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|image = |name = Columbia University in the City of New York |motto = In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen (''In Thy light shall we see light'') |established = 1754 |type = Private |endowment = $5.20 billion |president = Lee Bollinger |undergrad = 5,530 |postgrad = 14,692 |staff = 3,224 |city = New York |state = New York |country = USA |campus = Urban , 36 Acre s (0.15 Km ²) Morningside Heights Campus, 26 Acre s (0.1 km²) Baker Field athletic complex, 20 Acre s (0.09 km²) Medical Center, 157 Acre s (0.64 km²) Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory |free_label = Athletics |free = 29 sports teams |nickname = Royal Lion , Roar-ee |website = www.columbia.edu }} Columbia University is a Private University in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City and a member of the Ivy League . It was established in 1754 as ''King's College'' and is one of the oldest institutions of Higher Education in the United States . During these early years, Alexander Hamilton , John Jay , Gouverneur Morris , and Robert Livingston studied at Columbia. In 1784 , following the American Revolution , the original name ''King's College'' was changed to Columbia College in the spirit of the patriotic fervor of the time. In 1896 , the name of the institution was changed to ''Columbia University in the City of New York'' in order to distinguish between the original undergraduate institution Columbia College from the university as a whole, which by this time was comprised of an undergraduate Engineering school and graduate faculties in Medicine , Law , Teaching , Political Science , Philosophy , and pure Science in addition to the original undergraduate Columbia College . Today, the university is still legally known as ''Columbia University in the City of New York'', and is incorporated as ''The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York''. Its undergraduate schools are Columbia College , the Fu Foundation School Of Engineering And Applied Science (SEAS), and the School Of General Studies . The university is affiliated with Barnard College (an undergraduate liberal arts college for women and one of the Seven Sisters ), Teachers College , Jewish Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary . Through affiliation agreements, it is the university which awards degrees to graduates of Barnard College and Teachers College . Campus Most of Columbia's graduate and undergraduate studies are conducted in Morningside Heights on Seth Low 's late-19th century vision of a university campus where all disciplines could be taught in one location. This campus was designed by acclaimed architects McKim, Mead, And White and is considered one of their best works. Columbia's main Campus occupies more than six City Block s, 32 acres (132,000 m²), in Morningside Heights , an academic neighborhood located between the Upper West Side and Harlem sections of Manhattan . The university owns 7300 apartments in Morningside Heights, which house faculty, graduate students, and staff. Health-related schools are located at the Columbia University Medical Center , twenty acres located about fifty blocks uptown. Columbia also owns the 26 acre Baker Field, which has the facilities for field sports, outdoor track, tennis, and rowing at the northern tip of Manhattan island (in the neighborhood of Inwood ). There is a third campus on the west bank of the Hudson River , the 157 acre Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York . New buildings and structures on the campus have often only been constructed after a contentious process often involving open debate and protest over the new structures. Often the complaints raised by these protests during these periods have expansion have included issues beyond the debate over the construction of any of the architectural features which diverged from the original McKim, Mead, and White plan, and often involved complaints against the administration of the university. This was the case with Uris Hall which sits behind Low Library, which evolved from an original plan for a single building encompassing the area of Low and Uris with Alfred Lerner Hall. Elements of these same issues have been reflected in the current debate over the future expansion of the campus into Manhattanville , several blocks uptown from the current campus. Evolution of Morningside Columbia's library system includes 8.7 million bound volumes {Link without Title} . One library of note on campus is the Avery Library which is the largest library of Architecture in the United States and among, if not the the largest, in the world (see Royal Institute Of British Architects (R.I.B.A.)). An inventory of the library's collection is stored in what is known as the Avery Index , which can be accessed all over the world via the web, to serve in the role of finding information and listings in architectural related periodicals. History Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in the state of New York. Founded and chartered in 1754, Columbia is the sixth-oldest such institution in the United States (by date of founding; fifth by date of chartering). Columbia has grown over time to comprise twenty schools and affiliated institutions. In the early '' and elected as its first president Samuel Johnson . Classes began on July 17 , 1754 , with Johnson being the sole faculty member. A few months later, Great Britain 's King George II officially granted a Royal Charter for the college on October 31 , 1754 . Controversy surrounded the founding of the new college in New York, as it was a thoroughly Anglican institution dominated by the influence of Crown officials in its governing body such as the Archbishop Of Canterbury and the Crown Secretary For Plantations And Colonies . The fears of