Author Archive for Matt Clemons – Page 25

Extracurricular Events

Posted by Matt Clemons 
· Monday, January 24th, 2011 
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One of the cool things about living in New York City is that there is always something going on.  Yes, it’s true, it is the city that never sleeps.  I can attest to this because I live on an avenue and the noise never ceases outside my window.  For those of you not familiar with New York City, for the most part avenues are larger and run north/south while streets are smaller and run east/west.  This applies to most of the Island above Canal Street – below Canal all bets are off.  So if you are looking for a place to live, I would recommend street addresses because you are likely to deal with less noise, but there are always exceptions to the rule.  But I digress . . .

In terms activities, SIPA and Columbia are much like New York City – there always seems to be something going on for our students to take advantage of.  I thought I would take an entry to provide a glimpse into some of the extracurricular programming going on in the coming weeks.

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Net Delusion: A Brownbag with Author Evgeny Morozov
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1302
International Media and Communications
Brownbag with blogger and social commentator Evgeny Morozov, a rising star in Internet politics.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Information Effects and Human Rights Data: Is the Good News about Increased Human Rights Information Bad News for Human Rights Measures?
12:00 pm – 1:45 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1302
Institute for the Study of Human Rights
Talk with Ann Marie Clark and Kathryn Sikkink, in which they will discuss changes in the quality and availability of human rights information over time and the implications for scholarly use of comparative data based on contemporaneous sources, including the widely used data sets based on annual Amnesty International and U.S. State Department reports.

Center for Korean Research Colloquium Series
4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 907
Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Center for Korean Research Colloquium with Joel Wit, former State Department official.

Faith Misplaced
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
International Affairs Building, 1512
Middle East Institute
Lecture with Ussama Makdisi, Professor of History and the first holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies at Rice University, speaking on his new book Faith Misplaced: The Broken Promises of U.S.-Arab Relations: 1820-2001.
Register

Thursday, January 27, 2011

QMSS Seminar: Gary Langer
6:10 pm – 8:30 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 403
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy
Lecture with Gary Langer, Langer Research Associates.

Urban Aging from New York to Beijing
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 918
Weatherhead East Asian Institute
WEAI Brown Bag Lecture with Michael Gusmano, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health and Ada C. Mui, Professor of Social Work, School of Social Work.

eHealth – A Paradigm Shift in Delivery of Healthcare
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1512
Economic and Political Development Concentration
Brown Bag with Dr. Zakiuddin Ahmed, President and CEO of Healthcare Paradigm. Discussant: Dr. Patricia Mechael, Director of Strategic Application of Mobile Technology for Public Health and Development at the Center for Global Health and Economic Development at the Earth Institute, Columbia University. Pizza will be provided.

HOME: A Film Screening and Panel Discussion
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Alfred Lerner Hall, Roone Arledge Cinema
Earth Institute
Lecture with David Berreby, journalist and author (moderator); Sabine Marx, Managing Director, Columbia Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED); Shama Perveen, Associate Research Scientist, Columbia Water Center; Gavin A. Schmidt, climatologist and climate modeler, NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS); Peter Seligmann, Chairman & CEO, Conservation International; Maria Uriarte, Assistant Professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution & Environmental Biology (E3B), Columbia University.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Japanese Youth in Transition: Work, Marriage, and Inequality in Contemporary Japan
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 918
Weatherhead East Asian Institute
WEAI Brown Bag Lecture with Hiroshi Ishida, Professor of Sociology, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Tokyo; Visiting Fellow, Center for Research on Inequalities and the Life Course, Yale University.

Taiwan in Imperial China
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Schermerhorn Hall, Room 963
Weatherhead East Asian Institute
WEAI Lecture with Douglas Fix, Professor of History and Humanities Modern China and Japan, Reed College.

SAI Distinguished Lecture Series: A Talk by 2009 Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1501
South Asian Institute and The Earth Institute
Talk by 2009 Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom, Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science, Indiana University in Bloomington
Register

“Racially Inferior”: Roma, Sinti and Other Holocaust victims
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
The Italian Academy at Columbia University
The Italian Academy
Lecture exploring issues of discrimination and crimes against humanity.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Grzegorz W. Kolodko on Truth, Errors, and Lies: Politics and Economics in a Volatile World
6:15 pm – 7:45 pm
Faculty House, Presidential Room 1
Committee on Global Thought
Talk with Grzegorz W. Kolodko, one of the world’s leading authorities on economics and development policy and former Minister of Finance of Poland. He will discuss his new book, Truth, Errors, and Lies: Politics and Economics in a Volatile World, to be released on February 8th, 2011. Registration for this event is required.
Register

Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development (Human Development Report 2010 – 20th Anniversary Edition)
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1501
Economic and Political Development
Talk with Francisco Rodriguez, Head of the Research Team, UNDP Human Development Report. Moderated by Jose Antonio Ocampo. Discussants, Eugenia McGill and Eric Verhoogen. Reception to follow.

