Archive for Columbia University – Page 13

Learn why SIPA appeared on the NASDAQ Tower in Times Square this week

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Friday, September 16th, 2016 
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NASDAQ EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION GRANT SUPPORTS SIPA INITIATIVES IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND PUBLIC POLICY

Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) will enhance its position as a hub for the study of entrepreneurship, innovation, digital technology, and public policy thanks to a multi-year grant from the Nasdaq Educational Foundation.

SIPA will draw on the foundation’s support to engage scholars, entrepreneurs, and leaders from the public and private sectors to advance understanding of the conditions and means to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, including social entrepreneurship.

The series of initiatives funded by the grant will emphasize entrepreneurship and innovation stemming from both information and communications technology (ICT) and digital technology, along with their intersection with public policy globally. Programming will begin this fall and last for three years through spring 2019.

The grant will support a variety of programs and initiatives. Most significantly, SIPA will:

  • Create a global ideas forum including a University-wide seminar on entrepreneurship.
    • In partnership with Columbia Entrepreneurship, SIPA will examine the conditions that give rise to entrepreneurship and the special relationship worldwide among entrepreneurship, digital technologies, and data.
    • SIPA and Columbia Entrepreneurship will host a series of public seminars and events each year and commission papers from faculty and U.S. and international experts to anchor discussion.
  • Foster thought leadership through global fellows in residence.
    • SIPA will recruit short term visiting global entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, and innovators in residence to bring the latest lessons from the field.
    • SIPA will also recruit a postgraduate fellow in residence to pursue policy research and provide organizational support for the entrepreneurship program.
  • Promote innovative approaches for educating the next generation of entrepreneurs through experiential learning and case study-based teaching, including
    • a new course designed to prepare students to launch a new enterprise, including social enterprise
    • enhancement of the existing Dean’s Public Policy Challenge Grant to include mentorship by global entrepreneurs and innovators in residence
    • commissioning of case studies to help students explore contemporary issues in entrepreneurship, digital technology, and public policy.

“SIPA occupies an increasingly  interesting place at the intersection of digital technology, innovation, and public policy,” said Dean Merit E. Janow of SIPA. “By adding this invaluable support from the Nasdaq Educational Foundation to the extensive resources of Columbia University, we will enhance the School’s ability to collaborate with scholars across the University and other experts to produce important new research, thought leadership, and curricular innovation on the study of entrepreneurship and the policy that supports it.”

“As a global provider of capital markets services, it is our responsibility to educate future leaders,” said Joan Conley, senior vice president and corporate secretary at Nasdaq and managing director of the Nasdaq Educational Foundation. “We are proud to support Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs as they continue to grow and enhance their programs across public policy, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.”

As it develops and pursues activities with the grant’s support, SIPA will engage other units at Columbia University and work in consultation with distinguished colleagues including Professor Eli Noam and Richard Witten. Noam is the Paul Garrett Professor of Public Policy and Business Responsibility at Columbia Business School and the director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information. Witten is a special advisor to Columbia University President Lee Bollinger and director of Columbia Entrepreneurship, a Presidential initiative and umbrella group that supports entrepreneurship University-wide.

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Columbia Magazine: Leave Them Laughing

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Tuesday, September 6th, 2016 
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They say a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down,” says comedian Negin Farsad ’02GSAS, ’04SIPA. “For me, the medicine is challenging stereotypes. And the sugar is a really sophisticated poop joke.”

Farsad admits that scatological humor is the last thing that people expect from her — a relentlessly cheerful, Iranian-American, Muslim comedian with two master’s degrees. But she thinks that means she’s doing something right.

“There’s always an assumption that I’m going to be clean or safe, because I’m an ethnic woman,” she says. “So there’s a particular moment in every show when people realize that I’m different. That’s what I’m after.”

Farsad is what she likes to call a “social-justice comedian,” which means that she wants to start a larger conversation about social issues, but in a way that “doesn’t feel like an afterschool special.” This dialogue takes many forms: in addition to performing stand-up, she is a filmmaker, a TED fellow, and, most recently, the author of a memoir, How to Make White People Laugh.

“If you’re trying to take on the dominant culture about how they treat outsiders, you have to speak to that culture directly,” Farsad says. “I’m not interested in preaching to the choir. I’m interested in changing minds.”

