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AROUND THE QUADS

CAMPUS BULLETINS

Photo: Alex Sachare '71

Dean Austin Quigley addressed more than 150 enthusiastic alumni, students and parents who gathered on September 13 at Casa Italiana to meet with senior College and University administrators at the second annual Columbia College Fund Leadership Conference. Trustee Richard Witten ’75 and Executive V.P. for Development and Alumni Relations Susan Feagin also spoke, stressing the importance of alumni involvement in the health and growth of the College and the University, particularly now, as the College commences its year-long celebration of its founding 250 years ago, in 1754. Other highlights of the day-long program were briefings on issues relating to undergraduate admissions and financial aid by Eric Furda, executive director, and David Charlow ’85, associate dean; presentations by Dean of Student Affairs Chris Colombo and key members of his staff on other aspects of student life; a demonstration of the College’s growing E-Community; and a panel of students and young alumni who offered their perspectives on these matters. The Leadership Conference supports the Class Agent program, which provides a framework for alumni to help support the Columbia College Fund through a peer network. For more information, please call (212) 870-2288 or (866) CCALUMNI, or e-mail ccfund@columbia.edu.

WORLD LEADERS

When world leaders come to New York, they seem to have two “must” stops on their itineraries: the United Nations and the Columbia campus. In conjunction with the U.N. General Assembly in September, 17 world leaders visited Columbia and spoke on campus, including Vladimir Putin, president of Russia; Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan; Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, prime minister of India; and Kamal Kharrazi, foreign minister of Iran.

After addressing the U.N. General Assembly on the morning of September 25, Putin headed uptown and spoke before 300 students, faculty and others in Low Library. He delivered prepared remarks about Soviet-U.S. relations for about 20 minutes, followed by 45 minutes of free-flowing questions and answers. After his appearance, Putin posed with Little League baseball players from Harlem and Russia, who had been playing on South Field, and even paused to autograph one Columbia student’s football and tank top.

IRAQ FORUMS

Several distinguished faculty members presented their views on the Iraq war, globalization, global poverty and other issues at a recent three-part open forum series, “Global Consequences of the Iraq War,” sponsored by The Columbia Faculty Peace Committee.

The first session, “Iraq War’s Impact on World Poverty,” held on September 17, featured Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute and Quetelet Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs; and panelists Eric Foner ’63, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History, who served as moderator; Rosalind Morris, professor of anthropology and director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender; and Richard Parker, professor of sociomedical science.

On September 23, Joseph Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel Prize winner in economics and professor of economics and international and public affairs, spoke about the issues of globalization and the role of economics in the aftermath of the war in Iraq. Joining Stiglitz on the panel were Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Avalon Foundation Professor in Humanities, and Anders Stephanson, James P. Shenton Associate Professor of Contemporary Civilization. Elizabeth Balckmar, a history professor, chaired the forum.

The October 1 session, “From Vietnam to Iraq: What Has Changed?” undertook a more historical perspective, featuring Mahmood Mamdani, Herbert Lehman Professor of Government, and panelists Partha Chatterjee, professor of anthropology, and Jean Cohen, professor of political science.

FUND RISING

Thanks to the generosity of alumni, parents, students and friends of the College, more than $9 million in unrestricted gifts was received by the Columbia College Fund in fiscal year 2002–03, compared with last year’s $8.3 million. This is the sixth consecutive year that the Fund has posted record contributions in unrestricted giving. An additional $14 million in other gifts was received for the College, chiefly for scholarship endowments and facilities.

The development staff, led by Associate Dean of Alumni Affairs and Development Derek Wittner ’65 and College Fund Director Susan Levin Birnbaum, worked in conjunction with the Fund Committee, led by Fund Chair Geoffrey J. Colvin ’74, Vice Chairs Robert Berne ’60 and Edward Weinstein ’57 and the Class Agents.

Highlights included record participation by the Class of 2003, with 71 percent of the graduating seniors choosing to support the College Fund, compared with 52 percent a year ago and 30 percent in 2000–01. An additional 700 donors participated in the College Fund in 2002–03 compared with a year ago. The Parents Fund, led by outgoing chairs Karen and John Lyle P’02, P’03 and staffed by Director Susan Rautenberg, grew by 10 percent to $725,000 in FY03.

Gifts to the Columbia College Fund allow Dean Austin Quigley and his staff to pursue initiatives to improve services and resources offered to College students. Unrestricted gifts are those that give the dean the most flexibility to use where he sees the need, providing current and immediately usable funds for the College’s many programs, including financial aid and student services.

NO. 11?

Columbia tied for 11th place with Northwestern in the 2003 rankings of national universities published by U.S. News & World Report, down one place from a year ago. Harvard and Princeton were tied for first, followed by Yale, MIT, a four-way tie for fifth between Cal Tech, Duke, Stanford and Penn and a two-way tie for ninth between Dartmouth and Washington of St. Louis.

Meanwhile, The Atlantic Monthly issued its own rankings and Columbia placed seventh, behind MIT, Princeton, Cal Tech, Yale, Harvard and Stanford. The Atlantic Monthly rankings were based on selectivity as well as median SAT scores and class rank, while U.S. News & World Report based its rankings on a weighted formula covering peer assessment, retention, faculty resources, selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate and alumni giving rate.

RARE BOOKS

The fall exhibition at Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, “Columbia’s Cornerstone: The Core Curriculum,” is open to the public through December 5 and will reopen, following renovations, January 16–February 28. The exhibition highlights significant books, manuscripts and objects relating to the Core and charts its development from its inception in 1919 to the present. Included in the exhibition are the papers of John Jacob Coss, a member of the original committee that drafted the Core syllabus; a papyrus fragment of Homer dating from the 1st century B.C.; and a manuscript portion of the Qu’r¯an, written and illuminated in 1259.

“Columbia’s Cornerstone” will be on view during the Rare Book and Manuscript Library’s regular hours: noon–7:45 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m.–4:45 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. The Rare Book and Manuascript Library is located on the sixth floor of Butler Library. For access, visitors should ask for the Library information office and say they are going to the exhibit in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

FUN RUN/WALK

Undaunted by the 7:30 a.m. start time, nearly 300 students, faculty, deans, administrators and alumni kicked off the 2003 academic year by joining President Lee C. Bollinger for the 2nd Annual 5K Fun Run/Walk on September 5. A devoted runner, Bollinger greeted the participants by promising that the run would start a couple hours later next year, then leading the crowd in a 250th birthday cheer for Columbia. The participants wound their way from the Sundial to Riverside Park, running and walking along the Hudson River to the finish line at 116th Street.

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