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

From Prof. Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Students

Dear Students:

With this message, we are launching the [j_school] list for the academic
year. This is the announcements-only list which the deans and other
administrators will be using as the PRIMARY communications tool for all
M.S. (full-time and current part-time), M.A., PhD and fellows at the
school. All e-mail will come with [j_school] and as many details as
possible in the subject line. You are expected to read through any
messages sent through this list.

Your are also expected to keep checking the DOS Blog several times a week:
http://deanstudents.blogsome.com

The school is closed until Wednesday, July 5, but after that, please
expect to see several announcements about the Fall semester.

Meanwhile, please see these other communications resources.

OFFICIAL CLASS OF 2007 STUDENT DIRECTORY:
This is what will be printed and distributed to Faculty, Staff and
students. Please make sure your information is on this directory by
filling in the form here:
http://www.magnoliapresspublications.com/columbia

CLASS YAHOOGROUP
Jschool07: Informal class Yahoogroup, run by Aaron Cahall.
To sign up, send e-mail to jschool07-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jschool07/ and click on “Join This
Group”
Aaron’s e-mail: aaroncahall@hotmail.com

CLASS FACEBOOK.COM COMMUNITY
“The Ten Month Beat”: Informal Facebook.com community for the M.S.
Class of 2007 (and part-time Class of 2008), run by Rubina Madan.
To sign up, join the Columbia Facebook network at
http://www.thefacebook.com. Then visit the community at
http://columbia.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204425495. You can use
the group to introduce yourself, view other students’ profiles and
post on the discussion board.
Got questions? E-mail Rubina at rm2507@columbia.edu.

CLASS BLOG
The Tabloid: Class of 2007 group blog, run by David Ressel, PT student and
J-school rep to Columbia Senate
http://the-tabloid.blogspot.com/
David’s e-mail: dlr2113@columbia.edu

Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

To : J Class of 2006
Subject : MEMO: Access to J-school extended through July 10.
—– Message Text —–
Dear J2006:

In order to accommodate requests from some of you and some technical
issues we have been having, we are extending your access to the J-school’s
computers and building through 10 a.m. on Monday, July 10, 2006 (instead of 5 p.m. today).

Please make sure you take care of whatever you need to computer-wise
by then. All other parts of the Year-End Manual still apply.

Thanks and have a great weekend.

- Dean Sreenivasan

The Fall 2006 Curriculum Guide is now live at
http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/admissions/programs/courses/fall2006.

Please take your time and read (and re-read) it carefully.

The evaluations of courses and professors in previous semesters is available at
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/journalism/evaluations/.

The Fall 2006 Ballots are available now in the Academic Links section of the Student Resources page. The deadline to fill in the ballots is Monday, July 10 at 10 a.m.
Please note the ballots are NOT first-come, first served.

If you have questions about the guide, please e-mail dos@jrn.columbia.edu (it’s important that you always use this address when writing to the DOS office).

Please note: Dean Sreenivasan is out of town till Sunday, June 25, and will be available to answer questions after that. He will be hosting an online chat via Frappr next week about academic questions (watch for info).

Dean Huff will be in the office through Friday, June 23, and will be on vacation after that till July 10.

Good luck. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

- Deans Sreenivasan & Huff

The DOS Office e-mailed a detailed memo to all incoming M.S. students at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 16. If you are coming to the school this Fall and did not receive a copy of this memo, please e-mail dos@jrn.columbia.edu right away.

Incoming M.A. students will receive a detailed memo in early July, since they start school after the M.S. students.

HELP GETTING AROUND NYC
Even native New Yorkers can sometimes use some help figuring out the fastest way to certain parts of the city. Sure, you can look at a subway map, but street addresses aren’t really featured on those maps - you can waste a lot of time guessing where you have to go.

Fortunately, there are two, free, interactive ways to help you out.

HOPSTOP: http://www.hopstop.com
This is an interactive map and guide for the subway system and is
the single best way to navigate the city (think of it as Mapquest for the
subway). Enter your starting and ending points and you will learn what trains
to take - and walking directions once you get there. Last year, many students
used it every day. You can also create various itineraries for multiple stops, return trips, etc.
This gives you directions in several languages and can be sent to your cellphone, PDA, etc.
There are two, competing site that have been launched, PublicRoutes.com and Trips123.com- if you have comments about which one’s better, please send it to dos@jrn.columbia.edu

MTA INFORMATION LINE: 718-330-1234
Yes, it’s a phone number and it’s very useful. Listen to the long intro and
then hit * and then 0 to speak to an agent. I have never had to wait more than
three minutes to get an agent.

Once you’re connected, give them your starting and ending points and they will
tell you exactly how to get there; what stations/trains you need and how far
you need to walk when you get to the other end. Memorize this number!

MTA official site is MTA.info - be sure to get a monthly Metro Card once you start the school year. You will be spending a lot of time on the subways and buses.

Matthew Waters, a new May PT student, has built a Protopage.com page with links that many of you will find useful. Among them: headlines from the local media + weather headlines and more. Send him suggestions: mewaters[at]gmail.com.

Take a look: http://www.protopage.com/jschool.

HOW TO FIX YOUR E-MAIL IDENTITY
One of the more frustrating things with our e-mail system is that Cubmail doesn’t automatically put your name in the “from” lines. So faculty and administrators end up getting e-mail from, say,
“srt2879@columbia.edu” and we have no idea who it is (especially when there’s no signature file in the message itself). Worse, some e-mail programs treat such senders as spammers and dump the message automatically into junk-mail folders. There’s a one-time, two-minute solution, and it is explained below. Please take time to do this.

If you try this and it doesn’t work, please e-mail consultant@columbia.edu explaining what you did. Also, while the problem is being fixed, please write your name and affiiliation in the subject lines of messages you send to DOS, faculty, etc. eg, “Marie Jones - M.S. print - with question about housing.”

Lauch CUBMAIL at https://cubmail.cc.columbia.edu

Go to OPTIONS

Go to PERSONAL INFORMATION

Go to EDIT YOUR IDENTITIES

Choose DEFAULT IDENTITY

Add your full name there, and any other details you wish.

[You can have a different “reply-to” address, add auto signatures, etc].

You need to do this only if you plan to use CUBMAIL (which almost all
students do at some point).

And please don’t forget to routinely sign your messages with your full
name in the body of the message - and to include a phone number, too.

Thanks and good luck with your e-mail (or if you prefer, email).

- Dean Sreenivasan

RICHARD M. SMITH
Editor-in-Chief, Newsweek

MARK WHITAKER
Editor, Newsweek

cordially invite you to

THE GLOBAL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION

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