A few more incoming students have passed along content for summer reading/following.  If you are an incoming student and you want your information published see here for details.  If you want to find all the Summer Reading entries, simply type “Summer Reading” in the Search bar over in the right hand menu and they will all be on one page.

Stephanie Chang (Incoming MIA)

Blog:  http://rosyspecks.blogspot.com/

Chris Planicka (Incoming MPA-DP)

Blog: http://cplanicka.blogspot.com/

Juan Manuel Rodilla (Incoming MIA)

Blog:  A blog (In Spanish) containing different development approaches: Rural Participatory Appraisal, Right-Based Approach, Power studies, Gender, etc. The project of the blog was developed by me for the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the approaches, tools and study-cases are developed by different researchers. Maybe could be interesting for other SIPA students who speak Spanish – http://www.planificacionparticipativa.upv.es/wordpress/

Emmania Rodriguez (Incoming MPA)

Blog:  http://www.emmania-travels.blogspot.com/

Current students do a good job of sending along blog content for posting, but I fell a little behind in the past month or so due to all of the updates related to admission decisions.  Erisha Suwal sent along the following post in February. Has it really been that long since the last snow on our campus?  (see the 50 second mark in the intro to the video below).  Thank you Erisha.

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Social media especially Youtube, Facebook and twitter and mobile network (SMS) have been instrumental in organizing successful protests for regime change first in Tunisia and then in Egypt so much so that governments in those countries shut down the Internet during the height of the protest.  About 5.3 billion people have mobile subscriptions worldwide. Seventy percent of this population resides in the developing world.  SMS has become a major means of organizing. According to the Foreign Policy, during the June 2009 uprising of the Green Movement in Iran, activists used every possible “technological coordinating tool” to protest the miscount of votes for Mir Hossein Mousavi but were ultimately brought to heel by a violent crackdown. In January 2010, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton outlined how the United States would promote Internet freedom abroad. She emphasized several kinds of freedom, including the freedom to access information (such as the ability to use Wikipedia and Google inside Iran).

Events in Tunisia and Egypt illustrate that censorship to limit information flow and maintain authoritarian control is difficult if not impossible in present time. A fundamental way in which social media has changed the landscape of communication and organizing is by making people the source of information and not the conventional institutions.

However, Internet and social media is a double-edged sword.  While it facilitates freedom of speech it can also be used by authoritarian regimes for surveillance. For example: members of the youth groups and individuals like Wael Ghonim, who set up Facebook pages calling for protests, were arrested and jailed. Similarly, the Chinese government continues to harass bloggers, the famous one being Hu Jia. Security is a major concern Also, In Tunisia, reports that the government had phished user passwords for Facebook and Gmail emerged in December, while in the United States, Facebook has been used by creditors to track down people with outstanding debt.

Taking this cutting edge topic of social media and social movement, a panel titled “Information Wars” was organized by Columbia Journalism School and Al Jazeera English (AJE) on Friday February 11^th when everyone was tuned into news channels about the celebrations following Mubarak’s fall. AJE host Marwan Bishara moderated the panel that featured Emily Bell, director of Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism; Carl Bernstein, of Woodward and Bernstein fame; Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman; Evgeny Morozov, author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom; and Clay Shirky, author of author of Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.  It was aired on AJE’s show Empire. Many SIPA students attended the event to get the latest on the impacts of new trends in journalism on international relations and policymaking.  It was a lively discussion that not only analyzed what was going on, but also predicted social media’s new role and influence.

Here are just a few of the exciting events that have recently been broadcast to our students.

February 18: Anthony Dowd, chief of staff for former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, will deliver a lecture entitled “The Dukes of Moral Hazard: The Trust Banks, their Bailout, and the Volcker Rule.”

February 25: David Miller, chief investment officer for the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) will deliver SIPA’s Investcorp lecture.

February 25: Information Overload? Navigating the Age of Democratized Media, a conference hosted by SIPA’s student-run blog The Morningside Post.

Speakers include: Robert Fishman, Vadim Lavrusik, Emily Bell, Carne Ross, Gabriel Escobar, Anas Qtiesh, Anne Nelson, and more.

