Placement Exams!

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By now, all students should have been notified directly of the results of their placement exam.

If you have not received the information for the following exams, please go to 403 Lerner to find your results:

• Chemistry
• Italian
• French
• Spanish
• Physics (2801-2802)

For all other exams and specific questions about exam results, students should check with the appropriate department: CLICK HERE for other DEPARTMENTS

Chemistry
Dr. Vesna Gasperov
Program Coordinator for Undergraduate Studies
211 Havemeyer Hall
Phone: 212-854-2017
Email: vg2231@columbia.edu

Physics
Professor Brian Cole
926 Pupin Hall
Phone: 212-854-6143
Email: cole@nevis.columbia.edu

Math
Professor Patrick Gallagher
Director of Undergraduate Studies
411 Math
Phone: 212-854-4346
Email: pxg@math.columbia.edu
http://www.math.columbia.edu/programs/main/one/calculus.html

Music Humanities Exemption Exam
Professor Elaine Sisman
613 Dodge Hall
Phone: 212-854-7728
Email: es53@columbia.edu

Arabic
Professor Taoufik Ben Amor
608A Kent
Phone: 212- 854-2895
Email: tb46@columbia.edu

Chinese
Professor Meng Yuan-yuan
401 Kent Hall
Phone: 212-854-4740
Email: ym11@columbia.edu

French
Professor Hubert-Leibler
Director of the French Language Program:
519 Philosophy Hall
Email: ph2028@columbia.edu
Phone: (212)854-4819

German
Richard Alan Korb
German Language Program Director
311 Hamilton Hall
Phone: 212-854-2070
Email: rak23@columbia.edu

Hebrew
Nehama R. Bersohn
609 Kent
Phone: 212 854 6668
Email: nrb1@columbia.edu
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mealac/

Hindi-Urdu
Rakesh Ranjan
609 Kent Hall
Phone: 212 854 9626
Email: rr2574@columbia.edu

Italian
Maria Luisa Gozzi
Acting Director of the Language Instruction Program
508 Hamilton Hall
Phone: 212-854-6136
Email: mlg30@columbia.edu
URL: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/italian/

Japanese
Mamoru Hatakeyama
520 Kent
Phone: 212-854-5502
Email: mh2020@columbia.edu

Korean
Carol Schulz
Director, Korean Language Program
402 Kent
Phone: 212-854-5037
Email: chs3@columbia.edu

Latin
Professor Deborah T. Steiner
Director of Undergraduate Studies
604 Hamilton Hall
Phone: 212-854-4188
Email: dts8@columbia.edu

Spanish
Guadalupe Ruiz-Fajardo
Director of the Language Programs
Casa Hispánica 401
Phone: 212-854-3764
Email: gr2250@columbia.edu

ATTENTION FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS!

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Students in need of switching their section of University Writing as well as students attempting to reverse the order of their enrollment in UW and Frontiers of Science should go to the Undergraduate Writing Program office:
310 Philosophy Hall, FRIDAY August 29, 2008
From 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM

About University Writing Section Changes
Students will only be accommodated in the case of schedule conflicts with other Core courses or required classes or similar obligation. Students cannot be guaranteed a section change: it will be allowed only if there is space available. Sections of University Writing will not be oversubscribed.

About Reversing the order of University Writing and Frontiers of Science
Students with a compelling reason to reverse the order of their enrollment in University Writing and Frontiers of Science may petition as well. Petitions must include a strong argument for the request. Even then, the granting of a petition is not guaranteed as it depends on space availability in both courses.

ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS!

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CORE REGISTRATION:
Tuesday, September 2 to Monday, September 8, 2008
Center for the Core Curriculum, 202 Hamilton Hall
During this time, students unable to register in or change sections of the Core courses listed may file petitions to do so at the Core office: Literature Humanities, Contemporary Civilization, African Civilization, Art Humanities, Music Humanities, Frontiers of Science.

Changes will only be made for students who have conflicts with another Core class, major requirement, or varsity athletic practice.

All requests must be made in person by filing a petition with the Core Office in 202 Hamilton.

ATTENDANCE of Core classes is always a crucial but it is particularly so during this registration period– if you miss the first two classes, you will not be guaranteed a seat.

Last day to ADD a Core Class: Monday, September 8, 2008
After this date students MAY NOT add a Core class. Students with questions and concerns should see their Advising Deans.