Farsad is intimately familiar with being treated differently. Growing up, she felt like the only Muslim kid in Palm Springs, California (“one of the top five gay cities and one of the top five retirement communities — so it’s basically people listening to Lady Gaga while adjusting their catheters”). After studying theater at Cornell, she wanted to explore the sense of otherness that she experienced as an ethnic minority, so she enrolled at Columbia for a master’s in African-American studies. “I knew that the Black struggle wasn’t my struggle, but I wanted to fight it anyway. It felt Iranian-adjacent,” she says.

“I’m not interested in preaching to the choir. I’m interested in changing minds.”

But in the post-9/11 world, the rhetoric around Muslims in America was changing, dangerously. “I thought, how could people associate this kind of violence with a whole religion and an entire region — that’s just crazy. That’s like stereotyping 1.6 billion people. Who does that? Americans.”

Farsad was particularly frustrated with the lack of Muslims in pop culture. The less visible Muslims were, she felt, the more feared and misunderstood they became. After leaving a public-policy job in 2008, she organized a group of fellow Muslim comics to tour the country. (Film from the tour became Farsad’s 2013 documentary The Muslims Are Coming!)

Now, Farsad also hosts a podcast called Fake the Nation, a political roundtable with a rotating cast of comedians. And she stars in the new movie 3rd Street Blackout, a romantic comedy that takes place in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. “That one isn’t so political,” Farsad says. “Though when you’re Iranian, people seem to think everything is political.”

Some of the reactions to Farsad’s work have been heartbreaking: “I’ve heard every racist, sexist, hate-filled slur you can imagine.” She’s also had pushback from some fellow Muslims, who have objected to her unorthodox methods. But she says that there are certainly enough positive reactions to keep propelling her forward.

“I always think about the ex-Marine who had been stationed in Afghanistan,” she says. “He came in angry and left laughing.”

[Photo by Ryan Lash]

This article originally appeared in Columbia Magazine.

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How alumni helped the lion roar on campus

Posted by Kaitlyn Wells 
· Wednesday, July 27th, 2016 
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I’m not going to lie. I LOVE lions. They are fierce, they have some great looking manes, and the females bring home the delicious bacon (antelope?). So it is probably kismet when I got my master’s degree from Columbia University, and joined its ranks a couple years thereafter. Why? Well the Columbia lion is a prevalent symbol on campus. There are plush versions found in the campus bookstore, blue-on-blue symbols donned on sportswear, a handful of stone and bronze sculptures planted across the grounds, and even a fight song all about encouraging the lion to roar. If you are fond of these giant felines and are curious to learn more about how the lion became so prominent on campus, then this blog post is for you.

Click on the link below to take a closer look at the different ways Columbia University has honored our mascot and king of the jungle, and helped him become the symbol we all know and love today.

Columbia’s King of the Jungle and the Columbia Alumni Who Crowned Him

h/t Lin Lan, Columbia Alumni Association

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5 Brexit questions with Economist Jan Svejnar

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Monday, July 25th, 2016 
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From Columbia News, June 24, 2016:

The fallout from Brexit, the British exit from the European Union, was nearly immediate. Every global market sank. British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned. A large U.S. investment bank announced it would move 2,000 jobs out of London to either Dublin or Frankfurt, the credit agency Standard & Poor’s said that the Britain would lose its AAA rating while Moody’s lowered its rating to negative from stable.

More shoes are still to drop, according to Jan Svejnar, the James T. Shotwell Professor of Global Political Economy at the School of International and Public Affairs. While he knew the vote would be close, he believed that Britons would ultimately stay. He was surprised the leave vote was as strong as it was, 52 percent to 48 percent.

The repercussions will be significant. “I think we are seeing the unraveling of Great Britain,” he said. Scotland, which two years ago voted no on an independence referendum, will probably opt for a new one. Northern Ireland could do the same. “We may be going from Great Britain to small England.”

Here, Svejnar answers five questions about what will happen now that Britain is withdrawing from the EU.

Q. What happens next?

A. We are already seeing the first impacts, the gyrations in the stock markets and foreign exchange markets. I think that may continue for a while. Next will come a first round of tough political decisions. German chancellor Angela Merkel will be getting together with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and French president Francois Hollande to prepare a statement and stake out their approach to the British decision.

Q. What kind of approach might that be?

A. They have to negotiate a separation, which won’t be easy. If it is done too fast and too vigorously, it could alienate other EU nations, who may insist the rest of the 25 members should have been consulted rather than having a particular solution designed by the leaders of only those three countries shoved down their throats. There are free trade policies and immigration pacts and a swath of EU regulations that must be unraveled or replaced. The EU won’t want to make it easy for Britain to leave, they don’t want this to set a precedent for other countries.