March 2: SIPA’s United Nations Studies Program hosts Michelle Bachelet, executive director of UN Women and former president of Chile, at a celebration of International Women’s Day.

The latest issue of SIPA News is now available.  The magazine is published twice per year and features articles written by students and faculty at SIPA.   The topic for this issue is water.  The importance of such a simple substance is underscored in the Dean’s introduction:

With more than 6 billion people on the planet today and the combined effects of global warming and industrial and urban pollution, the supply of water safe enough for drinking, recreation, production, and other uses is becoming scarce. In some parts of the globe, prolonged droughts and other weather events (like the freeze that burst pipes in Ireland last December) or humanitarian crises and refugee camps have already created emergencies that threaten entire populations.

The following are just a few of the articles in this edition:

• As Waters Rise, Environmental Migration Surfaces
• El Niño Drought Leads to Blackouts, Power Rationing, and Political Fallout in Venezuela
• In Cambodia, Development Pushes Ahead at the Expense of a Lake
• A Beachgoer’s Duty: A Surfer and a Fisherman Lead the Way to Curb Runoff Pollution on the JerseyShore
• Mass Freshwater Exports: Alaska’s Latest Cash Crop Heads to India

The full magazine is available for viewing as a PDF by clicking here.  All previous issues of SIPA News can also be viewed on line by clicking here.

It is not uncommon for SIPA faculty to be featured in the media.  Here is a recent compilation of some appearances.

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Steven Cohen asks “Can Obama Get His Sputnik Moment?”
CNN, January 26, 2011
“By recalling the challenge of Sputnik, the president is trying to summon America to a national effort to retool and revitalize our economy. America brings great resources and great difficulties to this newly competitive environment.”

Jeffrey Sachs gives State of the Union address a “thumbs down”
Wall Street Journal, January 26, 2011
“Professor Sachs … says the numbers won’t add up. That’s because [education, infrastructure and basic research] already take up a large chunk of the more than $600 billion of nondefense discretionary spending undertaken by the government.”

Dorian Warren provides commentary on State of the Union address
NY1, January 25, 2011 (Windows Media Player)

“I think it was a very good speech. I think he was drawing from the Tucson speech where he came across as post-partisan, as willing to reach across the aisle as unifier, that he defined the ‘we’ as a nation.”

Helios Herrera discusses the State of the Union address

Rede TV, January 26, 2011 (Portuguese)

“Obama’s proposed budget cuts will not be enough to cut the whole budget deficit and the Republicans might repeal them for that reason. The climate of bipartisanship at the speech will not change overall the political game. The republicans will do what is possible to make sure Obama does not get reelected in 2012.”

William Eimicke previews State of the Union address
WNYC, January 25, 2011
“Professor Eimicke said the president needs to get more specific. He’d especially like to hear more about the president’s plans for improving the nation’s infrastructure to help boost the economy and create jobs.”

Anya Schiffrin examines “Davos and the Gender Quota”
The Guardian, January 25, 2011
“The air is thin in Davos, and every January it gets saturated with testosterone as economic and business leaders swoop in for the annual meeting, momentarily replacing the resort town’s sea of ski parkas with a cloud of black suits. But we didn’t know how bad things were until it was reported that sponsors of the meeting have been told to make sure they bring one woman for every four men in their delegation.”

David Dinkins discusses his legacy as the first black NYC mayor
NY1, January 24, 2011
“Sometimes you will feel criticism is inaccurate and unfair. And sometimes you might feel, you know, you’ve got a point.”

William Eimicke presents the Picker Center’s police consolidation report to the City of Schenectady, NY
Albany Times-Union, January 25, 2011
WNYT-TV, WTEN-TV, WXXA-TV, YNN
“You’re spending less on rent, you’re spending less on technology, you’re spending less on equipment.”

Joseph Stiglitz comments from the World Economic Forum in Davos
Washington Post, January 24, 2011
“’If you work in emerging markets, you feel the energy. If you are in the U.S. or Europe, you see the numbers and it’s hard not to feel depressed.’”

Scott Barrett comments on Bill Gates’ donation to polio eradication
Associated Press, January 24, 2011
“Professor Barrett said if the World’s Health Organization’s next polio deadline is missed, it may be time to abandon the efforts  ‘Eradication cannot continue indefinitely. The situation is very fragile and at some point the alternative needs to be examined more carefully.’”