Last day to DROP a Core Class: Friday, September 12, 2008 by 5 PM
After this date students MAY NOT drop their Core classes. Students with questions and concerns should see their Advising Deans. This Core Drop date happens much earlier than the regular drop date, so it is imperative that students keep this deadline in mind as they work out their schedules. NOTE TO FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS: Literature Humanities, University Writing or Frontiers of Science CANNOT BE DROPPED…

THE APOLOGY OF SOCRATES (a one-man play)

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 11 AM in Lerner Hall
Free and open to the community; don’t want to miss it!
In 399 BCE, Socrates was tried and convicted on a charge of impiety. The jury and judge of the trial were 500 (or 501) of his fellow Athenians. He was sentenced to death and compelled by the court to commit suicide by drinking hemlock. Plato’s Apology purports to represent the defense-speech that Socrates delivered before the jury. The speech stands as an eloquent justification of the “examined life” lived in keeping with the highest principles, according to which the “goods of the soul” are consistently upheld as the most important of all.

Idealist.org New York Graduate Degree Fair for the Public Good

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Thinking about grad school to further your social change career goals?
Want to make a difference with a graduate degree?

Idealist.org New York Graduate Degree Fair for the Public Good
...where you
-meet with representatives from a wide range of social change graduate programs
-explore how different graduate degrees for the public good, from management and social work, to public health and public interest law can provide career and leadership development opportunities
-attend a panel of graduate admissions professionals to glean insight to the admissions process

Free and open to the public!
Hosted by Teachers College at Columbia University
http://www.tc.columbia.edu/

Wednesday, September 10
5:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Columbia University
2920 Broadway
Alfred Lerner Hall Student Center
Main entrance on W 116th and Broadway
Roone Arledge Auditorium
Auditorium Lobby North and Main Auditorium Floor

*for more info and to register visit: http://snipurl.com/ny08gf
Pre-registered individuals will receive free tips on how to prepare for the fair, reminders and any updates via e-mail

Free Lunch for Chemical Engineering Majors

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Dear Chemical Engineering Juniors (and interested Sophomores):

This coming Thursday, September 4, the Chemical Engineering Department will be hosting a lunch to welcome juniors and interested sophomores into our program.

This event is sponsored by the Columbia Engineering School Alumni Association (CESAA). There will be a brief presentation outlining aspects of the program including research opportunities for undergraduates.

The lunch will begin at 12:15 p.m. and be held in the Chemical Engineering Department, 8th floor Mudd Bldg. Advisors from Chemical Engineering and from the Center for Student Advising will be there. Come and meet the Department staff and faculty and enjoy a free lunch. We hope to see you there.


Sincerely,

Prof. Durning
Prof. Koberstein
Prof. Banta
Prof. McNeill

Music Instruction Classes at Teachers College

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Columbia College students wishing to take music instruction classes at Teachers College must complete and submit to the Dean of Academic Affairs the special enrollment form, available in the Office of the Dean, 208 Hamilton Hall.

*** Please note that you will be charged by Teachers College their per credit tuition, which is currently $1030, plus a $100 course fee ***

BUSI W3021 Intro to Marketing

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BUSI W3021 Intro to Marketing has been opened up to SEAS undergrads.
There are a few spaces left.

(This class replaces BUSI W3020 as a requirement for the minor in entrepreneurship. Students who may have taken W3020 in the past can certainly still use it to fulfill the requirement.)

ENGI 2261 - Intro to Accounting and Finance

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ENGI E2261, Intro to Accounting and Finance, has been opened up to CC students. There are a few spots left to be filled.

New course offered by the Business School for CC Sophomores, Juniors & Seniors this fall

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Dear Columbia College Sophomores, Juniors & Seniors,

As part of the collaboration between Columbia College and the Business School the following new course will by offered by the Business School for Columbia College students this fall:

Business W3703
LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATION
Call Number: 67215 Points: 3
Day/Time: M 4:00pm-7:00pm Location: 208 W & J Warren Hall
Instructors: Malia F Mason and Daniel Beunza

Description: Understanding organizations is a fascinating intellectual and professional challenge. Bureaucracies, corporations, networks, sororities, fraternities, hospitals and non-profit companies share key traits that shape life in them. Organizations can be dysfunctional, like the imaginary paper company Dunder Mifflin in “The Office,” or desirable places to work like Google Inc. Their leaders can be unremarkable or charismatic like Steve Jobs. What differentiates the best from the worst? The course examines this question and related issues by presenting extant research in the psychology and sociology of organizations.

