Yale Club of the Netherlands

Mr. Zakaria is not coming to the Netherlands at this time, and the John Adams Institute has been forced to cancel the event.

Jan 09, 2016, 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm,   Aula, Uva, Singel 411 Amsterdam (John Adams Institute lecture)

Details to follow, but save the date for this lecture from Yale alumnus Fareed Zakaria.

From the John Adams Institute website:
The liberal arts are under attack. The governors of Florida, Texas, and North Carolina have all pledged that they will not spend taxpayer money subsidizing the liberal arts, and they seem to have an unlikely ally in President Obama. These messages are hitting home: majors like English and history, once very popular and highly respected, are in steep decline.

However, CNN host and best-selling author Fareed Zakaria – about whom Esquire Magazine said the he is “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation’’- will explain why this widely held view is mistaken at the John Adams Institute. In his new book In Defense of a Liberal Education, Zakaria argues for a renewed commitment to liberal arts. According to Zakaria, a liberal arts education is the best preparation for many careers, especially in the U.S., given today’s global technology-driven economy.

Professor Robert DeRubeis on “Anti-depressants: remedy or goldmine?”
When: Tuesday 29 September, from 17.00 until 20.00
Where: Amsterdamse Academische Club (AAC), Oudezijds Achterburgwal 235, 1012 DL Amsterdam
Schedule:
17.00 – open for drinks at the bar (cash bar)
18.00 – 19.15 Lecture
19.15 – 20.00 Buffet dinner (optional)*
Lecture:
Sales of anti-depressants have grown explosively during the past few decades. More than 800.000 people in the Netherlands, and more than 25 million in the U.S. take anti-depressants. Do they really work, or is this just a goldmine for the pharmaceutical industry?
About the speaker
Robert J. DeRubeis is the Samuel H. Preston Term Professor in the Social Sciences and Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently the University of Amsterdam’s Révész Chair (2015-2016) in the Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences, as well as Visiting Professor at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. His primary research area is causes and treatments of mood disorders. See the following article published in the Volkskrant
DeRubeis received his BA in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota. See more details of his publications
There is no cost to attend the lecture. Drinks can be purchased at the bar. An optional buffet dinner is available following the lecture (cost: €15 per person).
Registration
If you wish to attend, please register before Sunday 27 September via the AAC website and send an e-mail to info@ivycircle.nl with your name, school affiliation and number of guests.
*Please also indicate whether you wish to join the optional buffet dinner. 

Join the Yale Club’s Richard Golden and the Ivy Circle for a unique look behind the scenes at the depot of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (SMA), the premier modern art museum of the Netherlands. (An optional extension to the Museum will depend on the level of interest.)

The depot of the SMA is a high-tech, temperature and humidity-controlled warehouse where most of the museum’s collection is analyzed, treated where necessary, prepared for transport, and stored. The depot constructs its own one-of-a-kind crates for shipping artwork to museums around the world.
When:     Thursday, September 3
Where:    Gyroscoopweg 16, Amsterdam-West
Cost:        €15, including entrance to the museum (normally €20 alone). Direct bus transport from the depot to Museumplein may be available for an additional €15.
Public transport connections from the depot are poor and require a 20-minute walk to Station Sloterdijk.

Schedule: 17.00 – 17.30 welcome
17.30 – 19.30 depot tour. Three different specialists talk about their work, one for each   of the three topics above.

Space at the depot is limited, and payment is required to reserve your place:
Payment €15,- per person by Monday September 1st to Ivy Circle Netherlands account NL83 TRIO 0254 8413 09, include your name + number of guests as payment reference.
Please also email Richard Golden at rng@balticcapital.net to indicate which option (see below) you prefer.

Some of the daily challenges at the depot include:

• preserving renowned artworks, including paintings, sculptures (wood, ceramic and metal), applied art, digital art, and works on paper, the last of which includes many different types of paper as many different inks, from India ink to various generations of inkjet printers.
• blending scientific analysis and aesthetic judgment to maintain the integrity of the artwork
• special handling: how do they ship these things safely around the world anyway? (hint: it’s as much about satisfying insurance companies and lawyers as curators and conservators)

OPTIONAL ADD-ONS:
For those with more stamina, two optional extensions at Stedelijk on Museumplein are available:
dinner in the museum restaurant, located in “the Bathtub”, the new extension; and
special access for a guided tour with an art historian of the main exhibition, “ZERO”, (click here: http://stedelijk.nl/en/exhibitions/zero-let-us-explore-the-stars)

These options can be added depending on the level of interest. Dinner would be at cost, payable directly to the restaurant; access to the museum and the tour are free. For an additional fee we can also arrange bus transportation from the depot to the museum. The museum closes at 10:00 p.m.

Please RSVP to Richard N. Golden (rng@balticcapital.net) specifying the number of people, names and preferences as follows so that we can tailor the event to our membership’s overall preferences:

A: depot visit only
B: depot + dinner only at the museum café (NO guided tour of the ZERO exhibit upstairs in the museum)
C: the full boat: depot + dinner + a guided tour of the ZERO exhibit upstairs in the museum
D: only dinner + a guided tour of the ZERO exhibit upstairs (NO visit to the depot)

NOTE:   No food or drink is allowed in the depot. It’s an intensive care facility for artwork. Bring mints.
Access:   Plenty of free parking. By public transportation, it’s a 20-minute walk from station Sloterdijk.

Discuss Dutch and American university admissions with Professors Karabel and Rinooy Kan.  Join the Ivy Circle and the John Adams Institute for a debate on education, privilege and responsibility.

