Columbia University
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| Columbia University in the City of New York | |
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| Motto: | In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen (Latin) |
| Motto in English: | In Thy light shall we see light (Psalm 36:9) |
| Established: | 1754 |
| Type: | Private |
| Endowment: | US $7.15 Billion[1] |
| President: | Lee C. Bollinger |
| Faculty: | 3,543[2] |
| Students: | 24,820[3] |
| Undergraduates: | 6,923[3] |
| Postgraduates: | 15,731[3] |
| Location: |  New York, NY |
| Campus: | Total, 299 acres (1.23 km²): Urban, 36 acres (0.15 km²) Morningside Heights Campus, 26 acres (0.1 km²), Baker Field athletic complex, 20 acres (0.09 km²), Medical Center, 157 acres (0.64 km²) Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, 60 acres (0.25 km²), Nevis Laboratories, Reid Hall (Paris) |
| Former names: | *King's College (1754-1783) *Columbia College (1784-1896) |
| Newspaper: | Columbia Daily Spectator |
| Colors: | Columbia blue and White |
| Nickname: | Columbia Lions |
| Athletics: | NCAA Division I FCS, Ivy League 29 sports teams |
| Affiliations: | MAISA; AAU |
| Website: | www.columbia.edu |
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Columbia University in the City of New York (colloquially known as Columbia University), is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City. The institution was established as King's College by the Church of England, receiving a Royal Charter in 1754 from George II of Great Britain. One of only two universities in the United States to have been founded by royal charter, it was the only college established in the Province of New York, and the fifth college established in the Thirteen Colonies. After the American Revolution it was briefly chartered as a New York State entity from 1784-1787, however the university now operates under a 1787 charter that places the institution under a private board of trustees.
[edit] Campus
[edit] Morningside Heights
Most of Columbia's graduate and undergraduate studies are conducted in Morningside Heights on Seth Low's late-19th century vision of a university campus where all disciplines could be taught in one location. The campus was designed along Beaux-Arts principles by acclaimed architects McKim, Mead, and White and is considered one of their best works.
Columbia's main campus occupies more than six city blocks, or 32 acres (132,000 m²), in Morningside Heights, a neighborhood located between the Upper West Side and Harlem sections of Manhattan that contains a number of academic institutions. The university owns over 7,800 apartments in Morningside Heights, which house faculty, graduate students, and staff. Almost two dozen undergraduate dormitories (purpose-built or converted) are located on campus or in Morningside Heights.[4]
New buildings and structures on the campus, especially those built following the Second World War, have often only been constructed after a contentious process often involving open debate and protest over the new structures. Often the complaints raised by these protests during these periods of expansion have included issues beyond the debate over the construction of any of the architectural features which diverged from the original McKim, Mead, and White plan, and often involved complaints against the administration of the university. This was the case with Uris Hall, which sits behind Low Library, built in the 1960s, and the more recent Alfred Lerner Hall, a deconstructivist structure completed in 1998 and designed by Columbia's then-Dean of Architecture, Bernard Tschumi. Elements of these same issues have been reflected in the current debate over the future expansion of the campus into Manhattanville, several blocks uptown from the current campus.[5]
Columbia's library system includes over 9.5 million volumes.[6] One library of note on campus is the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library which is the largest library of architecture in the United States and among, if not the largest, in the world.[7] The library contains more than 400,000 volumes, of which most are non-circulating and must be read on site. One of the library's prominent undertakings is the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, which is one of the foremost international resources for locating citations to architecture and related topics in periodical literature. The Avery Index covers periodicals thoroughly back to the 1930s, with limited coverage dating to the nineteenth century, up to the present day.
Several buildings on the Morningside Heights campus are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Low Memorial Library, the centerpiece of the campus, is listed for its architectural significance. Philosophy Hall is listed as the site of the invention of FM radio. Also listed is Pupin Hall, another National Historic Landmark, which houses the physics and astronomy departments, where initial experiments on the nuclear fission of uranium were conducted by Enrico Fermi. The uranium atom was split there ten days after the world's first atom-splitting in Copenhagen, Denmark.