In addition, as part of this collaboration a course tentatively titled Principles of Accounting will be offered in the Spring 2009 semester.

These courses, specifically developed for undergraduates, will be open to juniors and seniors.

***************************************************

In addition to these courses, the Business School has several research assistant positions open to undergraduate as follows. Students interested in any of these positions should send resumes to Claudia Fong at: clf2116@columbia.edu

Job Description: Work with Columbia Business School professors - conduct library and online research, manage databases and files, enter and clean data (check for errors), spreadsheet manipulation.

1. Search and read news articles.
2. Participate in data collection and analysis for research projects including development of data sets; perform statistical analysis, including running regressions; assist with data entry and maintain computer data sets in appropriate analytic programs.
3. Assist with data analysis, interpretation, write up and dissemination of findings through reports, journal articles, presentations and other means.
4. Maintain the status of various projects and their corresponding completion dates.
5. Prepare presentations for teaching and research projects.

Job Requirements: proficiency in researching electronic databases and library collections is essential; internet and database searching; strong Microsoft Word and Excel skills; writing/proofreading skills; detail oriented and organized; reliable

Coursework in economics, mathematics, statistics, computer science, and psychology preferred. Previous research experience and computer programming skills are a strong plus. Excellent organizational and oral/written communication skills required. Good working knowledge of relevant computer software and statistics packages (i.e. Stata, Excel, Powerpoint, and/or other statistical programs such as SAS or programming languages such as Java or Unix) is strongly preferred.

Must be at least a sophomore; juniors or seniors preferred

Federal work-study eligibility preferred, but all students welcome to apply.

Hours: vary according to schedule; 5-20 hours per week

Hourly Rate: $10-15/hour

Timeframe: 2008-2009 Academic Year



***************************************************

Job Description: Columbia Business School is seeking several highly motivated students to serve as Research Assistants for the fall and spring semesters. RAs will assist Business School professors and staff in tasks related to behavioral research. Research assistants will help with recruiting participants for studies, running experiments, performing data entry/maintenance and some analysis. This position provides a wonderful opportunity to become more familiar with Business School research, including research in marketing, consumer behavior, organizational psychology and behavioral economics.

Job Requirements: Applicants must be reliable, detail oriented and organized, have excellent communication and people skills; and be proficient in Microsoft Excel.

Federal work-study eligibility preferred, but all students welcome to apply.

Hours: vary according to schedule; 5-20 hours per week

Hourly Rate: $12/hour

Work location: Uris Hall and possibly other locations near Columbia campus and in the city.

Timeframe: 2008-2009 Academic Year

Great Tutors Needed ($15-$18/hr.)

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THE APPLICATION PROCESS IS NOW CLOSED

WE ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THE FALL

PLEASE CHECK BACK WITH US IN THE SPRING -- THANK YOU!!!

The Academic Resource Center (ARC) is looking for GREAT tutors to work with GS students.

If you are interested in being a tutor please stop by the Academic Resource Center in 308 C Lewisohn Hall to pick up an application.

Undergraduates
$15 per hour
(Physics I, II, Chemistry I, II, Pre-Calculus, Calculus I, II,
French all levels; Spanish all levels; Italian all levels, Organic Chemistry)

Undergraduates
$18 per hour
(Tutoring the following subjects: Biology (must have taken the course at Columbia), Principles of Economics, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Statistics, Arabic, Calculus III, Linear Algebra)


If you have any questions please feel free to email me.

Thank you

Leslie Limardo

==============

Leslie Limardo
Assistant Dean for Academic Support
Columbia University
School of General Studies
Academic Resource Center
308 C Lewisohn Hall
p. 212.854.4097
f. 212.851.0750

Frontiers of Science

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For all the CC First-Years taking Frontiers of Science...

Academic Resources Fair - Thursday, August 28th

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The Academic Resources Fair is your opportunity to understand the range of academic resources available to you as a Columbia student. Faculty representatives from every academic department and program will attend. You may ask specific questions, obtain program information and materials, and learn about upcoming academic events.


