November/December 2010
Around the Quads
Campus News
WE’RE NO. 4: Columbia climbed to fourth place, from a tie for eighth a year ago, in U.S. News & World Report’s 2011 ranking of national universities, which was released in August. Harvard, which had tied with Princeton for first place in 2010, took 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 usnews.com and search for “best colleges 2011.”
FULBRIGHTS: A record 15 young alumni, including eight members of the Class of 2010, won Fulbright Scholarships in the 2009–10 competition. “We are most grateful for the continued support of faculty members who assist the process through reviewing research proposals, conducting language evaluations and writing letters of recommendation on behalf of our outstanding students,” says Michael Pippenger, the associate dean who heads the Fellowship Program.
Following are the Fulbright winners, with their class year, major and the country in which they will be teaching, studying and doing research: Adam Bazari ’10, anthropology, Indonesia; Jonathan Blitzer ’07, English, Spain; Amanda Erickson ’08, urban studies, Azerbaijan; Matthew Franks ’09, English, Germany; Alexander Harris-Hertel ’10, German literature and cultural history, Germany; Paige Johnson ’10, drama and theatre arts, Indonesia; Jamie Johns ’10, history, China; Alex Jung ’07, anthropology, South Korea; Caitlin Lynch ’10, anthropology, Brazil; David Nee ’08, English, Austria; Natalie Neumann ’10 history (pre-med), Mongolia; Deysy Ordonez-Arreola ’10, anthropology, Macau; Zoe Towns ’07, comparative ethnic studies, United Kingdom; Rachel Vishnepolsky ’10, mathematics, Poland; and Emily Wright-Rosenblatt ’08, African-American studies and English, Venezuela.
Also, Menachem Kaiser ’09 GS, an economics-philosophy major, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Lithuania, and Lusia Zaitseva ’10, a double major in creative writing and French, was recommended by the IIE National Screening Committee and was awarded by the French Ministry Teaching Assistant program.
ENDOWMENT: Columbia’s endowment performed well last year, posting a 17.3 percent return on its investments to finish the fiscal year that ended June 30 at about $6.5 billion. That beat the 14 percent returns of stock averages for the period. It also surpassed the 11 percent return that Harvard, the world’s richest school with an endowment of $27.4 billion, reported for its endowment, and the 8.9 percent return reported by Yale.
Across the past five years, Columbia’s endowment has risen an average of 7.9 percent annually; that compares with a 4.7 percent gain at Harvard and a 3.1 percent increase for institutions tracked by Wilshire Associates, a consulting firm in Santa Monica, Calif.
“The successful investment performance over time has become a cornerstone of Columbia’s financial strength,” says Senior E.V.P. Robert Kasdin. “It provides a growing source of operating revenue, and our donors know we take their trust most seriously.”