Q. What kind of economic fallout do you foresee?

A. There are two years to negotiate the exit, unless markets destabilize to such an extent that they can’t afford to take that long. All the agreements between the EU and Britain must be renegotiated. There may be a substantial relocation of capital from Britain. London could lose its status as a global hub of finance, and I’ve already heard that some banks are looking to move their headquarters.

Q. How does this affect the rest of Europe, or the world?

A. Britain is now the second largest economy in the EU, and the most outward oriented. There is a chance that Europe itself gets destabilized, because now other governments may ask for exceptions and exemptions from EU regulations. If that happens, Europe may not look to be as friendly a place to invest in, and investors may look to other parts of the world. Also, other nations will be cautious about raising interest rates, to make sure there is no economic contagion.

Q. Is there any chance that this can be reversed?

A. In principle, yes. It takes a vote of Parliament for the decision to become final. Parliament could conceivably go against the referendum, but the vote was 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent. It would be hard for it to say this was just a joke. Given that David Cameron has already resigned, I don’t see that this can be stopped.

[Photo by Bruce Gilbert]
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5 ways to get around Columbia University

Posted by Kaitlyn Wells 
· Wednesday, July 13th, 2016 
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Figuring out transportation can be one of the most intimidating aspects of visiting a new city. New York City has one of the most streamlined, yet oftentimes complicated transportation systems in the country (and possibly the world). New Yorkers love the convenience of the subway system, but hate the complications that a soggy or snowy day can easily creates in its wake. OK, ok…I won’t freak you out too much.

Actually, after a couple of trips from Point A to Point B it’s pretty easy to get the hang of how the transportation works in the city, as former PA Allison Walker explains in a recent blog post. And I’ll prove it. Columbia University has a few tips on getting around not only the city, but on how you can make commuting from your apartment to campus all-the-more easier. Here are 5 ways to get around Columbia University.

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1. Get An MTA Card
There is no shortage of transportation options in and around the greater New York City area and beyond, thanks to the MTA and the New York Waterway.

According to the MTA, mass transit helps New Yorkers avoid about 17 million metric tons of pollutants while emitting only 2 million metric tons, making it perhaps the single biggest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) avoidance in the United States. Visit the MTA website for subway, bus, Metro-North and Long Island Railroad schedules and service announcements.

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2. Take A Stroll
Walking is the most basic form of transportation, and it’s one of Columbia’s preferred commute modes. Walking is a terrific way to travel for both your health and for the environment. Pedestrian activity and street life adds to the vibrancy, health, and safety of our communities. Walk on, Columbia. (Hint:Use the walk mode in Google Maps to determine a walking route, distance, and timing.)

Walking is faster than you might think

  • 10 blocks (0.5 mile) takes about 10 minutes to walk.
  • Most people walk about 3 miles per hour or 1 block per minute.
  • Walking between avenues takes about 3 minutes.

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3. Bike to Campus
New York City is rapidly expanding its bike-ability. In 2015, NYC reached over 1,000 miles of bike lanes. New York City doubled bicycle commuting between 2007 and 2011, and aims to triple it by 2017. At Columbia, with over 1,000 bike commuters, bike commuting has more than doubled since 2004. The growing bike culture and bike lane network is a move towards safer streets and increased transportation options.

By bike it takes about:

  • 4 minutes to bike 10 blocks
  • 21 minutes to bike between Morningside and CUMC, via the car-free, Hudson River Greenway. Map route
  • 15 minutes to bike between the Upper East Side and Morningside. Map route
  • 8 minutes to bike between Morningside and Manhattanville. Map route

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4. Take the Intercampus Shuttle
The Intercampus shuttle runs Monday through Friday, excluding University holidays. Get real-time shuttle location and arrival information from any computer or smartphone using TransLoc. Track the Columbia buses in real-time at columbia.transloc.com or download the free TransLoc Transit Visualization app to access information while on the go, including real-time location of all buses and announcements of potential service disruptions. Shuttle route maps may be downloaded here.

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5. Carpool With Classmates
Carpooling allows you to share the cost and driving responsibilities of your commute with another passenger. This page provides information and tools to help you find carpool partners and help you learn about the incentives that support carpooling.

Want more tips for getting around campus this fall? Visit Columbia University’s Transportation website at transportation.columbia.edu. For admissions questions, please do not hesitate to contact our office at 212-854-6216 or [email protected].

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"The most global public policy school, where an international community of students and faculty address world challenges."

—Merit E. Janow, Dean, SIPA, Professor of Practice, International and Economic Law and International Affairs

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