Film Screening and Discussion: Promised Land
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
W&J Warren Hall, Room 209 Morningside Campus
Committee on Global Thought
Film Screening and Discussion featuring “Promised Land,” a film that gives viewers an inside look at the critical story of land reform and racial reconciliation in the new South Africa.
Register

QMSS Seminar
6:10 pm – 9:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 403
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy
Lecture with Sandra Garcia, Universidad de los Andes.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Popular Culture and Nationalism in Lebanon: The Fairouz and Rahbani Nation
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1501
Middle East Institute
Film Screening/Lecture/Book Talk with Professor Christopher Stone, speaking on his newest book Popular Culture and Nationalism in Lebanon: The Fairouz and Rahbani Nation, in conjunction with a screening of “We Loved Each Other So Much.”
Register

The Shah with Abbas Milani
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1512
Middle East Institute
Book Talk with Abbas MilaniHamid and Christina Moghadam, Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University, speaking on his new book, The Shah, a biography which offers in-depth understanding of one of the most significant actors in the creation of the modern Islamic republic.
Register

Friday, February 11, 2011

Columbia Water Center/Earth and Environmental Engineering Seminar: Hydrological Applications of NASA’s GRACE Satellite Mission
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Seeley W. Mudd Building, Room 833
Earth Institute
Lecture with Matt Rodell, Hydrologist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Register

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Categories : Columbia University, SIPA
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Application Processing Update

Posted by Matt Clemons 
· Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 
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I thought I would provide a status update on our processing of applications and I would like to start by saying that the Admissions Committee has not started meeting yet.  In short, we have not started reviewing applications for admission, we are still working very hard on reviewing applications for completion. So here is where we stand . . .

We have printed all of the applications submitted.  While this may sound strange to announce, it is a feat in the sense that all told applications probably represent close to 80,000 printed pages of information.  Printing 80,000 pages and then looking at each one to ensure readability and completion takes us a few weeks.  Do remember that just because you submitted a document or information online does not mean it will automatically be tracked as received. This is normal and full details on tracking were covered in this post (please review the post to familiarize yourself with how we track applications).

We have manually reviewed approximately 70% of the application submitted.  This means we have not even looked at 30% of the applications we have printed.  They are waiting patiently in large piles for us to review.  An application that has not been looked at is at no disadvantage in the admission consideration process.  We will start to assign files to reading teams soon and not all reading teams start reading at the same time – some start in January however some do not start until February. Thus we still have a few weeks before some readers will start reading which gives us time to review applications for completion.

I estimate that when we do complete our review of all printed applications, approximately 35% will still be labeled incomplete – which is where the matching process begins.  After we complete our first sweep through applications submitted and printed we will then go back and look to match documents that were not submitted on the application site.  The matching process takes us more time, but again, files completed a little later than others are at no disadvantage.

As we complete our review if we feel we need any additional information we will send out email messages.  Just because an application does not read complete on the application site does not mean we do not already have everything we need – it likely means that we just have not had the opportunity yet to view your application or search for necessary documents that were submitted and filed to await matching.

So, if you have not received a completion email from us at this point in time do not let it be a point of concern.  We have at least 8-10 more business days of work ahead of us in terms of certifying files as complete.

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Categories : Admissions
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January 17 Office Closure

Posted by Matt Clemons 
· Sunday, January 16th, 2011 
· No Comments

Please note that SIPA, and the entire university for that matter, will be closed on Monday, January 17th in honor of the National Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.  We will resume normal office hours on Tuesday the 18th and we will seek to respond to inquiries received over the holiday weekend as soon as possible upon our return.

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Categories : SIPA
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FeedBurner

Posted by Matt Clemons 
· Saturday, January 15th, 2011 
· No Comments

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.

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Categories : Admissions
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Joint Japan World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program

Posted by Matt Clemons 
· Friday, January 14th, 2011 
· No Comments

Recently we posted information on a $33,000 scholarship opportunity for U.S. citizens, nationals, or permanent residents.  For this entry we have a scholarship opportunity that has provided an average award of $35,000 a year to nationals of World Bank Member countries.

The Joint Japan World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program (JJ/WBGSP) is a wonderful opportunity for those that qualify and wish to submit an application.  It does require a completely separate application from the application submitted to SIPA and it is available via the JJ/WBGSP web site.  The deadline to apply is March 31, 2011.

Here is a brief description of the basic qualifications needed to apply, see the site referenced above for full details.

To apply for a JJ/WBGSP scholarship under the Regular Program, an applicant must:

* Be a national of a World Bank member country eligible to borrow.
* Be born after March 31, 1971.
* Have, by March 31, 2011, at least 2, preferably 4 to 5, years of recent full time professional experience acquired after a university degree, in the applicant’s home country or in another developing country.
* Hold a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent.
* Be in good health.
* Be of good character.
* Not be a permanent resident or a national of any industrialized country.
* Not be residing in an industrialized country for more than one year.
* Not be an Executive Director, his/her alternate, staff of the World Bank Group (the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, International Development Association, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, and International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes), consultant, or relative of the aforementioned.

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Categories : Admissions, Paying for SIPA
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—Merit E. Janow, Dean, SIPA, Professor of Practice, International and Economic Law and International Affairs

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