Category Archives: Community Service

University Life – Upcoming Events

Columbia Events, Community Citizenship, Community Service, Film Screening, Fun Stuff
Dear Students,
The University Life Events Council has a number of exciting events coming up in the next few weeks. Below you will find event details and links to RSVP forms and various sign-up forms.
Succulent Study Break 
Thursday, November 1st from 12-2pm | Wien Hall 
Brighten your day with your very own succulent decoration. The University Life Events Council invites students to express their creativity, enjoy snacks, and focus on wellness for an afternoon during the Succulents Study Break. Wien Hall Lounge.  Facebook | RSVP form


Coco Movie Night and Dia de los Muertos Celebration

Thursday, November 1st, 2018 from 5:30-8:00 PM | Mailman School of Public Health Allan Rosenfield Building Auditorium (722 W. 168th St. NY, NY 10032, 8th Floor)  
A Dia de los Muertos celebration featuring the animated film Coco, free food and champurrado (Mexican hot chocolate). Brought to you by the Black and Latinx Student Caucus along with the University Life Events Council and Graduate Student Association.
Facebook | RSVP form

University-Wide Day of Service 
Friday, November 9th – All Day | Various Location
Take a break and give back to the community. The University Life Events Council has partnered with local organizations focused on different social issues – get involved with a food bank, soup kitchen or after-school program. Multiple time slots available.
 
Crazy Rich Asians Movie Screenings 
Wednesday, November 14th at 6pm and 8:30pm | Dodge Hall, Lifetime Screening Room
Come join University Life Event Council in one of the hit movies of the summer and one of the most successful romcoms in 9 years! We will provide a fun space to kick back and relax, whether you are watching the film for your very first time or the fifth!
Screening 1 @ 6:00 – 8:00 PM RSVP
Screening 2 @ 8:30 – 10:30 PM RSVP
CU Voices: Inclusive Coffee House 
Thursday, November 15th from 7-9pm | Wien Hall

Calling all poets, musicians and artists for a chance to showcase a performance around topics of diversity, inclusion and belonging. Join the University Life Events Council in a warm evening away with the cold and either sign-up to perform or simply relax and enjoy performances from members across Columbia University during this evening of art and expression.

Become a Campus Conversations Facilitator

Action Item, Community Citizenship, Community Service, Fun Stuff, Networking, University Life, Volunteer
Dear Students,​


Interested in conversations on identity and inclusion?  Want to develop (or polish) your skills to facilitate a powerful conversation? Join Campus Conversations with the Office of University Life and become a Campus Conversations Facilitator!

Campus Conversation Facilitators will participate in a training and then host a conversation – in your residence, in your class, in your organization, or among your circle of friends. We’ll provide the training, tools, and conversation packets. Facilitators select a space and invite participants. Here’s more information:

Campus Conversation Facilitator Benefits:

 

  • Develop and practice leadership and facilitation skills
  • Gain a better understanding and awareness of inclusive language
  • Be part of efforts to foster greater inclusivity at Columbia
  • Meet and work with other students dedicated to social justice and diversity
  • Make great connections who can possibly serve as references in the future
    Receive Office of University Life swag 

 

 

  • Be an early adopter/adapter of a university-wide resource for Campus Conversations (developed by Race, Ethnicity and Inclusion Task Force!)
  • Be eligible to apply for a mini-grant to provide food or snacks at your conversation

 


Requirements:

  • Participate in a three-hour training session to review the facilitation guide and strategies for facilitating your conversation
  • Host at least one 90-minute Campus Conversation during the Spring 2018 semester
  • Provide feedback to the Office of University Life and Race, Ethnicity and Inclusion Task Force
  • Be willing to share on social media, or be interviewed for social media
​
The Office of University Life is hosting two facilitation trainings in February. Please register for one here.

 Space is limited; register early!

Volunteer for IndyKids!