[edit] Other campuses
Health-related schools are located at the Columbia University Medical Center, 20 acres (81,000 m2) located in the neighborhood of Washington Heights, fifty blocks uptown. Columbia also owns the 26-acre (110,000 m2) Baker Field, which includes the Lawrence A. Wien Stadium as well as facilities for field sports, outdoor track and tennis, at the northern tip of Manhattan island (in the neighborhood of Inwood). There is a third campus on the west bank of the Hudson River, the 157-acre (0.64 km2) Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, and another, the 60-acre (240,000 m2) Nevis Laboratories, in Irvington, New York. There is a satellite campus in Paris, Reid Hall. The Arden House in Harriman, New York is primarily used for the Executive MBA Program.
[edit] University Hospital
New York-Presbyterian Hospital is affiliated with medical schools of both Columbia and Cornell universities. According to the US News and World Report's Americas Best Hospitals 2007, it is ranked 6th overall (3rd among university hospitals). Columbia medical school has a strategic partnership with New York State Psychiatric Institute. Columbia is also affiliated with nineteen hospitals in the US and four hospitals overseas.
[edit] History
Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in the state of New York. Founded and chartered as King's College in 1754, Columbia is the sixth-oldest such institution in the United States (by date of founding; fifth by date of chartering). After the American Revolutionary War, King's College was renamed Columbia College in 1784, and in 1896 it was further renamed Columbia University. Columbia has grown over time to encompass twenty schools and affiliated institutions.
[edit] King's College: 1754–1776
Discussions regarding the foundation of a college in the Province of New York began as early as 1704, but serious consideration of such proposals was not entertained until the early 1750s, when local graduates of Yale and members of the congregation of Trinity Church (then Church of England, now Episcopal) in New York City became alarmed by the establishment of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University); both because it was founded by "new-light" Presbyterians influenced by the evangelical Great Awakening and, as it was located in the province just across the Hudson River, because it provoked fears of New York developing a cultural and intellectual inferiority. They established their own 'rival' institution, King's College, and elected as its first president Samuel Johnson. Classes began on July 17, 1754 in Trinity Church yard, with Johnson as the sole faculty member. A few months later, on October 31, 1754, Great Britain's King George II officially granted a royal charter for the college. In 1760, King's College moved to its own building at Park Place, near the present City Hall, and in 1767 it established the first American medical school to grant the M.D. degree.
Controversy surrounded the founding of the new college in New York, as it was a thoroughly Church of England institution dominated by the influence of Crown officials in its governing body, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Crown Secretary for Plantations and Colonies. Fears of the establishment of a Church of England episcopacy and of Crown influence in America through King's College were underpinned by its vast wealth, far surpassing all other colonial colleges of the period.[8]
The American Revolution and the subsequent war were catastrophic for King's College. It suspended instruction in 1776, and remained so for eight years, beginning with the arrival of the Continental Army in the spring of that year and continuing with the military occupation of New York City by British troops until their departure in 1783. The college's library was looted and its sole building requisitioned for use as a military hospital first by American and then British forces.[9][10] Additionally, many of the college's alumni, primarily Loyalists, fled to Canada or Great Britain in the war's aftermath, leaving its future governance and financial status in question.
Although the college had been considered a bastion of Tory sentiment, it nevertheless produced many key leaders of the Revolutionary generation - individuals later instrumental in the college's revival. Among the earliest students and trustees of King's College were five "founding fathers" of the United States: John Jay, who negotiated the Treaty of Paris between the United States and Great Britain, ending the Revolutionary War, and who later became the first Chief Justice of the United States; Alexander Hamilton, military aide to General George Washington, author of most of the Federalist Papers, and the first Secretary of the Treasury; Gouverneur Morris, the author of the final draft of the United States Constitution; and Robert R. Livingston, a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence.
Hamilton's first experience with the military came while a student during the summer of 1775, after the outbreak of fighting at Boston. Along with Nicholas Fish, Robert Troup, and a group of other students from King's he joined a volunteer militia company called the "Hearts of Oak" – Hamilton achieving the rank of Lieutenant. They adopted distinctive uniforms, complete with the words "Liberty or Death" on their hatbands, and drilled under the watchful eye of a former British officer in the graveyard of the nearby St. Paul's Chapel. In August 1775, while under fire from the HMS Asia, the Hearts of Oak (a.k.a. the "Corsicans") participated in a successful raid to seize cannon from the Battery, becoming an artillery unit thereafter.[11] Ironically, in 1776 Captain Hamilton would engage in and survive the Battle of Harlem Heights, which took place on and around the site that would become home to his Alma Mater over a century later, only to be - after his dueling death twenty-eight years later - entombed on the site of the first home for King's College in the Trinity Church yard.
