sais20036august

August 2007 Volume 8 No. 1 The Newspaper of the Johns Hopkins University Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

Special Preterm Edition

SAIS Students onSAIS Life

From academics to student services to extracurriculars, the SAISObserver compiles the best articles from the past year on what to

expect from, and how to survive, your time here

My Bologna has a FirstName

The real Bologna Center experienceBy Zecharia Kahn, MA ‘07

By Andrew Plieninger, MA ‘07

So, you were in Bologna,” a

young student asks the other.

They both have beers in hand,

standing in the Nitze courtyard, united

in front of a concrete slab that helped

divide East and West Berlin, Eastern

and Western Europe, the Communist

hordes from the Lands of the Free.

“What was that like?”

“Well,” replies the worldly

Bolognese, a far-off look glinting in

his/her wise, continental stare, “Whatcan I say? It was the best year of mylife.” The non-Bolognese sighs and the

two students shake their heads at the

wonder of it all.

So - tell the truth - you’ve

asked a second year student who stud-

ied in Bologna how their time in Italy

was. You imagined the sweeping

Tuscan hills, the stone medieval

towns, the aroma of fresh pastries and

the romance of the Latin nights. What

a way to do grad school, you’ve

thought, and what slackers, always

kissing, hugging and ‘ciao-ing.’

But what was it really like,

how was that year in Bologna? Was it,

as they say, the best year of their lives?

Well, here’s a short report on

the year in the city that is alternately

known as the Fat, the Learned and the

Red. . .

The year began with hot

weather in September, when the pre-

term students were exiled to the law

school across the street from the

Bologna Center while construction

work was finished on the library. If

one had peeked that September

through the window in the library door

— as many did — they would have

seen a construction site that looked as

though a bomb had gone off inside

what was supposed to be the center of

learning, or at least of stored knowl-

edge. Twisted metal, dangling wires,

and plastic tarps hung from the ceil-

ings, dust covered everything in the

building and Italian workmen came

and went, carrying massive slabs of

glass and metal beams.

Miraculously, the library and

construction appeared to be finished as

the full contingent of students began to

arrive. What had been deserted streets

soon gave way to almost non-stop par-

ties as the regular Bologna University

students returned to their town. There

are about 400,000 residents of

Bologna, around 100,000 of them are

students. Regular classes soon causd

the new library to become packed,

however, the construction continued at

full pace. Imagine reading your

Krugman and Obstfeld international

trade textbook while someone cut

metal and drilled holes directly above

Throughout the semester, SAIS students

devote considerable effort to studying international

relations. But when can they finally put the rubber to

the road? When can they observe all these complex

phenomena in action or see the fundamental theo-

rems of “insert your concentration here” at work?

Well, you may be surprised to find out that

several opportunities exist at SAIS for you to do just

that.

Last year, Professor Zartman led twelve

students on a Conflict Management field trip during

intersession to Haiti. During this trip, students met

with local government officials as well as represen-

tatives from the international community, academia,

NGOs and the press in an effort to assess the current

and future prospects for progress in the region. Each

student wrote a paper on a specific issue area and

presented their findings in a final report in the

spring.

A group of Middle East Studies students

headed to Kuwait in January to gain insight into the

region’s systems of governance and its relationship

with the international community. Students attend-

ed parliamentary sessions and met with government

representatives.

In addition, they met with the women’s cul-

tural and social society to discuss educational and

social reform as well as women’s rights and voting

rights. Each student focused on a topic to research

during the trip.

Also during intersession, the International

Development department sponsored a trip to

Guatemala. Open to IDev or Western Hemisphere

concentrators fluent in Spanish, the trip exposed stu-

dents to a variety of development organizations and

projects in the region. It also provided an opportu-

nity to conduct field work in either micro-enterprise

and finance or on the effects of rural education proj-

ects. In order to experience full immersion, students

were housed with host families for the duration of

their stay.

In March, the Strategic Studies Department

embarked on its annual International Staff Ride.

The destination this time around was Sicily. Thirty-

five students ventured on this week-long visit during

spring break to study the Allied invasion of Sicily in

1943.

These staff rides are essentially in-country

case studies of particular campaigns or historical

periods, placing particular emphasis on the role of

leadership in battle. Students are assigned individu-

als to research in each year’s scenario and present

their character’s viewpoints at an appropriate loca-

tion during the staff ride. Previous staff rides have

traveled to Ireland, Monte Cassino, Normandy, and

Originally published October, 2006

Field Tripsfor AdultsLast year’s trips

weren’t exactly your5th grade visit to the

zooOriginally published December, 2006

In This Issue:

Editorial...............................2

Diversions...........................2

Free Lunch......................... 3

Career Services..................4

Persian Language............. .4

Dating at SAIS................... 5

College................................5

Dean Einhorn......................6

continued on page 3

continued on page 4

August 2007 THE SAIS OBSERVER Page 2

LETTER FROM THE EDITORSOn Second Thought

The judgment descended from the heavens

like a bolt from the Oracle of Delphi.

What verdict did the sagacious ForeignPolicy magazine decree?

Second Place.

SAIS is now officially only the second best

IR program in the country, according to the first best

foreign policy publication (Yes, Foreign Affairs may

be a premier journal of international studies, but

Foreign Policy has pictures!).

As a show of solidarity, the editors of the

SAIS Observer have decided to accept the rank of

second best monthly publication on campus.

We can only conclude that this descent is the

result of the judges’ attempts to appease Georgetown

University in its plans to restart its secret underground

nuclear reactors.

Although Georgetown may have beaten us in

the rankings, we thought of a number of advantages

to a SAIS education.

1) Who needs office hours when we can read our pro-fessors’ editorials in the Wall Street Journal?

2) Georgetownians can’t pick up Korean food withtheir hoagies at the Galley Café in the Airline Pilot’slounge.

3) Try walking to Big Hunt from Georgetown on amoment’s notice

4) Campus Shmampus!

5) Finding anything on our website is an intellectualchallenge. What do the Georgetownians have to keeptheir brains sharp?

6) No Undergrads – except those damn BA/MAs

And on second thought, attending the run-

ner-up school isn’t so bad. Being out of the spotlight

means that pesky Mohamed ElBaradei will finally

leave us alone so we can get on with our own rival,

and certainly first best, atomic research (ElBaradei

spoke at commencement in ‘06, but in ‘07 we get Sir

David Manning – coincidence?).

This fall from being number one is really

just an opportunity for us to get a second wind. So

why did we ever want to be in first place? You’ll have

to give us a second on that.

The SAIS ObserverEditors-in-Chief

Alex Selim

Neil Shenai

Jessica Stahl

ContributorsNadav Davidai

Zecharia Kahn

Arthur Lord

Jay Lurie

Andrew Plienenger

Brice Richard

Alex Selim

Jessica Stahl

The SAIS Observer is a news monthly written, edited, and produced by

the students of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

(SAIS) of The Johns Hopkins University.

SAIS students, faculty and members of the administration at the

Washington, D.C. campus, Bologna campus, and the Hopkins-Nanjing

Center are encouraged to submit articles, letters to the editor, photo-

graphs, cartoons, and other items for consideration.