Community Citizenship, Community Service, Fun Stuff, New York City, Volunteer

Dear Students,

Volunteer mentors needed for kid-produced social justice newspaper IndyKids

Do you have a passion for children’s literacy and progressive journalism? IndyKids is a non-profit organization that produces the only national newspaper written by kids for kids, providing news from an angle that kids can understand and relate to. We help young students ages 10-13 improve their writing, reading,​ and research skills while learning about social justice issues and world events that aren’t covered by mainstream children’s media. We’re looking for dedicated volunteers who are writers or have a journalism background to become mentors for our kid reporters or editors for our printed newspaper.
Here are examples of our recent articles written by our youth reporters with the help of our mentors:
We’ve been​ featured in Seen in NY by New Learning Times, an online publication at Teachers College, Columbia University.We are currently looking for mentors for our next workshop to be held in Manhattan on the following Saturdays from noon-3 pm March 19,March 26 and April 9th.
Those interested can learn more about our program and volunteering with us here.
To fill out a volunteer mentor application, click here.

 

 

Columbia Coat Drive and Information for Students In Need

Columbia Events, Community Citizenship, Community Service, Fun Stuff, Going Green

Dear Students,

Columbia’s annual winter coat drive is underway through December 18. Leave gently used coats with Columbia Community Service (304 Earl Hall) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.,Monday through Thursday. Donations are picked up weekly for Cathedral Community Cares of Saint John the Divine.

 
Students who need a coat can contact Joan Grifith-Lee (jeg7@columbia.edu) who will make efforts to match students with coats that fit either through donations at Earl Hall or those made at St. John the Divine. 
Volunteers are needed! If you are interested in helping Cathedral Community Cares help neighbors in need, please contact Joan Grifith- Lee at jeg7@columbia.edu or 212-854-4288. 

Saving the Elephants 10K Run/Walk

Community Citizenship, Community Service, Fun Stuff, Non-Columbia Events, Other Schools

Elephants Need Our Help!

One Elephant is Being Killed Every 15 Minutes
What Can You Do?

Register today for the Second Annual Saving the Elephants 10K Run/Walk at bit.ly/ster2015 to benefit The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT).  You can run, jog or walk your way around beautiful Central Park while helping protect this majestic species!

Each day, close to 100 elephants are killed for their tusks threatening their future.  At the current poaching rate, elephants will be extinct in the wild by 2025. Many elephants targeted by poachers have milk dependent calves, and without family or a mother, a baby elephant has little chance of survival.   Through the dedication and hard work of the DSWT, rescued orphaned baby elephants now have a second chance at life in the wild. Currently, the DSWT has 31 milk dependent calves and more than 150 orphans in their care.

Through the generous participation of more than 500 runners last November, the event raised more than $25,000 to support the orphans at DSWT.  This year, we are looking to host 1,000 participants and double last years’ donation to DSWT.  Register today and you will help provide the vital funds needed to protect these magnificent animals.  All net proceeds will benefit the projects of the DSWT.

We are proud to welcome and recognize our Presenting Sponsor, HPS Jewelers, and our Contributing Sponsor, Extraordinary Journeys!

Where: Central Park, New York City

When: Saturday, November 21, 2015 at 9 a.m.

Registration site: bit.ly/ster2015

Registration cost: $45

INVITE: “Writing, War and Peace”

Community Service, Fun Stuff, Networking, New York City, Non-Columbia Events, Speakers

Readings, panel discussion and music devoted to the act of writing about war and the role that writing can play in making peace.

Proceeds to benefit Still Waters in a Storm, a reading and writing sanctuary for children in Bushwick, Brooklyn (www.stillwatersinastorm.org).

Readers/Panelists: 

Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges (WAR IS A FORCE THAT GIVES US MEANING); 

National Book Award-winner Phil Klay (REDEPLOYMENT); 

Award-winning novelist Roxana Robinson (SPARTA);

Photographer and author Ashley Gilbertson (BEDROOMS OF THE FALLEN), winner of the National Magazine Award.

Moderator: John Freeman (FREEMAN’S, HOW TO READ A NOVELIST)

Original music by celebrated composer Paul Cantelon (THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY), inspired by the writings of children in Bushwick.

Friday, September 11, 7:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.

The New School, 66 West 12th St., between 5th and 6th Avenues.

