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PEOPLE12 C o l u m b i a U n i v e r s i t y RECORD March 8, 2002

Nontraditional Students Get Traditional Ivy Education at General Studies

Every year, thousands of acad-emically gifted students interrupttheir college careers due to pro-fessional or personal life circum-stances. Some would like toreturn to school at a rigorous,top-notch university. But no mat-ter how successful or how bright,they are usually ineligible for tra-ditional-track undergraduatestudies at Ivy League schools.This is not the case at Columbia,however, the only Ivy Leagueinstitution to fully integratereturning students into the regu-lar undergraduate curriculumthrough its School of GeneralStudies (GS).

Columbia is an immediatechoice for many students return-ing to pursue degrees because itoffers a quality education and aprestigious name.

After five years in the Marines,returning student Mick Devine,25, a former flight navigator,hopes the academic challenges ofattending Columbia will preparehim for a job around which hecan create a better quality of life.

The Long Island native with-drew from school after a year atthe University of North Carolina.With a passion for flying andlonging for some direction in his

life, he joined the Marines andgraduated from the Marine AerialNavigation School. From Turkeyand Morocco to Europe and thePacific, he flew with his crew,patrolling no-fly zones in Iraq,refueling planes in the air anddelivering cargo from Key Westto Kosovo.

Devine loved the life of a flightnavigator until one day, his crewreported they had apparently beenshot at over Kosovo. While thereport was never confirmed by themilitary, the potential danger andconstant travel coupled with hisown desire for family life, causedhim to rethink how he was mak-ing a living.

Honorably discharged from theMarines in December, Devine isbasking in the oasis of academicpossibilities at Columbia. Not yetcommitted to a major, he isexploring a new take on an oldfavorite—mathematics—and isconvinced he’s finally on the rightpath.

Beating true in the hearts of GSstudents like Devine is the desireto fulfill their academic potential,demonstrated in many cases bythe enormous success achievedwithout a college degree. Such isalso the case with GS student SueCummings, 38, a former editor-in-chief of a syndicated news ser-vice, who was accepted to Yale

after high school butnever got to gobecause her parentswould not sign theloan papers.

At 18, Cummingsmoved to New Yorkand found jobs type-setting and doingpaste-up for down-town alternative news-papers. On the side,she played bass in apunk band. Her knowl-edge of the city and themusic scene landed hera job as an editorialassistant at the launchof Spin magazine. Afascination with theWest Coast then drewher to Los Angeleswhere she became apop critic at the LADaily News.

After brief stints at acommunity college andUCLA, she worked asa senior music editor for LAWeekly and launched “Rock forChoice,” the fundraising arm ofthe Feminist Majority in LosAngeles. Cummings returned toNew York in 1996 to becomeeditor-in-chief of MJI Broadcast-ing, a daily syndicated musicnews service.

Despite this success, Cum-mings feels she must grow acad-emically to move her career for-ward. She recalls that a formeradvisor back at her high schoolSt. Andrews-Sewanee inKnoxville had encouraged her topursue an Ivy League education.Now, finally fulfilling that dreamat Columbia, she describes herexperience as “indulging in anintellectual smorgasbord.”

Whether for prestige, profes-sional advancement or learningfor learning’s sake, GS studentssay taking the plunge back toschool, especially at one of themost academically challenginguniversities in the world, requiresa great deal of gumption, despiteall that life experience.

“It takes a tremendous amountof courage to commit to a secondbeginning or change in direc-tion,” said GS student LyndaSpongberg, 37, a former vicepresident at Morgan Stanley. Sheenrolled this spring in the Schoolof General Studies after discov-

ering a new passion— psycholo-gy. For Spongberg, caring for hermother, who was dying of cancer,spawned an interest in the psy-chology of death and dying. Shebegan to reassess her values anddiscovered she was a “born psy-chologist.” Spongberg hasreturned to school to pursue acareer in the field.

Spongberg said that life experi-ence is enhancing her classroomexperience.

“[GS students] have had manyreal-life experiences which can berelated back to the lessons taughtin our coursework,” she said.“Having real-life experience canenrich the significance of acade-mic material, it need not necessar-ily be the other way around.”

The School of General Studies,created in 1947, is the premierliberal arts college in the countrycreated specifically for studentswho for personal or professionalreasons interrupt their educationbefore completing the BA or BSdegree. GS is also home to thejoint undergraduate program withList College of the Jewish Theo-logical Seminary and the Postbac-calaureate Premedical Program,the oldest and largest certificateprogram that prepares collegegraduates in the humanities andsocial sciences for entrance intomedical school or other health-care related graduate programs.

Lynda Spongberg was a vice president at Morgan Stanley beforecoming to study at GS.

BY CAROLINE LADHANI

Sue Cummings was editor-in-chief of a syn-dicated music news service before enrollingat Columbia.

Upper Manhattan Community Mourns Flight 587 in Lerner Service

Roone Arledge Auditorium,the scene of countless eventsand gatherings at Columbia,opened its doors Feb. 18 to thegreater Upper Manhattan com-munity, including Columbiafaculty, students, administra-tors, staff and neighbors fromManhattan Valley and Wash-ington Heights, who togetherremembered loved ones lost inthe November crash of Ameri-can Airlines flight 587.