Material for consideration or inquiries may be submitted to :

[email protected].

The SAIS Observer is an approved SAIS student organization. Opinions

expressed in the SAIS Observer are not necessarily the views of the edi-

tors, SAIS, or the University.

The Observer welcomes accolades, denials, comments, critiques,

and hate mail at [email protected].

Photos:

Michael Anderson

Mirentxu Arrivillaga

Ben Deering

Andrew Duff

Tania Hamod

Eric Jaffe

Monika Kelemen

Dan Lecce

David Michaels

Kaveh Sardari

Diversions:Keep your eyes and ears open and contribute to the below

sections! E-mail us at [email protected] with submissions

The Ostrich

75.8

86.8

94

25

12.58

35

2

0.1

1.5

57

Gustav tells us who’s having a goodmonth, and who might want to stick theirheads in the sand and hope for betterluck next month

Winners Losers

Strategic Studies

With the unexpected departure of Cohen, thisperpetual winner finally finds itself on the los-ing side of our list. Will the department go onwithout him?

Incoming Class

Make the most of it while you can. Soonenough you’ll be wearing that cap and gownand heading back into the working world.

VerbatimWhat the SAIS

community has been saying

“He’s the Hamas to my Fatah.” – Anonymous SAIS student explain-ing her relationship with a co-worker

“So, what’s your concentration?” – AnonymousSAIS students...over and over again...

"When we werekids, it was Bengay."– Anonymous SAISadministrator duringa conversation withanother prominentSAIS administrator

“America is like the big elephant.Everyone wants to hit it.”– Anonymous SAIS Professorexplaining why the world loves tobash the US

By theNumbers

Average August tempera-ture in degrees Fahrenheitfor Washington, DC(according to weath-erbase.com)

Average high temperaturefor DC in August (accord-ing to weatherbase.com)

Average high temperaturefor August 2007 thus far

Hours of class per week fora preterm student takingboth micro and macroeco-nomics

Hours of class per week fora micro-only student

Hours of class per week fora normal student during theacademic year at SAIS

Hours in a work week inFrance, the shortest in theindustrial world

Hours allotted for the intro-ductory lunch with DeanWilson

Hours Dean Wilson actual-ly spoke during the intro-ductory lunch

Hours spent doing studentintroductions at the intro-ductory lunch

Number of college shout-outs during said introduc-tions (Go Tigers!)

“Everything’s pod-

cast now. So we

don’t really do that

whole reading thing

anymore.”- Anonymous SAIS stu-dent to his professor, when askedwhether he reads a dailynewspaper

“Dammit, no one in this city cares if you’ve read Foucault.”- Unemployed SAIS alum complaining that his knowledge-base isundervalued in Washington

"Middle-management quasi-public, quasi-private analystelite." – Anonymous TA describingwhat SAIS students can look for-ward to achieving after graduation

Korean Studies

First Korean language studies, then theUS-Korea Institute, and now Koreanstudies. This region is blowing upfaster than . . . well . . .

The SAIS Observer

Damn straight it’s a winner!

Our SanityYup. We’ve been back at school justabout long enough to have lost all memory of a life outside the walls ofNitze

ISIS

Revolutionizes the JHU computing experi-ence - by allowing us to simultaneously viewour falling grades and rising debts. Find away to add my lagging job prospects, andthen maybe I’ll be impressed.

Incoming Class

Does this sound familiar? “So, what’s yourconcentration? Where are you from original-ly? What did you do before SAIS? . . . *awk-ward pause* . . .”

Al Gore

100 degrees and above all month thismonth . . .you win this round, Mr.Gore.

“Having a girlfriend is like taking

out a student loan, with the regular

payments and all.”- Anonymous SAIS-er describing why heneeds a steady income before he can date


Super-SAISMe

If you’ve ever been in the SAIS lobby around 4:30 on

Tuesdays, you might’ve gotten an inkling of something I have now

taken to heart: At SAIS, there is free food EVERYWHERE! You

just have to know how to look, and you’ll have free meals all week.

Guaranteed. Below are the chronicles of a typical week of free

food hunting for me, plus a guide to how you, too, can take advan-

tage of these delicious hidden gems.

Tuesday:

16:22 I wake up from my nap on the SAIS lawn, and hop on my

bike with the intention of heading to the Rome Building, when I

luckily run into a friend. She mentions to me that there are some

leftovers in the SAIS cafeteria. I u-turn and run into Nitze

Building, fork already in hand.

16:27 Eyeball deep in my second portion of salad and cream

pasta, one of my sources informs me that there’s some more food –

GOOD food – over in the Rome building. I gotta go investigate...

16:29 I pop into the 8th floor to scope out the scene, only to find

an empty room with no traces of food. Damn! Sleeping on the job

cost me some good eats. I won’t make this mistake again.

20:00 I get off the elevator at the 1st floor of Rome building, and

the smell hits me like a punch – pizza! I do some undercover work

and find out the smell’s origin...the SAIS Observer meeting - where

else? - 8th floor. Of course! Having forgotten about the meeting,

I sneak in and (almost) feel guilty as I pile on the slices.

20:50 As everyone streams out of the meeting and into the ele-

vators, I stroll confidently down the hall to room 814 with two

weary colleagues trailing behind me. Just as I suspected, there’s a

huge spread just sitting on the counter - chicken, salads, rice, and

two kinds of cake. Jackpot, baby. As my friends marvel at my

resourcefulness, I help myself to two full plates and some dessert.

Tomorrow’s meal is assured.

Wednesday:

12:30 At the Middle East brownbag, I listen to Dr. Pecastaing

talk about his summer in Kurdistan while munching on Cosi pesto

chicken sandwiches and some cookies.

18:03 I’m already 3 minutes late to class as I wait in vain for the

talk on South Korea to end so I can hit their spread. A kind cater-

er spares me the embarrassment of arriving to class even later by

telling me that food won’t be available to SAIS students for anoth-

er hour – just in time for the in-class break!

19:05 I zoom downstairs in time to still sample everything avail-

able. Chicken on a stick: hmmmm, scrumptious.

Thursday:

14:10 I grab lunch leftover from a meeting in the always

dependable 8th floor of Rome. My Observer Editor catches me

sneaking food, and laughs at me.

18:30 A light day, food-wise, but thankfully, I have my leftovers

from Tuesday night available.

Friday:

12:15 I have to go to work, negating my physical presence on

the scene, so a good friend helps me out and brings me a plate of

cookies from his meeting upstairs. This’ll tide me over for awhile.

14:00 8th floor Rome to the rescue again! To the dread of two

professors hanging around after their meeting, I walk in, grab two

sandwiches, and casually stroll out, face full of turkey.

16:30 You didn’t think that Career Fair was useful at all? Well,

you didn’t look behind that black curtain, the one for “employers

only,” did you? Sandwiches again and I’m not even hungry - but

what the hell!

