You, as a Kenneth Cole Scholar

In July, we wrote about Kenneth Cole’s new and somewhat surprising friendship with Columbia. The details were slightly murky, but we knew that it was something to do with community service and a summer internship. Today, Deans Moody-Adams and Peña-Mora sent around an email officially announcing the Kenneth Cole Community Engagement Program. Prospective Kenneth Cole fellows should consult this list of course requirements; CC and SEAS prospies will have to select two courses from separate lists of four. The courses focus on community building, taking the form of Sociology, Urban Studies/Planning, Poli Sci, Science and Society, Engineering for Developing Communities, and so on. You’ll also get a summer internship and summer housing. And unlimited sleek black clothing—because you’re a real New Yorker now!

PrezBo is teaching a new class this fall, but you probably can’t take it. The course is A Free Press for a Global Society, and it sounds awesome, at least to Bwog. The course description:

A Free Press for a Global Society examines both the U.S. experience in developing a system of freedom of the press and the international experience as well.  The course will then consider how a more integrated system might evolve over the coming decades.  This is a pressing issue, for individual nations and for the worldwide community, because the increased interconnectedness of the global economy, the rise of global problems (such as climate change and financial regulation), and the emergence of technologies that make global communication possible all depend upon a free flow of information and ideas.  Students will undertake in depth examinations of First Amendment law, international treaties and principles, public policies affecting the press, and a range of perspectives on these issues.  Miklós Haraszti, former OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, will co-teach the course with President Lee C. Bollinger.  Guest speakers will be invited to address the class.  Students are invited to participate in a variety of ways in the conference of the same name held in November.

Unfortunately, only Poli Sci majors/concentrations were forwarded an email about how to sign up for the waiting list for the class… since only 10 undergrads are allowed in the class and you can’t register online. If you feel like begging, contact the people on this list. Just don’t take our waiting list spot.

Thanks, guy!

Kenneth Cole, a fashion designer who has weird, earnest, sometimes squirmy billboards on the West Side Highway, is teaming up with CC and SEAS to launch the Kenneth Cole Community Engagement Program in the fall.

Want to know what that is? Kay.

Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc., CC, SEAS, Center for Career Education and Student Affairs will develop a year-long curriculum that will combine “community-based initiatives,” according to the press release, with classroom work. Kenneth Cole Fellows, as the project’s participants will be dubbed, will take two required courses, have community-based internships over the summer, and get to live in a “unique living-learning arrangement” in dorms. Here’s hoping that doesnt mean the Living Learning Center!

We don’t totally get it, but sounds like you’ll do some good stuff for the community and not have to worry about an internship next summer. Cole is the chairman of amfAR, the largest not-for-profit AIDS foundation, and a founding member of HELP USA, which provides jobs for the homeless. If you’re interested, contact Todd Smith, Associate Dean of Student Affairs, at ts2488@columbia.edu.

Update: Unlikely friendship made somewhat more likely by the fact that Cole’s daughter just graduated from CU.