8 C o l u m b i a U n i v e r s i t y RECORD March 26, 2004

C250 Web Site: Help Us Tell Columbia’s History

When the first profiles of“Columbians Ahead ofTheir Time” went up on

the Columbia 250 Web site lastsummer, religion student PaulHackett had a candidate of hisown in mind: Theos CasimirBernard.

While not widely known,Bernard, who received his Ph.D.in philosophy at the University in1943, was indeed a remarkableindividual. In the 1930s he trav-eled widely in India and Tibet,writing extensively about hisexperiences. He was the firstAmerican to be initiated into therites of Tibetan Buddhism andmanaged to collect a complete setof the Tibetan Buddhist canon,which he brought back to theUnited States. He disappeared inthe Punjab in 1947.

Hackett, who is in the Ph.D.program in religion but who alsoworks as a computer programmerand consultant, decided to com-bine both pursuits. Using researchand photos he’d collected over theyears on the philosopher-explorer,he created a Web page on Bernardusing the Columbia 250 Web sitetemplate, so that it resembled the

profiles of other ColumbiansAhead of Their Time, who rangefrom philosopher John Dewey tofounding father Alexander Hamil-ton to poet Allen Ginsberg.

Hackett submitted his complet-ed Web page on Bernard to theColumbia 250 Web site staff, whowere so impressed by Hackett’swork that they decided to addTheos Bernard to the diversegroup of Columbians already pro-filed on the Web.

In an effort to encourage thekind of passion that Hackettbrought to his project, the Colum-bia 250 Web site recently addedtwo interactive features. A newform solicits nominations forColumbians Ahead of Their Time.Another new feature is an invita-tion to “Write Columbia’s Histo-ry.” Those who’ve studied, taughtor worked at the University, andanyone else for that matter, canadd their thoughts to a kind of vir-tual oral history of Columbia.Recent contributors have musedon the rapid advances in technolo-gy in education and Columbia’scontributions to the evolution ofthe computer.

Jerry Kisslinger, the Universi-

Budget Stresses Seen in Congressional Committees

Congress has begun itsannual budgeting process.The House and Senate

budget committees are develop-ing their separate budget resolu-tions for fiscal year 2005, whichbegins Oct. 1, and will subse-quently attempt to work out theirdifferences.

Because of large deficits anddisagreements about spendingand savings, most budget punditspredict that only funding for theDepartments of Defense andHomeland Security will bepassed by the beginning of thefiscal year.

In fact, it is widely assumedthat the presidential election,which usually helps to drive thepassage of bills, will have littleeffect on final passage of thebudget this year. Many observersbelieve that a continuing resolu-tion—a stop-gap measure thatwould keep federal agencies run-ning—will be passed to keep the

government funded until afterthe election.

During the week of March 7,the Senate passed its budget res-olution, setting a blueprint forthe budget year. The resolutionincludes “pay as you go” stipula-tions, which require committeesto cut programs under their juris-diction for every budget increasethey make. The resolutionincreases Defense spending by 7percent and Homeland Securityspending by 15 percent; it pro-vides a 0.4 percent increase forall domestic discretionary pro-grams.

During the Senate debate,amendments were passed thatincreased funding for the Nation-al Institutes for Health (NIH), theCenters for Disease Control andPrevention and the HealthResources and Services Admin-istration; Pell grants; and theHope Tax Credit.

The House’s budget resolutionin committee has tough “pay-as-you-go” rules and appropriationscaps. The proposed small in-

ty’s director of communicationsfor development and alumni rela-tions, explained the site’s newinteractivity: “The goal is toinclude as many people as possi-ble in telling Columbia’s history at250. The site issues an invita-tion—to come and learn, but alsoto help us get the story right.

“Like the city of New York,Columbia has at times been sobusy growing that it has not doneenough to collect and present itsown history,” Kisslinger contin-ued. “The 250th anniversary is anoccasion to catch up, not just forprofessional historians, but foranyone who has insights and per-sonal perspectives on that story.Columbians are notoriously opin-ionated, and we’d like to capturesome of the energy of informeddebate that marks our campus andalumni gatherings.”

For his part, Hackett says he’s“overjoyed” that Theos Bernard isnow officially a Columbian aheadof his time. “The Columbia 250celebration in front of the ButlerLibrary really inspired me,” Hack-ett said. “It’s all starting to get tome. For the first time, I’m reallyproud to be part of a university.”

BY ELLEN S. SMITHcreases for domestic discre-tionary programs could havenegative impacts on sciencefunding for such agencies as theNIH, the National Science Foun-dation and the National Oceanicand Atmospheric Administrationand on student aid.

In the student aid arena, Rep.Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) with-drew his college costs bill onMarch 3, which would havewithheld a portion of Title IVfunds (student aid) of the HigherEducation Reauthorization Actfrom institutions whose tuitionand fees increased more thantwice the rate of inflation. TheHouse plans to introduce a num-ber of bills to fulfill its goals onthe Higher Education Reautho-rization Act. The Senate willhave only one bill.

It still is not clear whether thefinal bill can be completedbefore the end of this session ofCongress, but the higher educa-tion act’s funding can continueeven without passage of a newreauthorization.

SOA Students Win Coca-ColaRefreshing Filmmaker’s AwardAt ShoWest Convention

SOA film students BrettLevner and Steve Solehave won the 2004 Coca-

Cola Refreshing Filmmaker’sAward for their short film titledBeing Reel. As the winners,their film will be shown onnearly 21,000 movie screensnationwide.

“This is an amazing opportu-nity,” said Levner, who wroteand directed the short. “Win-ning the Coca-Cola RefreshingFilmmaker’s Award offers usour first chance to have a pieceof our work viewed acrossAmerica. It’s extremely re-warding to see so much hardwork pay off in such a bigway.”

“This competition gave usreal experience in making afilm, and being recognized asthe winner is an opportunity forus to officially begin ourcareers,” added Sole, who pro-duced the short.

Inspired by the passing ofLevner’s grandmother, BeingReel begins with an olderwoman cleaning out her closetand disposing of a box of filmreels. The films are found by ahomeless man digging throughthe trash and are quickly dis-carded. But in the chaos thatensues as he tosses the trashinto the street, the film isstrung through a bike wheellike a projector. A flashlightshines through the celluloidreel while a Coke bottlereflects the moving imagesonto a white van, which servesas a screen. The Rube Goldber-

gian projection brings the streetto a standstill.

Born and raised in New YorkCity, Levner is pursuing hermasters in film directing. Shereceived her BFA in film andvideo production from NewYork University in 1998. Shehas worked as an associate pro-ducer for MTV’s news anddocumentaries department.

Sole is currently in his thirdyear in the graduate film pro-gram. A New York native, hecompleted his BFA degree atEmory University. Beforeattending Columbia, he workedas an oil trader at the New YorkMercantile Exchange for thePioneer Options TradingGroup.

The Coca-Cola RefreshingFilmmaker’s Award competi-tion required that the short bebased on the concept of “amoviegoing or moviemakingexperience made from a realperspective.” The panel choseLevner and Sole’s film fromapproximately 200 conceptssubmitted by students repre-senting 10 film schools in theU.S. Ten finalists were selectedlast fall, with each receiving a$5,000 grant to produce theirfilm in less than eight weeks.

As the winners, Levner andSole will receive $10,000 incash and have their film shownas part of the pre-feature enter-tainment in movie theatersacross the country beginningthis fall. They received theiraward March 25 at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas.

Theos Bernard, right, with the Regent of Tibet, Reting Rinpoche, in Llasa in 1937.

Legislative Update