[edit] Early Columbia College: 1784–1857
After the war, the remaining members of the Board of Governors of King’s sought to resuscitate the college, petitioning the Legislature of New York to “make such alterations in the Charter as the changed condition of affairs might demand.” The Legislature agreed, and on May 1, 1784, it passed “an Act for granting certain privileges to the College heretofore called King’s College.” [12] The Act created a Board of Regents to oversee the resuscitation of King’s, giving them the power to hire a college president and appoint professors, but prohibiting the College from administering any “religious test-oath” to its faculty. Finally, in an effort to demonstrate its support for the new Republic, the Legislature stipulated that “the College within the City of New York heretofore called King’s College be forever hereafter called and known by the name of Columbia College.” [12]
On May 5, 1784, the Regents held their first meeting, instructing Treasurer Brockholst Livingston and Secretary Robert Harpur (who was Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at King’s) to recover the books, records and any other assets that had been dispersed during the war, and appointing a committee to supervise the repairs of the college building. In addition, the Regents moved quickly to rebuild Columbia’s faculty, appointing William Cochran instructor of Greek and Latin. [12]
In the summer of 1784, after the legislature passed the act restoring the college, Major General James Clinton, a hero of the revolutionary war, brought his son DeWitt Clinton to New York on his way to enroll him as a student at the College of New Jersey. When James Duane, the Mayor of New York and a member of the Regents, heard that the younger Clinton was leaving the state for his education, he pleaded with Cochran to offer him admission to the reconstituted Columbia. Cochran agreed - in no small part due to the fact that DeWitt’s uncle, George Clinton, the Governor of New York, had recently been elected Chancellor of the College by the Regents - and DeWitt Clinton became one of nine students admitted to Columbia that year. [12]
As the state proved negligent in its funding of the institution, this arrangement became increasingly unsatisfactory for both. An expansion of the Regents to 20 New York City residents had placed Hamilton and Jay at the helm, and they, along with Duane, argued for privatization of the college. In 1787 a new charter was adopted for the college, still in use today, granting power to a private board of Trustees. Samuel Johnson's son, William Samuel Johnson, became its president.
For a period in the 1790s, with New York City as the federal and state capital and the country under successive Federalist governments, a revived Columbia thrived under the auspices of Federalists such as Hamilton and Jay. George Washington, notably, attended the commencement of 1790, and nascent interest in legal education commenced under Professor James Kent. As the state and country transitioned to a considerably more Jeffersonian era, however, the college's good fortunes began to dry up. The primary difficulty was funding; the college, already receiving less from the state following its privatization, was beset with even more financial difficulties as hostile politicians took power and as new upstate colleges, particularly Hamilton and Union, lobbied effectively for subsidies. What Columbia did receive was Manhattan real estate, which would only later prove lucrative.
Columbia's performance flagged for the remainder of the 19th century's first half. The law faculty never managed to thrive during this period, and in 1807 the medical school, hoping to arrest its decline, broke off to merge with the independent College of Physicians and Surgeons. Contention between students and faculty were highlighted by the "Riotous Commencement" of 1811, in which students violently protested the faculty's decision not to confer a degree upon John Stevenson, who had inserted objectionable words into his commencement speech. Though the college was finally able to shake its embarrassing reputation for structural shabbiness by adding several wings to College Hall and refinishing it in the more fashionable Greek Revival style, the effort failed to halt Columbia's long-term downturn, and was soon overshadowed by the Gibbs Affair of 1854, in which famed chemistry professor Oliver Wolcott Gibbs was denied a professorship at the college, from which he had graduated, due to his Unitarian affiliation. The event demonstrated to many, including frustrated diarist and trustee George Templeton Strong, the narrow-mindedness of the institution. By July, 1854 the Christian Examiner of Boston, in an article entitled "The Recent Difficulties at Columbia College", noted that the school was "good in classics" yet "weak in sciences", and had "very few distinguished graduates".[13]
[edit] Expansion and the move to Madison Avenue