ACADEMIC RESOURCES FAIR
Thursday, August 28th
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Alfred Lerner Hall
Roone Arledge Auditorium

Some questions to ask at the Academic Resources Fair:

• **What are some useful first courses to take so I can become familiar with this field of study and department? When should I take them?
• **Given my background, at what level should I begin my study of this subject? (Be prepared to describe your familiarity with the subject.)
• **Are there important prerequisites that I should take now so that I am prepared to declare this major in my sophomore year?
• **What undergraduate research or professional opportunities exist in the department? What careers do graduates follow?

WELCOME Class of 2012

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Welcome to Columbia!!!

NSOP 2008 invites you to view the schedule online!
Download the pdf HERE!!

You can find all other NSOP info here:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/orientation/

PLEASE remember to sign-up for your 10-minute advising appointment with your Advising Dean. Advising is for only 10-minutes Tuesday through Friday (8/26 - 8/29). Have your questions and at least 2 possible class schedules ready to be discussed.

Registration starts on Friday (8/29). Make sure you meet your Dean and get advising before you register. Don't miss out on that class you really want. Priceless registration tips and advice will be given out.

Check SSOL for your on-line registration times.

GLOBAL CORE: 2008-2009 PRELIMINARY APPROVED COURSE LIST

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GLOBAL CORE
2008-2009 PRELIMINARY APPROVED COURSE LIST
Fall 2008
8/25/08

The Global Core requirement consists of courses which are broadly introductory, interdisciplinary, and temporally or spatially expansive. Like other Core courses, Global Core courses are organized around a set of primary texts, new media (film, ritual performance, etc) or oral sources produced in the regions of the world in question. Global Core courses fall into two categories: those which focus on a specific culture or civilization, tracing its appearance and existence across a significant span of time and sometimes across more than one present-day country or region; and those which address several world settings or cultures comparatively (and may include Europe and the West), through a common theme, set of analytic questions, or through interactions among different world regions.

Students must complete two courses from this list for a letter grade.

**The Class of 2012 must fulfill the Global Core requirement; Classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011 can choose to fulfill either Major Cultures or Global Requirement.

An updated list of approved courses will be available prior to spring registration.

Anthropology [ANTH]:
V1008 The rise of civilization
V2010 Major debates in the study of Africa
V2100 Muslim societies
V3027 Archaeology and Africa: changing perceptions of the African past
V3300 Pre-Columbian histories of Native America
W4001 The ancient empires

African Civilizations [AFCV]:
C1020 African civilization

Art History and Archaeology [AHIS]:
V3201 The arts of China
V3203 The arts of Japan
W3208 Arts of Africa
AHUM V3340 Art in China, Japan, and Korea
AHUM V3342 Masterpieces of Indian art and architecture
AHUM V3343 Masterpieces of Islamic art and architecture
G4073 African art, architecture, and ideas
G4085 Andean art and architecture

Colloquia and Interdepartmental Seminars [INSM]:
W3920 Nobility and civility

Comparative Ethnic Studies [CSER]:
W1010 Introduction to comparative ethnic studies

Comparative Literature and Society [CPLS]:
W3620 Islam and Europe

East Asian Languages and Cultures [EAAS]:
ASCE V2002 Introduction to major topics in Asian civilizations: East Asia
ASCE V2359 Introduction to East Asian civilizations: China
ASCE V2361 Introduction to East Asian civilizations: Japan
ASCE V2363 Introduction to East Asian civilizations: Korea
ASCE V2365 Introduction to East Asian civilizations: Tibet
W3338 Cultural history of Japanese monsters
AHUM V3400 Colloquium on major texts: East Asia
AHUM V3830 Colloquium on modern East Asian texts
HSEA W3898 The Mongols in history
AHUM W4027 Colloquium on major works of Chinese philosophy, religion, and literature, I
AHUM W4028 Colloquium on major works of Chinese philosophy, religion, and literature, II
AHUM W4029 Colloquium on major works of Japanese philosophy, religion, and literature, I
AHUM W4030 Colloquium on major works of Japanese philosophy, religion, and literature, II
HSEA W4881 Gods, ghosts, and ancestors: social history of Chinese religion

History [HIST]:
W3618 The Caribbean in the 19th and 20th centuries
W3660 History of Latin American civilization I, pre-Columbian to 1810
W3665 Economic history of Latin America
W3711 Islamo-Christian civlization
W3719 History of the modern Middle East
W3760 Main currents in African history
HSEA W3898 The Mongols in history
W4404 Native American history
HSEA W4881 Gods, ghosts, and ancestors: social history of Chinese religion

Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures [MDES]:
ASCM V2001 Introduction to major topics in Asian civilizations: the Middle East and India
ASCM V2003 Introduction to Islamic civilization
ASCM V2008 Contemporary Islamic civilization
CLME W3000 Theories of culture: Middle East and South Asia
W3004 Islam in South Asia
AHUM V3399 Colloquium on major texts: Middle East and Asia
CLME W4031 Cinema and society in Asia and Africa
SPME W4200 Andalusian symbiosis: Arabs and the West
W4251 Introduction to political thought in the modern Middle East

Music [MUSI]:
V2020 Salsa, soca, and reggae: popular musics of the Caribbean
AHMM V3320 Introduction to the musics of East Asia and Southeast Asia
AHMM V3321 Introduction to the musics of India and West Asia

Political Science [POLS]:
W4445 Politics of the Middle East and North Africa
G4461 Latin American politics

Religion [RELI]:
V2005 Buddhism: Indo-Tibetan
V2008 Buddhism: East Asian
V2205 Hinduism
V2305 Islam
V2802 Introduction to Asian religions

Spanish and Portuguese [SPAN]:
W3265 Latin American literature in translation
W3349 Hispanic culture: Islamic Spain through the colonial period
W3350 Hispanic culture: Enlightenment to the present
W3490 Latin American humanities, I (in English)
W3491 Latin American humanities, II (in English)
SPME W4200 Andalusian symbiosis: Arabs and the West

Course Announcement (Introduction to Biomedical Informatics, G4001)

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This course is taught by medical school faculty on the Morningside campus. It is open to undergraduates and might be an interesting course for students interested in this discipline.

----------------
COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT

Biomedical Informatics G4001 (Introduction to Biomedical Informatics)

Semester: Fall 2008
Location: Mudd 327 (Morningside Campus)
Date/Time: Mon & Weds (4:10-5:25pm)
Lecturers: Michael F. Chiang, MD; Other speakers from Biomedical Informatics
Prerequisites: None, although experience with computers and a passing familiarity with medicine will be useful. The course is open to health sciences students, graduate students, and undergraduates.

Description: An overview of the field of biomedical informatics, combining perspectives from medicine, computer science, and social science. Course will discuss the use of computers and information technology in health care and the biomedical sciences, covering specific applications, general methods, current issues, capabilities, and limitations of biomedical informatics. Biomedical informatics studies the organization of medical information, the effective management of information using computer technology, and the impact of such technology on medical research, education, patient care, and public health. The field explores techniques for assessing current information practices, determining the information needs of health care providers and patients, developing interventions using computer technology, and evaluating the effect of those interventions.

Letter from Frontiers of Science head, Prof. Helfand

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PROFESSOR HELFAND'S LETTER TO CC FIRST-YEARS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Students:

As part of your Columbia experience this year, you will be taking Frontiers of Science, the latest addition to Columbia's Core Curriculum.

Some of Columbia's most distinguished scientists from a variety of scientific disciplines will present the latest discoveries in their fields, and explore the unknowns on the frontiers of our current knowledge to speculate on the discoveries to come in your future. Our goals for the course are straightforward:

1) to demonstrate the dynamic mode of inquiry we call science while enriching your perspective on the universe, and
2) to inculcate some of the habits of mind that inform this rational approach to the world.

Students entering Columbia come from a rich variety of backgrounds and, particularly as far as their exposure to science is concerned, arrive with a wide range of experiences (from the good to the bad to the ugly).

In order to provide a self-assessment of your experience and to illustrate many of the quantitative reasoning skills Frontiers requires, I have prepared an electronic book, "Scientific Habits of Mind". It is probably unlike any "science" text you have had in high school. It is not very long, and it is not crammed with bold-faced words to memorize or equations to plug and chug through with your calculator. Many of the ideas discussed may be familiar.

It is our experience, however, that while many students may have seen the concepts presented, not all have truly mastered them or feel comfortable exercising their knowledge of them. Thus, we strongly suggest that you read "Habits" this summer. In the first three chapters, short self-assessments are provided; these can be used to determine whether you need to brush up on the skills highlighted in these chapters. Concepts from later chapters, also essential to Frontiers but possibly less familiar to you, will be covered in seminar. There will also be a weekly help room, where you will find assistance in mastering these (possibly less familiar) concepts.

