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HIGHLIGHTS AFTER GRADUATION SCRAPBOOK It happened this The benefits bestowed A year of luminaries academic year | 4–5 on alums | 7 on campus | 8 Erison Hurtault (CC’07) captured record title at Ivy League Heptagonals. VOL. 32, NO. 13 NEWS AND IDEAS FOR THE COLUMBIA COMMUNITY MAY 14, 2007 Columbia’s RECORD- Most Senior BREAKING Graduate SHAKE, GRADUATION By Bridget O’Brian By Dan Rivero any graduate students RATTLE his year’s Columbia com- know what it feels like mencement ceremony to be ABD—all-but- will confer degrees on dissertation. Few know nearly 12,000 students, Mthe feeling as well as Max Horlick. Tmaking this the largest group of Horlick, 89, will receive his doc- students to graduate from the torate in French literature this AND TOSS University’s 18 schools in its 253- spring, more than a half century year history. after defending his dissertation. Over the past weeks, the center Horlick’s academic career was of Columbia’s campus has been interrupted several times, first turned into an arena that will seat when he was drafted into the a total of 40,000 graduates, their Army during World War II. Later, families and guests. Students from after his wife became ill and with 200 countries will receive degrees children to support, he abandoned in disciplines ranging from applied his quest for a doctorate. Last year, mathematics to Yiddish studies. hoping to get him an honorary In addition to celebrating the Ph.D., his children appealed to the accomplishments and promise of University to accept the disserta- this year’s graduates, the University tion, “The Literary Judgment of also will honor distinguished Michel de Montaigne.” leaders who have shaped the Instead, University officials world, expanded the frontiers of asked to see the original work to research and teaching, and assess whether to grant the actual supported the University’s growth degree. Horlick, who hadn’t and development. known about his children’s plan, Following Columbia tradition, was “astounded,” he said. “I wished President Lee C. Bollinger will them luck, but actually I was not deliver the commencement sanguine about it.” address and bestow honorary In March, Pierre Force, chair of the Department of French, emailed the good news to Horlick’s chil- 12,000 Graduates, dren and the dean of the Graduate Eight Honorary School of Arts and Sciences. “It’s a International Affairs Degrees, One Speech. fine piece of work on an interest- graduates wave flags at Commencement 2006 degrees on eight recipients, It took 50 years, referred to as ‘honorands’ at but Max Horlick, Columbia and some other schools. They include the former president 89, gets his Ph.D. of the Israeli Supreme Court, a EILEEN BARROSO pediatric neurosurgeon, a fellow ing topic,” wrote Force, who was university president, as well as his- on the committee that read By Candace Taylor miniature flags representing graduates’ nationalities, and torians, scientists, and profession- Horlick’s 180-page paper. “Our rec- the architecture school will measure up with plastic pro- als who stand out in their fields. ommendation to Dean Pinkham is Don’t be surprised to see an apple core whizzing tractors. Future lawyers will brandish rubber gavels. “The Five faculty members will be rec- that Max Horlick be retroactively through the air during commencement ceremonies. It’s law school doesn’t throw things—that might hit some- ognized for excellence in teaching granted a 1954 Ph.D.” no sign of disrespect or of boredom. Indeed, it’s a long- one and be a liability,” said a school spokeswoman. and 10 alumni medals will be When Columbia grants 11,706 standing Columbia ritual. The College of Dental Medicine will likely elicit the bestowed on graduates who have degrees at this year’s commence- At the University’s 253rd commencement on May biggest smiles as graduates carry five-foot-tall plastic worked hard on behalf of their ment, Horlick, class of 1954, will 16, each school’s blue-robed graduates will liven up the toothbrushes in the commencement procession. When respective schools. (A complete list certainly be the oldest. The regis- two-hour-long proceedings with fervent shaking and it comes time to throw, however, they will hurl regular- of honorands and honorees are on trar’s office wasn’t certain if he is tossing of objects representing their respective aca- sized toothbrushes and floss “since we’re all about pre- pages six and seven.) Columbia’s oldest graduate ever. demic programs. The apple vention of disease,” said Dr. Of this year’s graduating class, Growing up in a tiny New Jersey cores, hurled by Columbia Martin Davis, associate dean Graduates toss newspapers, dental 1,227 come from outside the farming community of immigrants, College graduates who have for student and alumni United States. China has the most Horlick quickly