FALL 2010 COLUMBIA MAGAZINE Questions for Kazakhstan Confronting a nation’s AIDS crisis, one interview at a time C2_CUCNY.indd C2 9/14/10 10:40 AM CONTENTS Fall 2010 12 26 30 DEPARTMENTS FEATURES 2 Letters 12 Surveyors on the New Silk Road By David J. Craig 6 College Walk Columbia researchers from the School of Social Work Second to None . Future Shock . are asking questions and taking steps to prevent the Curtain Call . Opuntia littoralis spread of AIDS in Central Asia. 42 News 20 The Ballad of Kitt & Yorkey Manhattanville moves forward . By Josh Getlin Remembering John Kluge and How did Next to Normal, a musical about bipolar Dawn Greene . Our nuclear summer . disorder written by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Kenneth Cole creates fellowships ever make it to Broadway? 51 Newsmakers 26 Oil + Water By Michael B. Shavelson 52 Explorations Energy geophysicist Roger N. Anderson takes us New anti-HIV gel . Better biofuels . under the oil-drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, Oil spill’s health consequences where all is not well. 54 Reviews 30 You and Whose Army? By Paul Hond 62 Classifi eds Lt. Col. Jason Dempsey, a current White House Fellow, takes aim at some old myths about politics in the Army. 64 Finals 38 Aguas Calientes: A Short Story By Lauren Grodstein An expecting couple prepares for the unexpected. Cover illustration by Andrew R. Wright 1 ToC.indd 1 9/14/10 10:35 AM letters SEEING STARS is encouraging. How many alumni know that good overview of recent events. As a Ger- As a longtime amateur astronomer who used Columbia already has moved up to the top man of Polish origin who has lived in War- to give talks at the Marie Drake Planetarium half of the Ivies in the last few years? That we saw, I am impressed by how much better in Juneau, Alaska, in the 1990s, I very much have a sophomore who ran a sub-four-min- relations between Germany and Poland have enjoyed Paul Hond’s article on Neil deGrasse ute mile (only the second in Ivy history) and become over the past 20 years than relations Tyson and the Hayden Planetarium (“Mus- the Ivy League record in the women’s 4x400 with Russia, which are only now beginning ings of the Spheres,” Summer 2010). (3:38)? And yes, that stellar time was run by to improve. Russian occupation of Poland One small correction: In the next-to-last three sophomores and a fi rst-year student. continues to infl uence the Poles’ ongoing paragraph, Neptune is described as a “gas Please plan on three or four pages of sports mistrust of the Russians and explains why giant with two moons.” Thanks to the highlights in the summer of 2011. The aca- they are so keen to have the proposed NATO 1989 Voyager fl ybys and later observation demic and extracurricular leadership of our missile shield in their country. by the Hubble Space Telescope, we now student-athletes is worth sharing as well. Michael V. B. Nagel ’67BUS know that Neptune has at least 13 moons, Lisa Carnoy ’89CC London, UK though little is known about them. New York, NY Ron Reed ’70CC “Poland’s Bitter Spring” notes that some Washington, D.C. The Summer Columbia Magazine is the fi rst Poles think that the plane crash that killed I have come close to reading in its entirety. I President Lech Kaczynski and company Congratulations on a terrifi c Summer issue, found it diffi cult to lay this issue down until “wasn’t an accident.” Whether or not it which included several wonderful features. I had fi nished “Musings of the Spheres” was might never be defi nitively answered, I’ve had the great pleasure of hearing Neil by Paul Hond, “From Boots to Books” by but the question is worth considering. And deGrasse Tyson in action at the Hayden Plan- Cindy Rodríguez, “Autism, Unmasked” by possible culprits should not be restricted etarium, and it was a night I will never forget. David J. Craig, “2010: An Artspace Odys- to Russians. I was also excited to see a two-page spread sey” by Joshua J. Friedman, and “Poland’s Was Kaczynski considered to be not fi s- on Columbia athletics. To think we have Bitter Spring” by John Micgiel. Thank you cally conservative enough? Was he too cul- a half dozen (or is it more?) varsity teams for such an interesting magazine. turally conservative? Was he unwilling to that are Ivy champions or competing at the Sister Ruth Juchter ’53GSAS accept his Poland as an obedient, subservient, national championship level! The combina- Augusta, GA conquered province of the European Union? tion of perennial leaders (women’s and men’s The death of Kaczynski could be com- fencing, men’s tennis, archery), along