The Daily Plan-it / Dean of Students Blog, Columbia J-school

Dear Students:

Dean Lemann is hosting a series of Publisher’s Roundtables during the spring semester. At each event, he will host a lunch for a major publisher and 15 students (current J-school M.S., M.A. and PhD students only) .

We have seats available at the following Roundtable - first come, first served; see details below.

Wednesday, March 8, noon-1:15 pm
Boxed lunch will be served.

Markos Kounalakis, president and publisher of The Washington Monthly.
See bio.

Please follow these instructions carefully:

If you haven’t registered on this site earlier, follow these instructions to post a comment - in this case, your interest in attending. If you have already registered, just go ahead and log in and indicate your interest, using your full name and Columbia e-mail address.

* To register for this blog (you only have to do this once for all future comments), go to http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/wp-register.php (once you are registered - includes a password being sent to you via e-mail), go to step 2.

* Click on the “Comments” at the bottom of this post and fill in your FULL NAME - first and last - and Columbia e-mail address (just fill it in once, typing in just “N/A” in the URL section if you don’t have a site.
Your name WILL NOT show up there immediately, but will be there when we approve the comment within a few hours.

Please do NOT sign up if you have already attended one of the previous Roundtables.

If more than 15 people RSVP, those 16 and higher will form the wait list for any dropouts. Confirmations will be e-mailed to those who will be attending by the day before the event.

Cheers, Deans Sreenivasan & Huff

Dean Nicholas Lemann is co-hosting the following exciting event. Please attend if you can.

World Leaders Forum Symposium: Press Freedom in China
Co-sponsored by Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and the Asia Society, the symposium will explore the dilemmas of contemporary Chinese journalism and the challenges and opportunities of working in China today.

Tues, Feb. 28, 2006
4:30-6 p.m.
Lerner Hall, Columbia University at 115th St.
If you do not have an active Columbia ID (UNI), please register by sending an e-mail to worldleaders@columbia.edu.

See full details here:
http://www.worldleaders.columbia.edu/epostcard_feb06/postcard.html

The events calendar at http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/calendar/ (linked from the Journalism School homepage and this blog) will now include all events to be held at the School, including Career Services events and those hosted by SPJ. To have your event listed, please send e-mail to Barbara Fasciani at bf55@columbia.edu with the following information:

Student business cards are now available through Printing Services located in 106 Journalism Building. You must order cards in person at this location. Printing Services is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

You may choose between two templates. One lists you as a reporter for the Columbia Journalist and the other lists you as a student at the school.

The cost is $38.02 for 250 cards. You must pay by cash or check; credit cards are not accepted.

Prof. Victor Navasky wins one of the most prestigious awards in journalism:
http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=11112

Victor S. Navasky will receive the George Polk Book Award for “A Matter of Opinion,” a unique memoir full of colorful personalities and big events published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Navasky, who became editor of the The Nation in 1978 and rose to become its publisher and editorial director in 1995, is now publisher emeritus. His work provides a historically significant view of the role that public discourse plays in sustaining the democratic process in an age of mass media and corporate dominance.

The Daily Plan-It is proud to announce round two of our occasional create-your-own caption contest. Below is a photo taken in August 2005. To enter the contest, write a creative caption in the comment field below (instructions below). The contest runs until the next photo goes up. There will be a prize for the best caption, as judged by the DOS Office. Multiple entries from individual students, faculty, adjuncts, staff and alumni ARE allowed, but we reserve the right to reject entries that are truly tasteless (and we have seen some that fit the bill). Meanwhile, see the winners of Caption Contest #1, starring Dean Klatell.

Photo by Rebecca Castillo, MS 2006.

The entries so far:

• Marisa Taylor: Whenever Khody Akhavi and Abe Lebovic were meeting new women during the August session, they made sure to mention their newly formed hip-hop group, LL Cool J, which stood for “ladies love cool journalists.”
• Lawrence Lanahan: “One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war.”
• Abe Lebovic:
  1. “I write for the New Yorker, and my friend writes for the Atlantic Monthly.”
  2. “We are new to this school. Can you tell us how to get to your dorm room?”
  3. “Oh, come on. You never heard of the the “Flying Duo” of Cirque De Soleil?”
  4. “We both think your eyes are beautiful.”
• Antonio Neves: “He’s not letting go of your hand until you apply to the M.A. program.”
• Eric Jaffe: “No way. We’re ‘print’ too.”
• David Ressell: “Congratulations, you are winner of the last Caption contest, your prize…. a brand new J-school student! Now get me some damn pie!”
• Badru Mulumba: “You plus him make a perfect…ugh, ugh…a perfect…ugh… reporting pair!”
• Ed Krayewski:
  “I’m a student here, and so is he. We just started, but in ten short months we’ll be done. Then we’ll be reporters. And the best part is a degree from Columbia will get you ANY job you want. Reporters make dough, too, and girls love dough. We’re gonna be raking in the ladies better than the entire student body at the Law School and the Business School combined. Oh yeah, and I heard RW1 is a pushover. Want a drink?”