Diane Vaughan addresses NASA and the Challenger disaster, 25 years later
Orlando Sentinel, January 23, 2011
“Professor Vaughan, who researched NASA’s culture after Challenger and Columbia, says NASA has taken a different approach after Columbia: ‘Look at the recent attempts to launch Discovery and how long they’ve stood down for that. It doesn’t mean they [NASA engineers] are doing poorly. It means they identified a flaw and are taking safety seriously.’”

Gary Sick writes, “While You Were Reading About Ukrainian Nurses…”
Foreign Policy, January 19, 2011
“Real news was buried in WikiLeaks — like this revealing cable on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”

Patricia Gorman Clifford discusses “What Do Business Schools Want?”
Washington Post, January 24, 2011
“The fact you are realistically evaluating your current skill set is a great place to begin. Some prospective students are so focused on gaining admission that they don’t think enough about managing the hard work and specific types of tasks that they’ll be expected to complete as a student.”

Jeffrey Sachs discusses the outlook for the European debt crisis
Bloomberg TV, January 18, 2011
Professor Sachs talks about the outlook for the European debt crisis, the economic growth outlook for Africa, the impact of globalization on U.S. society, and climate change.

Dorian Warren on Walmart and New York City
WNYC, January 18, 2011
“They waited until the political opportunity was much more advantageous for them in the sense of an economic recession. It’s muted some of the opponents’ claims about how Walmart will be bad for certain neighborhoods precisely because it’s hard to say we don’t want jobs Walmart would create.”

Joseph Stiglitz discusses “unsustainable imbalances” in emerging nations
El Mercurio de Valparaíso, January 16, 2011 (Spanish)
Professor Stiglitz visited Santiago, Chile to share his reflections on “unsustainable imbalances” in capital inflow with Columbia University graduates and former World Bank officials.

Arvind Panagariya comments on Indian growth and poverty
Times of India, January 14, 2011
In delivering the Raj Krishna Memorial lecture at the University of Rajasthan, Professor Panagariya said, “India’s economy is growing at over 12 percent in dollar terms. It’s $1.3 trillion economy can reach the size of China’s  $6 trillion in 15 years if it continues to grow at the current pace.”

Anya Schiffrin is blogging from the World Economic Forum at Reuters’ Davos Notebook. Read her latest “The Deepest Fear of the Davos Man.”

Howard Friedman blogs for The Huffington Post. Read his latest: “What Would Dr. King Think of Today’s Poverty?”

John Mutter was featured on TreeHugger in an article entitled, “Brooklyn’s Bamboo Bikes Hitting the Big Time in Ghana.”

Anne Nelson posted “Vietnam Fighting a Losing Battle Against Free Speech Online” at PBS’s  MediaShift blog.

Rodolfo de la Garza blogs for WNYC. Read his latest post, “The Case for Nonpartisan Redistricting.”

Gary Sick blogs at http://garysick.tumblr.com. Read his comments on “And Life Goes On: An Iran Snapshot.”

Steven Cohen blogs regularly for The Huffington Post. Read his latest post: “Civility is More Than Symbolism.”

Stuart Gottlieb comments regularly on The Arena, Politico’s daily debate with policymakers and opinion shapers.

I sent out an email today regarding our FeedBurner service that you might have received but wanted to post a blog notice as well.  If you are on the blog and look over on the right you will see a box with the word “Subscribe” underneath.  If you wish to receive blog updates via email you can simply enter your email address and any day an entry is posted, you will receive an email with the content.  The software that provides this service is called FeedBurner.

Late in December the university Institutional Technology Department upgraded our blog software and for a short period of time FeedBurner service was interrupted.  I was informed on Friday that the service is restored and I am sorry for any interruption of service for those that are already subscribers.

As a reminder, you can also subscribe to this blog with an RSS reader.  For me discovering an RSS reader was akin to getting our first microwave back in the 70s.  I remember standing on our burnt orange linoleum floor (probably wearing a shirt with a collar the size of a national flag) staring slack jawed at this giant new addition to our kitchen.  My brothers and I used the microwave non-stop for the first month.  We heated up every consumable item, even if it did not need heating.