with POLAND’S TEARS pared to the 1986 assassination of Swe- newer dynasties-in-the-making (men’s and John Micgiel’s article “Poland’s Bitter den’s prime minister Olof Palme. Palme women’s track and cross-country, men’s golf), Spring” (Summer 2010) was certainly a was considered too pacifi st and fi scally lib- 2 Columbia Fall 2010 2-5 Letters3.indd 2 9/13/10 11:16 AM COLUMBIA MAGAZINE eral. He was gunned down the day before courtroom (“Trial and Error,” In the City of Executive Vice President for University he was to give a speech against weapons of New York, Summer 2010). Development and Alumni Relations mass destruction. His killer has never been Some years ago, as a criminal defense Susan K. Feagin ’74GS conclusively identifi ed. lawyer sitting in a small upstate courtroom, Senior Executive Director for Communications Kaczynski and Palme were considered I saw through the eyes of my client, a New Offi ce of Alumni and Development undesirable by some powerful people and York City resident, that he was facing not the Jerry Kisslinger ’79CC, ’82GSAS corporations. Their deaths were a little too wrath of a faceless power, but the justice of a Editor in Chief convenient for these powers and their fi scal particular offended community in a process Michael B. Shavelson conservative/cultural liberal straitjacket. that embodied and sought to restore that Jeanette Wolfberg ’80GSAS community’s values. Senior Editor David J. Craig Mount Kisco, NY Years later — with the images of fi re and death that the World Trade Center seared Senior Writer BOOTS ON THE GROUNDS into the memory of my young daughter as Paul Hond Thank you for your profi le of the remark- she looked out of her West Village bedroom Contributing Editor able military men and women who have window, and with the deaths of a high school Eric McHenry matriculated at Columbia (“From Boots to classmate and our neighbors in the fallen Books,” Summer 2010). The article neglects towers — I have been sustained by the cer- Designer Eson Chan to mention, however, the leadership role that tainty that someday the perpetrators would Dartmouth College and its former president sit in our midst and face the judgment of our Web Editor James Wright played in opening up an Ivy own community. Jacqueline Ballantine League education to military veterans. As Calls for vengeance from national politi- Editorial Assistant one lucky enough to have attended Dart- cal fi gures have provided no comfort, just the Deaton Jones mouth as an undergraduate and Columbia promise of more violence to come. What we Mailing Address as a graduate student, I am proud of my two need is justice, a restoration of our peace, a Columbia Magazine almae matres and even more impressed by reassertion of our own values of fairness to Columbia Alumni Center those who excel both inside the classroom the accused, and respect for the dignity of the 622 W. 113th Street, MC 4521 New York, NY 10025 and on the battlefi eld. victims and of the power of our own com- Tel. 212-851-4155 Mark S. Sternman ’92SIPA munity to care for itself. Fax 212-851-1950 Cambridge, MA Our colleague Eric Holder [CC’73, [email protected] LAW’76] understands this, as do the count- www.magazine.columbia.edu “From Boots to Books” was great, as was less lawyers, jurists, and jurors who have Address and Archive Assistance most of the Summer issue, although I felt participated in providing for justice that is [email protected] the article was prompted by a guilty con- local in both its origins and administration, 212-851-4155 science. In 1960, when I was a second lieu- as did the framers of our constitutional pro- To update your address online, visit tenant in the Army Offi cer Basic Course vision that jury trials are to be conducted by alumni.columbia.edu/directory with a group of offi cers who were planning impartial juries of the state and district where or call 1-877-854-ALUM (2586). to have Army careers, I was the only Ivy the crime is committed. That is why our jury Advertising college grad in the group, and the fi rst they system embodies a critical and essential duty Taren Cowan Bruce Ellerstein had seen from Columbia in many years. of citizenship, and why it is so dangerous to 212-851-7967 917-226-7716 To download our advertising brochure or The others were from major university hand over the administration of local justice submit a classifi ed advertisement online, ROTC programs; I came from Offi cer Can- to others, even symbolically. Justice as usual visit www.magazine.columbia.edu/advertise. didate School. Columbia should have had is a very valuable thing.