To reserve tickets, please go to: 

http://www.stillwatersinastorm.org

University Life: Sexual Respect and Community Citizenship

Community Service, Healthcare Issues, M.A. Program, M.S. Program, Major memos, Notes From, Part-time Students, School requests

From: Executive Vice President Suzanne Goldberg, Office of University Life

“Join the Conversation.” This is what the Sexual Respect and Community Citizenship Initiative poster urges. Hopefully you have seen it on College Walk or in buildings around campus. With a handful of days left before spring break—and the March 13 deadline for the Sexual Respect and Community Engagement conversation, I am writing with some updates and thoughts about how the Initiative is going.

For starters, I want to remind you that the Sexual Respect Initiative is one part of a broader University-wide focus on what it means to be a member of the Columbia University community. A central aim of this particular initiative is to encourage learning, thought and action on the link between sexual respect and community membership here.

So far, student response—in workshops, the arts, and all other options±has been impressive and inspiring. Thousands of students across the University have attended workshops, trainings, and film screenings through student organizations, academic departments, and sessions listed at http://bit.ly/SexualRespectCJS, with many more to come this week.

More than 200 submissions have come in through the Arts Option, which invites students to creatively express their understanding of “sexual respect” in the context of Columbia. The submissions are quite extraordinary –thought-provoking poetry, prose, visual art, plays, video, and more, accompanied by deeply thoughtful statements about what motivates or underlies the work.

We see the same in the serious thought and care given to reflections submitted as part of the “video and reflection” option. I just finished reading a large set of de-identified reflections and am impressed, again, by the profound ways in which so many students are considering the role of sexual respect in their own lives at Columbia. In the coming weeks, we will post faculty members’ responses to these reflections as another part of continuing this conversation.

For some students, complaints about the initiative have been the path to engagement, prompting important conversations about what sexual respect has to do with community citizenship at all.

With permission, I will quote from one student’s comment: “I’m embarrassed to admit it but I walked in with the attitude that these types of educational seminars, while well-intentioned, don’t do anything to fix the problem. All the education in the world won’t convince a rapist not to rape and everyone else who gets dragged into it feels like they’re wasting their time. But I realize I missed the point completely. The important thing is to educate the average person about the dangers of sexual assault and to create a culture of prevention. If we can learn how to recognize the warning signs that an assault might occur and encourage intervention, instead of feeling awkward about it, we as a community can prevent assault before it begins.”

Dissent, at its best, is yet another path to engagement. For me, it is especially exciting to see dissent inspire creation, as has happened repeatedly though students proposing ideas for new workshops, becoming trained as facilitators, and creating new forms of art that might be used to educate and engage others.

The Initiative provides many additional ways for students to weigh in, add suggestions, and make recommendations. Every student receives an evaluation survey after completing the “affirmation of participation” on CourseWorks, and the Sexual Respect website invites your narrative comments.

Hundreds of evaluations have already come in, and these will be used, along with research on learning theory, sexual violence prevention and more, to develop future programming. Wonderfully, too, many students have indicated that they want to become more involved; if you are interested, please share your contact information on the otherwise anonymous evaluation form.

I could go on, but in the interest of time, I will close by referring back to this Initiative’s core principle:

This initiative focuses on the ways in which an ethic of sexual respect is integral to University community membership. The programming and public conversations place the University’s core commitment to mutual respect alongside other bedrock University commitments, including intellectual exchange and ethical leadership. Through your engagement, both in thought and action, we can create a community and campus in which all can participate freely and fully in the robust, pluralistic life of this great University.

I look forward to your participation.

INVITE: UN – “Orange YOUR Neighbourhood”

Community Service, Conferences, Healthcare Issues, New York City, Non-Columbia Events, Speakers

UN commemoration of the International Day to End Violence against Women, 25 November 2014
“Orange YOUR Neighbourhood”

What: This year’s theme to mark the International Day to End Violence against Women, 25 November, and the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence is “Orange Your Neighbourhood”. The colour orange, bright and optimistic, has been designated by the UN Secretary-General’s campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women to symbolize a better future without this pervasive human rights violation that affects as many as one in three women and girls worldwide. The iconic Empire State Building, the UN Secretariat building and large screens in Times Square in New York will be lit orange to mark the day, along with the official commemoration event at UN Headquarters.