Two ways to enter:
a. If you haven’t registered on this site earlier, follow these instructions to post a comment - in this case, your caption entry. If you have already registered, just go ahead and log in.
1. To register for this blog (you only have to do this once for all future comments), go to http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/wp-register.php (once you are registered - includes a password being sent to you via e-mail), go to step 2.
2. Click on the “Comments” at the bottom of this post and fill in your FULL NAME - first and last - and e-mail address (just fill it in once, typing in just “N/A” in the URL section if you don’t have a site.
Your caption WILL NOT show up there immediately, but will be there when we approve the comment within a few hours.

OR

b. E-mail your caption to dos@jrn.columbia.edu (subject = caption contest #2) - and we will add it here.

F-1 Post-Completion Practical Training

Are you completing your program this semester and interested in seeking employment after you graduate? You may want to apply for Optional Practical Training (OPT), i.e. work authorization in your field of study. OPT requires an application to, and authorization from the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), and can take up to 3 months to be processed.

Optional Practical Training (OPT)
You are eligible for up to 12 months of OPT following completion of your degree program. The application is a two-step process:
1. You must first apply to the ISSO for an OPT recommendation to be processed in your SEVIS record and printed on a new I-20

2. After obtaining the I-20 for OPT and application instructions from the ISSO, you must send the application to USCIS. The OPT application must be RECEIVED by USCIS before the completion date on your I-20. A job offer is NOT required in advance of application.

Application period and timing
You may request a start date of OPT authorization within a 60-day period.
The 60 days begins the day after completion. For example, if you are graduating on May 17, you can request a start date from May 18 through July 16. OPT cannot be extended beyond 12 months. The earliest you can apply is 120 days in advance of your requested start date (unless this is your first year in F-1 status. In that case, you may not apply more than 90 days in advance of completing the spring term).
For detailed information, refer to
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/isso/visa/F-1/F-1_PT_post_completion.html

Those of you graduating May 2006 are keeping a close eye on the Graduation site, right?

Here is a reminder of previous Daily Plan-It items about Graduation - you can also find these and future posts by clicking on the Graduation category on the column on the right.

Graduation Site Launches
http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2006/02/02/memo-graduation-web-site/

Year-end Awards - how they work
http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2005/10/21/graduation-the-year-end-awards/

Diploma Applications
http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2005/12/01/memo-diploma-applications/

Hotel rooms for guests
http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2005/10/03/faq-are-there-any-local-hotels-i-can-recommend-for-guests/

2005 Graduation Speech by David Halberstam - students will be asked to suggest names for graduation speakers
http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2005/06/15/graduation-2005-speech-by-david-halberstam/

UPDATE: The winners of our exciting prizes, in a tie:

Photo by Rebecca Castillo, MS 2006.
The Daily Plan-It is proud to announce our occasional create-your-own caption contest.
To enter the contest, write a creative caption in the comment field below (instructions below). The contest runs until the next photo goes up. There will be a prize for the best caption, as judged by the DOS Office. Multiple entries from individual students, faculty, adjuncts, staff and alumni ARE allowed.

THE ENTRIES SO FAR:

1. Nina Gregory: “Every time the cow moos, a Knight Ridder paper gets sold to Big Tobacco. Don’t make me moo the cow.”
   [EDITOR’S NOTE FOR THOSE NOT PRESENT THAT NIGHT: In the gentleman’s hand is a novelty item that produces a “mooooo” sound.]
2. Dikla Kadosh: “These objects are symbols of my former lives as a championship cheerleader from Texas and sacred cow from Delhi. As a result of my good karma, I am now your dean.”
3. Domenico Montanaro: “The future of TV Journalism is here in my hand and behind me: Cow sounds… and cheerleading. It’s a revolution.”
4. Austin Fido: “Behold: the soul of a student who DIDN’T apply for the MA program.”
5. David Ressel: “After 14 years of sobriety, I make this champagne toast!”
6. Francesco Radicati: “For a good time, make it Suntory time.”
7. Ed Krayewski: “Who am I and what am I doing here?”

