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

The Language Maintenance Tutorials are designed primarily to meet the needs of Columbia’s graduate and professional school students. We offer conversation groups and individual tutorials with instruction focused on everyday spoken language at very competitive fees. Courses are designed to provide students with prior language proficiency the opportunity to maintain and advance their language skills. The tutorials generally meet once per week for 10 weeks during the semester.

Registration for the tutorials is going on now until February 5th. If you are interested in enrolling, you should register in the office of the Language Resource Center. The tutorials and conversation groups will begin around the week of February 8th.

We offer tutorials* in many languages, including, but not limited to:

Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, Chinese, Czech, English, Farsi, French, Georgian, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish, Uzbek, Wolof, Zulu

*A minimum of two years of language education at college level is required for all the languages.
For other languages, more information about the program or advisement with respect to placement, please contact Bruno Guaraná, bcg2111@columbia.edu.

Fees
Individual Tutorials
An individual tutorial can be tailored to your specific language needs. It consists of ten sessions of 90 minutes each.
Columbia students: $650
Non-Columbia students: $900
Conversation Groups
A conversation group has from two to five students, coming from different fields of study. It meets ten times in sessions of 120 minutes each.
Columbia students: $500
Non-Columbia students: $650

• A non-refundable fee of $30 due at the time of registration will be counted towards the cost of the individual tutorial or conversation group.
• Payment can be made in cash, checks made out to Columbia University, or VISA and Mastercard (we are sorry we cannot accept American Express).

* If you would like to be considered as a tutor, please visit our website to register online.

For More Information:
Bruno Guaraná
bcg2111@columbia.edu
(212) 854-9226

Language Maintenance Tutorials
www.lrc.columbia.edu/lmt

From CU Department of Public Safety-

Here is a great tool to use for mobile & smart phone devices on how to get around NYC by Subway, City Bus, Taxi (costs) or walking, for people on the go or who are NEW to New York City. On some devices you can down load a FREE appl to your phone or bookmark it to your Blackberry / smart phone device. For more information click here:

http://www.hopstop.com/member?action=login&username=&error=&location=%2fmember%3f&keep_logged_in=y&page=

The Alice! Health Promotion Program is pleased to announce the launch of A!sleep an interactive website focusing on supporting students with adopting and maintaining healthy sleep behaviors. As part of our ongoing campus-wide sleep initiative, the purpose of this website is to provide additional tools to help further enhance the sleep health of Columbia University’s Morningside campus. As we roll out our new website over the coming semester, we ask for your assistance in getting the word out to the students in your school and distributing materials related to the sleep initiative. A representative from Alice! will be delivering a packet of promotional materials related to the sleep initiative to your office in the upcoming days.
Not only is sleep an essential component of physical and mental health, it also significantly impacts academic performance. This combination makes it an especially important issue to address with Columbia student populations. As you probably know from your conversations with students, they often adopt irregular sleep patterns, forgoing sleep to balance academic, extracurricular, and social commitments, or experience difficulty sleeping due to stress. Insufficient sleep quantity and quality can have a variety of negative effects. These include decreased cognitive and motor performance; decreased memory retention and recall; increased stress; and decreased immune function. Associations have also been found between long term sleep loss and obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and mood disorders.

The A!sleep website provides students with the opportunity to take a free on-line sleep assessment which offers both tips on healthy sleep habits and instant personalized feedback on their sleep behaviors. There is a version of the assessment available for faculty, staff, and alumni. Additionally, the website includes:

• A sleep diary to assist individuals in managing their sleep routines or identifying daily activities that may be impacting their sleep,
• Series of ZzzCards, electronic postcards with various tips on how to maintain healthy sleep behavior,
• General sleep information, and
• On and off campus resources.

Questions, concerns, comments, or suggestions about our sleep website or initiative can be directed to Susan Hochman (sh2537@columbia.edu or 212-854-5453). We look forward to working with you on this and other health initiatives, and greatly appreciate your support.

OFFER: Office hours for the Digital Media Fellows + other resources

Folks: please make sure you take advantage of the opportunity to work with our DM Fellows this semester. A description of what they offer - along with several other resources is below. All questions to dmfellows@jrn.columbia.edu

The DM Fellows have office hours by appointment each weekday during Spring Semester (1/25-5/14) at the following days/times:

Monday:
• 10-5 Open Lab in 501a
  10-1 Alan by appt
  1-6 Michele by appt

• Tuesday:
  2-6 Michele by appt

• Wednesday:
  1-5 Meredith by appt
  5-8 Alan by appt

• Thursday:
  1-5 Kenan by appt

• Friday:
  10-1 Meredith by appt
  

  Email dmfellows@jrn.columbia.edu no later than the day before to schedule an appointment.

  There is a calendar showing available timeslots here:
  http://bit.ly/dmfellows-cal

  Also please be considerate of your fellow students and let us know as far ahead of time as possible if you need to cancel or change an appointment.

  Finally, remember that there are many helpful guides and how-tos at http://bit.ly/dm-tips

  And that the DM Fellows have a tutorials site at digitaltutorials.jrn.columbia.edu

  Annd for even more tutorials, you can head to http://www.lynda.com/portal/columbiaand log in with your Columbia ID for access to a ton of in-depth tutorials.