Who says there’sno such thing as a

free lunch?Originally published November, 2006

By Nadav Davidai, MA ‘08

Bolognayour head.

While the first class of the year was can-

celed because the Italian professor forgot about it and

slept in, the rest of classes were held in normal SAIS

fashion. There were forums and speakers,

Halloween parties, Thanksgiving and explorations of

Bologna and the Italian countryside. A Bologna

Center (American) Football League (BCFL) was

wildly successful as were the regular ultimate

Frisbee matches held in the Giardini Margherita. And

to be sure, there was always reading and economics

to be done.

In addition, the Bolognese traveled.

Students attended Oktoberfest in Munich, the

Olympics in Torino, Carnival in Venice, spring break

in Sicily, a Model-UN session in Turkey, as well as

spending time in Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Morocco,

Tunisia, Croatia, Serbia, and everywhere else they

could get to. The Bologna Center building remained

the center of the academic and social universe for the

Bolognese, with speakers and events, including a Mr.

SAIS contest (held downstairs with the annual alum-

ni dinner upstairs, and won by John Williams) all

held there.

Soon the winter rains gave way to spring

and the crunch of good weather and massive work-

loads filled the library again. The Bologna CenterJournal of International Affairs was put out to great

acclaim, plans for the summer were formed, and stu-

dents rushed off to do things that would not be possi-

ble in the U.S.. At one point in the spring, the NewYork Times roving travel reporter, ‘nom de journal-

isme’ of Frugal Traveler, and Hopkins alumnus Matt

Gross stopped by and wrote up his visit in the Times.

Then suddenly the semester was over.

Students packed up, threw a few going away shindigs

and dispersed for the summer leaving the Bologna

Center about to be completely re-built.

Overall, each Bolognese will have to per-

sonally reflect on whether it was “the best year” of

his or her life. No one had a bad time, and if they say

they did, you wouldn’t believe them,would you? It is

indeed a good way to attend grad school - to study

international relations from abroad. Italians and Italy

were difficult at times, but always in an exasperating-

ly happy way.

Besides, how can you complain? After all,

you’re in Italy. Life is slower, dinners last for hours

on end, professors sleep through the first class of the

semester, the student body is amazingly diverse,

intelligent and hard working, construction projects

carry on through the entire academic year, the food is

incredible, the wine magnificent, the coffee to die

for, the sidewalks filthier than Marolla’s mouth, and

the trains don’t always run; but when they do, they go

to Florence, Venice, Rome, Naples, Milan, etc.

As for Bologna, the city that is known as the

Fat, the belly of Italy for its food; the Learned, for its

ancient university and culture of scholarship; and the

Red, for the color of its building and for its penchant

for leftist politics — well, you should visit, or pick up

a copy of John Grisham’s The Broker…

SAISLife

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2006

continued on page 7

continued from page 1

The SAIS Bologna Center in Italy, where more

than half of the class of 2009 will spend their

time drinking wine, traveling, and learning to

say marginally useful things in Italian.


Gallipoli.

Each year, Professor Rust

Deming, as part of his class entitled

“US – Japan Relations in Global

Context” leads students on a trip to

Tokyo to conduct research for the chief

requirement of the course, a policy-ori-

ented research paper on issues relating

to US-Japan alliance relations as well

as relations with China and the Korean

peninsula.

The trip provides students

with the opportunity to engage

Japanese policy-makers, business lead-

ers and analysts on their respective

research topics. The culmination of

their efforts is presented as an annual

briefing book published by the

Reischauer Center.

Very similar to Professor

Deming’s class, students in “The Two

Koreas” course had the new opportuni-

ty to travel to Seoul, South Korea over

Thanksgiving break. Led by retired

senior Foreign Service Officer

Professor David Straub, students took

part in group and individual briefings

and meetings on individual topics,

including military, economic, and cul-

tural issues, in and around Seoul.

Each student interviewed U.S.

and Korean government, non-govern-

ment, and media officials to collect

research on a specific issue area. The

corresponding papers written by the

students will culminate in a Korea

yearbook to be published in the spring.

Each year there are many

opportunities similar to those available

last year for students to learn and trav-

el overseas. Keep your eyes and ears

open, and you too could be jet-setting

to an exotic locale on SAIS’ dime.

Field Trips

ProfessionalDevelopmentCurrent and future

makeovers at CareerServices

By Arthur Lord

As part of an ongoing

effort to expand the professional

development capabilities and

activities of SAIS, the Career

Services office underwent its

biggest physical change in over

twelve years when it reopened

this past January in expanded

offices. And the new office space

is only the first of many steps

aimed at helping all SAIS stu-

dents develop more effective pro-

fessional growth strategies,

according to Director Ron

Lambert.

The expanded and updat-

ed office came as a surprise to

many students – particularly the

ones looking for the Registrar’s

Office, which used to reside next

door to Career Services.

Lambert explains that

this major renovation was moti-

vated by a SAIS-wide effort led

by Dean Ted Baker to “create

better spaces for students, staff,

and faculty.”

With the acquisition of a

new floor in the Bernstein-Offit

Building, the Economics

Department moved en masse,

leaving room for internal restruc-

turing within the Nitze main

campus building. Career Services

took over the former Registrar’s

office, and after significant con-

struction turned it into a new,

sleek, and professional office.

Even though Career

Services staff was forced to work

out of classrooms for 2 months as

a result of the construction proj-

ect, their new space – which will

be complete once a glass wall

enclosing the Career Services

classroom is installed – provides

a timely facelift to SAIS Career

Services at a time when competi-

tion with other international rela-

tions graduate school programs is

increasing.

In addition to the more

professional looking office suite,

Career Services has also added a

dedicated interview room and

now hosts the Alumni Relations

office within its suite, though the

Director of Alumni Relations

continues to report to the

Associate Dean for Development

and Alumni Relations, Amir

Pasic.

Career Services human

capital upgrades have comple-

mented the physical upgrades,

Martina Leinz joined the staff in

November to coordinate the

Professional Skills Course pro-

gram and Collen McCusker came

on in January to fill a vacant

counseling position, bringing the

Career Services staff to 6 full

time and one half-time.

Increased staff resources

have allowed for Career Services

to embark on an ambitious new

plan to enhance employer out-

reach, focusing on developing

and cultivating alumni and

Originally published May, 2007

The PersianInitiative

It might have happened below most

people’s radars between the last few weeks of

last semester and the beginning of this one, but

for some students it was a major coup.

Starting in January 2007, SAIS offi-

cially inaugurated its first Persian language

course.

According to Dean Harrington, the

decision was the result of “the synergy of a

whole group of students and the administration

that was looking into it.”

The “group of students” was led by

Chris Forster, a first year Strategic Studies stu-

dent who was preparing to take the Russian pro-

ficiency test and who for personal and profes-

sional reasons wanted to learn Persian as his

second language at SAIS.

Chris set out trying to find like-mind-

ed students by word of mouth and via e-mail.

When he began his search, students and faculty

told him that people have been trying to get a

Persian language class for years and it would

only lead to a dead end. But this didn’t discour-

age Chris.