McDonald’s take out suddenly did not meet our temperature standard upon arriving home and obviously we needed to heat it up.  We especially had a blast microwaving eggs, although our learning curve meant a lot of clean up inside the microwave.  I am sure our usage of the microwave as a family led the hydroelectric power agency to have to run all turbines at full power to keep up with the demand we placed on the grid.  But I digress . . .

Just like a microwave is part of my daily life, an RSS reader is now a part of my life that I am really glad a friend turned me on to.  Basically you can get news from multiple sites, including this blog, all in one place.  Rather than having to visit a bunch of different sites, you can just visit one.  If you do not know about RSS readers, the following short YouTube video is a great introduction (length of video, 3:44).

I’m suddenly hungry for a Big Mac with an egg on it . . .

Direct YouTube link here.

It is not uncommon to see SIPA faculty, students, and alumni in the news.  Below are a few recent examples.

Helping TANF Help Children

Professor Swati Desai has been appointed as a senior advisor to the Urban Institute, on a project to improve state performance measures for TANF – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

TANF is a federal program, providing cash assistance to indigent families with dependent children. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, providing block grants to states, which administer their individual programs.

Desai, an expert in performance management, will spend much of 2011 advising the Urban Institute in choosing and analyzing the data for states that have implemented state-level TANF performance measurement systems that includes both outcome and process indicators and have been identified as having promising practices.

“As planning for TANF reauthorization approaches, there is a focus on improving the program’s accountability structure,” said Desai. “The program was created to help needy families reach self-sufficiency by providing cash assistance, work opportunities, and other services. But under the current accountability structure, it is difficult to know whether the program is actually meeting this goal.  The Urban Institute study will help inform the policy debate by conducting in-depth case studies of a few states.”

Desai is an associate professor at SIPA, teaching public and nonprofit management, and performance management. She previously served in a variety of positions with the City of New York’s Human Resources Administration, most recently as Executive Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Evaluation and Research, which provides cash assistance, food stamps, and Medicaid to residents.

Wikileaks

Stephen Sestanovich writes “America’s Facile, Self-Congratulatory Response to Wikileaks,” in The New Republic.

Here is short excerpt from the article:

The case for confidentiality in diplomatic communications doesn’t make exceptions. Most negotiations can’t be successful if every move—every embarrassing concession in which you compromise a point today that you declared sacrosanct yesterday—is made in public. By and large, because the United States is so powerful, we actually gain the most from confidentiality. Secrecy can shield the concessions that others make to us. Without it, they are more stubborn, more fearful, less able to act.

On the Front Lines of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

On December 18, Congress voted to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Veteran and SIPA alumnus Justin Johnson (MIA ’10) writes in the NY Daily News:

“Our battalion faced fierce combat as the 1,000 or so Marines conducted stability and security operations in a city of over 300,000. The bonds we formed in combat inspire and drive me to this day.

“The difficulty of this combat tour … forced me to confront my own mortality and make sense of what I experienced and what it meant for my life. I made the incredibly difficult decision to come out to my family and to leave active duty when my period of required service expired in June of 2005. I wanted to stay in the Marines, but did not want to serve in an environment where my entire life and career could be upended because of who I am – regardless of my performance in the position.” More

The Internet has become a daily staple for most applicants to SIPA and obtaining pertinent information about our program and available financial aid is something that is best done on a consistent basis. RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is an easy and convenient way to have news and information delivered to you without having to repeat searches over and over every time you want to look for new news.

RSS feeds are most commonly used through either an RSS reader or through a news feed that provides new information to you in the form of email. RSS readers are free and many email providers (such as Google’s Gmail) build RSS readers into their user interface.

All you need to do to receive news as it is updated is to add an RSS enabled Web site to your reader. Each time you visit your RSS reader you will be able to see if new information has been posted. There is no need to visit every site over and over to find out if there is new news or updates.

You can subscribe to this blog by both email and through your reader. To subscribe by email simply add your email to the FeedBurner subscription box in the right margin near the top of the page.

If you are not familiar with RSS technology the following short YouTube video is a great introduction (length of video, 3:44).