In 1857, the College moved from Park Place to a primarily Gothic Revival campus on 49th Street and Madison Avenue, where it remained for the next fifty years. The transition to the new campus coincided with a new outlook for the college; during the commencement of that year, College President Charles King proclaimed Columbia "a university". During the last half of the nineteenth century, under the leadership of President F.A.P. Barnard, the institution rapidly assumed the shape of a true modern university. Columbia Law School was founded in 1858, and in 1864 the School of Mines, the country's first such institution and the precursor to today's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, was established. Barnard College for women, established by the eponymous Columbia president, was established in 1889; the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons came under the aegis of the University in 1891, followed by Teachers College, Columbia University in 1893. The Graduate Faculties in Political Science, Philosophy, and Pure Science awarded its first PhD in 1875.[13][14] This period also witnessed the inauguration of Columbia's participation in intercollegiate sports, with the creation of the baseball team in 1867, the organization to the football team in 1870, and the creation of a crew team by 1873. The first intercollegiate Columbia football game was a 6-3 loss to Rutgers. The Columbia Daily Spectator began publication during this period as well, in 1877.[15]
[edit] Morningside Heights
In 1896, the trustees officially authorized the use of yet another new name, Columbia University, and today the institution is officially known as "Columbia University in the City of New York." Additionally, the engineering school was renamed the "School of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry." At the same time, University president Seth Low moved the campus again, from 49th Street to its present location, a more spacious (and, at the time, more rural) campus in the developing neighborhood of Morningside Heights. The site was formerly occupied by the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum. One of the asylum's buildings, the warden's cottage (later known as East Hall and Buell Hall), is still standing today.
The building often depicted as emblematic of Columbia is the centerpiece of the Morningside Heights campus, Low Memorial Library. Constructed in 1895, the building is still referred to as "Low Library" although it has not functioned as a library since 1934. It currently houses the offices of the President and Provost, the Visitor's Center, the Trustees' Room and Columbia Security. Patterned on several precursors, including the Parthenon and the Pantheon, it is surmounted by the largest all-granite dome in the United States.[16]
Under the leadership of Low's successor, Nicholas Murray Butler, Columbia rapidly became the nation's major institution for research, setting the "multiversity" model that later universities would adopt. On the Morningside Heights campus, Columbia centralized on a single campus the College, the School of Law, the Graduate Faculties, the School of Mines (predecessor of the Engineering School), and the College of Physicians & Surgeons. Butler went on to serve as president of Columbia for over four decades and became a giant in American public life (as one-time vice presidential candidate and a Nobel Laureate). His introduction of "downtown" business practices in university administration led to innovations in internal reforms such as the centralization of academic affairs, the direct appointment of registrars, deans, provosts, and secretaries, as well as the formation of a professionalized university bureaucracy, unprecedented among American universities at the time.
In 1893 the Columbia University Press was founded in order to "promote the study of economic, historical, literary, scientific and other subjects; and to promote and encourage the publication of literary works embodying original research in such subjects." Among its publications are The Columbia Encyclopedia, first published in 1935, and The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World, first published in 1952.
In 1902, New York newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer donated a substantial sum to the University for the founding of a school to teach journalism. The result was the 1912 opening of the Graduate School of Journalism — the only journalism school in the Ivy League. The school is the administrator of the Pulitzer Prize and the duPont-Columbia Award in broadcast journalism.
In 1904 Columbia organized adult education classes into a formal program called Extension Teaching (later renamed University Extension). Courses in Extension Teaching eventually give rise to the Columbia Writing Program, the Columbia Business School, and the School of Dentistry and Oral Surgery.
Columbia Business School was added in the early 20th century. During the first half of the 20th Century Columbia and Harvard had the largest endowments in the US.
By the late 1930s, a Columbia student could study with the likes of Jacques Barzun, Paul Lazarsfeld, Mark Van Doren, Lionel Trilling, and I. I. Rabi. The University's graduates during this time were equally accomplished — for example, two alumni of Columbia's Law School, Charles Evans Hughes and Harlan Fiske Stone (who also held the position of Law School dean), served successively as Chief Justices of the United States. Dwight Eisenhower served as Columbia's president from 1948 until he became the President of the United States in 1953.