After bringing up the issue in the

Dean’s Forum and finding Dean Einhorn enthu-

siastic about the prospect of a Persian language

class at SAIS, Chris posted a message in the

November 22 SGA “Spaminator” e-mail that

caught the eye of Dean Harrington. He contact-

ed Chris the next day and told him if he had five

people interested in the class they could get the

ball rolling.

Chris received twelve responses from

his posting in the “Spaminator” and took a

handful of the interested students to meet with

Dean Harrington. Dean Harrington then dis-

cussed the issue with Marco Campos, the direc-

tor of language studies, and later brought it up

during the Dean’s meeting on December 6,

where they officially approved the class.

The only hurdle left was finding a

teacher, and when Professor Campos found

Dariush Dehghan, the Persian class became a

reality. On January 19, Dean Harrington offi-

cially announced that SAIS would offer Novice

Persian (Farsi) during the spring 2007 semester.

(The class is called Persian because the

more familiar “Farsi” is one particular dialect of

the Persian language.)

There are no guarantees about the per-

manence of the Persian class. Next year’s class-

es are always contingent on the responses of

this year. In addition, at this point Persian is not

a proficiency language and is only offered to

students who have passed proficiency in anoth-

er language. Even so, this small victory shows

how powerful SAIS students can be when they

exercise their voice.

“There was a perceived need by the

administration and a positive response by the

students,” said Dean Harrington, explaining

how events developed so quickly.

Dean Harrington warns that students

should not expect changes to happen as quickly

all the time. However, he noted that many

improvements at SAIS have come about

through student initiatives, including the wire-

less internet in the buildings and the bidding

system (which is now under review due to stu-

dent comments).

“The bottom line is to speak up,” Dean

Harrington said. “Most reasonable requests we

try to at least look at and give favorable atten-

tion to.”

Chris’s story is not unique at SAIS.

How one student’s persistence brought astrategic language class to SAIS

By Alex Selim


“There was a perceived need by theadministration and a positive response

by the students.”

continued on page 7continued on page 7


Professor McLaughlin makes a long airplane ride seem much shorter by entertaining

Strat students with his arsenal of card tricks

Special Pull-Out SectionSAIS 2006-2007

We’re gonna need a montage. . .

Mid

term

Ele

ctions

“The strength of SAIS is in its people. The faculty andstudents alike are bright and interesting, coming from awide range of backgrounds. It is truly an environment thatencourages exchange and learning.” - Dan Lecce, MIPP

US-Korea Institute

“I think the best thing aboutSAIS is the community of intel-lectuals. All day long, I havediscussions about books andspeakers with people who arejust as passionate as I am, butsmarter. The best classes I'vetaken, I walk out feeling like ithas been a privilege to be ableto listen to my classmates andprofessors...I look around andsee so many talented, intelli-gent people, and I really do feelso lucky to be here.” - EricJaffe, MA

Learning:Not just libraries and classrooms

Crisis Simulation

Brz

ezin

ski

Kerry

Trips:SAIS-sponsored vacations

Haiti

Chin

a

“The conflict management trip to Haiti, the group of peo-ple who went and the people we met were not somethingyou could casually put together yourself and not some-thing that I will forget soon. It’s not every day that theheads of all international and national organizations cleartheir schedules to meet with you.” - Elaine Hensle, MA Quantico

Unite

d N

atio

ns

“The whole year atBologna was aunique experience.Pretty fabulous.” - Jessica Hais, MA

Middle East

Sicily Staff Ride

Guatemala

Fun!Happy hours and beyond

“The various performances I've been involved with as aDeadweight Loser and then a Rent Seeker have beena special treat. So was TAing, which I found especiallyrewarding, helping my less quantitative classmates insomething that I found very interesting...What I like iswhat first occured to me when I arrived: namely that Iam pretty much always the least interesting person inevery room I enter. I love that my classmates are suchcool people with such fascinating experiences behindthem, I can only imagine where we will all end up. Thatsaid the vibe is never one of entitlement or alreadyknowing better. People are generally very humble andcurious, which is what brought them here, and verysocially competent, which makes me think we'll all doquite well on the outside.” - Adam Ross, MA

“I’m going to miss waking up whenever I want.Class or no class - I get out of bed when I'mgood and ready...Everyone needs to take astep back and realize that you are not thatbusy, you dont have that much work to do, andyes you do have time just to chill out.” - JonRaviv, MA

More Fun at Mr. SAIS

A long, long time agoI can still remember How Pre-Term used to make mesmileAnd I knew when I came to SAISThat studying here would be realniceAnd maybe I’d be happy for a while

But Bonnie Wilson made me shiverWith every speech that she deliv-eredChris Forster played a cricket matchMike McKenzie has a soul patch

I can’t remember if I criedWhen I saw the Berlin Wall outsideSomething touched me deep insideCause’ I’m a future SAIS alumni

CHORUS::So bye bye future SAIS alumniYou don’t even have a job yet butyou’re sure gonna tryYou’re leavin’ school so kiss yourbackpacks goodbyeSingin’ I’m a future SAIS alumni; I’ma future SAIS alumni

Did you go to Macro classAnd do you still have 2 cores topassIf the red book tells you soNow do you believe in construc-tivism?Did you take Comparative NationalSystems?Can you teach me why the interestrate is low?

Well I know that Nadav makes hishomeIn the 8th floor kitchen, up in RomeHe scrounges SAIS for foodWhat a cool Israeli dude!

Oh Dean John Harrington teachesmeWith his god-damned calculus DVDI know that 1 plus 2 is 3Cause’ I’m a future SAIS alumni

We started singin’CHORUS

Now in econ class we understandThe workings of supply and demandWith a textbook that nobody wantsto read

And the finance kids think they’rereally coolBut they should’ve just gone to busi-ness school

An MBA is all they really need

Oh and while we studied the bal-ance of powerI had a beer at happy hourThai names puzzle meLike Yanichnat and Kullawee

Fukuyama knows that he’s a starToo bad he’s not tall enough toreach the barThe end of history is where we areCause’ we’re future SAIS alumni.

We were singin’CHORUS

Alex C. Fleming is a SAIS DJAnd John McLaughlin’s from theCIAMy cousin here is Erica SheinSo come on, can you tell me, is bid-ding fair?What’s the deal with Shakti’s hair?Joe Bubman likes to call me TheRep

If a SAIS girl wants to go out withmeShe’s gotta pass her oral proficiencyThe ladies want romanceOh, when they see Dan Daltondance

And everybody’s askin’, yes it’s trueWhat the hell kind of name is SarahGloo?I’ll bet she’s thinkin’ the same thingtooCause she’s a future SAIS alumni

Everybody sing itCHORUS

I met a kid, a TA guyA BAMA student named Neil ShenaiHe’s a special kind of ladAnd it doesn’t take much imagina-tionTo know that we’ve got grade infla-tionWhen a B minus is really bad

Eliot Cohen’s leavin’ SAISTo work for Condoleezza RiceWe’ll do our best to get byBut we’re gonna miss his bow tie

And 6 months from graduation dayOur FAFSA loans we must repayBut it’s alright because then we cansayThat we’re SAIS alumni

CHORUS

“Future SAIS Alumni”(To the tune of American Pie)

Written and Performed by David Michaels


As SAIS students, we face a serious dilemma. In

what many would consider to be the peak years of our

social lives, we exist within a narrow social network.

