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 human righs and articles touch on U.S. Prison Labor, the Politics of Justice, and peace possibilities for residents of Gaza and Israel.
The full magazine is available for veiwing as a PDF by clicking here. All previous issues of SIPA News can also be viewed on line by clicking here.
Two times of year always get me really pumped up: orientation and graduation. For all but a few months of my entire life I have either been in school or worked for a school. Orientation is particularly great for me because I get the rush of starting school, but I do not actually have to go to class and do the work. Graduation is a rush for obvious reasons.
SIPA students participate in two ceremonies. The first is a school specific ceremony and the second is a combined graduation ceremony for all of the schools at the university. At the SIPA graduation on Monday I was reminded of how close SIPA students become. Recently I was contacted by an applicant who had a question about the atmosphere at SIPA. The question was something along the lines of, “Is SIPA more competitive or more community oriented.”
I posed this question to a graduating student and she said, “I think SIPA can best be described as collaborative.” As she elaborated she talked about the fact that students at SIPA typically represent close to 100 different countries, do a great deal of group work, and share many common goals. She talked about the fact that since so many students are from so many different places, it is likely you will find someone who has lived or done something very similar to what you wish to do. Through group work, student groups, and workshops, friendships are formed that will last for a lifetime. The opportunity to study in one of the most diverse cities in the world with a community of diverse students is a unique attribute that is hard to duplicate.
I am still in close touch with several of the people I went to graduate school with and I witnessed the same type of bond at graduation this week. Yes, a strong sense of community does exist at SIPA and it is clear to see it. It binds people through subject matter, career goals, sense of purpose, and genuine friendship.
The main Columbia graduation takes place in the campus quad and from the top of the SIPA building there is a great view. The picture I took with my Blackberry is not the best, but it gives you an idea of what a unique ceremony it is. And the weather was fabulous!
Michael Oren (MIA ’78) has been appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to become Israel’s next ambassador to the United States. Oren completed a BA at Columbia College, an MIA at SIPA, and was an International Fellow. He has taught at Georgetown, Harvard and Yale, and is known for advocating that Israel unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank.
I am pleased to announce a program that has been in the works for quite some time. SIPA has officially launched a new Global Fellows Program. The program will bring to campus each year a distinguished group of global leaders, each of whom has played a significant role in designing, shaping, or implementing solutions to critical global problems.
The first cohort of SIPA Global Fellows will include Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Former Chancellor of Austria Alfred Gusenbauer, and Tung Chee Hwa, Former and first Chief Executive of Hong Kong.
The Global Fellows will serve as important resources for academic and professional programs across the University through public lectures, seminar meetings with faculty and students, mentoring SIPA students, and providing advice on research and teaching in their areas of knowledge and experience.
“The Global Fellows Program expands on a long tradition at Columbia, in particular at SIPA, of engaging world leaders in the research and educational mission of the university,” according to SIPA Dean John Coatsworth. “From the Columbia World Leaders forum, to special lectures and ongoing collaborative research projects, policymakers from around the world serve as a bridge between Columbia’s faculty, and students and a global community that faces tough policy issues on a daily basis,” he said.
Coatsworth acknowledged the support of Columbia President Lee Bollinger, who helped to recruit Annan and provided support for his new role at the University. Coatsworth also credited SIPA Advisory Board member James Leitner for supporting the appointment of Mr. Gusenbauer as the first Leitner Global Fellow. Gusenbauer presented a series of seminars co-sponsored by the European Institute earlier this month.
For more information on the Columbia-SIPA Global Fellows Program, please click here.
SIPA professor Jeff Sachs recently appeared on a segment of ABC news to discuss investment in alternative forms of energy. Professor Sachs is a Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and from 2002 to 2006 was the Director of the UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, the internationally agreed goals to reduce extreme poverty, disease, and hunger by the year 2015.
To read the article and view the accompanying video, please click here.
"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
