V o l . 2 7 , N o . 7 N o v e m b e r 3 0 , 2 0 0 1

INSIDE

5

Graduate student in theatrearts becomes Columbia’sfirst Liberace Scholar.

Can Craig Austin helpColumbia regain themen’s basketball Ivycrown for the first timesince 1968?

Lauren Papalia balances asuperb soccer season withstrong academic perfor-mance.

3

Lauren Papalia, CC’02

11

Students’ Love for Art Inspires Innovative Programming on Columbia’s WKCR-89.9 FM

Effect of Sept. 11 on Academia is PrimaryTopic at Columbia’s Annual Media Dinner

More than two dozen journalists—including reporters from Time Magazine, The New YorkTimes, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times—met with eleven university presi-dents for Columbia’s annual media dinner, Nov. 14. The focal point of discussion was how theSept. 11 attacks have affected higher education as well as specific trends emerging in acade-mic settings across the country. Above, President George Rupp, right, responds to a questionwhile ABC News’ Jody Hassett, center, and Time Magazine’s Jodie Morse, left, look on.

RECORD PHOTO BY EILEEN BARROSO

Acclaimed director, produc-er and screenwriter NoraEphron offers insights toSchool of the Arts students.

4

Kenneth Koch Awarded InauguralPhi Beta Kappa Poetry Prize

English Professor KennethKoch, Ph.D. ’59, has won theinaugural Phi Beta Kappa PoetryAward competition. Koch wasnamed at a luncheon in Washing-ton, D.C. in mid-November. Priorto the announcement, he and thefour other finalists participated ina public reading of their works atthe Library of Congress.

Koch’s entry, “New Addresses”(Knopf 2000), employs the poeticdevice of apostrophe to discuss top-ics ranging from World War II tothe Unknown. The honor includes$10,000 and a bronze medal.

Koch’s other works include“Rose, Where Did You Get ThatRed?, Teaching Great Poetry toChildren” (Random House1990)and “The Art of Poetry” (Michigan1996). Koch, also a playwright,wrote the libretto for composerMarcello Panni’s “The Banquet.”

He has previously won awardsfrom the American Academy ofArts and Letters as well as the Ful-bright, Guggenheim and Ingram-Merrill Foundations. In 1996, hewon the Rebekah Johnson BobbittNational Prize for Poetry, awardedby the Library of Congress. Early inhis career, he was identified with theNew York School of poetry, whichwas in part inspired by the works ofpainters Jackson Pollock, Willem deKooning and Larry Rivers.

The other finalists for the Phi

Beta Kappa Poetry Award wereAmy Gerstler, College of Design(CA), Ann Lauterbach, Bard Col-lege, Charles North, MA ’64,Pace University, and Dara Wier,University of Massachusetts-Amherst. This year’s judge wasJohn Ashbery, an American poet,playright, novelist and critic.Koch and the other finalists wereselected from nearly 200 poetswho submitted their publishedworks to the Phi Beta Kappa Poet-ry Award competition.

Allan and David Winston estab-lished the award through the Win-ston Foundation to honor theirlate parents, Joseph, MA ’39, Law’42, and May Winston. Theaward’s purpose is to honor thecomplementary missions of PhiBeta Kappa and the WinstonFoundation: to foster excellencein the liberal arts and sciences.

BY James Devitt

Kenneth Koch

2 Senate Commission reportson study identifying obsta-cles for women faculty atColumbia University.

Philipp Kuecuekyan, CC‘03, was sitting in his filmstudies class last spring when afriend asked if he might wantto use his interest in cinema asa talk show DJ for WKCR-89.9FM. Kuecuekyan, a native ofBerlin, Germany, hadn’tthought much about the medi-um of radio before and didn’tfeel completely confident withhis interviewing skills. Still,the idea intrigued him and heagreed at least to try.

Today, Kuecuekyan is a hostof “Film Focus”, an indepen-dent film show that airs Mon-day nights from 9:30-10 on thestudent-run radio station andincludes reviews, interviewsand previews. Kuecuekyan hasscheduled and intervieweddirectors such as Jacque Riv-ette (“Va Savoir”), GriffinDunne (“Lisa Picard isFamous”) and Ang Lee(“Crouching Tiger, HiddenDragon”) as well as actors likeMarissa Tomei, Mira Sorvino,and Mathieu Kassovitz.

He’s even exchanged on-airinsights with Columbia filmprofessors Richard Peña andDavid Sterritt and New YorkTimes critic Janet Maslin. Infact, Kuecuekyan’s interviewshave built such a following thathe’s now inundated withinquiries by publicists andfilmmakers alike. “I have somany requests, I don’t havetime for them all,” he says.

Not bad for an undergraduatefilm student who wasn’t surehe could pull off so much con-versation in a non-visual medi-um. And though he easilyspends ten hours a weekpreparing for his thirty minutesof air time, Kuecuekyan does-n’t earn a dime or an academiccredit for his show. What hedoes gain is an insider’s viewof the New York film scene,growing confidence in hisskills and access to internation-al filmmakers and actors.

The secret of his success?Kuecuekyan is part of a team—and a history—of equallyenthusiastic undergraduate stu-dents, who, since 1986, havesustained the five shows that

make up the art department ofWKCR-89 FM (www.wkcr.org).

WKCR radio began atColumbia in the 1930s as aradio club and secured its FCClicense by 1941. It adopted itscall letters—KCR for King’sCrown Radio—shortly afterWWII when the FCC begancodifying the formalities ofradio stations. Soon, WKCRformally embraced the FMconvention and aired Columbiaclassroom events, classicalmusic and broadcasts of theUnited Nations. But in 1968,the station redirected its mis-sion to present non-commer-cial programming of relevanceto the entire New York Cityarea. WKCR’s identity evolvedinto “The Alternative” and hasin the past few years gained aworldwide audience—thanksto the Internet—of listenerswho tune in for programs theycannot get on other stations.

Enter WKCR-Arts. In addi-tion to “Film Focus,” othershows include “Art Attack,”

BY Jo Kadlecek

(Continued on Page 10)