You can access Scientific Habits of Mind (for free) at:

http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/frontiers/

NB. If you are accessing this from off-campus (which we hope you do) you need the following name and password:

username: science
password: openmind

I would be interested in any feedback you have that could help me improve the book for future students; feel free to contact me with comments (djh@astro.columbia.edu).

Sincerely yours,

David J. Helfand
Chair, Dept. of Astronomy
co-Chair, Frontiers of Science

Literature-Humanities: Summer Reading Assignment Clarification

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Dear Students,

Some of you have written and called the Core Office to express confusion at the fact that although you were told at Summer Advising Sessions that you were responsible for reading through Book 6 of the Iliad, Prof. Williams's letter states that you should read through Book 12.

We are e-mailing to clarify that indeed, as per Prof. Williams's letter, you should read through *Book 12*. (The assignment has fluctuated over the years, and so it makes sense we assumed, in advance of seeing Prof. Williams letter, that Books 1-6 would be the assignment this year, but it is in fact longer). We apologize for the confusion.

Best wishes for your first week,

Core Office Staff

To: the Columbia College Class of 2012

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To: the Columbia College Class of 2012
From: Gareth Williams, chair of Literature-Humanities

I write to welcome you to Columbia, to the Columbia Core Curriculum, and most especially to Literature-Humanities, our fabled course for all entering undergraduates that is designed to enhance our students’ knowledge of certain main lines of literary development that have shaped the western canon over nearly three millennia. As you know, the course takes us on travels from Homeric Greece to Shakespearian England, from the Athens of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Plato to the Florence of Dante and Boccaccio, from Virgil’s Rome to Montaigne’s France. As we journey to these and other places, you will find that our itinerary is not one of simple adoration and spectatorship, but is meant to encourage all of us to become careful, critical readers of the literary past that we have inherited: what was it in the works that we shall read that caused previous generations to value them so highly? What is the artistic or human value that makes these works relevant to a modern age that is technologically advanced in ways unimaginable only a century ago? To what extent, and in what ways, can the different works on the syllabus be seen to be in conversation with each other across centuries and across cultures? PLEASE Click on READ MORE above




These questions offer just a sample of the kinds of provocation that Literature-Humanities is meant to arouse in both students and instructors. The course is designed to stimulate discussion which can allow us all to learn from each other; and to facilitate that discussion, each section of the course is limited to only 22 students. Some of you will perhaps already have read some of the works on the syllabus, but even the most experienced instructors of Literature-Humanities speak of the thrill of encountering (say) the Iliad for the fiftieth time as if it were a fresh text that invariably yields new insights, different discoveries and modified viewpoints. The course is certainly not intended to ‘teach’ you what a given text is ‘about’ in a clinical, finished way; it is intended to raise more questions than it answers, and to nurture a curiosity about written human experience that will perhaps cause you to return to these texts at a later age as if they were companions for life, and not a mere assignment that you left behind so many years ago.

As a foretaste of the Literature-Humanities experience, I look forward to sharing some preliminary thoughts on the course and on your first reading assignment, Iliad 1-12, in a lecture from 12.30-2 on Wednesday, August 27th at the Roone Arledge Auditorium in Lerner Hall. If we glance for a moment beyond the Columbia campus, however, we are fortunate to live in a city that boasts so many cultural riches. I very much hope that, as a form of supplementation to your cultural experience in Literature-Humanities and the rest of the Core Curriculum, you will soon become acquainted with such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (to name only three of countless museums, galleries, musical venues, and so on). In order to give you better access to these riches, the Columbia University Arts Initiative has made available to all undergraduates subsidized ticketing for many events in the five boroughs. I strongly encourage you to take advantage of this wonderful resource by exploring the ticket options that are now available at the Arts Initiative’s Ticket and Information Center in the lobby of Lerner Hall.

I am also delighted to report that the Office of the Core Curriculum has worked closely with the Arts Initiative to organize certain events through the academic year which will beneficially supplement the text-based orientation of Literature-Humanities in the classroom. I have three exciting initiatives to announce:


(i) Two years ago the celebrated Yannis Simonides staged a well received one-man performance of Plato’s Apology here at Columbia: on Friday September 5th, at 11 a.m., he will make a welcome return to campus in a re-performance of ‘The Apology of Socrates’ – a staging that is intended to focus your thoughts on emerging cultural and social tensions in fifth-century BCE Athens before you study the Greek dramatists (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes, king of comedy) and finally arrive at Plato’s Symposium in the Literature-Humanities syllabus.

