebecca Shapiro PAGE real time \ What fi sh can teach us about our 36 Senior Editors powers of perception \ New fl ight routes save David J. Craig, Paul Hond time but damage health \ The hunt for the Copy Chief fi rst exomoon may be over \ What do retail Joshua J. Friedman ’08JRN workers want? Just a little respect \ Can AI Associate Digital Director defeat the dreaded tsetse fl y? \ More crop per Julia Joy drop \ Turning dross into gold \ Study Hall Editorial Assistants 46 Emily Margaret Jordan, Cassidy Sattler NETWORK Around the World in 100 Restaurants \ Senior Director for Strategic Communications Under the Rainbow \ Ask an Alum: Opera Tracy Quinn ’14SPS for All \ Laser Focus \ Shop Smarter \ Director for Marketing Research 4 Alumni Podcasts Guaranteed to Make You Linda Ury Greenberg Feel Smarter \ Extra Credit \ Newsmakers PAGE 46 52 BULLETIN University news and views 56 BOOKS Subscriptions: Heartland, by Sarah Smarsh \ So Far So Good, Address and subscription assistance [email protected] by Ursula K. Le Guin \ Your Duck Is My Duck, by Deborah Eisenberg \ Lost Children To update your address online, visit Archive, by Valeria Luiselli \ Plus, Neil alumni.columbia.edu/directory, or call 1-877-854-ALUM (2586). deGrasse Tyson discusses Accessory to War FROM TOP: ANDREW FRENCH, PAUL GRINBERG, CLAIRE MERCHLINSKY CLAIRE MERCHLINSKY GRINBERG, PAUL ANDREW FRENCH, TOP: FROM Advertising: 64 [email protected] PAGE FINALS 62 Letters to the editor: Take a quiz on Columbia’s Nobel [email protected] Prize winners Columbia Magazine is published for alumni and friends of Columbia by the FOLLOW US Offi ce of Alumni and Development. © 2018 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York @ColumbiaMag @columbiamag @columbiamagazine 2 COLUMBIA WINTER 2018-19 4.18_Contents.indd 2 11/15/18 1:06 PM FEEDBACK THREE CHEERS THE VOTES ARE IN 2) voter fraud is reduced by of fringe elements who, at Your recent issue was Your Fall 2018 cover story periodically purging voter present, have a dispropor- transcendent. I very (“Ballot Breakdown”) poses rolls; 3) it is not “hard for tionate e ect on the out- much appreciate the the question, “Is the US elec- people to vote”; and 4) there come. Such a measure would quality of the writing. toral system coming apart is an unprecedented abun- have a salutary e ect at all Agnes Kelly at the seams?” The answer dance of information readily levels of government, but it ’54GSAS, ’93SW is no. The founders of our available about candidates is obviously too sensible to Kingston, NY government were amazingly and the issues. The allega- be considered. wise, informed of history, tion that our voting system Bruce Hyland ’66BUS and prescient. Their creation is somehow racially or Califon, NJ I’m truly impressed of the Electoral College was ethnically rigged is tiresome with Columbia brilliant, contrary to Ester nonsense. How did Obama Your cover story says that Magazine. The stories Fuchs’s claim. get elected twice? in the Electoral College, are well-thought-out, Our federal republic is a Jim O’Brien ’66CC “electors … pledge to cast the writing is both union of sovereign states Maitland, FL their ballots for their party’s that voluntarily joined candidate.” Actually, only fun and professional, together. Most have small Ester Fuchs says that to about half the states purport and it’s surprisingly populations compared to abolish the Electoral College to bind their electors in good-looking! California, Texas, Florida, would take a constitutional one way or another. Nor Judith Newman and New York. If the Elec- amendment. But the prob- is it clear under the only ’84GSAS toral College did not exist, lem can be remedied more Supreme Court case to con- New York, NY a person might become simply than that. All that is sider the issue, Ray v. Blair, president just by campaign- required is for each state to that these restrictions are The last two issues ing in the major population agree to assign its electoral constitutional. Moreover, centers, ignoring at least votes to the winner of the Congress has always counted have been extremely half the states. This would national popular vote. Some the votes of so-called faith- good. Keep it up. disenfranchise tens of mil- states have already agreed to less electors that have been Robert F. Mallon ’63PS lions, undoubtedly leading do this, so it is not impos- certifi ed by states, as it did Ridge, NY to the unraveling of the sible to imagine the plan in January 2017 when a United States of America. succeeding (not every state small but signifi cant number And contrary to the would have to participate for of electors did not vote for message of your article: the change to be e ective). their party’s candidate. 1) voter-ID laws are perfectly Another option would be William Josephson reasonable to ensure that to make voting compulsory, ’55LAW only legitimate citizens vote; thus diluting the impact Brooklyn, NY COLUMBIA WINTER 2018-19 3 4.18_Feedback_F.indd 3 11/13/18 3:37 PM FEEDBACK The real problem is not the AMERICAN HERO Electoral College itself; the I enjoyed reading your arti- problem is the winner-take- cle on Pindaros Roy Vagelos all system that prevails in all (Fall 2018). It is an inspiring but two states. If every state story about a man who came were to allocate its electoral from humble beginnings votes proportionally, follow- and accomplished much ing the popular vote in that through hard work, dedi- state, the fi nal outcome cation, and education. For LION’S PEN would be much less likely to all his achievements, he has I want to congratulate you on the article by Julia Rothman di er from the national not forgotten his roots and (“In the Lion’s Den,” Fall 2018). It is a charming story with popular vote. This can be is now giving back to others wonderful illustrations. Please extend to Ms. Rothman my accomplished without less fortunate so they too can sincere appreciation of her work. touching the Constitution. reach their potential. It is not an easy solution This story is indeed the Quinn Peeper ’90PS New Orleans, LA either, but it is one that is story of America, where worth a try in our present immigrants and their PASSING THE BAR desperate circumstances. descendants have made this I was lucky it took o , with Alan Hu man ’85GSAS country what it is. Given the I enrolled in Columbia the fi rst customers being New York, NY political chaos at this time, College in the fall of 1965, professors who used the ten this story is even more rele- having grown up in a small or so of us for small parties. Your outstanding article vant. Perhaps a copy should logging community in rural My sophomore year I was says that North Carolina be sent to the current occu- Oregon and having never asked to head the agency, took advantage of the pant of the White House. He been to New York. My high- which I did through the rest Supreme Court’s 2013 and his administration need school education had not of my time at the College decision invalidating part some enlightenment. prepared me for the rigors and then at Columbia Law. of the Voting Rights Act of John G. Scandalios ’57CC of Columbia, and both it The agency grew to over 1965 to curtail Black voting Raleigh, NC and New York were more 125 students, bartending rights. The article suggests than a bit overwhelming. My at private parties, mainly that because of the voting As a retired academic in the father worked in a sawmill on weekends, all over the restrictions North Carolina fi eld of tropical medicine, I — we also had a small dairy city. To fi nd new student subsequently passed, Don- was delighted by Paul Hond’s farm — so when he asked bartenders, we started an ald Trump won the state splendid article about Roy me, “Just how in hell are you early version of the bartend- that Barack Obama had won Vagelos, a man I have long going to pay for this?,” new ing course described in your eight years earlier.