Live the Core
Columbia College unveils the Eric H. Holder Initiative for Civil and Political Rights
On November 17, 2017, Columbia College announced the Eric H. Holder Initiative for Civil and Political Rights. Named after former U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. CC’73, LAW’76, the Holder Initiative will carve out a distinctive experience for Columbia University’s undergraduate students. Through an anonymous donor, $10 million has been raised to secure the Holder Initiative, halfway towards its $20 million goal of becoming an institute.
With the foundational knowledge nurtured in the Core Curriculum — the College’s distinctive set of common courses required of all College students — as a building block, the Holder Initiative will sponsor courses, public events, student internships and fellowships for practitioners that extend the themes and questions of the Core into a more focused interrogation of the mechanisms that promote justice and civil and political rights. Discouraging retreat into what Holder calls “the quiet prejudice of inaction,” the Holder Initiative will encourage students to “live the Core” by supporting their civic action on and beyond campus.
“Columbia College generated in me a real desire to explore the underlying truths to the human rights issues that have confronted our nation for so many years. It is my hope that the Initiative will be a means by which — through research, dialogue and practical experience — these issues can be understood and, most importantly, real progress made.”
— Eric H. Holder Jr. CC’73, LAW’76