At the end of the 19th century, Harvard took measures to attract students not only from the elite, but also from public schools. This move resulted in an unwelcome surprise for Harvard: they enrolled too many Jewish students. Harvard quickly took measures that were intended to, as President A. Lawrence Lowell said, “prevent a dangerous increase in the proportion of Jews”. Princeton and Yale soon followed suit, creating a system that allowed them to change the admissions policies to protect their place in the halls of power. For The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, Jerome Karabel, Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, compiled over two decades of original research into a comprehensive, provocative and riveting account of the development of American Ivy League education and admissions policies.

Of course, a lot has changed in recent decades, resulting in a far more diverse student body. But how do the highly selective (and still controversial) admissions policies of Ivy League and other elite universities compare to Dutch admissions policies, where the requirements are less subjective? Do the more transparent, standardized and accessible entry requirements for Dutch universities result in a lower quality education? How do grants, scholarships and financial aid policies compare between the U.S. and the Netherlands? What are the expectations and responsibilities of universities? Given the recent students protests in the Netherlands, what can we learn from the U.S experience?
Join the Ivy Circle and the John Adams Institute for a debate on education, privilege and responsibility.

Jerome Karabel will give a talk and have a discussion with Alexander Rinnooy Kan, Professor of Economics at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, in which they will explore and compare the American and Dutch/European challenges, goals and opportunities in top level education in the context of an increasingly global education ‘marketplace’.

May 28, 2015, 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm,   The International School of Amsterdam, Sportlaan 45, Amstelveen

Buy Tickets here

JAI Member: 13 euro, Non Member: 19 euro, Student: 15 euro

We’ve found a wonderful project for the Yale Day of Service on Saturday, May 9 and we really hope you can join us.  In the (translated) words of the organization we are helping out (Stichting Meer Groen):
There is a special story with this site. It is a 40ha site in Osdorp called Westgaarde. This seems to be the place where a particular orchid grows most extensively in the Netherlands, maybe even in Europe. This orchid is just now poking its head above ground and there are about 15,000-40,000 of them on the site. The manager has contacted me because he would like to begin managing it ecologically. The orchids appear to have a preference for nutrient poor soil prevalent here.  

Possible tasks are:
1. Save the orchids by getting rid of weeds
2. Hang up about 45 birdhouses
3. There is a forested border around the cemetery where we would like to make a walking path, which means doing some forestry management (sawing and so forth).

Come and join us. Children and partners are very welcome (and mine, ages 5 and 7, are coming). Everyone should wear old clothes and sturdy shoes that can get dirty.

Time: 10:00
Address: Begraafplaats Westgaarde, Ookmeerweg 273-275, 1067 SP Amsterdam.

Please reply to yaleclubnl@gmail.com for confirmation and to get final details.
Join Sonia Sotomayor and thousands of other Yale alum in the annual Day of Service.

A note from Harmony, our organiser:
I’ve found the previous Days of Service quite a lot of fun and very personally rewarding and it would be nice to share that experience with all of you.
All the best,
Harmony Folz

On Wednesday, February 11, the Yale Club of the Netherlands will host our annual Feb Club Emeritus party in the center of Amsterdam at Café Luxembourg, described as “one of the world’s great cafes” by the New York Times.
With over 80 events across the globe, the Feb Club Emeritus has become the largest Yale alumni event. Meet old friends and make new ones.  We have had between 15 and 25 people each year, and hope to see many of the over 100 Yale-alums in the Netherlands.

Dinner can be ordered by those who want it, and general festivities for all, from 18.30 on.
Please register by sending an email to yaleclubnl@gmail.com

Cafe Luxembourg
Spui 24
1012 XA Amsterdam
easily reached via trams 1, 2, and 5.

See you on the 11th!

The 3rd annual Human Rights Weekend  with Human Rights Watch at de Balie. will take place on 30 January through the 1st of February at the Balie in Amsterdam.
This year’s theme will be on Reporting Change, offering a close-up, informative, and eye-opening peek behind the scenes at what’s going on in the Middle East and North Africa. (see the link below with Dutch and English information).
It will be a weekend packed with documentary and feature films, debates, panel discussions, interviews, and theater performance.  Senior HRW directors and researchers from the region and the Emergencies Division will be among the experts taking part. This is also one of the few ‘open’ Human Rights Watch events; i.e., all are welcome (though must purchase and reserve tickets through de Balie’s website – see below

http://www.debalie.nl/uitgelicht/human-rights-weekend

The Ivy Circle will organise an event/borrel on Saturday 31 January.  More details to follow.

“What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data – Lifeblood of Big Business – and the End of Privacy as We Know It”

Adam Tanner is a fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University and was previously a Nieman fellow there. Adam Tanner has worked for Reuters News Agency as Balkans bureau chief based in Belgrade, Serbia, as well as San Francisco bureau chief, and had previous postings in Berlin, Moscow, and Washington, DC. He also contributes to Forbes and other magazines.
For more information on his book, click here.
Click here for a recent review in Wall Street Journal, and here for one from the Financial Times.

The logistical details are as follows:

Location:        NautaDutilh, Amsterdam, Strawinskylaan 1999, 1077 XV Amsterdam
Date:               October 23, 2014
Time:              17:30 – introductory drinks
18:15 – 19:15 presentation, Q/A
19:15 – 20:00 – closing drinks and hot snacks

If you wish to register for the event, please e-mail harvardnlevents@gmail.com, stating your name, school, and number of guests.