Two ways to enter:
a. If you haven’t registered on this site earlier, follow these instructions to post a comment - in this case, your caption entry. If you have already registered, just go ahead and log in.
1. To register for this blog (you only have to do this once for all future comments), go to http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/wp-register.php (once you are registered - includes a password being sent to you via e-mail), go to step 2.
2. Click on the “Comments” at the bottom of this post and fill in your FULL NAME - first and last - and e-mail address (just fill it in once, typing in just “N/A” in the URL section if you don’t have a site.
Your caption WILL NOT show up there immediately, but will be there when we approve the comment within a few hours.

OR

b. E-mail your caption to dos@jrn.columbia.edu (subject = caption contest #1) - and we will add it here.

[UPDATE, 2/15/2006: Note we now have 15 seats. Even if you can’t attend this event, it’s a good idea to register for this website, so you can quickly RSVP to future events. Instructions below]

Dear Students:

Dean Lemann is hosting a series of Publisher’s Roundtables during the spring semester. At each event, he will host a lunch for a major publisher and 12 15! students.

We have seats available at the following Roundtable - first come, first served; see details below.

Wednesday, Feb. 22, noon-1:30 pm
Boxed lunch will be served.

David G. Bradley, Chairman, The Atlantic
See NYO piece on Bradley’s search for a top editor.

Please follow these instructions carefully:

If you haven’t registered on this site earlier, follow these instructions to post a comment - in this case, your interest in attending. If you have already registered, just go ahead and log in and indicate your interest, using your full name and Columbia e-mail address.

* To register for this blog (you only have to do this once for all future comments), go to http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/wp-register.php (once you are registered - includes a password being sent to you via e-mail), go to step 2.

* Click on the “Comments” at the bottom of this post and fill in your FULL NAME - first and last - and Columbia e-mail address (just fill it in once, typing in just “N/A” in the URL section if you don’t have a site.
Your name WILL NOT show up there immediately, but will be there when we approve the comment within a few hours.

Please do NOT sign up if you have already attended one of the previous Roundtables.

If more than 12 15 people RSVP, those 16 and higher will form the wait list for any dropouts.

Cheers, Deans Sreenivasan & Huff

The following story quotes Prof. Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes and Seymour Topping, his predecessor.

The Baltimore Sun
February 4, 2006

Telegrams’ fate - STOP
Western Union sent its final message last week, and fans say something romantic is being lost

By Stephen Kiehl
Sun Reporter

EXCERPT: But for many, the telegram holds an appeal that has never waned. As a formality, the Pulitzer Prize Board has continued to send telegrams to the Pulitzer winners each year, even though the winners first get the news through phone calls.

“In the age of lickety-split Internet traffic, it’s a charming, old-fashioned way of informing people,” said Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes.

Asked what the board would do this year, he said, “We’ll cross that telephonic bridge when we come to it.”

EXCERPT: Seymour Topping, who covered China for the Associated Press, said that after news conferences in Beijing he would race by rickshaw to the cable office to be the first to get the news out.

From Dean Elizabeth Fishman.

In the interest of preserving the (very) expensive equipment in the new
Arledge facility, here are some guidelines John Fider and I would like to
enforce with students:

No food - water only - in the Studio and Control Room

No eating or drinking at any Avid editing station. Students may eat at the
conference table in the Friendly Newsroom.

And, some useful telephone numbers:
Studio: x4-6919
Control room: x4-7464
Friendly Newsroom: x4-6823

The New Yorker (Feb. 6, 2006) has a Talk of the Town piece about the journalists who still drink Tab soda. Among those mentioned: Prof. Stephen D. Isaacs.

Steve Isaacs, a self-described “Tab nut” and former Washington Post editor who teaches at the Columbia Journalism School, has been told by several doctors not to drink it. “I tell them to go to hell,” he said recently. Isaacs used to work at CBS, where his boss, Van Gordon Sauter, often drank two Tabs at breakfast. Now Isaacs may be the most influential Tab advocate in the business: he begins each semester by holding up a Tab and asking students to come up with a hundred story ideas inspired by the can.

The entire story is here:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/060206ta_talk_mcgrath

A note from a student at ICP. Replies to her, please.

