Dear Columbia College Students,

This week, we celebrated what it means to be a citizen. We launched the Holder Initiative for Civil and Political Rights at Columbia University, a new endeavor named after former U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. CC’73, LAW’76, that will support your exploration of justice, civil and political rights, and the responsibilities of American citizenship. And we honored Jonathan Lavine CC’88, a committed former student, for the role he has played as a citizen within our community and many others.

You all have or will explore the idea of citizenship here through Contemporary Civilization, amongst other courses. And our goal as a College is for you not to just understand the concepts of freedom, justice and citizenship. But for you to “live the Core,” recognizing, valuing and utilizing your understandings of freedom, justice and citizenship in all that you do. We aim to prepare you to live a life of emotional and intellectual integrity, of self-examination and of critical engagement with the larger social world — to prepare you for a life of citizenship, for success in any field that you choose. Your Columbia education is about acquiring the knowledge and understanding to become a valuable person, the knowledge and understanding to take your place in a society and use your knowledge for the benefit of that society. It is the knowledge and understanding that gives you the power of ethics, morals, citizenship, responsibility and honor.

Jonathan Lavine, who we honored this week with the Alexander Hamilton Award, given each year for distinguished service to the College and accomplishments in one’s field of endeavor, has demonstrated his citizenship to Columbia and to the world. He is a great investor in people, including those who work for Bain, where he is co-managing partner, as well as those who have benefited from his service to City Year, Horizons for Homeless Children, Boston Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Opportunity Nation and to Columbia. He, like Eric Holder before him, used his Columbia College education to contribute to society.

The Holder Initiative will support you as you continue your journey beyond the Core Curriculum, sponsoring courses, public events, student internships and fellowships for practitioners that extend the themes and questions of the Core. Whether or not you take advantage of these programs and opportunities, I encourage you to think about how you can “live the Core,” taking the values you have learned in your Core courses and throughout your Columbia College experience to support civic action on and beyond campus.

Roar, Lion(s), Roar,
Deantini