Columbia College topped the leaderboard charts for the third annual Columbia Giving Day, a 24-hour University-wide event in which the goal is to support and increase awareness of annual funds across all schools. This year’s event took place on October 29 and more than 1,200 College-related donors — comprising alumni, parents, students, staff and friends — contributed a record-breaking total of $3.09 million, a passionate show of support to continuing to build the best undergraduate experience for our students.
Columbia College and The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science have created a new honors designation for talented undergraduates from schools and communities surrounding the University. Up to 40 students from West Harlem, Washington Heights and the South Bronx will receive this honor each year.
On September 29, the Center for the Core Curriculum, the Global Mental Health Program and Refuge Drama Productions, a London-based company specializing in drama therapy productions, sponsored a panel, discussion and screening in Lerner Hall with the Syria: Trojan Women project, a group of Syrian women refugees in Amman, Jordan who have produced a modern day adaptation of Euripides’ play The Trojan Women.
The Double Discovery Center received a $10,000 grant from the Morgan Stanley Foundation, which will assist with the daily operating costs of the Upward Bound and Talent Search programs.
Valerie Purdie-Vaughns CC’93, associate professor of psychology, and Brent Stockwell, professor of biological sciences and chemistry, have been named National Academies Education Fellows in the Sciences for the 2014-2015 academic year.
On September 19, nearly 2,450 students were introduced to more than 130 employers at the Center for Career Education’s annual Fall Career Fair.
Ai-jen Poo CC’96 is one of 21 members of the 2014 MacArthur Foundation Fellows Program (commonly known as “Genius Grants”), an award that recognizes creativity and achievement in a variety of fields and comes with a grant of $625,000 delivered over the course of five years.
The Office of Global Programs offered three new summer study abroad programs this summer.
The Office of Global Programs has announced a new study abroad program in Istanbul, Turkey, focused on the city as a cross-roads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
The University has taken many steps in recent months to help prevent sexual assault and other gender-based misconduct on campus, to make it easier for survivors to report such incidents and to educate students about the subject and the resources available to them. The actions include opening a second Sexual Violence Response and Rape Crisis/Anti-Violence Support Center, establishing a new Gender Based Misconduct Policy, significantly expanding student orientation sessions aimed at prevention, expanding faculty and staff training, and hiring case managers to support students through this process.