Direct YouTube link here.

The Harriman Institute and the Russian American Cultural Center
Fragments from the Past: A Photography Exhibition by Yuri Shalamov, who worked for top Soviet magazines and newspapers for over thirty years.
11:00 am to 5:00 pm
International Affairs Building, 12th Floor
For additional information: www.russianamericanculture.com

Monday, November 9
The Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Brown Bag Lecture: China’s Science and Technology Talent Pool: Competitive Advantage or Critical Problem? with Denis F. Simon, professor, Penn State School of International Affairs and Cong Cao, senior researcher, the Levin Institute, State University of New York (SUNY).
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 918

The Middle East Institute and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender
Talk: Palestine and  Israeli Occupation, with Amira Hass.
12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Knox Hall, Room 207 (122 St. between Broadway and Claremont Ave.)

The Harriman Institute
Talk: The Potential for Energy Cooperation with Russia–the Future of Natural Resource Development and Management in the Arctic, with Dr. Louis Skyner.
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1219

The SIPA International Finance and Economic Policy (IFEP) Concentration
Lecture: In the Aftermath of the Global Economic Crisis—Redesigning the WTO for the 21st Century, with Professor Debra Steger, WTO Appellate Body Secretariat with comments by Professor Michael Ewing-Chow, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore; Jennifer Hillman (invited), member, WTO Appellate Body and comments by moderator Professor Merit E. Janow, director, IFEP.
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Warren Hall, Feldberg Space

The School of International and Public Affairs and SIPA’s South Asia Association and Urban Policy Concentration
SIPA Global Mayor’s Forum: Urban Policy, Global Challenges–A Conversation with Syed Mustafa Kamal, Mayor of Karachi, Pakistan.
6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
International Affairs Building, 1501

The Committee on Global Thought
Panel Discussion: A Bretton Woods Moment? with panelists: Benjamin Cohen, Louis G. Lancaster Professor of International Political Economy, University of California, Santa Barbara; Adam Posen, senior fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics and Joseph Stiglitz, Professor of Economics, Columbia University. They will be asked to reflect upon the role of governments and central banks in overseeing a new financial architecture, and whether new institutional innovations, such as a new global reserve currency, are required.
6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Faculty House, Presidential Room 1
For more information: http://cgt.columbia.edu/events/a_bretton_woods_moment
To register: https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/register.php?eventID=36304

The Harriman Institute and Programs in Comparative and International Education and International Education Development
A comparative analysis of the results from the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)–Learning Achievement in the CEE/CIS Region, with special guests from UNICEF Geneva Phillipe Testot-Ferry and Erin Tanner. Presentation will be followed by a reception.
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Teachers College, Milbank Chapel
For more information: Erin Weeks-Earp at emw2114@columbia.edu

Tuesday, November 10
The Harriman Institute
Talk: The Economic Crisis and Russian Museums: Some Recent Observations by Kristen Regina, chief art librarian at Hillwood Museum & Gardens.
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1219

The International Media, Advocacy and Communications (IMAC) Specialization at SIPA
Talk: How the Liberal Blogs Are Keeping President Obama Honest, with John Aravosis, editor of AMERICAblog.com, one of the most influential Democratic political blogs in Washington, DC, discussing the role of liberal blogs in working with (and fighting against) the Obama administration during the 2008 presidential campaign and other far ranging issues.
12:30 pm to 2:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1302

The School of International and Public Affairs
Info Session for the Hertie School of Governance Dual Degree Program in Berlin. For first-year SIPA students, interested in applying for the SIPA/HSoG Dual Degree Program.
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1510

The Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy and the Mori Memorial Foundation in Tokyo
Report: Global Cities Power Index, a comprehensive study of 35 global cities, released in October 2009 that ranks cities based on six overall categories: Economy, Research & Development, Cultural Interaction, Livability, Ecology & Natural Environment and Accessibility with 69 individual indicators among them.
3:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Avery Hall, Wood Auditorium
To register: https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/register.php?eventID=36805

The Harriman Institute
Book Talk: Join us for a literary evening with Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, while she reads from her latest book, “There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Fairy Tales.”
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Barnard College North Tower, Sulzberger Hall
For more information: www.gs-agency.com/author_show_en.php?id=31
To register: https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/register.php?eventID=36425

The Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life
Lecture: Charles Taylor, professor emeritus of Philosophy at McGill University and winner of the 2007 Templeton Prize and the 2008 Kyoto Prize–Can Human Action Be Explained?
6:15 pm to 8:15 pm
Schapiro Center, Davis Auditorium

The Conflict Resolution Working Group, the Center for International Conflict Resolution and ACCORD
Conflict Resolution Career Panel: Opportunities in the Field.
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 403

Wednesday, November 11
Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL)
Faculty and Instructor Workshop: CourseWorks–Getting Started. This workshop is designed to introduce Columbia University faculty and instructors to the basics of using CourseWorks (from logging in to setting up your course syllabus). This free, hands-on workshop is recommended for beginners.
11:00 am to 12:15 pm
Butler Library, Room 204 (CCNMTL Faculty Support Lab)
To register: https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/register.php?eventID=36741

The Harriman Institute
Talk: Overcoming Warlords and State Failure–Lessons from Post-Soviet Georgia, with Kimberly Marten of Barnard College and Columbia University.
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1219

The Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
Presentation: Strategy Serving Tactics–Iraq, Afghanistan, and the New Way of American Warfare, with Colonels David Gray and Gian Gentile.
12:15 pm to 2:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1302

The Institute of African Studies
African Architecture & Urbanism Series: Timelines–New Perspectives explores contemporary African cities as unique built environments with Abosede George, assistant professor at Barnard College, specializing in African history, women’s history, urban history of Africa, and the history of childhood in Africa.
6:30 pm to 8:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1501

Thursday, November 12
Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL)
Faculty and Instructor Workshop: Podcasting Essentials–Creation and Distribution will provide in-depth information on how audio and video content is being produced for students in higher education, and will explain how podcasting has helped distribute educational media. The second portion of the workshop will provide a step-by-step demonstration on how to create audio and video media that can be used in a podcast or any other Web-based environment. There will also be a brief demonstration on how you can use online platforms such as iTunes U to promote your media materials. This workshop is recommended for beginners.
11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Butler Library, CCNMTL Faculty Support Lab (Room 204)
To register: https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/register.php?eventID=36755

The Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Brown Bag Lecture: Japanese Politics from Tanaka to Hatoyama (via Koizumi), with Margarita Estévez-Abe, associate professor of Political Science, Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, Syracuse.
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 918

The Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
Annual Kenneth N. Waltz Lecture in International Relations, with Dr. Robert O. Keohane, professor of International Affairs at Princeton University, on Social Norms and Agency in World Politics.
12:15 pm to 2:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1501
Note: Registration for this event is currently open.
To register: https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/register.php?eventID=35377
If you have difficulty registering, please email hcg2108@columbia.edu.

The Middle East Institute
Brown Bag Lecture: Young Women in Riyadh–Between Transgressions of Islamic Rules and Consumerist Norms, with Amelie Le Renard.
12:30 pm to 2:00 pm
Knox Hall, Room 208 (122 St. between Broadway and Claremont Ave.)

The Columbia Center for Homelessness Prevention Studies
Grand Rounds: Economic Evaluations of the Housing & Health Intervention Study. Welcome Dr. David Holtgrave, professor and chair, Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
2:30 pm to 4:00 pm
Medical Center
Psychiatric Institute, Room 6602
Entrance at 40 Haven Ave. and 168 St. (inside bridge goes directly to 6th floor)

The Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Lecture: Japan and the United States in Afghanistan–A Dialogue, with Sadako Ogata, president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency and M. Ishaq Nadiri, Jay Gould Professor of Economics, New York University. A reception will follow the lecture.
6:15 pm to 7:45 pm
Faculty House, President’s Room
Reservations are required: https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/register.php?eventID=36521

Friday, November 13 and Saturday, November 14
The Institute of Latin American Studies
Workshop: Crime, Fear, Insecurity in Mexico–Ethnographic and Policy Approaches brings together scholars from different disciplines to establish dialogue incorporating different perspectives on this critical topic for Mexico and its neighbors.
Friday, Nov 13 from 9:15 am to 6:00 pm
Saturday, Nov 14 from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1501

This is the tenth and final entry in our “Top 10″ list for you to consider when communicating with our office and applying.