Most of us come from outside the DC area, and thus have

few local friends who are not SAIS students. While there

are exceptions among those who have already lived in DC

and others who have found new circles of friends, most

SAISers keep within this community. Given this observa-

tion, I now address the issue that has been on everyone’s

mind since day one of Pre-term: Do I really want to date

my classmates?

First off, what is dating? Is it going to a party,

hooking up, and then asking for a phone number the fol-

lowing day out of a sense of obligation? That oft-repeat-

ed, late teens and early twenties method of dating likely

saw its resurgence with the SAIS Halloween Party.

Another popular way to date is to exchange phone num-

bers with someone you like, casually meet up for a drink,

progress to dinner, and before you know it you’re in a

relationship. As we move on, I encourage the reader to

think about what exactly it means to be dating.

Returning to the issue at hand, there is much to

consider when deciding whether or not to date a fellow

SAISer. Let us begin with the positive elements and

potential benefits. First, most SAIS students are intelli-

gent people with similar interests. You will be able to

have interesting discussions on current world issues with

your date. This would be much more difficult when

branching out to public policy students and nearly impos-

sible if you dated a law student.

The second benefit to dating a fellow SAIS stu-

dent is what I call situational financial similarity. In eco-

nomic terms, this means both you and your date enjoy a

low standard of living—in lay terms, you are equally poor.

The benefit goes to the one who pays for the date, feeling

little pressure to be a big spender. The other person sure-

ly understands that times are tough, and will likely expect

a lower-cost date. Both participants in a SAIS relationship

will be able to understand each other’s hectic schedules.

An 11:00 PM study break with coffee can be accepted as

a legitimate date, however un-romantic that may be.

Because we attend classes in only two buildings,

you will likely run into your boyfriend/girlfriend/whatev-

er quite often. Considering our study schedules, these

might be welcome opportunities to catch up and share a

personal thought or feeling. Furthermore, there is a cer-

tain level of comfort that people share as students at the

same school. These warm feelings can be a wonderful

foundation for a new relationship.

Finally, if you spend all of your time in Nitze, yet

ban intra-SAIS relationships, it could mean two years

without a date. That is surely not healthy for those of us in

our prime.

We now turn to the potential drawbacks of dating

a fellow SAISer. As I mentioned, you might see this per-

son nearly every day. This is often not desired at the

beginning of a relationship, as “too much, too soon” can

lead to relationship burnout. What if the person you are

dating woke up ten minutes before class, rushed to school,

and came in looking like they had just slept on a bench in

Dupont Circle? Additionally, it is nice to meet new peo-

ple through your significant other. If you are both SAIS

students with few outside friends, your relationship will

further lock you into this small community.

The most important negative element of dating

within SAIS – a potentially devastating consequence – is

that of a non-mutual breakup. Face it, chances are pretty

good that the relationship will end, and things can get

tough if one party is unhappy. It would be difficult to

function if you continuously see the person who broke

your heart. Worse yet, seeing them making eyes with

another student at happy hour could send you into depres-

sion.

There is also the issue of reputation. If one per-

son conducts themselves inappropriately at any point in

the relationship, other SAIS students will likely hear about

it. Future dates with other SAISers may no longer be pos-

sible. On the other hand, if the relationship ends mutual-

ly and all parties are satisfied, word of one’s prowess may

spread through the community. This could lead to a vari-

ety of benefits.

Now that I have laid out the arguments, as a good

SAIS student it is time to present my policy recommenda-

tions. I give you my advice in two regards. The first con-

cerns the brief, yet passionate, physical encounter: Go for

it as long as both parties understand what the other expects

the following day. Considering our cramped schedules,

this type of relationship might even be the most beneficial.

My second piece of advice relates to the more

significant and deeper relationships: I urge you all to get

out to the Nitze lobby and start dating each other immedi-

ately. The best relationships form when things happen

naturally and you don’t think too much. Yes, there is

potential for broken hearts, crushed feelings, trampled

egos, ruined reputations, devastated emotions, and squan-

dered future opportunities, but you don’t know until you

try. So approach the next happy hour or Tuesday after-

noon cookie session with a new and healthy attitude.

Look at other SAISers in a way you never dared to look

before. Who knows? They may be looking back.

Dateable?

SAIS is full of people from differ-

ent cultures, and one of the most interest-

ing (and amusing) parts of being here is

watching everyone try to adjust. For

example, when you say goodbye to a

friend, do you kiss on one cheek? On

both? Merely shake hands? What if he

goes in to kiss and you went for the hand-

shake? Throughout the first month of

school, I’ve made enough serious cultural

gaffes of my own to realize that, even

though I am a white American who has

never lived or even studied abroad, I do

have a distinct culture that I bring to SAIS.

I am a straight-from-college.

You may not believe that being

22 and straight out of college makes me

culturally distinct from the majority of

SAIS students, but let me illustrate my

point. When we study the Cold War in

class, it has about as much relevance to my

life as World War II. I cannot remember a

time when the Soviet Union existed (I was

5 when it fell apart), nor do I have any real

memory of a unified Yugoslavia. The first

CD I ever bought was Alanis Morrissette’s

Jagged Little Pill, which came out when I

was in 5th grade. As far as I can remem-

ber, MTV has never played music videos,

and the TV show The Wonder Years is

something I watched on Nick-at-Nite

along with I Love Lucy.

Need more proof? The first inter-

national event to impact my adult life was

9/11, which happened when I was in high

school.

The collegiate culture is probably

the most under-recognized and under-

appreciated culture at SAIS. We are diffi-

cult to pick out of a crowd, because we

look similar to the SAIS majority cultural

group, the American-who-has-been-work-

ing-overseas-since-college. We can often

be distinguished, however, by our unique

dialect (where I come from, the word

“like” must be used at least every 3rd

word) and our unique costume (dirty

sneakers and a willingness to wear sweat-

shirts and pajama pants in public).

There are no courses here to teach

you about my culture and our distinct tra-

ditions, some of which may seem alien to

you. Similarly, before coming to SAIS, I

had never had substantial contact with

anyone outside my own culture, (that is,

over the age of 23) so many of your cus-

toms are foreign to me. Therefore, in an

effort to help us understand each other, I

think it is important to raise awareness

about the vibrant collegiate culture, and

the challenges we face in integrating at

SAIS.

One unique aspect of collegiate

culture is in our methods of communica-

tion. At SAIS people seem to communi-

cate primarily face-to-face or on the tele-

phone. I cannot comprehend how this

method allows you to convey necessary

information. Where I come from, most

communication is conducted through indi-

rect channels such as away messages on

Instant Messenger and profiles on

Facebook.com (like myspace.com – but no

old people allowed).