You are invited to the following press opportunities:
24 NOVEMBER
Empire State Building Lighting Ceremony
10.30 – 11 a.m.
Empire State Building Lobby, 350 Fifth Avenue, New York
*RSVP required: goo.gl/forms/YJi37F2IeN
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and actress Teri Hatcher, will “Flip the Switch” to illuminate the Empire State Building. Following the ceremony, there will be a photo opportunity at the observation deck. The Empire State Building will shine an orange light starting at sunset.

Lighting of the UN Secretariat building
7 p.m.
1st Avenue & 42th Street
At 7 p.m., the UN will be lit in orange; it is the first time that the two buildings –Empire State Building and UN Headquarters— will be lit simultaneously to highlight a cause. Photographers and camera crews should be located on 1st Avenue and 43rd Street.

On 25 November, the Nasdaq and Reuters Tower screens in Times Square, one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions, will light up in orange with UN Women messages.

25 NOVEMBER
Commemoration of the International Day to End Violence against Women
10.30 a.m. – 12 noon
Economic and Social Council Chamber, United Nations Headquarters, New York
Official commemoration at UN Headquarters to observe the Day. The event will include the participation of:
• Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General
• H.E. Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, Permanent Representative,
United Arab Emirates
• Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director,
UN Women
• Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director, UNFPA
• Chirlane McCray, First Lady, New York City
• Teri Hatcher, Actress
• Danai Gurira, Actress

Moderator: Amna Nawaz, Correspondent for NBC News

Panel Discussion: Violence against Women: Best Laws and Policies – Learning from the winners of the 2014 Future Policy Award
3 – 5 p.m.
Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium, UN Secretariat, New York
UN Women in partnership with the IPU and the World Future Council will hold a panel, followed by an interactive discussion, focusing on implementation of laws and policies, effective practices, gaps and the way forward in relation to the review of the Beijing Platform for Action at its 20th anniversary.

Speakers will include:
• Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General,
UN Women
• Margaret Mensah-Williams, President, Coordinating Committee of Women
Parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
• Marja Ruotanen, Director of Human Dignity and Equality, Directorate General of
Democracy, Council of Europe
• Michael Paymar, House of Representatives, Minnesota and Ms. Melissa Scaia,
Executive Director, Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs (DAIP), Duluth
• H.E. Mr. Andreas Riecken, Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of
Austria to the United Nations
• Nafissatou J Diop, Senior Adviser, Coordinator UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme
on FGM/C: Accelerating Change, UNFPA

Moderator: Ms. Alexandra Wandel, Director, World Future Council

Background:
Women are beaten in their homes, harassed on the streets, bullied on the Internet. Globally, one in three women will experience physical or sexual violence at some point in her life — mostly by an intimate partner. Of all women killed in 2012, almost half died at the hands of a partner or family member.

The International Day to End Violence against Women is commemorated worldwide on 25 November. The Day also kicks off the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an international campaign which runs until 10 December (Human Rights Day), inviting individuals and groups to mobilize and call for the elimination of violence against women and girls. This year’s theme, framed by the UN Secretary-General’s campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women, is “Orange YOUR Neighbourhood”.

Note to media: A TV feed for the official commemoration on the 25th will be accessible through UNTV at:
http://www.un.org/en/media/accreditation/pdf/UNTV_Transmission_Guide

Non-UN accredited media who wish to attend events at the UN should contact the Media Accreditation Unit: http://www.un.org/en/media/accreditation/contact

Join the conversation: Follow @SayNO_UNiTE and share your messages using the hashtags #orangeurhood and #16days.

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. For more information, visit www.unwomen.org. UN Women, 220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017, New York. Tel: +1 646 781-4400. Fax: +1 646 781-4496.

INVITE: Ferguson Solidarity Rally and Town Hall

Community Service, Invitation, New York City, Other Schools, SIPA

Columbia Student Groups Invite Community to Join them at Ferguson Solidarity Rally and Town Hall 

Rally: Monday, Sept. 15, 6:30pm

Where: Butler Lawn, Columbia University

Town Hall: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 6:30 pm

Where: Columbia Law School, Room 104

The New York community is invited to attend both events which are open to the public.

Town Hall&Rally

For more details: CU Rally Media Advisory