October 2007
Dear Colleagues of Columbia, Barnard, Teachers College, and Union Theological Seminary,
It will be a time for both celebration and sad remembrance when we gather for EPIC's announced annual meeting on November 14. Samuel Devons, founder and president emeritus of EPIC, died on December 6, 2006, and was honored at a memorial service on campus in St. Paul's Chapel on May 19, 2007. His many contributions to Columbia and academia worldwide were also cited in obituaries published in the Independent and the Times of London as well as the New York Times. Were he with us today, he would be pleased indeed with the progress of EPIC and our prospects for the new academic year. Our growing membership now exceeds 200, and we look forward to welcoming new members from our four affiliated institutions.
We continue in our efforts to bring our retired members into more active roles in University life. In the envelope you have received are forms in which we ask you to indicate if you would be interested in engaging in two such activities. The Faculty House Board of Advisors and EPIC are joined in recruiting members who would be willing to render advice in a limited mentor capacity for new faculty in their respective fields. In that connection there will be a luncheon given for new faculty in the spring of next year. With the Alumni Association we are also asking members in communities around the country if they would be interested in lecturing on behalf of the association to alumni organizations located in nearby cities.
Faculty House will be closed for renovation in the spring of 2008. The reopening is scheduled for the start of the 2009 academic year. EPIC is being provided with interim office space elsewhere on campus and suitable space for office and service facilities for our members in the renovated Faculty House. Among those facilities, the redesign calls for six built-in desks off the faculty lounge on the first floor for study and research by EPIC members and a room on the second floor for our weekly Tuesday Luncheon Conversations. Meanwhile, our programs will go forward without interruption; program schedules will be announced by mail and e-mail, and entered on our Web site: www.professorsemeritus.columbia.edu. Arrangements for campus parking at Engineering Terrace Garage (Amsterdam Avenue at 119th Street), and use of the facilities of our current office, can be made by contacting our EPIC Administrator by e-mail, epic@columbia.edu, or telephone, (212) 854-8083. For a parking request, the following information is needed: date; arrival and departure time; car make, model, color, plate number, and state.
Fellows are urged to take advantage of the Outreach section on our Web site to contact colleagues and share involvement in scholarly projects and activities. For years retired professors and administrators have sought an established forum to voice their thoughts about issues affecting the University and education generally. Our Web site's Commentary section affords our fellows that opportunity. Members can offer op-ed type articles of up to 700 words and letters of some 200 words. For example, such subjects as the debate relating to the recent campus appearance of the Iranian president would be welcome. Obituaries and tributes to deceased colleagues can also be submitted for entering on our Web site.
Our Steering Committee extends thanks to our members for their generous financial help. Many, in renewing their memberships, have contributed sums in excess of the required $50 annual dues. Our new status as a fellowship unit of the University under the aegis of the Office of the Provost affords us budgetary support, but it is contingent on the number of dues-paying members. The future of EPIC, both as a professional and social fellowship, as well as an institutional voice speaking out for the interests of all retirees, turns on the number of members we can muster. We urge you to renew your membership at your earliest convenience. If you are not already a member, please join us. If there are members or prospective members who find the basic annual dues too onerous, we will be glad to accept a lesser amount so that we can list you on our fellowship rolls and our Web site. EPIC needs you as a recognized member.
We look forward to seeing you, your spouses and friends, as well as any of your colleagues who might be interested in EPIC, at the annual meeting on November 14. The meeting, which will take place in the Harison Room of Faculty House, will begin at 4:00 p.m. with a reception followed by brief proceedings and then a lecture on a very timely subject by Patrick Radden Keefe on "Sister Ping's America: The Big Business of Illegal Immigration." Mr. Keefe is a fellow at the Century Foundation think tank and a frequent contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, as well other media. Until then, with my salutations,
Sincerely,
Seymour Topping
San Paolo Professor of International Journalism
President, EPIC
Download 2007 EPIC membership form (PDF)
Download 2007 EPIC programs questionnaire (PDF)