(ii) In order to bring the Greek dramatists alive, The Miller Theater is producing a one hour opera in Greek based on Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy. The opera was written by the celebrated Greek composer and architect, Iannes Xenakis. It has a cast of 75 and will be performed at Columbia’s Miller Theater on September 13th, 16th and 17th, with a dress rehearsal on Friday, September 12th.

(iii) Excerpts from Euripides’ Medea and Aristophanes’ Lysistrata will be performed by Columbia students of the Graduate School of the Arts Theatre Division, under the direction of Nikolaus Wolcz and Ursula Wolcz. This performance is scheduled for Sunday, November 9th at 5 p.m. in the Miller Theatre. In the spring semester we also plan to organize a staged reading of Shakespeare, again by students of the Theatre Division, on Sunday, April 5th at 5 p.m. in the Miller Theatre.


The success of these productions depends in large part on your enthusiastic attendance of them, not least because time has been scheduled after each event for a question-and-answer period in which the mechanics of the performance can be discussed with the players themselves, and also with an academic expert on the original playwright. The more support shown now for events that are staged to supplement the in-class experience of Literature-Humanities, the greater the argument for more ambitious planning for future years: I therefore urge you to pay close attention to the announcements which will precede each of the performances I describe above, and I strongly encourage you to attend the events that have been organized for your benefit and enjoyment.

I doubt that any Literature-Humanities in-class monologue will last as long this letter has lasted. But I hope to have given you a sense of our aims and ambitions in this part of the Core Curriculum, and to have encouraged you to embrace all that Columbia and New York City has to offer in terms of its cultural richness. I look forward to meeting, and being heckled by, each and every one of you on August 27th.

Sincerely,

Gareth Williams

NSOP 2008 PLACEMENT EXAMS

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Monday, Aug. 25
10:00am-3:00pm Hebrew Placement Exam (628 Kent Hall)

Tuesday, Aug. 26
Before 11:59pm on Wed Online Spanish Placement Exam (Online)
**2:00-4:00pm Chemistry Information Session and Placement Exam (309 Havemeyer)
4:00pm-5:30pm German Placement Exam (303 Hamilton)
5:00pm-6:30pm Latin Placement Exam (616 Hamilton)

Wednesday, Aug. 27
Before 11:59pm Online Spanish Placement Exam (Online)
10:00am-3:00pm Hebrew Placement Exam (628 Kent)
10:00am-3:00pm Hindi-Urdu Placement Exam (628 Kent)
**2:15pm-3:15pm Physics Information Session and Placement Exam (301 Pupin)
**3:30-4:30pm Mathematics Information Session (Roone Arledge Cinema)

Thursday, Aug. 28
9:00am-3:00pm French Placement Exam (116 Lewisohn)
2:00pm-4:00pm Italian Placement Exam (501 Hamilton)

Friday, Aug. 29
10:00am-12:00pm Japanese Placement Exam (411 Kent Hall)
10:00am-12:30pm Korean Placement Exam (405 or 423 Kent Hall)
10:00am-12:30pm Chinese Placement Exam (413 Kent Hall)
10:00am-3:00pm Arabic Placement Exam (628 Kent Hall)

Fall 2008 Registration Dates

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**Check SSOL or the Registration Dates for your appointment time.

First-Year Students Only (CC & SEAS)
Friday, August 29

All Returning and First-Year Students (CC & SEAS)
Saturday, August 30

Change of Program (All CC & SEAS)
Tuesday, September 2 - Friday, September 5
Monday, September 8 - Friday, September 12

Last Day to Drop a Class
Tuesday, October 7 (Columbia College)
Thursday, November 13 (Engineering & Applied Science)

Last Day to Select Pass/Fail Option
Thursday, November 13 (Columbia College)

How to keep your private moments off Facebook

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Picture Your Name Here

By LISA GUERNSEY (NYT)

De-tag or you’re it. How to keep your private moments off Facebook.

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SUNDAY afternoon used to mean lazing on the quad or sleeping off a hangover. No one could remember much about what happened the night before.