At the event entitled “Cele-brate Life,” a crowd of morethan 200 helped to support oneanother in celebration ofDominican heritage. Tearsflowed as Dominican poet andauthor Annecy Baez and stu-dent Gisela Telis shared poemsabout war and loss. Onlookerswere moved by the boldsinging of the Dominicannational anthem and the flair

of white-skirted dancers whoswayed with their partners tofamiliar village beats.

In addition to traditionalDominican music, dance, andpoetry, the uplifting words ofUniversity Chaplain JewelnelDavis and spiritual leadersfrom the surrounding neigh-borhoods helped grieving fam-ilies endure the loss caused bythe Queens crash that killedmore than 250 passengers,many of whom were Domini-can Americans returning tovisit the island of their birth.

“So many families in theneighborhoods surroundingour campus, some of themmembers of our own staff,were directly affected by thisand the World Trade Centertragedies,” said Emily Lloyd,executive vice president foradministration, who overseesthe departments that helpedorganized the event. “Thisevent shows how important it

is for communities to cometogether in times of need andhighlights the many tiesbetween Columbia and theUpper Manhattan communi-ty.”

“Celebrate Life,” heldalmost entirely in Spanish,was the result of collaborationbetween Columbia andDominican Sunday and Alian-za Dominicana, two neighbor-hood community service orga-nizations that preserve andcelebrate Dominican heritage.Dominican Sunday also worksto empower Dominicansthrough English training, citi-zenship classes, and educationon voting.

“This was a wonderfulopportunity to make connec-tions with the surroundingcommunity outside of Colum-bia’s gates…these are thecommunities that often getoverlooked in the pace of aca-demic life,” said Maryani

Palupy Rasidjan, CC’04, a stu-dent organizer.

“This is a first step for ourcommunity to begin changingour minds about Columbia,which many community mem-bers believe to be closed to theManhattan Valley community,”said Altagratcia Hiraldo, presi-dent of Dominican Sunday.

“We look forward to build-ing stronger ties with theDominican communities inboth Manhattan Valley andWashington Heights,” saidLarry Dais, assistant vice pres-ident for public affairs anddirector of community affairs.

If there was one idea that lin-gered following the afternooncelebration, it was a statementmade by Rabbi Rigoberto E.Vina, who, inspired by thenumbers of people sittingtogether in tribute to those lost,said “La communidad esta lafruita de la vida.”—”Commu-nity is the fruit of life.”

BY LAUREN MARSHALL

Kenneth J. Knuckles, vicepresident for support services, hasbeen named vice chair of theNew York City Planning Com-mission, a position he will hold ashe continues his responsibilitiesat Columbia. Knuckles will pre-side over the commission in theabsence of the newly-appointedchair, Columbia alumna AmandaBurden and will continue to rep-resent the Bronx in the commis-sion, a position that he has heldsince July 2000.

The 13-member commissionhas primary responsibility for theconduct of planning in New YorkCity. This includes the draft andapproval of amendments to theZoning Resolution and the CityMap, and review of urban renew-al and housing plans and projects,sales and leases of property to andfrom the City among other tasks.

Before his arrival at Columbiain 1995, Knuckles was Commis-sioner of the Department of Gen-eral Services for the City of NewYork.

James Neal, vice president forinformation services and univer-sity librarian, has been electedchair of the Scholarly Publishingand Academic Resources Coali-tion (SPARC) steering commit-tee. In this role, Neal will provideleadership for the organization'sefforts to create innovative globalsystems of scholarly communica-tion and to advance new strate-gies for open access to the intel-lectual property of the researchcommunity.

"This is an extraordinaryopportunity for librarian andresearcher to partner in new waysto create successful alternativesto the current dominance ofscholarly publishing by the com-mercial sector and to work withnew technologies and economicmodels for scholarly communica-tion," said Neal.

Launched in 1998, withColumbia as a founding member,SPARC today is an alliance ofsome 200 universities, researchlibraries and organizations inNorth America, Europe, Asia,and Australia. SPARC hasworked to enhance broad andcost-effective access to peer-reviewed scholarship throughincubation of new media alterna-tives to high-priced scholarlyjournals. SPARC also promotesand educates on scholarly com-munication issues.

Philip Kim, assistant professorof physics, has been named the2002 outstanding youngresearcher by the Association ofKorean Physicists in America(AKPA). The award recognizeshis achievements in high-temper-ature superconductivity and thephysics of carbon nanotubes.

Kim, who joined the Columbiafaculty a year ago, will receivethe award at the AmericanPhysics Society meeting thismonth.

In recognizing Kim the AKPAnoted that this year has producedthe largest number of nominees inrecent history, making the topwinner among such an outstand-ing group a special honor. Kimreceived the Ph.D. from Harvardin 1999.

RECORD PHOTO BY EILEEN BARROSO

RECORD PHOTO BY JASON HOLLANDER