an Anglican episcopacy and Crown influence in America through King's College were confirmed by its vast wealth, far surpassing all other colonial colleges of the period. Until the American Revolution, King's College would remain a bastion of Loyalists. On the other hand, the College would produce the leading men of the Revolutionary generation. After the American Revolutionary War , King's College was renamed in 1784 to Columbia College, and Samuel Johnson's son, William Samuel Johnson , became its president. In 1896 it was renamed to Columbia University. Park Place and Rockefeller Center In July 1754, Samuel Johnson held the first classes in a new school house adjoining Trinity Church, Wall Street , located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan . There were eight students in the class. In 1767 King's College established the first American medical school to grant the MD degree. The American Revolutionary War brought the growth of the College to a halt, forcing a suspension of instruction in 1776 that lasted for eight years. Among the earliest students and trustees of King's College were John Jay , the first Chief Justice Of The United States ; Alexander Hamilton , the first Secretary Of The Treasury ; Gouverneur Morris , the author of the final draft of the United States Constitution ; and Robert R. Livingston , a member of the five-man committee that drafted the Declaration Of Independence . In 1784, the college reopened as Columbia College, reflecting the patriotic fervor which had inspired the nation's quest for independence. In 1849, the College moved from Park Place, near the present site of City Hall, to 49th Street and Madison Avenue , where it remained for the next fifty years. During the last half of the nineteenth century, Columbia rapidly assumed the shape of a modern university. Columbia Law School was founded in 1858, and the country's first mining school, a precursor of today's Fu Foundation School Of Engineering And Applied Science , was established in 1864. Barnard College for women became affiliated with Columbia in 1889; the Columbia University College Of Physicians And Surgeons came under the aegis of the University in 1891, followed by Teachers College in 1893. The Graduate Faculties in Political Science, Philosophy, and Pure Science awarded its first PhD in 1875.McCaughey, Robert (2003): ''Stand, Columbia: A History of Columbia University'', Columbia University Press, ISBN 0231130082. Appendix E , Leading American University Producers of PhDs, 1861–1900 . Morningside Heights In 1896, the trustees officially authorized the use of yet another new name, Columbia University, and today the institution is officially known as "Columbia University in the City of New York." At the same time ,University president Seth Low moved the campus again from Rockefeller Center at 49th Street to its present location, a more spacious campus in the Morningside Heights area of Manhattan . The site was formerly the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum. One of the asylum's buildings, the warden's cottage (later known as East Hall and Buell Hall), is still standing today. ]] The building often depicted as emblematic of Columbia is the centerpiece of the Morningside Heights campus, the Low Library. Constructed in 1895 , the building is still referred to as the "Low Library" although it has not functioned as a library since 1934 . It currently houses the office of the President and some archival collections. Patterned on the Parthenon and Pantheon , it is surmounted by the largest all-granite dome in the United States. {Link without Title} .]] Under the leadership of Low's successor, Nicholas Murray Butler , Columbia rapidly became the nation's major institution for research, setting the "multiversity" model that later universities would adopt. On the Morningside Heights campus, Columbia centralized on a single campus the College, the School of Law, the Graduate Faculties, the School of Mines (predecessor of the Engineering School), and the College of Physicians & Surgeons. Butler went on to serve as president of Columbia for over four decades and became a giant in American public life (as one-time Vice Presidential candidate and a Nobel Laureate ). His introduction of "downtown" business practices in university administration led to innovations in internal reforms such as the centralization of academic affairs, the direct appointment of registrars, deans, provosts, and secretaries, as well as the formation of a professionalized university bureaucracy, unprecedented among American universities at the time. In 1893 the Columbia University Press was founded in order to "promote the study of economic, historical, literary, scientific and other subjects; and to promote and encourage the publication of literary works embodying original research in such subjects." Among its publications are '' The Columbia Encyclopedia ,'' first published in 1935, and ''The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World,'' first published in 1952. In 1902, New York newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer donated a substantial sum to the University for the founding of a school to teach journalism. The result was the 1912 opening of the Graduate School Of Journalism -- the only journalism school in the Ivy League. The school is the administrator of the Pulitzer Prize and the DuPont-Columbia Award in broadcast journalism. Columbia Business School was added in the early 20th Century . During the first half of the 20th Century Columbia and Harvard had the largest endowments in the country. By the late 1930s , a Columbia student could study with the likes of Jacques Barzun , Paul Lazarsfeld , Mark Van Doren , Lionel Trilling , and I. I. Rabi . The University's graduates during this time were equally accomplished - for