Away messages and Facebook

profiles constitute a very complex signal-

ing mechanism in our society. From a one

sentence away message, we learn to divine

multiple levels of information including

the writer’s current location, current mood,

and even his personality. A great deal of

energy in collegiate culture is therefore

devoted to creating and monitoring away

messages and Facebook profiles.

We restrict face-to-face contact to

recreational situations, which are held in

great esteem. In collegiate culture, for

example, big screen TVs are considered a

high-value commodity. In fact, it is not

unusual for small intra-cultural conflicts to

break out over whether to watch Grey’s

Anatomy or Family Guy on Sunday night

(since solved by Grey’s move to

Thursdays), or whether to turn on Batman

Begins or X-Men in the hour lull before

dinner. Imagine my surprise and shock in

noting that at SAIS the basement is prima-

rily used as a place to study, with the TV

largely off or muted.

Likewise, in collegiate culture,

gaming equipment is never allowed to lie

CulturalLearningsof College

The perils and prospects of dating at SAISOriginally published December, 2006By David Michaels, MA ‘08

originally published November, 2006By Jessica Stahl, MA ‘08

continued on page 7

For some SAIS-ers, the college spirit still lives strong...PARTAY!


One on One: Dean EinhornThe Observer’s Jay Lurie visited DeanEinhorn to talk about the past and future ofSAIS, as well as the experiences that ledher here. The full interview can be foundon our website, www.saisobserver.org.

Dean, you graduated from SAIS in1970. How did you end up here thefirst time around?

SAIS was different then. It

was a much smaller school. I came

from New York City and had graduat-

ed from Barnard College young, at the

age of 19. That was much more com-

mon in those days. I had taken my jun-

ior year at the London School of

Economics when I was 18 years old. It

was my first time away from home,

and in those days we didn’t have cell

phones or email. When you went

abroad you really went abroad. When I

came home, I thought it would be fun

to go abroad for another year. So, I

applied for a Fulbright in Venezuela.

In undergrad, I had been invit-

ed to apply to SAIS. I didn’t know

graduate schools in International

Affairs, but I was impressed with SAIS

and accepted the offer to come. They,

of course, were happy to give me a

deferral to do the Fulbright in

Venezuela.

What made you decide to do theFulbright in Venezuela?

In applying for the Fulbright

in Latin America, I loved skiing, so I

wanted to go to Argentina or Chile. At

Barnard, I was taking a Senior Seminar

on Latin America, and the professor

said to me, “Oh Latin America, you

should go to Venezuela. It’s this great

experiment in democracy, it’s so inter-

esting. You should go there.” It was not

a popular choice for Fulbrights, so I

put it down as my third choice, and

they gave it to me. I was one of 5 peo-

ple who went to Caracas, and P.S. they

don’t ski in Venezuela.

Tell me about your experience as a stu-dent at SAIS.

I was at SAIS from 1968-70,

when I was 21-23 years old. My recol-

lection of SAIS is that we had a won-

derful time, but it was much less rigor-

ous and demanding than it is now. It

was much more about an introduction

to diplomacy, diplomatic history, inter-

national affairs, regional studies, and

economics. The neighborhood wasn’t

so gentrified then, so everyone could

afford to live near the school.

There was a good deal of

warmth and sharing. I didn’t know

much about the campus in Bologna,

where some of the students were. My

two years were much more about get-

ting a sense of what the professions

were like.

It was a lot of reading, a lot of

good learning, certainly a great deal of

grounding in international economics,

but it felt more like it was less focused

on the education and more an introduc-

tion to the whole sensibility of interna-

tional relations as a profession. Then,

afterwards I went to Princeton for a

PhD in Politics on the recommenda-

tion of an economics professor who

said to me that as a woman I should get

the best education that I can get.

What was your favorite class?A great class given by

Edmund Stillman – he wrote books

with William Pfaff. They didn’t think

the world was made up of people with

harmonies of interest, all with good

motivations. He gave a course on

American Foreign Policy or

International Relations and gave great

lectures and wonderful readings. It was

one of the better introductions to a

combination of political philosophy

and international relations.

Who was your favorite professor?I had a great professor of

International Law, Stephen Schwebel

who went on to become the head of the

International Court of Justice. I also

had a professor, Bill Luers, who taught

me Soviet politics. He was later the

Ambassador to Venezuela and

Ambassador to the Czech Republic.

He also brought me over to the State

Department when I was working at the

Department of Treasury.

As a PhD in Politics, how did you geta position with the US Treasury?

Well, I always loved finance,

and I did my thesis on the fight

between the State Department and the

Treasury Department on the “bureau-

cratic politics” of expropriation policy.

Initially, I went into the development

office of Treasury. Then, I got recruit-

ed into the monetary office in time for

the reform of the IMF articles. I loved

the Treasury, and I loved Monetary

Policy.

You had a very extensive career at theWorld Bank, culminating as VicePresident and Treasurer and thenManaging Director. How did youachieve such great success, and whydid you leave?

I had gotten to know the peo-

ple in the Treasury department at the

World Bank, and that was the start of

my 19 years at the institution. The

emphasis of the World Bank Treasury

is on fixed income. When I became

more senior, I oversaw the manage-

ment of the $10BN pension fund. I was

there for the transformation of fixed

income markets. Looking back, it was

technology and globalization that

transformed the financial sector.

As for leaving, I was coming

on 50 years old, and I had been there

close to 20 years. I felt that I didn’t

want to spend the rest of my career in

the position I was in, but I also didn’t

want to switch to another field in the

bank. So, it was time to move on to

something else.

Knowing that I loved mone-

tary policy, the heads of the World

Bank and IMF, and especially Stanley

Fischer (then number two at the IMF)

invited me to become a visiting fellow

in the research department at the IMF

for a year under Chief Economist

Michael Mussa. I was able to think and

read for an entire year about interna-

tional financial architecture.

In introducing Treasury SecretaryHenry Paulson at SAIS, you alluded tohis successful career in the private sec-tor and now in the public sector, anideal to which many SAIS studentsaspire. You yourself have dedicatedmost of your career to the public sectorand academia, while you currentlyserve on the Time Warner Board ofAdvisors. How have you been able to

balance these divergent paths?Because I was on the Treasury

side of the World Bank – even though

I was heart and soul working in the

public sector – I was working only

with the cream of the financial private

sector all over the world. So, I always

had one foot in the private sector and

one foot in the public sector. In terms

of boards, I started with nonprofit

boards. It was an appropriate mix since

you couldn’t be on a private sector

board while working at the World

Bank. There, I learned the dynamics

and governance of boards from non-

profits. Later, I was able to join a cor-

porate board, and I find the experience

at Time Warner to be very worthwhile.

What have been some of your majoraccomplishments during your tenure?

I think my deanship is a work

in progress. I share responsibility for

completed tasks with those around me.

What I do hold myself accountable for

is building out the community ties that

help us to do our jobs for the students.

That is the privilege and responsibility

that we have. I know it may sound like

I’m standing on a soapbox, but it’s

true, and it’s what brings me to work

every day.

