Previous

||

This Issue

||

Next

ALUMNI CORNER

Hamilton Dinner Shines Light
On Past, Future

By Charles J. O’Byrne ’81
President, Columbia College Alumni Association

The Alexander Hamilton Medal is the College’s highest honor, bestowed annually on a member of the Columbia alumni, faculty or administration for distinguished service and accomplishment in any field of endeavor. The medal is presented during the course of a formal dinner held in Low Rotunda that invariably becomes an occasion at which the College has a chance to celebrate itself, its past and its future.

That celebration took on special meaning last month when former president George Rupp received the 55th Hamilton Medal. Rupp left Columbia in June after nine years of service and now is president of the International Rescue Committee, an organization that provides support to refugees and other vulnerable populations throughout the world. While president of Columbia, Rupp achieved a great deal for the College community, from ensuring the construction of Lerner Hall, the new undergraduate activities center, to reaffirming the University’s commitment to the central place of the Core Curriculum. Rupp’s predecessor, Michael Sovern ’53, the Kent Professor at the Law School, was on hand to salute him along with more than 400 alumni, faculty, students and friends of the College.

Awarding the Hamilton Medal to Rupp also gave the College community a chance to formally welcome the University’s new president, Lee C. Bollinger. Since taking on his responsibilities this summer, Bollinger already has reached out to the College and, in particular, its alumni. Bollinger met with the Board of Visitors and the board of directors of the Alumni Association in the fall, sharing some of his early impressions on the state of the University and its future. Our president is a quick study, committed to undergraduate education and very much aware of the College’s place at the center of the University. He already has made a mark as an innovative leader, drawing extensive national media coverage for his initiatives in partnering the University with the Royal Shakespeare Co. and the University of Michigan for a production of the play Midnight’s Children, based on the book by Salman Rushdie, at the Apollo Theatre, and appointing a commission of journalism leaders to strategize about one of the University’s most prestigious professional schools. During this year’s orientation program, Bollinger met with the parents of incoming first-year students, assuring them of his interest in their sons and daughters. As students selected their classes, more than 200 College students registered for Bollinger’s course, “Freedom of Speech and Press,” which quickly became oversubscribed. He is the first University president in modern times to teach a course for undergraduates.

Columbia faces important challenges in the years ahead, and the College’s 250th birthday celebration, which begins next fall, marks an important milestone to remember the past and to look toward the future. The College is stronger than ever, with early reports indicating that next year’s early admission pool will once again break records in depth and excellence. Extensive renovation of Hamilton Hall and other facilities around the campus underscores the renewal of the University’s physical plant. There is greater involvement than ever on the part of younger alumni, and the Class of 2002 achieved a participation rate of more than 50 percent in the senior gift program, inspiring the Class of 2003 to set its goal at 70 percent. That’s an astounding number, particularly when measured against the level of participation by College alumni as a whole, which hovers around 30 percent. Bollinger’s presidency and Columbia’s future depend heavily on changing that picture. Many of the reasons that kept alumni from sharing the enthusiasm of this year’s senior class are no more.

I respectfully encourage you, if you have not found a reason to be supportive of the College in the past, to reconsider. Our legacies — the Columbia College students of today — deserve no less.

Previous

||

This Issue

||

Next