Research into the atom by faculty members John R. Dunning, I. I. Rabi, Enrico Fermi and Polykarp Kusch placed Columbia's Physics Department in the international spotlight in the 1940s after the first nuclear pile was built to start what became the Manhattan Project.[17]
Following the end of World War II the School of International Affairs was founded in 1946. Focusing on developing diplomats and foreign affairs specialists the school began by offering the Master of International Affairs. To satisfy an increasing desire for skilled public service professionals at home and abroad, the School added the Master of Public Administration degree in 1977. In 1981 the School was renamed the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). The School introduced an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy in 2001 and, in 2004, SIPA inaugurated its first doctoral program — the interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Sustainable Development.
In 1947, to meet the needs of GIs returning from World War II, University Extension was reorganized as an undergraduate college and designated the Columbia University School of General Studies. While University Extension had granted the B.S. degree since 1921, the School of General Studies first granted the B.A. degree in 1968.
Columbia College first admitted women in the fall of 1983 after a decade of failed negotiations with Barnard College, an all female institution affiliated with the University, to merge the two schools. Barnard College still remains affiliated with Columbia and all Barnard graduates are issued diplomas authorized by both Columbia and Barnard.
In 1990 the Faculty of Arts & Sciences was created, unifying the faculties of Columbia College, the School of General Studies, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of International and Public Affairs.
In 1997, the Columbia Engineering School was renamed the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, in honor of Chinese businessman Z. Y. Fu, who gave Columbia $26 million. The school is popularly referred to as "SEAS" or simply, "the engineering school."
[edit] Beyond Morningside: Manhattanville
As of April 2007, the university had purchased more than two-thirds of 17 acres (69,000 m2) desired for a new campus in Manhattanville, to the north of the Morningside Heights campus. Stretching from 125th Street to 133rd Street, the new campus would house buildings for Columbia's schools of business and the arts and allow the construction of the Jerome L. Greene Center for Mind, Brain, and Behavior, where research will occur on neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. [18] The $7 billion expansion plan includes demolishing all buildings, except three that are historically significant, eliminating the existing light industry and storage warehouses, and relocating tenants in 132 apartments. Replacing these buildings will be 6,800,000 square feet (632,000 m2) of space for the University. The space will be used for additional teaching, critical research, and auxiliary services. Designed by Pritzker prize winning architect Renzo Piano, the 17 acres (69,000 m2) will include more accessible pedestrian streets and additional public open spaces.
The project has suffered from criticism: major complaints about Columbia's administration include poor communication and opaque transparency. Complaints regarding the project itself have been based on the fear of gentrification of the area, displacement of residents, and change of neighborhood's function and industrial character. According to the Environmental Impact Statement recently certified by the Department of City Planning, almost 300 people would be displaced from the project zone, and almost 3,300 would be displaced from areas surrounding it. Community activist groups in West Harlem have committed to fighting the expansion for reasons ranging from property protection and fair exchange for land, to residents' rights and care of their collective voice.[19] Despite dissent at a series of public hearings, the City Council of New York approved Columbia's Manhattanville expansion plan on December 19th, 2007, having received strong support from Councilman Robert Jackson (D-West Harlem) and Councilwoman Inez Dickens (D-Central Harlem). Critics accuse the University of having used its political muscle to silence dissent, though dissent was heard at public hearings. At least one landowner claims to have been "threatened" by university representatives. [6] Negotiations with other landowners have been successful, one example being the trade of land from Manhattanville to a block of land in Washington Heights. [7] Most recently, as of December 2008, the State of New York's Empire State Development Corporation approved use of Eminent Domain, which, through declaration of Manhattanville's "blighted" status, gives governmental bodies the right to appropriate private property for public use [8]. This makes certain the future of Columbia's campus expansion into Manhattanville.
[edit] Academics
[edit] Admissions and financial aid
In 2008, Columbia College admitted 8.7% of applicants for the Class of 2012, one of the lowest rates in the country.[20] The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences admitted 17.6%, a record for the School.[20]
Columbia is also a diverse school, with approximately 49% of all students identifying themselves as persons of color. Additionally, over 50% of all undergraduates in the Class of 2011 will be receiving financial aid. The average financial aid package for these students exceeds $27,000, with an average grant size of over $20,000.[20]
On April 11, 2007, Columbia University announced a $400m to $600m donation from media billionaire John Kluge[21] to be used exclusively for undergraduate financial aid. The donation is among the largest single gifts to higher education. Its exact value will depend on the eventual value of Kluge's estate at the time of his death; however, the generous donation has helped change financial aid policy at Columbia. The University was able to extend financial aid offerings to more students; Columbia now has one of the most comprehensive financial aid policies [9].