example, two alumni of Columbia's Law School, Charles Evans Hughes and Harlan Fiske Stone (who also held the position of Law School dean), served successively as Chief Justices of the United States. In the '50s, Dwight Eisenhower served as Columbia's president before becoming the President of the United States. Research into the atom by faculty members John R. Dunning , I. I. Rabi, Enrico Fermi and Polykarp Kusch placed Columbia's Physics Department in the international spotlight in the 1940s after the first nuclear pile was built to start what would become the Manhattan Project . Following the end of World War II the School of International Affairs was founded in 1946 . Focusing on developing Diplomat s and Foreign Affairs specialists the school began by offering the Master Of International Affairs . To satisfy an increasing desire for skilled Public Service professionals at home and abroad, the School added the Master Of Public Administration degree in 1977. In 1981 the School was renamed the School Of International And Public Affairs (SIPA). The School introduced an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy in 2001 and, in 2004, SIPA inaugurated its first doctoral program - the interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Sustainable Development . Student demonstrations See Also: Columbia University protests of 1968 Students protested in 1968 over the issue of whether Columbia would build its gymnasium in neighboring Morningside Park ; this was seen by the protestors to be an act of aggression aimed at the Black residents of neighboring Harlem. A second issue sparking the 1968 student protest was the Columbia Administration's failure to resign its institutional membership in the Pentagon 's weapons research think-tank, the Institute For Defense Analyses {Link without Title} . Life Traditions .]] Orgo Night On the day before the Organic Chemistry Exam, at precisely the stroke of midnight, the Columbia University Marching Band occupies Butler library (the main library) to distract diligent students from studying and to lower the curve. After a half-hour of the campus-interest jokes, the procession then moves out to the lawn in front of Hartley, Wallach and John Jay residence halls to entertain the residents there. Alma Mater This refers to the statue of the goddess Minerva that has been sitting on the steps in front of Low Library since 1904, and of which the university possesses three back-up versions in case of unforeseen rioting or some terrorist attack. The statue's sculptor is Daniel Chester French who also made the statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard . He is said to have been an avid taxidermist who hid an owl in many of his works. Indeed there is an owl hidden in the folds of Alma Mater's cloak and college superstition has it that the first member of the incoming class to find the owl will become class valedictorian. Back in the days when Columbia was all-male the legend used to go that any Columbia student who found the owl on his first try would marry a Barnard girl. The Varsity Show An annual musical written by and for students, this is one of Columbia's oldest and finest traditions. Past writers and directors have included Columbians Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein , Lorenz Hart , I.A.L. Diamond , and Herman Wouk . Butler Library The main library, packed during midterms and finals weeks, has three main parts: the stacks, the study rooms, and the cafe. Butler houses two million of the university's 8.6 million volumes, mostly in the humanities. Unlike the libraries of most other schools, Butler remains partially open 24 hours a day and acts as a center of late night studying. Butler also houses Columbia University's Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. Tree-Lighting Ceremony College walk is the part of 116th street that passes through campus, and it was closed to the public while Dwight D. Eisenhower was university president in 1953. On the left and the right, just in front of Kent and Hamilton Hall on the east end, and Dodge and Journalism on the west side are planted some medium-sized trees. These are lit annually just before finals week in early December, and the lights remain on until February 28. Students meet at the sun-dial for free hot chocolate, performances by various a capella groups, a guest speaker, and a speech by the university president. Naked Run Each year in October, students join in in a Track Team initiation ritual and run from the steps of Low Library around one of the lawns, pass Butler Library, and return to the steps, naked, surrounded by a crowd. First Year Run During orientation week before their first classes, freshmen get the rare opportunity to exit Lerner Hall through its back doors, turn right and enter campus again through the main gates to officially become Columbia students. Joyce Kilmer Memorial Annual Bad Poetry Contest The Philolexian Society hosts this open-to-the-public event in honor of Alfred Joyce Kilmer (Class of 1908), vice president of the society and the author of "Trees." Contestants get up and read their wittiest and worst original poetry, hoping for cheers. Past worst poets, awarded the title of Poet Laureate for the following year, include Everett Patterson (CC 2006) and Matthew Harrison (CC 2005). Sundial This elevated stone pedestal at the center of the main campus quadrangle now serves as a podest for various speeches. Originally there was a large granite sphere located upon the pedestal, which would mark the time via its shadow. It sat upon the pedestal from approximately 1914 to 1946. It was removed in that year due to cracks that formed within it. The ball was assumed destroyed for 55 years until it was discovered intact in a Michigan field in 2001. As of 2006, it seems unlikely that the