Winter 2012–13
Around the Quads
Campus News
KENNEDY PRIZE: Columbia University Libraries and Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith have established an annual theatre award, The Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, in honor of her late brother. It will be given through the libraries to a new play or musical that, in the words of the prize’s mission statement, “enlists theatre’s power to explore the past of the United States, to participate meaningfully in the great issues of our day through the public conversation, grounded in historical understanding, that is essential to the functioning of a democracy.” The first recipient of the EMK Prize will be announced on Kennedy’s birthday, February 22, 2013.
“My brother loved the arts — museums, books, the performing arts,” said Smith. “Music was perhaps dearest to him, but he and I shared an enjoyment of theatre — especially, for Teddy, musical theatre. And he also had a deep love of history, in the Senate and in his personal life. So I thought this could be a unique prize that would recognize the importance of history, music and theatre.”
Smith worked with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner ’78 and others in creating the parameters for the award. Said Kushner, in an article published in The New York Times, “This seemed to me a chance to create not just another prize — though playwrights need financial support! — but an incentive, a challenge for playwrights and a validation of theatre as a particularly social and civic art form.”
The EMK Prize carries an award of $100,000. In addition, the Libraries’ Center for New Media Teaching and Learning will work with the recipient to create a website featuring study and teaching guides, including extensive historical research and scholarly discussion and interpretation of the prize-winning play or musical. For more information, go to kennedyprize.columbia.edu.
WE’RE NO. 4, AGAIN: For the third consecutive year, Columbia was ranked fourth in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of national universities, released in September. This time Columbia was tied with Chicago, which moved up from a tie for fifth a year ago. The top three were unchanged, with Harvard and Princeton tied for first and Yale third. MIT and Stanford tied for sixth, Duke and Penn tied for eighth and Caltech and Dartmouth tied for 10th. Ratings are based on a variety of factors including graduation and retention rates, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving; Columbia’s rating includes three undergraduate schools: the College, Engineering and General Studies. For more information, go to usnews.com and search for best colleges.
ENDOWMENT: Columbia’s endowment posted a 2.3 percent return on its investments but dropped from $7.8 billion a year ago to $7.65 billion at the close of Fiscal Year 2011–2012, the University reported. Withdrawals from the endowment exceeded the investment return, causing the slight decline. The 2.3 percent return was among the best reported by peer institutions but well below the 23.6 percent return generated in FY11, which was the best in the Ivy League. Columbia’s annual return during the past 10 years stands at 10.4 percent, just behind Yale’s 10.6 percent.
COURSERA: Columbia is offering two free courses online through Coursera, an education platform founded last year by two Stanford professors. The courses are “Financial Engineering and Risk Management” and “Natural Language Processing.” “We’re doing a pilot program in the MOOC [massive open online course] stage, and the idea there is to see … the potential of the MOOC stage for education,” Sree Sreenivasan, the University’s chief digital officer, told Spectator. “What I’m trying to do in my position is to help see what’s working, try new things and to expand and enhance what we’ve already done and built at Columbia.”
This is the first time Columbia is offering courses that are free and open to anyone in the world with Internet access. Both courses will begin on February 11 and run for 10 weeks. Coursera includes offerings from 33 schools, including Princeton, Penn, Brown, Stanford, Duke and Caltech.
SPEC ARCHIVE: Spectator and Columbia University Archives have launched Columbia Spectator Archive, a searchable, online archive that allows anyone to access past issues of the campus newspaper. Almost every issue of Spectator published from fall 1953 through spring 1985, as well as the 1991 and 1992 volumes, has been digitized and uploaded to spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu. Spectator is trying to raise funds to complete the archive with issues from 1877–1953, 1985–90 and 1993–present.
CAFA: Provost John Coatsworth has formed a Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid (CAFA) to provide faculty insight and advice on admissions and financial aid policies and procedures in the College and Engineering. The committee will not participate in individual admissions or financial aid decisions, according to a letter from Coatsworth to the Columbia community but rather will provide advice on admissions criteria, such as curriculum and testing requirements, and evaluate these criteria in relation to student academic performance at Columbia. CAFA will offer guidance on how diversity should be considered in evaluation of applicants, according to the letter. It also will advise on programs such as early decision, combined plans, transfer programs and visiting student opportunities; recommend recruitment initiatives to shape the applicant pool; and advise on financial aid policies that enable the achievement of admissions goals and assess the effectiveness of these policies in meeting educational objectives.
Alex Sachare ’71