Now there’s a new ritual: reviewing Saturday night’s escapades. By nap time, party photographs are already posted on Facebook.com. Not surprisingly, they may reveal a little too much. Even more mortifying, they’ve likely been tagged — the individuals featured in the photos identified. The captioned images can be easily discovered by anyone on the photographer’s “friends” list, by friends of those tagged and even by entire city networks, depending on the users’ privacy settings.

Matt Jackson, a junior at the University of Washington, remembers waking up to half a dozen tagged photos the day after a party. “We’d all been drinking a little bit,” he says. “Well, not just a little bit.”

What’s a student on the job market to do? De-tag. Now.

De-tagging — removing your name from a Facebook photo — has become an image-saving step in the college party cycle. “The event happens, pictures are up within 12 hours, and within another 12 hours people are de-tagging,” says Chris Pund, a senior at Radford University in Virginia.

Campaigns to educate students about the pitfalls of Facebook — how professors, parents and prospective employers can use the social networking site to uncover information once considered private — have become a staple of freshman orientation sessions and career center clinics. Students are apparently listening.

“If I’m holding something I shouldn’t be holding, I’ll untag,” says Robyn Backer, a junior at Virginia Wesleyan College. She recalls how her high school principal saw online photos of partying students and suspended the athletes who were holding beer bottles but not those with red plastic cups. “And if I’m making a particularly ugly face, I’ll untag myself. Anything really embarrassing, I’ll untag.”

When it emerged in 2004, Facebook was open only to collegians at a handful of institutions. Today, it is available to anyone with a verifiable e-mail address and has 80 million active users. Default settings let any user view pictures, and tagged photos become part of your profile, open to your friends list and chosen network. Facebook has been hammered over privacy issues, and responded in March with new tools. Now settings are easier to reconfigure, and access can be customized to subsets of friends - school friends, work friends, beach-party friends - keeping others away from photos.

Still, students have Facebook friends they don’t know very well; even using restraint, friends lists grow large. As Ms. Backer reports, “I have no more than 200 friends on Facebook. I’m kind of picky.”

Despite the privacy concerns, Facebook hasn’t reined in its tagging application. According to comScore, Facebook has the No. 1 photo service on the Web — thanks in part to the tagging feature, says Chris Kelly, Facebook’s chief privacy officer. Students say it is easy to use and a convenient way to exchange and track pictures from friends. The tradeoff is you can’t pre-empt anyone from tagging your image. And because many Facebook users log in a dozen times a day, you have to act fast to disassociate yourself from a photo.

Jaclyn Mautone, a senior at Fairfield University in Connecticut, realized how embarrassing tags could be as she flipped through photos from spring break: “I’m like, ‘Oh, thank God that’s not me.’ Everyone is in bathing suits, but they haven’t had a chance to untag the photos yet.” Ms. Mautone advises against adding beach-party acquaintances to friends lists. “Maybe they are not even your friends, and they suddenly have this power to tag you.”

Jim Saksa, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in the student newspaper recently about how in the main library one day he noticed a girl looking at pictures of him. He didn’t know her, but she apparently had access to a friend’s photo album. The experience, he says, brought home the idea that his image was out there, out of his control.

“Our generation is the first to cope with the necessary assumption that our every action seen by another may in turn be seen by all of our peers,” he wrote.

Part of the privacy gap comes from the ubiquity of digital cameras. Today’s students whip out tiny cameras or photo-capable cellphones at any occasion. “While people are taking photos, they will say, ‘Oh, you’re going to see this on Facebook!’ ” says Mr. Jackson of the University of Washington. Asking someone to remove a photo is just not part of Facebook culture.

While students say they see more caution in what’s being posted, seniors especially are tightening privacy controls. Early data from a study by Educause shows that 45 percent of students who use social-networking sites put “a lot” of restrictions on who can see their profile; 41 percent put “some.” Others are concerned enough to deactivate their accounts altogether.

Joel Carle, an education graduate student at the State University of New York, Fredonia, did so when he started hunting for teaching jobs, “just to be safe.”

Ms. Mautone has limited her photo album to friends only. She de-tags often. And she is using Facebook’s new privacy tool that lets her exclude a specific friend or group of friends from seeing photos she is tagged in — like the supervisor from her internship who “friended” her but is many years her senior. In short, her strategy is vigilance. “Stay on top of it,” she says, “and make sure you know who can see what.”

Lisa Guersney is the author of “Into the Minds of Babes: How Screen Time Affects Children From Birth to Age 5.”