The 2013-2014 academic year will be a year of building connections: connecting students to one another, to faculty and to alumni; strengthening former students’ connections to Columbia College and to one another; supporting faculty in their connection to students; connecting students to their futures through internships and research opportunities, and to the world through global programs and fellowships; and enhancing the Core Curriculum, an experience that connects all current and former students. Some of our goals include:
Building Campus Community
Opening a new Special Interest Communities Residence Hall in the former convent brownstones on West 113th Street to give sophomores, juniors and seniors with common interests an opportunity to live together and connect with one another and with faculty, administrators, alumni and community leaders.
Creating a Residence Hall Leadership Organization in each residence hall to plan events, engage and connect residents and foster community in residence halls, and a Residence Hall Association that will connect residence hall student leaders for conversations, collaborative projects and social events.
Connecting students who are in the first generation in their families to attend college through a brunch series that gives them an opportunity to talk about their how their backgrounds are influencing their Columbia experiences and to shape ideas for mentoring, programming and activities that would better assist students in adjusting to life in the College.
Enhancing Student-Alumni Connections
Starting a Student Ambassador Program to strengthen connections between current and former Columbia College students, to engage students in alumni events and to educate students about the existence and mission of the Columbia College Alumni Association.
Deepening scholarship recipients' connections to their donors through a new thank you website and the Annual Dean’s Scholarship Reception.
Creating New Co-Curricular Opportunities
Announcing a new Presidential Global Fellowship that will provide funding for 15 rising sophomores to study abroad in a location at or near one of the Columbia Global Centers during summer 2014.
Collaborating with the student group Columbia Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs to create a Startup Internship Program that will connect undergraduates who are interested in entrepreneurship with opportunities at fast-paced, innovative startup companies.
Introducing a new archaeological fieldwork summer study abroad program at Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli (near Rome) that will provide students the opportunity to excavate and learn together at a UNESCO World Heritage site and the most important of Ancient Rome’s imperial villas.
Strengthening the Core
Engaging students with Core texts through “Retranslating Literary Classics,” a coursewide event that will bring four translators of Literature Humanities texts, Richard Pevear and Lasriss Volokhonsky (translators of Crime and Punishment), Edith Grossman (translator of Don Quixote) and Wyatt Mason (translator of Montaigne Essays) to discuss the process of translation.
Enhancing the Core through a new Core science course that will be designed by a committee of faculty, students and alumni during the 2013-2014 academic year.