discovered an ear chomped through the floss, apple cores, and money affairs at the dental school. of any foreign nation with 110, for languages—he eventually apples they bring to the cer- At Columbia Business and South Korea isn’t far behind learned 10 of them. After getting a emony, represent the Core School, M.B.A. students typi- with 104. Albania, Bangladesh, degree in French from Rutgers, he Curriculum, which requires all of the college’s students cally wave Monopoly money or fistfuls of cash. That Bosnia, Cyprus, Ecuador, the Ivory married and started graduate work to take a battery of courses in art, literature, philosophy, didn’t go over well last year, as the crowd unleashed a Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Norway, at Columbia, only to be drafted. His history, music and science. chorus of boos, said Rob Torti, president of the Rwanda, and the Ukraine each can language skills got him into mili- Such graduation-day hijinks are “definitely a Graduate Business Association. This year, B-schoolers claim at least one 2007 graduate. tary intelligence, and he served in Columbia tradition,” said Karma Lowe, assistant direc- hatched a plan to use copies of The Wall Street Journal, Giant television screens broad- the Battle of the Bulge, questioning tor of student services at the School of Social Work and but Journalism School class officers quickly emailed to casting the procession, the speech- captured German officers. a Columbia College graduate. let the business students know they’d be infringing on es and everything in between will After the war, Horlick taught at This year, nursing students will shake Columbia blue- that school’s longstanding tradition of lobbing shred- tower over the guests. For those St. Lawrence University, spending and-white pompoms, confetti and gold stars. Soon-to-be ded newspapers. It will most likely come down to cold, who can’t be there, the ceremony summers working on his doctor- doctors will let surgical gloves fly. Students from the hard cash. “There was nothing we could point to that will be streamed live on the uni- ate. He wrote his dissertation and School of International and Public Affairs will wave represented commerce more than money,” Torti said. versity’s Web site. continued on page 8 continued on page 8 www.columbia.edu/news 2 MAY 14, 2007 TheRecord A Grandmother Inspires Generations of Columbians By Dan Rivero In the sea of proud parents and grandparents attending commencement this spring, surely Magda Hanus will stand out. The 83-year-old Holocaust survivor has four grandchildren graduating from Columbia this year, three of them this month. Hanus, a mother of four, grandmother of 13 and great- grandmother of two, plans to attend the May 16 commence- ment ceremonies. She will travel from Skokie, Ill., where she still runs the clothing store Rich’s Britches, which she started with her late husband. “I am very proud of my grandchildren,” Hanus said. “They are very smart and ambitious and have received a wonderful educa- tion at Columbia. They have made brilliant accomplishments.” Talk to her grandchildren and they will tell you she is the most important influence in their lives. They credit her with teaching them by her example to respect life, value education and give back to society. Hanus had just completed her high school education when her life took a grim turn. It was 1941 and Hitler’s storm troop- ers had marched into Batyu, Hungary. Sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, Hanus came face to face with the horror of the Holocaust: her parents, grandparents and three broth- ers were all killed. After the war, Hanus and her youngest sister, Erica—the only other surviving member of the family—moved to Humene, Slovakia, where an aunt took care of them. She met her hus- band, John, another Auschwitz survivor, in late 1945, and they married after a three-month courtship. They moved to Prague and in 1951 found their way to Skokie to start life anew. Hanus’ oldest granddaughter, Edythe Hanus (BC’00, SIPA’02) will receive her doctorate from the School of Public THE HANUS FAMILY COURTESY OF Health and will serve as class speaker; younger sister Rebecca Standing: Jonathan Hanus, Rebecca Hanus, Magda Hanus, Barbara Hanus (Mother) and George Hanus (Father) Sitting: Julie Hanus, Edy Hanus Kupietzky Hanus will get her Master of Science from the School of Social and Jacob Kupietzky holding their 2 year old children, Joshua and Kayla. Work. Julie Hanus, the youngest of the sisters, will be graduat- ing from Barnard. A fourth grandchild, Jonathan, is scheduled Edythe has made Columbia something of a second home, degree in social work. Edythe says her siblings’ accomplish- to receive his Master of Science in real estate development spending the last 12 years at the Morningside and medical ments belong to their grandmother as well.