Number 10 – Subscribe to this blog!

The best way to stay up-to-date regarding matters of admission is to subscribe to this blog.  Yes the SIPA Web site is a great source of information and you should familiarize yourself with it, but for the most part the Web site is static and is rarely updated.  We try to update it as needed, but the blog is much more informative as far as the day-to-day things going on in our office.

Over in the right menu there is an empty box with “Subscribe” written below it.  Simply enter your email and each and every time this blog is updated, you will receive an email message letting you know here is new content.

Why is it a good idea to subscribe?  Well for one we try to monitor common questions and post answers to the site for mass consumption.  Two, this is your window into the admission cycle.  We will update you on what is going on in our office.  And finally, this is a great way to find out more about what is going on at SIPA and to learn about fellowship opportunities.  You can consider this to be the most interactive Web space concerning matters of admission and financial aid.

SIPA faculty member Sharyn O’Halloran, who directs the Advanced Policy and Economic Analysis specialization at SIPA, recently appeared on MSNBC to comment on unemployment in the United States.  Her research interests include institutional analysis and statistical methods.

Her recent publications include “Measuring the Electoral and Policy Impact of Majority-Minority Voting Districts” with David Epstein in American Journal of Political Science (April 1999); “A Social Science Approach to Race, Redistricting, and Representation” with David Epstein in American Political Science Review (March 1999); “The Non-Delegation Doctrine and Separate Powers: A Political Science Approach” with David Epstein in The Cardozo Law Review (1999); and others.

To view the entire video, please visit the MSNBC site here.

Sharyn is no stranger to the media . . . you can see here in this segment on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart filmed back on St. Patricks Day (1:36 mark).

SIPA students have many opportunities to get involved in activities related to their studies, including the opportunity to publish in SIPA News and The Journal of International Affairs.  The staff of SIPA News asked me to outreach to incoming SIPA students that might be interested in submitting an article for consideration.  Please see the message below and if you are interested, contact the individuals noted below.

___________________________________________________

SIPA News is a semi-annual magazine written by students, alumni, and faculty and distributed to the global SIPA community. Our fall issue will encompass the intersection of science, technology and policy. Where do SIPA students stand on the issues surrounding these fields and what perspectives can they offer on how the advancements in the Internet, for example, have changed the way we communicate and interact with and in the world? What are the most critical issues that have arisen in light of the development in these fields?

From Twitter in Tehran to cell phones in rural Africa, technological and scientific advancements bridge the divide between developed and developing nations, provide a new model of open governance and can foster environments for innovation and entrepreneurship even as much of the world deals with the fallout of the 2008 economic crisis.  At the same time, as with any technological and scientific advancement, attention must also be made to the legal and policy-related ramifications.

We welcome contributions from all SIPA students, with a premium on first-hand reporting. We’re looking for colorful stories about real people, ­not a political science essay.

If you’d like to write for us, please send your proposals. Proposals should be at least one full paragraph and be representative of your writing. Clips are also welcome. (We’ll reply right away). We need your feature stories (around 1000 words), shorter articles, photos, and photo essays.  Final drafts of all submissions must be received by September 15.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Laure Klein (ldk2109@columbia.edu)

Caroline Stauffer (css2138@columbia.edu)
SIPA News co-editors

All past issues of SIPA News maybe be viewed by clicking here.

Joseph Stiglitz, University Professor of International Affairs; Business School, Economics; Chaired Professorship of Finance and Business; Co-Director, SDEV PhD Program, and José Antonio Ocampo, Director of the Program in Economic and Political Development at the School of International and Public Affairs, have been appointed to the new Commission of Experts of the President of the United Nations General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System. Professor Stiglitz will serve as the chair. The Commission will seek to identify broad principles for the reforms needed to ensure global economic progress. For more information click here.

The January 2009 edition of SIPA News takes a closer look at a variety of issues affecting nations in Latin America. These issues include the global recession, climate change, free trade and income inequality. SIPA News also examines the changing relations between the U.S. and Cuba, gun violence in Brazil, and even the production of the coffee you drink in the morning.