Undergraduate students in Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science with family income under $60,000 are not expected to pay tuition, room, board, and other fees. At the same, all students who are eligible for financial aid (regardless of income), in lieu of loans, will be awarded University grants.
[edit] Organization
Columbia has three undergraduate institutions:
- Columbia College (CC): the liberal arts college, offering the Bachelor of Arts degree
- The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS): the engineering and applied science school, offering the Bachelor of Science degree
- The School of General Studies (GS): offers Bachelor of Arts degrees to students who have chosen non-traditional paths in their education
Columbia also has a number of graduate and professional schools, including:
- Columbia Law School (CLS): offers the LLM, JD, and JSD degrees
- Columbia Business School (CBS): offers the MBA and PhD degrees
- Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S): offers the MD degree
- Columbia University College of Dental Medicine: offers the DDS degree
- School of Nursing: offers the BS, MS, and PhD degrees
- Mailman School of Public Health: offers the MPH, DrPH, and Ph.D degrees
- Graduate School of Journalism (J-School or CJS): founded by Joseph Pulitzer, offers the MA, MS, and PhD degrees
- School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA): offers MIA, MPA, PEPM, EMPA, and PhD degrees
- The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP): offers the MArch, MS, and PhD degrees
- Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS): offers the MA, MS, and PhD degrees
- The School of the Arts (SoA): offers the MfA degree in four disciplines (film, theater, visual arts, and writing)
- Columbia University School of Social Work: offers the MS and PhD degrees
- The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS): in addition to undergraduate studies, students may also pursue MS and PhD degree programs in engineering.
- Columbia University's School of Continuing Education offers classes for non-matriculated elective course students, Master of Science Degrees, Post-baccalaureate Certificates, English Language Programs, Overseas Programs, Summer Session, and High School Programs.
The university is affiliated with Barnard College, Teachers College, the Union Theological Seminary, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, all located nearby in Morningside Heights. A joint undergraduate program is available through the Jewish Theological Seminary of America as well as through the Juilliard School.[22]
[edit] Rankings
| ARWU World[23] | 7th |
|---|---|
| ARWU National[24] | 6th |
| ARWU Natural Science & Math[25] | 12th |
| ARWU Engineering & CS[26] | 43rd |
| ARWU Life Sciences[27] | 7th |
| ARWU Clinical Medicine[28] | 5th |
| ARWU Social Sciences[29] | 3rd |
| CMUP[30] | 1st |
| THES World[31] | 10th |
| USNWR National University[32] | 8th |
| USNWR Business[33] | 9th |
| USNWR Law[34] | 4th |
| USNWR Medical (research) [35] | 11th |
| USNWR Medical (primary care) [36] | 58th |
| USNWR Engineering[37] | 21st |
| USNWR Education[38] | 4th |
| Forbes[39] | 9th |
The undergraduate school of Columbia University is ranked 8th (tied with University of Chicago and Duke University) among national universities by U.S. News and World Report (USNWR),[40] 7th among world universities and 6th among universities in the Americas by Shanghai Jiao Tong University,[41] 9th by Forbes, 10th among world universities and 6th in North America by the THES - QS World University Rankings,[42] 10th among "global universities" by Newsweek,[43] and 1st in the U.S. among both national research universities by the Center for Measuring University Performance.[44] According to the National Research Council, graduate programs are ranked 8th nationally.[citation needed]
According to the U.S. News & World Report,[45]The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, home to the Pulitzer Prize, ranks #1. Teachers College (Columbia's Graduate School of Education) ranks #4. School of Social Work ranks #4. The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) ranks #3, according to Architect magazine's November 2007 issue. Columbia Law School ranks #4. The Mailman School of Public Health ranks #6. Columbia Business School ranks #9, #2 according to The Financial Times, and #6 according to Fortune Magazine). Columbia's medical school, called the College of Physicians and Surgeons, ranks #11. According to Foreign Policy magazine, the School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA) PhD program (overall) in international relations is ranked #2, and the Master's program (policy area) is ranked #5. Finally, Columbia's Institute of Human Nutrition ranks #1, according to The Chronicle for Higher Education.
