Summer 2018 “THE LATEST” TURNS ONE OUR FIRST YEAR OF ORIGINAL ONLINE CONTENT LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! SUSANNA FOGEL ’02 DIRECTS A SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER CONGRATULATIONS! Columbia WE WELCOME THE CLASS OF 2018 INTO College THE ALUMNI CIRCLE Today SHOWING INITIATIVE Eric H. Holder Jr. ’73 is leading the discourse on justice and civil rights Nearly 100 years ago, Columbia College altered the landscape of American higher education with a pioneering experiment now known as the Core Curriculum. Today, the Core to Commencement campaign — the College’s first-ever — seeks to create other life-altering experiences for our students and the faculty who teach them. Join us in the next phase of this ambitious endeavor to make Columbia College the greatest undergraduate experience possible — one that we will all take pride in. Wellness and Beyond the Teaching and Access and The Core at 100 Community Classroom Mentoring Support college.columbia.edu/campaign [email protected] Contents Columbia College CCT Today VOLUME 45 NUMBER 4 SUMMER 2018 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alexis Boncy SOA’11 EXECUTIVE EDITOR Lisa Palladino 26 30 16 DEPUTY EDITOR Jill C. Shomer ASSOCIATE EDITOR Anne-Ryan Heatwole JRN’09 FORUM EDITOR features Rose Kernochan BC’82 ART DIRECTOR 16 Eson Chan Published quarterly by the True Blue Columbia College Office of Alumni Affairs and Development Eric H. Holder Jr. ’73, LAW’76 leads a social justice initiative for alumni, students, faculty, parents and friends of Columbia College. he calls “a love letter” to the College and the country. ASSOCIATE DEAN, COLUMBIA COLLEGE By Jill C. Shomer ALUMNI RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS Bernice Tsai ’96 20 ADDRESS Columbia College Today “The Latest” Turns One! Columbia Alumni Center 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530, 4th Fl. Selections from our first year of original digital content. New York, NY 10025 PHONE 26 212-851-7852 EMAIL In the Director’s Chair [email protected] WEB Susanna Fogel ’02 makes a summer blockbuster her way. college.columbia.edu/cct ISSN 0572-7820 By Phil Wallace ’04 Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect 30 official positions of Columbia College or Columbia University. © 2018 Columbia College Today Graduation 2018 All rights reserved. Caps, gowns, lions — check! Columbia’s newest alumni are welcomed with speeches, interviews and more. Cover: Photograph by Rayon Richards Contents departments alumninews 3 Message from Dean James J. Valentini 38 Message from CCAA President This year’s Class Day message introduces a Michael Behringer ’89 framework for reflection. Encouraging student-alumni connections. 4 Letters to the Editor 39 Lions Steven Waldman ’84; Andrea Young ’06, GSAS’12; 6 The Big Picture plus other alumni newsmakers. 8 Around the Quads 42 Bookshelf My Columbia College Journey encourages Feast: True Love in and out of the Kitchen, students to think holistically about their by Hannah Howard ’09. personal development. 44 Class Notes 13 Roar, Lion, Roar Just Married! The Lions reclaim their place among the nation’s elite fencing programs. 83 Obituaries Steven P. Marcus ’48, GSAS’61; 34 Columbia Forum: The King Is Always Lawrence K. Grossman ’52 Above the People by Daniel Alarcón ’99 Ten short stories explore gritty themes. 88 The Last Word The Class of 2018’s president says goodbye to the College. THINK TANK | MAY 31 Now on CCT Online CCT “I was working at McDonald’s in my hometown of Needham, Mass. I wanted to be an intern at the PRINT EXTRAS THE LATEST Needham Times. I cold-called the • Reunion 2018 Facebook albums editor-in-chief, and she said no. • Graduation 2018 Facebook albums TAKE FIVE | APRIL 20 Then I just walked into her office and handed her my clips from • Academic Awards and Prizes “Anyone who met me in the Spectator. She said no. … I visited first few weeks will tell you her a second time. This time she that I was agonizingly loud said yes. She said she always did Like Columbia College Alumni and annoying. … Thankfully that with job applicants — said no it didn’t take me too long to facebook.com/alumnicc before she said yes — because recognize that at Columbia tenacity is an important trait for View Columbia College alumni photos everyone had something journalists. She was right!” instagram.com/alumniofcolumbiacollege marvelously interesting to share about themselves, and — CNN correspondent Elizabeth Schwartz Follow @Columbia_CCAA Cohen ’87, from “What Do You Remember that I would gain a lot more by Most About Your First Summer Job?” Join the Columbia College alumni network just shutting up and listening.” college.columbia.edu/alumni/linkedin — Aspiring attorney Ankeet Ball ’16 college.columbia.edu/cct Message from the Dean In Pursuit of “Eudaimonia” At Class Day on May 15, I spoke about My Columbia College Journey, a recently introduced framework for students to reflect on their growth and experiences during their time at the College. [Read more about the Journey on page 8.] What follows is an abridged version of my speech. To our most recent graduates, who now receive Columbia College Today, congratulations again, and welcome to the community of more than 51,000 Columbia College alumni. said to you at Convocation 2014 that what you did from that day forward would define your Columbia College experience and bring you here to Class Day. Each of you brought a spe- I cial personal story, a story of the path by which you arrived at Columbia. You were then at the beginning of your Columbia College journey. I am sure you have had days of jubilation — perhaps not as great as today — but still, days of triumph. But I am also sure you have experienced setbacks, and you have had to pivot in response. And EILEEN BARROSO BY PHOTOS you have found that the path may not always be straight and pre- dictable, but that it can lead to success in ways that, though not at and you know what is to be pursued, because it is part of the Core all predictable, are no less satisfying. Curriculum experience of every student. It is eudaimonia. During these days at Columbia College you not only gained Eudaimonia is to be found when you plot your own trajectory, knowledge, but also developed critical thinking and research abili- when you build on what you have learned here to be active and ties; refined your written and oral communication skills; improved engaged citizens, responsible and valuable members of the many your quantitative, information and technological literacy; engaged communities — personal and professional, large and small — of in teamwork and collaboration; expanded your creativity and inno- which you will be part. vation; took on civic and individual responsibility; participated in Eudaimonia means much more than simply faring well or being community engagement and inclusion; built global awareness; and successful, the outcomes with which “happiness” is associated. Eudai- encouraged all of us to foster a sense of wellness and resilience. In monia is the essence of My Columbia College Journey: a personal, short, you developed your Core Competencies, even before you individual, unique path to flourishing, substance and meaning in life. knew that phrase or could name its components. Many things will interfere with, even preclude, the simple thing While the narrative of “My Columbia College Journey” was called “happiness” — events you can’t influence and people you can’t introduced to you only a month ago, you were on your very own persuade. But the eudaimonia of your individual Columbia College Journey from the moment you arrived journey is indeed yours, so focus on it. here, without realizing it. What has changed is the self-awareness We admitted you to Columbia Col- CCT Print Extras of that journey, a self-awareness that you will have many years to lege based on our belief that you were To view Valentini’s Class benefit from. the applicants who could best profit Day speech in full, go to The word “journey” derives from the Latin diurnus, meaning from and contribute to Columbia Col- college.columbia.edu/cct. day by day or daily. And though you are graduating, it is still your lege. I hope you have profited from Columbia College journey, because Columbia College is now a fun- your experience at the College. I know you have contributed to it, damental part of you, and your experience here will forever influ- in classrooms, arenas, laboratories, residence halls and even on Low ence your path. The road goes on, paved with Pantone 292 and all Beach. For all of that I thank you. All of us at Columbia College that that color represents. thank you. “Jubilation” derives from Latin as well, and refers to a very vocal kind of joy, with wild and loud shouting of great enthusiasm, loud shouting I am certain I am going to hear at this ceremony. Every day, however, can’t be like this one; every day can’t be cause for loud shouting of great joy. But, every day can be a source of satisfaction and fulfillment and meaning. You will notice I did not say “happiness.” I James J. Valentini did not, because happiness is not the object to pursue. You know that, Dean Summer 2018 CCT 3 Letters to the Editor Left of Center Paul Starr ’70, in his piece “How the ’68 Uprising Looks Today” [Spring 2018], con- cludes rightly that the University needs to be an open forum, facilitating, as he puts it, more “antagonistic confrontation,” which may come at the expense of “safe space.” But I take issue with at least one of his statements in arriving at that conclusion. Starr suggests that liberalism was under attack from the left in ’68 and now is from the right.