SIPA News is published twice a year and the entire issue is available as a PDF file by clicking here. All past issues of SIPA News are also available via PDF. To view all past issues please click here for the archive.

One thing that makes it fun be around SIPA is the constant stream of speakers that visit.  It is not uncommon to have the opportunity to attend 15-20 different events per week in our building or on campus.  It is easy to find out what is going on each week, all you need to do is to sign up for a weekly email that goes out with information about activities taking place each week.  Simply visit this site and enter your information.

One highlight of last week was a talk by Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen movement and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient.  He is considered a pioneer in the field of microcredit, which provides “micro” loans to the poor to serve as a catalyst for improving their socioeconomic status.

In Bangladesh today, Grameen Bank has nearly 1,100 branches, with over 12,000 staff members serving two million borrowers in 37,000 villages.  Yunus was born in 1940 in Chittagong, the third of fourteen children.  He was educated at Chittagong, and received a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. in Economics at Vanderbilt University.  He has served on many committees and commissions dealing with population, health, banking, and international development.  He is the recipient of the World Food Prize, the President’s Award of Bangladesh, and numerous other awards and distinctions.

Picture Credit to Wikipedia

Yesterday we pointed to an article and slide show of the inauguration of Columbia College Alumnus Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.  Here is a short video of the occasion (time of video:  2:49).

http://blip.tv/rss/flash/1699177

A crowd of several thousand students, staff, and administrators gathered in the center of campus on Tuesday for the inauguration of Columbia College alumnus Barack Obama on a jumbo tron television screen.  President Bollinger welcomed the crowd prior to the event and extended an invitation to everyone in the audience to join he and his wife at their home following the event.

The temperature was a cool but you would not have known it by the looks on the faces of those in the crowd.  There was definitely an air of excitement and it is an event I will never forget.  A slide show of the event is available on the ColumbiaNews Web site.

You already may be aware that there is a blog run by SIPA students – The Morningside Post (TMP).  The TMP will be undergoing some exciting changes in the coming weeks and just like I encourage readers to subscribe to this blog, the same encouragement applies to the TMP.  From a recent entry here are some comments on how the site will change and why:

The last few months there has been some mention on TMP about a redesign. I am proud to say that, after about a year of planning and executing, we have almost reached point B of our redesign.  Things are going to change pretty dramatically around here. But, before they do, it seemed best to give everyone a heads up of what is to come.

So what changes exactly? First, and foremost, TMP is being built on a different online platform, one that will make it much easier for our readers to get at the kind of information they want, and filter out what they don’t want.

It’s going to get a lot easier to read what you want to read. And to know what’s going on at SIPA, you won’t have to go to a bunch of websites, because there will be one place for “one-stop shopping.” Hopefully, this will serve both the SIPA community and those outside of SIPA interested in what SIPA has to offer.

The Internet has become a daily staple for most applicants to SIPA and obtaining pertinent information about our program and available financial aid is something that is best done on a consistent basis. RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is an easy and convenient way to have news and information delivered to you without having to repeat searches over and over every time you want to look for new news.

RSS feeds are most commonly used through either an RSS reader or through a news feed that provides new information to you in the form of email. RSS readers are free and many email providers (such as Google’s Gmail) build RSS readers into their user interface.

All you need to do to receive news as it is updated is to add an RSS enabled Web site to your reader. Each time you visit your RSS reader you will be able to see if new information has been posted. There is no need to visit every site over and over to find out if there is new news or updates.

You can subscribe to this blog by both email and through your reader. To subscribe by email simply add your email to the FeedBurner subscription box in the right margin near the top of the page.

If you are not familiar with RSS technology the following short YouTube video is a great introduction (length of video, 3:44).

Direct YouTube link here.

Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs congratulates alumna Na Eng (MIA ‘99) on winning a 2008 Emmy Award for business and financial reporting. Ms. Eng won the Emmy for her segment entitled “Taxing the Poor,” presented on the program NOW on PBS. The segment focuses on state tax policies and the working poor, and the impact on three families in Alabama.

To watch “Taxing the Poor” or learn more about its production, click here.

To learn more about Na Eng and her award-winning documentary work, visit her blog here.