[edit] Academic freedom
The University states that it "is committed to maintaining a climate of academic freedom," in which professors are given the "widest possible latitude in their teaching and scholarship."[46] Its policy on academic freedom prohibits the penalization by the University of a professor for expressions of opinion or associations in their private or civic capacity.[47]
In 2005, the University became embroiled in a controversy regarding the academic freedom of students in connection with their studies in the department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures ("MEALAC"). The students charged that MEALAC faculty showed an anti-Israel bias, with one student who was formerly with the Israeli Defense Forces charging that a professor, Joseph Massad, refused to answer his question until he "revealed how many Palestinians he had killed."[48] The professor denied that the incident took place.[48] A group called "The David Project"[49] produced a documentary entitled Columbia Unbecoming in which the charges were made.[48] In response, President Bollinger convened an ad hoc panel to investigate the incidents described in the film and established a standing panel and grievance procedure for future claims of student intimidation.[48]
[edit] High School Programs
Columbia University's Summer Program for High School Students offers highly motivated students the opportunity of a lifetime: a world-class educational experience set in the most exciting city in the nation. The Summer Program for High School Students in New York City, Barcelona, and the Middle East are renowned for their academic rigor, instructional excellence.
Columbia also offers a program called the Columbia University Science Honors Program, which is a program that caters to high school students (sophomores, juniors, and seniors). The program is highly competitive, admitting about one-sixth of applicants who are selected based on their transcripts, student-written essays, a teacher recommendation, and a three-hour science and math test. It offers college-level courses in science and math every Saturday during the academic year.
[edit] Life
[edit] The geography of student life
[edit] Alma Mater
This name refers to a statue on the steps (see below) of Low Memorial Library by sculptor Daniel Chester French. There is a small owl "hidden" on the sculpture. Alma Mater is also the subject of many Columbia legends. The main legends include that the first student in the freshmen class to find the hidden owl on the statue will be valedictorian, and that any subsequent Barnard student who finds it will marry a Columbia man, seeing as how Barnard is a women's college.
[edit] Butler Library
The main library, packed during midterms and finals weeks, is composed of three main parts: the stacks, the study rooms, and the cafe. Students are known to leave their belongings as a placeholder for days on end, a few only leaving the library to sleep a few hours while others come and go as they please. During finals, to get a spot at Butler, students wake up early in the morning and compete with others for a seat. Some students are reported to have gone so far as to set up offices in disused sections of the library on the ninth floor. Butler houses 1.9 million of the university's 9.2 million volumes,[50] mostly in the humanities and history. Unlike the libraries of most other schools, Butler remains at least partially open 24 hours a day and acts as a center of late night studying. Butler also houses Columbia University's Rare Books and Manuscripts Library (including the Columbiana University Archives), the Philip L. Milstein Undergraduate Library, the Oral History collection, and the Butler Media Collection. Butler Library is one of two dozen libraries on campus, mostly distinguished by subject disciplines.[51]
[edit] Residence halls
First-year students usually live in one of the residence halls situated around South Lawn: Hartley, Wallach, John Jay, Furnald or Carman. Upperclass students may also live in Hartley and Wallach, which are collectively part of the Living and Learning Center (LLC), through a highly selective application process. Other upperclassmen participate in a housing lottery. Rising sophomores may also live in Furnald Hall, depending on the lottery results. The other upperclassmen students can choose, depending on their luck, among Broadway, East Campus, 47 Claremont, Hogan, McBain Hall, River Hall, Ruggles Hall, Schapiro, 600 W 113th, Watt Hall, Wien Hall, and Woodbridge Hall. Most students consider a townhouse in East Campus the best suite style housing option, which includes two-story suites for six students including a kitchen, common lounge, large single rooms, and a quiet location. A four or five person suite in Hogan, in which each person lives in a single and the suite shares a full kitchen, bathroom and living room, is also considered excellent housing, as its location is near many restaurants on Broadway and much closer to the subway than East Campus. Very lucky seniors with the best lottery numbers can get their own studio apartment in Watt.