sundial will ever be restored back to a working state. {Link without Title} Dormitories First years usually live in one of the first year dorms: Hartley, Wallach, John Jay, Furnald, or Carman. Upperclassmen participate in a housing lottery. Students may live in Hartley and Wallach, which is also called the LLC (Living & Learning Center), through a highly selective application process. Rising sophomores may also live in Furnald Hall based on their numbers obtained in the lottery. The other upperclassmen students, based on their luck, can choose between Broadway, East Campus, 47 Claremont, Hogan, Mcbain, River, Ruggles, Schapiro, 600 W 113th, Watt, Wien, and Woodbridge. Most students consider a town house in East Campus the best suite style housing option, which includes two-story suites for six students including a kitchen, common lounge, large single rooms, and a quiet location. A four or five person suite in Hogan, in which each person lives in a single and the suite shares a full kitchen, bathroom and living room, is also considered excellent housing, as its location is near many restaurants on Broadway and much closer to the subway than East Campus. Very lucky seniors with top notch lottery numbers can get their own studio apartment in Watt. The tunnels Columbia has an extensive tunnel system; many rumors about it exist. See Columbia University Tunnels . CULPA Started in 1997, this website allows students to anonymously post their own reviews of their professors. It is regarded as one of the most useful tools for students looking to enroll in a class, boasting over 10,000 reviews. Because of the candid nature of the submissions, the site has occasionally been accused of harboring biased reviews and misrepresenting professors. Still, it is the main source of professor review currently available to the Columbia student body. The acronym CULPA stands for "Columbia Underground Listing of Professor Ability", where "Underground" refers to the fact that CULPA is not officially affiliated with the university. It can be found at http://www.culpa.info. Publications Major publications include The '''' {Link without Title} . Other academic activities Columbia Model United Nations in New York (CMUNNY), a small crisis-oriented Model United Nations conference, is held annually at Columbia. Athletics While Columbia is no longer an athletics powerhouse, sports at Columbia have a long tradition. Crew was Columbia's first sport, and Columbia was the first non-English school to win the Henley Regatta . The Columbia football team is one of the nation's oldest and won the Rose Bowl in 1934. Its Wrestling team is the nation's oldest. Due to space constraints, most of Columbia's outdoor athletic teams practice and compete uptown at Baker Field in Inwood, Manhattan . The rowing teams use the Orchard Beach Lagoon as their home course. Home meets for Cross Country Running are held at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx . Columbia has been home to some famous athletes. Baseball Hall Of Famers Eddie Collins and Lou Gehrig played ball there, as did Gene Larkin , whose otherwise forgettable Major League Baseball career climaxed with a dramatic game-winning single in the 7th game of the 1991 World Series . The great quarterback Sid Luckman played football there. Columbia's Fencing team in the late 20th century was one of the nation's most successful, with NCAA Team Championships in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992 and 1993. In recent years, the women's Cross Country team has held the Heptagonal Championship title. In 2004, both the men's and women's teams won the race. The university's recent notoriety in sports, however, lies with its Football team, which set an NCAA record of most consecutive football games without a win. After a losing 44 games, it broke the streak by beating Princeton at Columbia's Homecoming Game in 1988. Their dubious record was superseded by Prairie View A&M in the 1990s. Although Columbia routinely finishes at or near the bottom of the Ivy League standings in most sports, the university remains among the top 20 universities in terms of its number of NCAA Division I varsity sports offerings. For a listing of organizations, see the article Clubs And Organizations Of Columbia University . Awards and honors As of 2005, 73 Columbia University affiliates have been honored with Nobel Prizes for their work in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, and economics. For a complete list, see {Link without Title} Other awards/honors won by current faculty include:
Notable Columbia alumni Three current United States Senator s, 16 current Chief Executives of Fortune 500 companies, and 37 Nobel Prize winners have degrees from Columbia. Three of the 11 richest Americans have a degree from Columbia. In culture and the arts, Rodgers And Hammerstein , Lorenz Hart , Irwin Edman , Herman Wouk , Jacques Barzun , Lionel Trilling , Robert Nozick , Jack Kerouac , Allen Ginsberg , Art Garfunkel , and Paul Auster are among Columbia's alumni. Less notable, but still worth mentioning, are the celebrities who graduated from Columbia, including Rider Strong (Corey's best friend in the Sitcom '' Boy Meets World '') and Julia Stiles of '' 10 Things I Hate About You '' and '' Save The Last Dance '', among other films. Anna Paquin , who won an Oscar for her performance in the '' The Piano '', also attended Columbia See also: List Of Columbia University People In film, television and the arts Movies featuring scenes shot on Morningside campus include: at Columbia University during the shooting of ''The Nanny Diaries'' .]]
Movies or shows with significant portrayals of Columbia alumni or students:
Currently shooting on or around the University's campus:
See also
Notes External links
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