Our priorities and objectives emphasize our commitment to ensuring that our students are able to take full advantage of the resources of our great University and its affiliates, including 17 graduate and professional schools, and our New York City location, while also receiving the best global undergraduate education in the world. We want our students to internalize the values they learn in the Core — of character, integrity, honor and respect — and to build upon them as critical thinkers, active and engaged citizens, and responsible community members.

Attract and support the best and the brightest students

  • Strategically enhance messaging on the value of a Columbia College education to ensure a broad and diverse pool of the most highly qualified applicants
  • Enhance financial aid offers and communications that guide students toward more thoughtful and holistic decision-making in their college selection and yield the highest caliber students who are best able to profit from and contribute to the Columbia College experience

Continue to enhance the Core Curriculum

  • Establish a larger pool of prospective Core instructors through increased support for Core Faculty, additional endowed Core Faculty Fellows, and more opportunities for advanced graduate students
  • Strengthen and enhance the intellectual communities of Core classes
  • Expand the classroom in space and time to enable broader engagement of all students taking any portion of the Core at the same time
  • Lead the revival of undergraduate liberal arts curricula in the United States and abroad

Enhance the support of faculty committed to undergraduate teaching, mentoring, and advising

  • Continue to support faculty members in their commitment to undergraduate teaching
  • Establish endowments and enhance administrative support to support faculty leaders of each Core Curriculum component
  • Increase faculty engagement with undergraduates and mentoring and advising of College students

Provide innovative and dynamic curricular offerings to prepare students for an ever-changing world

  • Support and strengthen curricular planning, development, approval and enrollment to ensure that course offerings respond to the changing needs and interests of students
  • Expand the curriculum, with particular focus on establishing joint-curricular offerings with professional schools, to prepare students for the highest level of post-graduate success
  • Establish an entrepreneurship curriculum to encourage, cultivate and support entrepreneurship

Build a transformative global educational experience for students

  • Increase partnerships, programming and faculty support to enhance global education offerings through summer and academic-year study abroad opportunities
  • Increase funding and support to better enable students to have global experiences during the summer and academic year

Enhance the undergraduate experience beyond the classroom

  • Ensure a meaningful summer experience, such as an internship, research project or global experience for every student by removing the financial barriers to those experiences
  • Expand service-learning opportunities to create more active and engaged citizens and responsible community members
  • Increase mentoring connections so that students can see their futures through the lives of alumni, faculty and New York City professionals

Strengthen the undergraduate experience by developing a “whole-life” philosophy

  • Build awareness of the academic, personal and professional competencies that undergraduates gain through a Columbia College education
  • Enhance programming to further the academic, personal and professional success of our students
  • Increase resources and programming that promote community and student wellness, with a focus on mental health
  • Enhance career advising and career opportunities, with a focus on underrepresented industries and locations
  • Create a more integrated advising framework  in partnership with faculty to expand resources and support around science advising

Address the administrative, residential, and fitness facilities needed to strengthen the undergraduate experience

  • Improve administrative facilities that provide key student support services
  • Improve the quality of undergraduate residential facilities