[edit] The Steps
"The Steps", alternatively known as "Low Steps" or the "Urban Beach", are a popular meeting area and hangout for Columbia students. The term refers to the long series of granite steps leading from the lower part of campus (South Field) to its upper terrace, atop which sits Low Memorial Library, as well as adjacent areas, including Low Plaza and small nearby lawns. On warm days, particularly in the spring, the steps become crowded with students conversing, reading, or sunbathing. Occasionally, they play host to film screenings and concerts. The King's Crown Shakespeare Troupe annually performs an outdoor play by "The Bard of Avon", in which the Steps frequently play a prominent role. The design of the steps is modeled after the architecture in Raphael's "The School of Athens," a fresco in the Vatican.
[edit] Sundial
This elevated stone pedestal at the center of the main campus quadrangle now serves as a podest for various speeches. Originally there was a large granite sphere located upon the pedestal, which would mark the time via its shadow. It sat upon the pedestal from approximately 1914 to 1946. It was removed in that year due to cracks that formed within it. The ball was assumed destroyed for 55 years until it was discovered intact in a Michigan field in 2001. As of 2006, it seems unlikely that the sundial will ever be restored to a working state.[52]
[edit] Tunnels
Columbia University has an extensive underground tunnel system dating back more than a century, with the oldest portions existing even before the present campus was constructed. Some of these tunnels are open to students today, while others have been closed off to the public.
[edit] Online
Columbia's most famous online contribution has been Go Ask Alice!, which, since 1993, has provided students and the general public with frank and progressive answers to anonymously posted health questions. Topics covered include drug abuse, sexuality, and interpersonal and romantic relationships. The site receives approximately 2,000 questions a week.[citation needed]
In recent years, new outlets for Columbia student life have opened online. Some, such as the Bwog,[53] the blog of the undergraduate magazine The Blue and White and a medium for campus gossip, and the professor ratings site CULPA[54] (the Columbia Underground Listing of Professor Ability), have flourished. CULPA, established in 1997 and unaffiliated officially with the university, allows students to anonymously post their own reviews of their professors. It is regarded as one of the most useful tools for students looking to enroll in a class, boasting over 10,000 reviews. Because of the candid nature of the submissions, the site has occasionally been accused of harboring biased reviews and misrepresenting professors. Still, it is the main source of professor review currently available to the Columbia student body.
Students have launched a number of other, sometimes pioneering, websites. CU Community was a popular online networking website created by Adam Goldberg (SEAS ´06) containing 85% of the undergraduate student body, that later rebranded itself CampusNetwork and launched across several universities, before succumbing to its long-time competitor, Facebook. The Columbia Daily Spectator launched a blog called SpecBlogs,[55] but this has also since been shut down. Other ventures have been more successful. Carsplit, also created by Adam Goldberg (SEAS ´06), launched in 2005 as a way for students to split the cost of taking a taxi to the airport. Usage peaks during winter break where, last year, over 1,000 students used the service. CU Snacks, authored by Brandon Arbiter (SEAS ´06) was one of the first online, late night snack delivery services. It started from Wien Residence Hall in 2004 and, although it remains completely student-run, it is now part of the experiential education program of Columbia's Center for Career Education. A more recent launch was WikiCU,[56], a student-run wiki about Columbia University and its surrounding neighborhood of Morningside Heights.
[edit] Clubs and activities
[edit] Publications
Major publications include the Columbia Daily Spectator, the nation's second-oldest student newspaper;[57] The Current ,[58] a journal of politics, culture and Jewish Affairs; The Columbian, the second oldest collegiate yearbook in the nation; Columbia Review,[59] the nation's oldest college literary magazine; The Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism;[60] The Columbia Observer; the Columbia Science Review, the Columbia Political Review,[61] the multi-partisan political magazine of the Columbia Political Union; The Fed[62] a triweekly satire and investigative newspaper; Jester of Columbia,[63] the newly (and frequently) revived campus humor magazine; The Blue and White,[64] a literary magazine established in 1890 that has recently begun to foray into in-depth pieces on campus life and politics; and the Journal of Politics & Society,[65] a journal of undergraduate research in the social sciences, published by the Helvidius Group. In 2008, Columbia undergraduates composed for online and print the Columbia East Asian Review, which allows undergraduates at Columbia and throughout the world to publish original work on China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, and Vietnam. Columbia also has an online arts and literary web magazine, The Mobius Strip.[66] AdHoc,[67] denotes itself as the "progressive" campus magazine; it deals largely with local political issues and arts events. Another group of undergraduates started The Current,[68] a journal o