Turkey

While a good chunk of the population will be spending the next couple days in airports, buses, cars, and hyperspace teleporting spacecubes, there's always a few Columbians who hang around campus during the Thanksgiving holiday to keep the place cheerful and put down any pigeon rebellions. For those of who don't have hours of cramped traveling to look forward to this weekend, take comfort in the multitude of holiday specials being served at some of Morningside's finest establishments. From Le Monde to Oren's, there's something out there for everyone. more Deluxe (Thursday, November 24) Three courses for $22.50, which as we all know is a pretty decent bargain for the taste-bud orgy that is Deluxe's menu. Items include pumpkin soup, "traditional" stuffed turkey (as opposed to a rebellious dirty-hippie turkey), pumpkin ravioli, and pumpkin pie. If for no other reason, eat at Deluxe to honor all the Halloween jack-o'-lanterns that apparently sacrificed themselves for Thanksgiving's sake. Milano Market (all weekend) A bunch of tried-and-true favorite, including homemade gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing (of both "traditional" cornbread and living-by-its-own-rules sausage varieties), and a large selection of pies. Nothing costs above ten bucks, so take the chance to stock up on holiday provisions before the regular owners escape from their basement prison and squash this coup d'affordability. Oren's (all weekend) The "Holiday Survivor Kit" is a care package of coffee beans, tea, drinking apparatus, and anything else you can find on Oren's gleaming wooden shelves. Starting at $26.95, this might be an opportunity to bulk-buy all that snazzy caffeine-delivering machinery you'd never had the cash to splurge on before. Tom's (all weekend) A roasted butterball turkey, complete with all your favorite fixings (potatoes, veggies, gravy, pumpkin pie) for $19.95, with tax included. Whether or not you're a big fan of Tom's, this is a decent prize for what appears to be more food than a table can physically support the weight of. Also, they'll probably give you a giant booth away from the open-door-wind-tunnel. 'Cause it's the giving season. Le Monde (Thursday, November 24) A Turkey Day Prix-Fixe, for the total price of $32: an unutterably fancy array of appetizers, an incomprehensibly classy turkey entrée, and a ridiculously good-looking list of desserts. The appetizers include a choice of salad, soup, or foie gras, while the sweet-tooth offerings are pies and a pumpkin crème brulée that is worth the entire meal just for one incredible triumph in a game of Never Have I Ever: Edible Edition. Westside Market As if Westside did not have your undying love for the rest of forever, Columbia's favorite all-night grocery spot is offering a bunch of Thanksgiving standbys, including mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes by the pound, cranberry sauce by the pint, and gravy by the quart. They also have turkeys in every stage of preparation, from rock-solid mammoths to carefully carved perfection. Head on over to pick up your feast, and grab a free dip sample while you're there. Maybe they'll have pumpkin dip!

Dean of General Studies Peter Awn sent out an email to students earlier this afternoon containing some pretty... erm, interesting advice for preparing yourself for Turkey Day. Included? The scientific name for "wild turkey." Oh, and flagellation. That too. Reproduced in all of its glory below:

I was shocked when I watched on CNN as my prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, abandoned a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos called "Gaza: The Case for Middle East Peace." My first reaction involved an attempt at patriotic rationalization, as I hoped that there must have been some serious cause that led him to behave in this manner. So, I started to look for some answers.

In writer/director Will Slocombe's new film "Cold Turkey," Peter Bogdanovich plays Poppy, the patriarch of the highly dysfunctional Turner family. Poppy's quiet life is thrown into chaos when his family reunites under one roof—his roof—for Thanksgiving. Though the holidays begin relatively peacefully, everything unravels when Poppy's estranged daughter Nina arrives on the scene with a bevy of dark family secrets that she's ready to share.

Nergiz Ada Yilmaz, SEAS '16, was in Gezi Park in Istanbul on May 31 when a thick fog started spreading through the crowd. The smoke, she quickly realized, was tear gas sprayed from a police helicopter.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promoted open cooperation and diplomacy with the United States at the World Leaders Forum Thursday afternoon. He touched on the global economic crisis, the Iraq war, and the Iranian nuclear program.