You began your deanship in 2001,shortly after your predecessor PaulWolfowitz was appointed as US DeputySecretary of Defense under DonaldRumsfeld. Wolfowitz is often associat-ed with neoconservative politics. Doesthe “neocon” image of the school res-onate in the community even six yearsafter Wolfowitz’s departure?

In the early years I heard more

of it. I hear less of it now, and I think

it’s because even in our so-called “neo-

con” community there has been so

much criticism of the war effort, that I

think it has dissipated. I have never

heard anyone say that Paul Wolfowitz

brought politics into the school. He

came from an academic family, and he

really loved the school for what it was,

not as an instrument for something

else. I used to say, “When I come into

the school every day I stand on the

shoulders of my predecessor.” That’s

what you say if you’re in your first

year or second year. Once you’re in

your fifth year, you better not be stand-

ing on anyone else’s shoulders.

When Wolfowitz was Dean, he used tohave 8AM breakfast with students oncea week to build his relationship withthe students. Have you tried to dosomething similar to reach out to stu-dents?

I’ve tried a number of

approaches. First, I had a time when

people could come in to see me, but

barely anyone came. Then, I would go

downstairs once a week. So, the same

four students who read their newspa-

per every morning were stuck talking

to the Dean once a week.

What I’m going to do next

year is have individual occasions with

each of the clubs. That’s going to be a

great way to meet a lot of the students.

Once every two weeks I’ll try to get on

the calendar of a different club and get

to know them. It’s a little bit similar to

the reunions. If you see people where

they’re more passionate, I think you

will have more to talk about.

What do you see as the biggest chal-lenges facing SAIS in the comingyears?

We’ve been doing this big

exercise, “Roll Back the Future”, an

idea that came to us from a wonderful

alum that had a very successful career

at McKinsey. It’s a concept in which

you look out 10 years from now and

decide what you think the competitive

environment is. You identify the chal-

lenges that you’re going to face, how

you would need to be functioning to

thrive in that environment, and then

you roll back the future. By that you

recognize what we need to do in one

year, in five years to get there. In busi-

ness parlance, it starts with a focus on

clients. In educational parlance, you’d

be looking at both the environment of

educational competition and the kind

of students and the needs that they will

have 10 years from now.

We find that the education at

SAIS is very strong and the faculty is

very strong, and what we’re looking

at is how to enhance the whole SAIS

experience. So, instead of having two

surges of 13 weeks, and then all of

these breaks, we will try over time to

have a more continuous experience

from pre-term through to commence-

ment.

Some ideas that we are con-

templating are leadership training as

well as economics during pre-term,

more trips that are of professional

interest during winter or spring break,

short courses by special people who

are only available for a few weeks in

the January break, and enhancing

even more the summer jobs that relate

to the professional experience that

students want to have

So, the whole idea is to try

and build up the infrastructure of the

professional school around the great

academic core that we have.



FoodAll this sound good to you? Some tips for the

uninitiated:

BYOF – Bring your own fork. Your own sup-

ply of forks is crucial. While you might feel a

little foolish the first time you pull a fork out of

your backpack in front of everybody, think

how much dumber you’ll feel when you’re

shoving potato salad into your mouth with your

hands or using a plate to scoop up your pasta.

This is not a big investment of your part – forks

are readily available next to the cafeteria doors

during hours of operation.

Tupperware, people! - You think it’s tough

managing your classes, job interviews, or the

guest lecture tour at SAIS? Give chasing down

all the free meals at SAIS a try. Some days,

you’re going to have more than you can han-

dle, with multiple options offered at the same

time. Grab some plastic and make that food

last all week.

Network – Your friends are great resources

here. They can give you the inside track on

events in their department and – if they like

you – can even get some leftovers for you (see

#2, “Tupperware, people!”). This will save

you the embarrassment of sitting in on that

Strategic Studies internship meeting you have

no connection to. Cover your bases, and make

friends from every department, especially with

the Southeast Asia guys – they’ll be the best

friends you’ll have at SAIS.

Don’t be ashamed – Screw that, be shameless.

This food’s going to be thrown away - and it

could’ve gone to you. Think of it as extra

financial aid, only delicious.

Know the patterns – For one, Tuesdays and

Wednesdays are golden – no need to step into

the SAIS cafeteria on these days. There’s food

EVERYWHERE. Second, know the hotspots:

8th floor Rome Building, 2pm is the best, but

also Nitze cafeteria in the late afternoon and

Kenney Auditorium, for which I have yet to

decipher a pattern, are good options.

Free food begets free food – Put yourself out

there and you will be swept up in a virtuous

cycle of free food. For example, coming to the

SAIS Observer for free pizza turned into

money for writing restaurant reviews.

Likewise, going to a Defense Club internship

meeting (I’m Middle East) for more pizza, led

to a bartending gig and a few drinks at their

ensuing Happy Hour. Morale of the story: peo-

ple want to feed you here, and you should let

them.

Don’t be picky – I hope you like chicken salad

sandwiches, salad, and cream sauce chicken

and mushrooms – because you will be eating

lots of it if you follow these steps. In fact, if

you ever feel the urge to order a pizza or go to

Cosi, you are doing something wrong.

Forget about breakfast – Breakfast might be the

most important meal of the day – but it’s not

free. As the Achilles heel of SAIS, breakfast is

quite hard to find, as is food on Mondays. I

have other sources for breakfast – but I’m not

willing to reveal those yet.

Follow these seven easy steps, and you can

share in my success. Just watch out for the few

employees who have lived and breathed these

guidelines long before we even arrived at

SAIS. As protective of their secrets as the Free

Masons, they cannot be pleased by my tell-all

expose. You’ve seen them all before – they’re

the ones with the Tupperware.

Career Servicesrecruitment office relations with the top 200 SAIS

employers in the private, public, multilateral organiza-

tion, and NGO realm.

The office overhaul, notes Lambert, is a signifi-

cant milestone for Career Services at SAIS, reminiscing

that “when I arrived here [in 1995], Career Services was

incredibly small and under-resourced,” only able to oper-

ate on weekday afternoons and not offering support to

MIPP students or alumni.These changes may go a ways in improving stu-

dents’ perception of Career Services’ capabilities and

competencies, which, like at most graduate schools,

tends to be mixed. A large number of students feel grate-

ful that such a professional and committed staff make

themselves available to help them prepare for life after

SAIS by aiding them not just in finding jobs but in find-

ing careers. Yet at the same time, there are ongoing con-

cerns about the office’s operations.

Philip Reiner has strong praise for the Career

Services office, saying that in his search for a summer

job, “[Career Services counselor] Mike McKenzie was of

the utmost help.”

Tabitha Mallory describes Career Services as

“amazingly professional, helpful, and [with] an abun-

dance of information; however, they also run their outfit

like a military establishment.”

Saqib Rahim, an aspiring journalist currently

spending his second semester in Bologna, on the other

hand, noted that when he met with a counselor in the fall

“he seemed to be guiding me toward his area of expert-

ise” instead of what Rahim was really interested in, the

world of journalism.

