Please note that the internal deadlines for the Fulbright, Rhodes, and Marshall have been extended until September 27th.  Please submit all materials by that date.

John W. Kluge ’37, the billionaire businessman who was one of Columbia’s most generous benefactors and who founded the Kluge Scholars Program that benefitted hundreds of current and former College students, died on Tuesday evening, September 7. He was 95.

Born on July 21, 1914, in Chemnitz, Germany, Kluge immigrated when he was 8, grew up in Detroit and earned a scholarship that allowed him to attend the College. “If it hadn’t been for Columbia, my path would have been entirely different in life,” Kluge said at a celebration of his 90th birthday in Low Library. “Columbia gave me an opportunity, and the only way you can really repay that opportunity is for you to help someone else.”

Kluge, the longtime chairman and president of Metromedia, made a $400 million pledge to the University in 2007, the largest gift ever devoted to student financial aid. That brought his philanthropy to Columbia to more than $500 million, including the Kluge Scholars Program, which has enabled more than 500 current and former high-achieving students with less financial means to attend the College; the Kluge Presidential Scholars; the Kluge Faculty Endowment; and other programs.

“John Kluge was a towering figure whose commitment to Columbia and to higher education sets a standard for us all,” said Dean Michele Moody-Adams. “He will be dearly missed, even as we continue to benefit from his generosity and his devotion to Columbia and Columbia students.”

As the Columbia Lions gear up for the 2010 season, Football Head Coach Norries Wilson will be answering fan questions ahead of Sept. 18 game opener against Fordham. To send in a question, comment on the official Columbia University Facebook page by noon on Sept. 10. Coach Wilson will answer selected questions via a taped video interview, posted on Facebook Sept. 17.

Columbia climbed to fourth place in U.S. News & World Report’s 2011 ranking of national universities, which was released on August 16. Columbia was tied for eighth a year ago. Harvard, which had tied with Princeton for first place in 2010, took over sole possession of the top spot this year, followed by Princeton and Yale. Stanford and Penn were tied for fifth, CalTech and MIT tied for seventh and Dartmouth, Duke and Chicago tied for ninth.

U.S. News’ ratings were begun in 1983 and are based on peer evaluations, graduation and freshman retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate performance and alumni giving rate. This year, the methodology was adjusted to add high school counselors to the peer evaluations and to give more weight to graduation and retention rates.

For more information, go to http://www.usnews.com or http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings.

For the second consecutive summer, a group of talented New York City teenagers from low and moderate income families have come to Columbia University for an introduction to rigorous, college-level coursework in the humanities thanks to a unique collaboration between the University's Center for American Studies and its Double Discovery Center (DDC) for local high school students.

The summer coursework is based on Introduction to Contemporary Civilization, the oldest course in Columbia’s Core Curriculum, and emphasizes the twin themes of freedom and citizenship. Instructors include philosopher and dean of Columbia College Michele Moody-Adams; history professors Andrew Delbanco, who also directs the Center for American Studies, Casey Blake, faculty chair for the Center for American Studies, Roosevelt Montás, director of Columbia’s Center for the Core Curriculum, as well as history professor Eric Foner.

For more information on the program, click here.