From the President's Desk

Thursday morning, as I was racing through the snowy streets of Brooklyn to a morning physical training session, I came to a particularly challenging corner and hesitated, trying to figure out the path least likely to lead to a broken bone. A young man, who had suffered no similar hesitation, turned back, stretched out his hand and helped me across the less-than-Alpine peak. "Getting old," I said. He smiled. It was a symbolic moment for me in several ways: it demonstrated how even seemingly small obstacles become insurmountable barriers without appropriate support and also the potential efficacy of intergenerational collaboration. After crossing, I also realized that I could have done it by myself, and fairly easily, but had been held back by remembering the flop I took last year when injudiciously dashing around the icy streets. The interrelationship between expectations, self-appraisals, and our ability to get things done is pretty awesome.

I talked about the snowed in "outer borough" corners with Ruth Finkelstein, the dynamic associate director of Columbia's Robert N. Butler Aging Center, who came up with her usual creative response.  The street corners were for her a study in urban planning: one mechanical solution to a problem (clearing snow) creating another – mounds of snow at the corners. “You have several solutions,” she said. Have city workers dig out clear cuts; use a community-based approach to encourage and support residents to organize themselves and cut paths; or you can even be really 21st century and use software apps to guide the clearing process and map safe routes. EPIC looks forward to continuing to work with Ruth and the Center as we keep growing our activities.

Please join us in person, or online, on Tuesday for Michael Susi’s fascinating pictorial history of our upper Manhattan environs. Several copies of Michael’s beautiful book will be given as door prizes. If you're not one of the lucky winners, we'll have copies available for purchase. Michael is offering an author's discount price of $15.00 (cash only). If you are planning to be online for the first time, let us know and we can give you some pointers ahead of time. 

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.

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