Annual fund student callers Brandon Lewis ’13 and Diane Jean-Mary ’13, pictured here with Jeff Richard, v.p. for University development, each raised $100,000 in pledges. Most weeknights, students working in the Student Calling Center — located on the lower level of the Columbia Alumni Center — make telephone solicitations on behalf of 16 annual funds at Columbia. CloEve Demmer, University director of annual fund programs, announced that two veteran student callers, Brandon Lewis ’13 and Diane Jean-Mary ’13, had each crossed the $100,000 threshold in terms of the pledges they secured single-handedly. Lewis and Jean-Mary are both in their second year as student callers.

“Brandon and Diane are truly shining stars,” says Demmer. “They work a lot of hours, but they’re also proven performers who secure pledges on a greater percentage of their calls than others. We have 50 or so student callers, and the next-highest individual total is about $70,000, so it’s really quite remarkable for anyone to reach this level.”

“The best part of my job is the connections I make with alumni,” says Jean-Mary, a film studies major from Long Island. “They’re interesting to talk to and have great advice for me as an undergraduate.” Lewis, an urban studies major from Atlanta, loves the richness and diversity of the alumni community — he says it gives him hope that “there’s life beyond Columbia.”

All told, student callers collectively spend more than 6,000 hours speaking to prospective donors during the year. So far this year, the group has raised about $1 million and, Demmer says, is on pace to raise more than $1.2 million for the University by May 15, which allows until June 30 for pledges to be fulfilled.

The Columbia College Student Council’s Academic Awards Committee announced this year’s winners of the Mark Van Doren and Lionel Trilling awards.

The 50th annual Mark Van Doren Award, which honors a Columbia professor for his/her commitment to undergraduate instruction as well as for “humanity, devotion to truth and inspiring leadership,” will be presented to Holger Klein, associate professor of art history and archaeology. Klein earned a Ph.D. from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in 2000 and specializes in Late Antique, Early Medieval and Byzantine art and architecture. He edited the Kariye Camii Reconsidered and has published articles in a variety of academic journals. The award is named for Mark Van Doren ’21 GSAS, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, novelist, literary critic and longtime Columbia faculty member with a reputation for pedagogical greatness.

The 36th annual Lionel Trilling Award will be presented to James Shapiro ’77, the Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature, for his book Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? Shapiro earned a Ph.D. from Chicago in 1982 and has been teaching at Columbia since 1985. In addition to Contested Will, Shapiro is the author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, winner of The Theatre Book Prize and BBC Samuel Johnson Prize, and Oberammergau: The Troubling Story of the World’s Most Famous Passion Play. The Trilling Award honors a book from the past year by a Columbia professor that best exhibits the standards of intellect and scholarship found in the work of longtime Columbia faculty member Lionel Trilling ’25, ’26 GSAS, ’38 GSAS, an author and renowned literary critic.

The professors will be honored on Tuesday, May 3, from 6:30–8:00 p.m. in the Faculty Room of Low Library. All are welcome to attend. Contact Jennifer Freely, assistant director, alumni affairs with questions: jf2261@columbia.edu.

Manning Marable, the M. Moran Weston/Black Alumni Council Professor of African American Studies, founding director of Columbia’s Institute for Research in African-American Studies and director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary Black History, died on April 1. He was 60 and lived in New York City. Marable’s death came just days before the publishing of his long-awaited biography, and the culmination of his life’s work, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.

Marable had been at Columbia since 1993. During his 35-year academic career, he wrote and edited numerous books about African-American politics and history and remained one of the nation’s leading Marxist historians. He was a prolific writer and impassioned polemicist, addressing issues of race and economic injustice in numerous works that established him as one of the most forceful and outspoken scholars of African-American history and race relations in the United States.

Read more on Professor Manning Marable.

Please note that both the Global Fellows in Sustainable Development and the the Holthusen-Schindler applications have been extended until Monday, March 28th. The deadlines were for March 21st.  Please submit all necessary materials to the Fellowships Office by the 28th. 

Alexandra Wallace Creed ’88, senior v.p. of NBC News, will address the Class of 2011 at Class Day, Tuesday, May 17, on South Lawn. Creed is only the second female Class Day speaker; Claire Shipman ’86 spoke in 1999.

Creed was named senior v.p. December 2008. In what is an expanded version of the role that she held from January 2006–March 2007 when she was executive producer of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, her responsibilities include overseeing Nightly News, news production, staffing and, in partnership with V.P. David Verdi, newsgathering. She is chief deputy within the news division for Steve Capus, president of NBC News.

In March 2007, Creed became executive producer of Nightly News, making her the first woman to lead a weeknight network evening newscast in a decade and one of only a small group of women who have served in the top post of a Big Three daily newscast. She was first named v.p. of NBC News in January 2006. Prior to that, she was executive producer of Weekend Today and senior producer of Today beginning in March 2005.

Creed came to NBC News from CBS News, where she was a senior broadcast producer for The Early Show starting in May 2000. Before that, she was a senior producer for both The Early Show and CBS This Morning, a producer for CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and an associate producer for CBS This Morning, 48 Hours and the CBS foreign desk. Creed began her network career at the CBS News London bureau.

Creed has been honored with 11 News and Documentary Emmy Awards as well as a Gracie Award and a Peabody. She was presented a John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement in 2008 from the College, where she earned a B.A. in English literature. She is a member of the College’s Board of Visitors, is on the Council on Foreign Relations and is a member of the Board of Visitors of the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C.

CCT featured Creed on the cover of the November/December 2007 issue (college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/nov_dec07).

Class of 2011 President Sean Manning Udell ’11 noted in an e-mail to the College that “we were particularly impressed that … Ms. [Creed] is also the mother of young children and an extraordinarily active alumna who hosts several Columbia College events every year and serves on the Columbia College Board of Visitors.”

Alumni from all classes have a chance to participate in Class Day by marching in the Alumni Parade of Classes, carrying their class year banners in the processional that also includes graduating students, faculty and administrators. The parade underscores the transition the graduates will be making from students to alumni, while emphasizing that their Columbia connection is lifelong.

Alumni marching in the parade are invited to a champagne breakfast in John Jay Dining Hall that begins at 8:30 a.m. The parade is scheduled to begin at 9:45 a.m. Alumni interested in participating should contact Nick Mider, events coordinator, College events and programs: nm2613@columbia.edu or 212-851-7846.

Lisa Palladino and Atti Viragh ’12 GS