  As always, if you have questions, please email us.

  Thanks,

  - DM Fellows -
  dmfellows@jrn.columbia.edu

Greetings from Alice!

As we get moving into 2010 and the spring semester, the Alice! Health Promotion Program (part of Health Services at Columbia) is happy to have you as a part of our dynamic university community.

In our office we work to support your efforts at achieving personal and academic success. To assist we offer a myriad of programs and services. Check out the following:

A! Sleep getting optimal sleep can be challenging throughout one’s lifetime. We’ve just launched a new website where you can complete a personalized sleep assessment (with individualized instant feedback), resources, and tools to help you enhance your bedtime performance. Alice! & Health Services at Columbia are committed to helping you achieve a good night’s rest so that you stay healthy and perform at your best!

CU Move is a free online exercise motivation and tracking program that offers the University community an opportunity to learn about, design, and record personal fitness activities. Many people make a plan to be more active in the New Year – let Alice! help keep you on the path to success.

Go Ask Alice! is the leading health question and answer Internet resource for college students with an archive of over 3,000 in-depth responses to questions sent to Alice!’s inbox. If it’s on your mind, it’s probably on Go Ask Alice! You can also sign up to “Get Alice! in Your Box” – our once weekly update of what’s new on the site.

Stressbusters are teams of students who deliver neck and back rubs to the Columbia University Morningside campus. You can get them for free at select CU public events, and you can bring them to your organizations, residence hall, school, or office. Every Wednesday during the semester you can drop into the Wien Hall Lounge from 4-5pm for a stress break and receive a brief neck and back rub. Stressbusters will be back in action beginning January 28th. Look for Stressbuster events in other locations throughout the year. Check out the Calendar and the Stressbusters website for more information.

Alcohol Self-Assessment Interested in learning more about your own drinking? Take a short self-assessment to assist in understanding your use of alcohol and connect to resources that support lower-risk alcohol consumption and support your academic success!

Helpful Resources

Alice! Health Promotion Program

Health Services at Columbia
Related Q&As from Go Ask Alice!

Stress, anxiety, and learning to cope
CU Move — Columbia’s online exercise motivation and tracking program
Why can’t I stay awake in class?

What kinds of alcohol are best for health?
How Go Ask Alice! works

We wish you success in all your ventures this semester. Here’s hoping that 2010 will be filled with health and joy.

Alice! Health Promotion Program

108 Wien Hall

alice@columbia.edu

CUPID, Columbia University Partnership for International Development is looking for new members! We hope you consider joining us.

CUPID is a student-led organization established in 2004 across graduate schools at Columbia University to facilitate multidisciplinary dialogue, awareness, and action on international development. CUPID is officially recognized by the Interschool Governing Board.

Our first meeting, open to all graduate students, will take place January 25th at 8 pm. To find out the location and get involved please join our list serve: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cupid/Join.html

CUPID sponsors forums, development dialogues, an annual conference, community development projects and many social events to provide students with the opportunity to learn about international development and actively contribute in this area. Our annual conference will be held on February 12. This year’s title is ?Health: A Universal Dialect(ic) Elections to join our Board will take place in March 2010.

For more information visit CUPID’s website, our blog and find us on Facebook:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cupid/index.html

Please email asc2162@columbia.edu with any questions.

Dear Public Safety Friends,

Public Safety Crime Prevention will be engraving & registering laptops & other electronics with the NYPD & CU Public Safety tomorrow (Wednesday) 1/20/10 from the hours of
11AM - 2PM, Law School 1st floor in front of room 103.

A unique Police number is engraved on the property and will be registered with the NYPD & CU from New York to California including Alaska & Hawaii.

This is a FREE & very effective program that has helped in the recovery of lost or stolen property. In a most recent recovery, the NYPD arrested an individual who was in possession of stolen property belonging to one of our Doctors at the Medical Center, thanks to our Operation ID Program.

Also available will be:

FREE NYPD Blue Light program- Same as above except invisible ink is used & can be viewed with a special police light. Excellent for Cell Phones!

Kensington Ultra Laptop Locks- Discounted- Special pricing for Columbia University only.

PC or Mac Phone Home Stolen Laptop recovery program. Down load it from the CUIT website, FREE for students, faculty and staff. www.columbia.edu/acis/software/pcphonehome

Not needed for down load- Note down your computer’s serial number or Mac Address, keep it in a safe location. In the event of a theft, this will help speed up the recovery process. The link above will show you how to get this information.

For more information please call 212-854-8513.

Dear J-School Community,

As you know, Claudia Castillo has left Student Affairs to assume her new responsibilities as Assistant Director of Academic Affairs.

Susmita Saha has just joined us as the new Student Services Coordinator.

Susmita has an MA in Higher Education Administration from Columbia Teachers College and a BA in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin.

Her work in higher education includes coordinating the placement of students in summer clerkships at the Columbia Law School, working as a graduate recruiter for the University of Illinois-Springfield, and serving as an international student adviser at Eastern Michigan University. Before graduate school, she worked as a policy analyst for the Illinois Senate.

Please join me in welcoming her to the Student Affairs team.