A new partnership between Columbia and Bogazici University in Istanbul may make studying abroad a viable option for more School of Engineering and Applied Science students. Earlier this month, SEAS and Bogazici formed an undergraduate exchange program to expand study abroad options for students. Civil engineering and engineering mechanics majors will pilot the program next academic year. "I think the University offers terrific opportunities for our engineering students," said Leora Brovman, assistant dean for undergraduate global programs. "Several students have expressed interest [in the Bogazici program] even prior to the signing of the agreement." Previously, only CC students could study at Bogazici. Brovman said that she was excited to see the program extended to engineers. SEAS Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora said that this partnership would enable SEAS undergrads to study abroad more easily, something that the school has been working to accomplish. "I think this is a wonderful opportunity for our students," Peña-Mora said. Study abroad "gives SEAS students extraordinary exposure to different cultures across the globe." The usual language requirement for study abroad programs does not apply to the exchange, something that could be appealing to engineers, who do not have to fulfill the language requirement in the Core Curriculum. "The engineering courses are offered in English, so it wouldn't be an impediment to our students if they don't know Turkish," Brovman said. "But as with any study abroad opportunity for engineering students, we strongly encourage some foreign language competency in the language because it enhances the overall experience." Peña-Mora said that Columbia would welcome the Bogazici students who choose to study abroad this fall and that he was excited for the Columbia students who will be heading to Istanbul. "We are happy to welcome Turkish students to the greatest university in the greatest city in the world," Peña-Mora said. "We know they will gain tremendous knowledge and experience, both in and out of the classroom, much like our SEAS students who will further their studies at Istanbul and other exciting places." Noyan Songur, SEAS '15 and freshman representative for the Turkish Students Association, said, "I was so happy when I heard Columbia was building connections with a Turkish university." "Bogazici University is one of the top universities in Turkey, especially in the field of engineering," Songur, a native of Turkey, said. He added that he was thrilled to see Columbia working to maintain its relationship with Turkey and provide opportunities for international students, pointing out that it would also provide students studying at Bogazici the opportunity to study at Columbia. "Engineering is a universal profession," he said. "Engineers should be able to address many different problems scientifically, but finding the solution also requires cultural, economical, and traditional knowledge about the society in which an engineer is working." shayna.orens@columbiaspectator.com

Columbia administrators congregated in Istanbul, Turkey, last week to hold discussions and plan for the global center they expect to launch there in the fall. The Istanbul location will be Columbia's fifth global center, joining the existing centers in Paris, Beijing, Amman, Jordan, and Mumbai, India. The centers serve as satellite research facilities that will host students, part of an ongoing effort by the University to expand its global reach. But funding, space, and leadership issues still need to be addressed before the Istanbul center can open its doors. Last week's conference brought together scholars from Columbia and major Turkish universities, including Sabanci, Koc, and Bogazici. Its Columbia attendees included University President Lee Bollinger, Vice President for Global Centers Kenneth Prewitt, the directors of the existing global centers, members of the Faculty Steering Committee for the Istanbul center, and other professors and deans. They spent three days in panel discussions and meetings aimed at solidifying the plans for the global center. "These global centers have to be thought out really carefully. Where we decide to have a global center, how we structure it, and the success of this global center depends very largely on the connections we build with the academic community, and with the alumni community that support it," said Safwan Masri, a Columbia Business School professor and the director of Columbia's global centers in the Middle East. He said that one goal of the conference was to establish a dialogue between Columbia and the academic community in Turkey. "We don't want to just show up in Istanbul in the fall and open up the center," Masri added. Karen Barkey, a professor of sociology and history as well as the chair of the Faculty Steering Committee on the Turkey center, said that last week's conference, hosted by Istanbul's Bogazici University, showed the center's potential. "What the Wednesday Bogazici University conference demonstrated to everyone involved was the degree to which the two scholarly communities are already attuned to each other, the very high level of academic discourse, the rich intellectual debates that will await us," Barkey said. The two panels were "How Do We Teach History?"—moderated by Barkey—and "The Role of Policy Centers (Think Tanks) in Policy Making"—moderated by Prewitt—and included panelists from both Columbia and Turkish universities. "In both of these panels, we explored the comparative issues of how such questions are addressed in the U.S. and in Turkey and the variety of possible areas of research and public engagement that they warrant, not just as potential topics that the global center would engage, but more importantly as examples of how we would hope to engage the two communities, the Turkish and American, in many different areas of expertise," Barkey said. Barkey noted that these subjects are not necessarily representative of what will be studied at the Istanbul center. "The projects, the academic research areas, the practical collaboration that will happen will be determined by what our and their faculties have as possible research interests," Barkey said. Masri emphasized the "network effect" of the global centers, which by working together and in conjunction with Columbia's main campus in New York would provide what he called a richer experience for students. Masri added that Turkey's unique position between the East and West makes it the perfect place for a new center. "The Middle East center that's in Amman covers the entire Arab world plus Israel, Turkey, and Iran," Masri said. "But we've had discussions for a couple of years now about having a separate smaller center in Istanbul, given a great level of interest by the faculty in Turkey and the fact that Turkey is really a large country, that's both a bridge between East and West and is sort of part of the Middle East and part of Europe and neither." Three more global centers, in Kenya, Kazakhstan, and Brazil, are also on the horizon for the University. In a recent interview, Bollinger said he was more persuaded than ever that global centers will work better for Columbia than the full-service branch campuses that other universities, like New York University, have adopted. "The desire within the community from faculty and I think from students is very strong for trying to take advantage of the centers to learn about the world, work on the world," Bollinger said. "I do believe this is the right strategy for globalization." news@columbiaspectator.com