That said, Rahim reflects that “career counselors

aren’t really supposed to tell you what to do, or to get you

a job. They should just ask you the right questions, to get

you thinking along the right lines.”

Career Services seems well-attuned to how

they’re perceived among the current students and alum-

ni, providing frequent opportunities for students to give

input on how to be more helpful in their professional

development, such as course evaluations for their profes-

sional skills workshops and career service staff devoting

considerable time to one on one meetings as well as drop

in hours.

Lambert stresses that Career Services will con-

tinue to progress and adapt in order to become an even

better complement to a SAIS education. Looking ahead

to the next five years, Lambert says that Career Services’

biggest challenge will be to continue to “integrate profes-

sional development more effectively throughout the

SAIS experience – without changing the emphasis on

high quality academics and scholarship that attract stu-

dents and faculty to SAIS.”

Additionally, Careers Services hopes to work

with its partners in the Bologna and Nanjing campuses to

further their capabilities, with talk of adding video con-

ference facilities to the new Career Center office so that

Bologna and Nanjing students can participate in various

DC- based career development opportunities. The new

office in the Nitze building will also be increasingly used

for employer presentations, professional skills work-

shops, and career club meetings.

Altogether, this might not mean Career Services

will be able to hand away jobs to all graduates along with

the diplomas they’ll receive on that bright sunshiny May

day, but they will do all they can to make more students

know what they can do throughout their SAIS experience

to develop a better sense of who they are, where they

want to go, and how to get there.

Persian LanguageI’m mentioning it because he’s my

housemate I had to hear about the lack of

a Persian class every day. (Also, as his

housemate, I am vulnerable to all man-

ner of attacks in my sleep.) There are

plenty of type A personalities to go

around with the power and drive to make

things happen around here.

Even so, I still hear a lot of

griping about facilities that SAIS doesn’t

have or whining from people who are

disillusioned by academic programs that

haven’t lived up to their standards or

expectations. The cynicism often wears

me down.

As an editor of the Observer, a

lot of people come to me wanting to

publish stories about what’s wrong with

the school. As much as the Observer ismeant to be a public service to the SAIS

community, I would rather use the news-

paper’s space to report what students are

doing to make the school better.

Dean Harrington’s message is

clear. The deans are here for us and are

willing to listen to our concerns. The

editors of the Observer have met with

many of deans over the past month and

have found them to be genuinely inter-

ested in students’ ideas and absolutely

committed to accommodating their

needs as much as is reasonably possible.

However, they are there to help

us help ourselves. At the end of the day,

this is our university and if we don’t take

ownership of it, by taking the initiative

to fix the problems that we can fix, no

one will.

If we can’t make a difference in

this microcosm called SAIS, how can

we even think about changing the

world?

Collegefallow. The day we found out we were getting a foosball

table in my fraternity house (actually we called them eating

clubs, but that’s a whole other issue) was practically a holiday.

Leaving a ping-pong table unused would be considered an

offense.Logically, then, where I come from, work is consid-

ered a secondary priority – something to fill the time between

periods of recreation. We feel obliged to do it, and sometimes

are even interested in it, but it is never allowed to become a

focal point of our daily lives. The kings in collegiate culture

are the students who log the fewest hours in the library per

semester (and that kid who hits every cup in beer pong). In

fact, work and future careers are very rarely considered to be

polite or appropriate conversation topics, and when they are

allowed to come up, the speaker must affect a blasé tone of

voice. Learning to ask, “And what do you study?” in social sit-

uations at SAIS has been a real struggle.

You may have observed that, although straight-from-

college students identify strongly with our culture, we also try

desperately to distance ourselves from it once we leave. We

tend to overcompensate in our classes, hoping that the more

comments we make, the less obvious our collegiate back-

ground will be. Many of also overcompensate in our career

pursuits, taking on ambitious internships in the hopes that an

expanding resume will help us leave our culture behind. One

of the singular features of collegiate culture is that our associ-

ation with it tends to be fleeting – it defines us for four years,

and then we are expected to leave it behind as quickly as pos-

sible.

In coming to SAIS, however, and being forced to examine my

culture, I have learned that there are some aspects of collegiate

culture of which we deserve to be proud, and that we would be

justified in guarding and bringing to our experience here. As

Frankie said (even though I wasn’t alive when they said it):

RELAX!

Yes, SAIS is about working hard and getting a lot out of our

academics, as well as preparing for our career after school, but

no one can or should work hard all the time - you will not lose

that job with Booz Allen because you threw a Frisbee around

on a nice day instead of doing those last 50 pages of reading,

or because you changed the TV channel off of CNN to watch

something with no relevance to politics. So take a cue from the

collegiate culture and take some time every day to just

relax….and think about joining Facebook.com so I can actual-

continued from page 3continued from page 4



SAISgeistThe official blog of the SAIS Observer,

SAIS Johns Hopkins University student newspaper

www.saisobserver.org

blogs.sais-jhu.edu/saisgeist

What is SAISgeist?

SAISgeist is the official blog of the SAIS Observer, SAIS’ monthly student newspaper. Bloggers write on topics such as interna-

tional affairs, domestic politics, SAIS-related news, and basically anything else that occurs to us in a flash of inspiration.

Since its launch last year, SAISgeist is quickly becoming a forum for SAIS students to share ideas and opinions, and to hear what

fellow students have to say. it’s an ideal place to talk about what we’re interested in - less formal than the classroom, and less dorky

than bringing it up at happy hours (not that we don’t do that all the time anyway...just wait).

Who blogs?

The bloggers are all current SAIS students. This summer we have a number of students who have been writing from various loca-

tions abroad and in the US, sharing their experiences and the fresh perspective that comes from breaking out of the SAIS bubble

for a brief, shining moment.

Come September we’ll be recruiting new bloggers to replace the crew that graduated last spring. So keep a lookout for that adver-

tisement, or email [email protected] for more information.

We also encourage students to register on the site. Registering allows you to join the conversatiion and leave comments (view-

points, healthy debate, counter-arguments, critique, polemic...whatever you want) in response to the blog entries.

Further questions?

Email us at [email protected] with any questions about the SAISgeist blog or the SAIS Observer newspaper, and be sure to visit

our websites:

www.saisobserver.org

blogs.sais-jhu.edu/saisgeist

“Don’t take any shit from the zeitgeist.” - George Carlin

firstannualjournalismcontestSponsored by the SAIS

Observer, Journalism CareerClub, and International

Reporting Project

Win up to $600 and achance to be profes-sionally published

First prize is $600 for the internationalreporting category and $400 for the travelessay category.

Submissions should be 750-1000 words.Submission deadline will be announced inSeptember.

Please contact Alex Selim ([email protected]) formore information.

WRITE FOR THEOBSERVER

Become a part of the only publication at SAIS with its veryown newsstand and very own inflated sense of self-worth(yeah, we’re kind of a big deal).

Stay tuned for an announcement of our fall open house foranyone interested in working with the Observer this year.

As always, we welcome those with an interest in:WritingPhotographyLayoutCartooning

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