From the President's Desk

I don’t know about you but I am spending way more time than I like compulsively checking the news. Yesterday I made repeated visits to The Times website, even though I had already read the paper (you know, the real one that you hold in your hands) in the morning – and I won’t mention the online Guardian or that I’ve now subscribed to LeMonde. In the evening I devour fairly repetitive news broadcasts as if they were creamy petit fours on a tray placed perilously close to my hands. This news supersaturation can’t be any better for my health than those wonderful pastries, maybe even worse.  I know many of you are going to roll your eyes at this, but participating in events like those offered by EPIC, where you can think about other things and be in the company of generally like-minded peers, really helps. Last week we didn’t have our regular EPIC yoga class because of scheduling conflicts and I missed the hour of twisting, turning, deep breathing and clearing my head, with wonderful geneticist-yoga instructor Ginny Papaioannou.

Times like this call for good fellowship -- and for some serious thinking about things other than the dismal state of world affairs and of the poor physical planet itself. This Thursday, at our last spring semester First Thursday Graduate Student Talk, we will have the opportunity to think about how music (not newscaster palaver) interacts with our bodies. On May 4, we will visit one of the wonders of the modern intellectual world: the RECAP book repository in Princeton, on a trip that Fran Pritchett is organizing (see below), and May 9 is our annual reception. Please think about joining us.

Have a good day!

Jeanne Mager Stellman, President, EPIC
Professor Emerita & Special Lecturer
Mailman School of Public Health

First Thursday Graduate Student Talks  are scheduled on the first Thursday of each month during the academic year. They provide advanced Ph.D. candidates and recent graduates an opportunity to make a generalist presentation on their research to a cross-disciplinary audience ready to listen carefully and ask good questions. EPIC members help give the Ph.D. students a useful learning experience and at the same time learn about something that may be well beyond their own scholarly interests.

The application deadline for the final round of the pilot Housing Mobility Program (HMP) is coming up on Thursday, April 6, 2017. This program offers tenants in Columbia housing financial support for moving out of Columbia housing or to a smaller apartment that may better fit their needs.
 
The program description, available here, outlines the Program’s parameters, describes eligibility requirements, and includes copies of the application. It also includes characteristics of typical “downsized” apartments and information about professional organizers who help people move to a new residence.

After the conclusion of the pilot, The Office of the Provost will conduct an evaluation and decide whether the program will be continued. If you have questions or wish to learn more, please reach out to Carrie Marlin, Assistant Provost for Administration and Planning, at 212-854-0218 or cm3509@columbia.edu.

Virginia Papaioannou, Professor of Genetics and Development and a registered yoga instructor, is offering yoga training to EPIC members in Faculty House (see signs in lobby for exact room location). The first class will be complimentary. After the first class, the fee will be $40 for four classes, one per week, through May 26, 2017 .  Please click here for more information about the classes, what to wear, and what to bring.  Spring sessions: 3/17, 3/24, 4/7 and 4/21; and 5/5, 5/12, 5/19, and 5/26. Please note that the April 7 session will take place at 6:00 p.m. in Faculty House.

April 25: Julia Doe, Assistant Professor of Historical Musicology: "The Pastoral Patronage of Marie Antoinette.”