Dear Journalism Students,

I’m currently studying photojournalism at the International Center of Photography and looking for journalists to team up with in my search and development of current and future stories. I focus mainly on human interest stories but am up for and willing to shoot pretty much anything (except blood and violence). I thought meeting one or some of you could be mutually beneficial and by having both words and images, possibly increase our chances of selling stories, articles, etc.

Please get in touch with me if this is something that could interest you.

Best regards,
Lauren Hermele, lhermele [at] yahoo.com

The Journalism School’s graduation web site is now live at http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/students/graduation2006/index.asp. The University’s graduation information is at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ceremonies/commencement/. Please check back frequently as both pages will be updated as more information becomes available.

Q: Which nights are the LEAST busy if I want to plan an event for students?

A: Given how packed the schedule is, any event on a weeknight is likely to exlude dozens of students. Here are some thoughts about the Spring 2006.

While we don’t have a master schedule as such, here is some basic information about when students are more likely to be free for other activities.

For general planning, our universe of students is about 365 (we also have 31 PhD students, whose schedules are not reflected in the numbers below).

In the hours between 6-10 p.m., here are the basic numbers of students available for events.

Dear Students:

In order to have SPJ and extracurricular items get to you in a timely
manner, you will soon start seeing e-mail messages on this, the [j_school]
school list for all students, from SPJ Class President, Rebecca Castillo.
This marks the first time that a student has been given permission to post
to the list (otherwise, only certain administrators were able to do so).
It’s a test run and we will decide about extending it to future presidents
depending on how this goes.

Rebecca is aware of the need for judicious use of the list and will likely
average one message a week or so. I am encouraging her and other students
who have less pressing items to share (including summer housing
requests/shares) to use the Ten Month Beat blog, run by Ed Krayewski
at http://thetenmonthbeat.blogspot.com/ or to send
items to the DOS blog via dos@jrn.columbia.edu

A reminder from an August 2005 DOS blog posting intended for admin folks
about the subject lines you should look for
http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2005/08/22/memo-e-mail-procedures-subject-lines/
-

SUBJECT LINES:
Here are the subject line headers we should be using.

SPJ: for SPJ items; posted by Prof. June Cross, faculty adviser [and now,
2006 class president, Rebecca Castillo].

ACADEMICS: this covers registration, how to apply for classes, changes in
instructors, change in class meeting times, etc.

LOST/FOUND: sent by Kathy Palagonia only, along with a reminder that we
have a Lost & Found box in the Mailroom; use sparingly.

CAREERS: for all job-related info; posted by Ernest Sotomayor or Julie
Hartenstein.

GRADUATION: this covers all commencement related topics and memos; sent by
Melanie Huff & Barbara Fasciani.

MEMO: for major memos only - eg, Spring Letter from David Klatell or
registration information; use sparingly.

EVENT: this signals a J-School event — anything from lectures to panels
to the holiday party to the First Amendment Breakfasts to special speakers
to Breakfast with the Deans to the duPont events. If it’s a specific
speaker, please list the affiliation in the subject line and the date, if
possible.

CAMPUS EVENT: for events not sponsored by the J-School but that we think
our students might be interested in such as the park clean up, university
blood drive, programs at SIPA, SAJA events, etc.

CAMPUS EVENT: for events outside the school, on campus.

NY EVENT: for events outside the campus; use sparingly.

LIBRARY: for library related items; posted by Deborah Wassertzug.

FIN. AID: for scholarship and financial aid info; posted by Robert
MacDonald and Kathy Palagonia.

LEDE: for issues of The Lede; posted by Barbara

REQUEST: for reqests of various kinds — volunteers, book donations, etc.

OFFER: for offers of tickets, unscheduled classes, media tours, etc.

- Dean Sreenivasan

Q: What are the rules about serving alcohol at student sponsored events?

A: An extensive explanation can be found in FACETS at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/facets/appendix.pdf

Here are the basics:

For questions regarding specific events, please send an email to dos@jrn.columbia.edu.

GOLDSMITH INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING PRIZE

Finalists named: J2005 grad Joshua Boak is part of the investigative
team at The Toledo Blade investigating a huge rare coin scandal in Ohio.
Details here:
http://www.thephoenix.com/MediaLog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=ddeb74b7-1bb4-49db-89b8-92b590ef0227.

Thanks to Prof. Julie Triedman for the alert.