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WITHIN THE FAMILY

Four Decades Later: Who Would Have Thought?

Forty years ago, I came to Morningside Heights as a freshman — the College was all-male then and no one even thought of a politically correct designation such as “first-year.” I remember two things about freshman week or whatever it was called back then (it certainly was nothing like today’s elaborate orientation process): my parents helping me move into a relatively new (if non-air-conditioned) Carman Hall, and a group of Barnard girls racing up to me as I walked with friends along College Walk and swiping our freshman beanies off our heads.

So began an amazing four years, a life-changing experience I can only hope the members of the recently arriv­ed Class of 2011 will have the good fortune to experience as well. Little could I have imagined that four decades later I’d be back on Morningside Heights, doing my little piece for alma mater and the Columbia College family.

Dean Austin Quigley likes to say that when you arrive at the College, you don’t just begin a four-year relationship that ends when you leave through the gates, but rather you begin a lifelong relationship that remains a part of you wherever you go, however long you live. And one of the benefits of Columbia’s venerable Core Curriculum is that it creates a shared experience of learning that gives alumni of all ages a common ground for discussion and debate wherever and whenever their paths cross.

As the cover story indicates, this month marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of Hamilton Hall, the College’s flagship building. Thanks to a well-planned and generously funded (60 percent by alumni and parents) renovation, Hamilton looks better than ever and serves as a show­­piece for the College, one of which we all can be proud. The classrooms have been modernized, the lobby looks magnificent, undergraduate admissions has a suite with its own entrance from College Walk and a beautiful center for the Core Curriculum has been created, one befitting the College’s signature series of classroom experiences.

If I have one regret from my College years, it’s that I did not devote as much time and energy to academics as I should have and did not take fullest advantage of all that was available to me. I spent far more time in the Spectator office than I did in Butler Library, and my grades reflected it. I think David Denby ’65 had the right idea when he went back and took Lit Hum and CC some 30 years later and wrote about the experience in Great Books. I know I’d appreciate those texts so much more now than I did then. Maybe, someday, when my day job doesn’t get in the way …

Then again, my years as sports editor of Spec and campus correspondent for The New York Times led to a career in sports journalism and management that I would never have traded for the world. I am forever indebted to my first Spec sports editors, Andrew Crane ’69 and David Rosen ’69, as well as to former sports information director Kevin DeMarrais ’64 and to Bill Steinman, who has “graduated” to historian/archivist in the sports information office — to me, they were all teachers as much as anyone with the title of professor.

So, members of the Class of 2011, when an older person like me tells you that what you learn and who you meet outside the classroom may be just as important and play just as significant a role in your life as what you learn in class, you might want to think about it.

And if by some chance a certain Barnard alumna is reading this, I’d appreciate my beanie back.

In this issue, you will read about the history of Hamilton Hall and the work that went into its renovation, as well as the launch of The Columbia Campaign for Undergraduate Education. These articles are the start of a series we are calling Columbia College: Moving Forward.

As a group, these articles will paint a picture of a College that is vastly different from what it was as recently as the mid-1990s. Future articles, which we expect to publish during the next two years, will deal with the following general areas: academics and curricula, student services, admissions and financial aid, alumni affairs and development, and the physical plant.

We hope these articles will enhance your understanding of Columbia College, where it is today, how it got here, and most important, where it’s going.

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