Columbia College of Columbia University
Columbia College is the main
undergraduate college at
Columbia University, in the
City of New York. It was founded in
1754 as King's College by
Royal Charter of
King George II of
England. Columbia College is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of
New York and the fifth oldest in the
United States. The college is highly selective in its admissions, having admitted 9.6% of 17,148 applicantsfor the class of 2010. Columbia College therefore has the third lowest acceptance rate in the
US News & World Report top 50 universities.
Columbia College was founded as
King's College by royal charter of
King George II of
England in the colony of New York in 1754. Due in part to the influence of
Anglican religious leaders, a site in
New York near
Trinity Church,
Wall Street on the island of
Manhattan was selected.
Samuel Johnson was chosen as the college's first president and was also the college's first (and for a time only) professor. During this period, classes and examinations, both oral and written, were conducted entirely in Latin.
18th Century
In 1767, the college established a medical college, now known as the
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, which was the first medical school to grant the
Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in America.
Due to the
American Revolution, instruction was suspended from 1776 until 1784, but by the beginning of the war, the college had already educated some of the nation's foremost political leaders. Even at this young age, ‘'King‘s College‘' had already educated
Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the
United States Treasury,
John Jay, the first
chief justice of the
United States Supreme Court,
Robert Livingston, one of the five men who with
Thomas Jefferson drafted the
Declaration of Independence, and
Gouverneur Morris, who authored the actual text of the
United States Constitution.
By 1784, the domestic situation was stable enough for the college to resume classes. With the new nation fighting for its independence from
Great Britain, the name of the institution was changed from
King's College to
Columbia College, the name by which the college continues to be known today. While the renamed college continued be associated with
Anglicanism, students from a variety of denominations came to Columbia as a response to its growing reputation as one of the finest institutions of higher learning in the soon to be independent colonies.
19th Century
After a brief period of being housed in another
lower Manhattan building on Park Place near the current location of
New York City Hall, in 1857 the college moved to 49th Street and Madison Avenue in
Manhattan.
During the college's forty years at this location, in addition to granting the
Bachelor of Arts and
Doctor of Medicine degrees, the faculties of the college were expanded to include the
Columbia Law School (founded 1858), the Columbia School of Mines (founded 1864, now known as the
Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science). The Columbia School of Mines awarded the first Ph.D. from Columbia in 1875.
At this time,
Columbia College was now not only the name of the original undergraduate college founded as
King's College, but it also encompassed all of the other colleges and schools of the institution. After
Seth Low became president of
Columbia College in 1890, he advocated the division of the individual schools and colleges into their own semi-autonomous entities under the central administration of the university. The complexity of managing the institution had been further increased when
Barnard College for Women became affiliated with Columbia in 1889 followed by
Teachers College of Columbia University in 1891. Also by this time, graduate faculties issuing the
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in philosophy, political science, and the natural sciences had also developed.
Thusly, in 1896, the trustees of Columbia College, under the guidance of Seth Low, approved a new name for the university as a whole,
Columbia University in the City of New York. At this point, the name
Columbia College returned to being used solely to refer to the original undergraduate college, founded as
King's College in 1754 and renamed
Columbia College in 1784.
In addition to reclaiming the identity of
Columbia College and making it focus of the newly rearranged
Columbia University, Low was also responsible for the monumental relocation of the university to its current location a top a hill in
Morningside Heights in uptown
Manhattan. A tract for the campus was purchased which extended from 114th St. to 120th St. between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue.
Charles McKim of
McKim, Mead, and White was selected to design the new campus, which was to be patterned after the buildings of the Italian Renaissance. While most American universities at this point had followed more
medieval and
Gothic styles of architecture, the neoclassical style of the new
Columbia University campus was to meant to reflect the institution's roots in the
Enlightenment and the spirit of intellectual discovery of the period.
Columbia College and the
Columbia University as a whole relocated to the new campus in 1897.
20th Century
The academic history of traditions of
Columbia College clearly had their beginnings in the classical education of the Enlightenment, and in this mold, the college's famous Core Curriculum was officially recognized and codified in 1919 with
John Erskine's first seminar on the great books of the western tradition. Also in 1919, a course entitled ‘'War and Peace
was required of all Columbia College
students in addition to the Great Books Honors Seminar
.
During the 1960s, Columbia College
, like many others across the United States, experienced unrest and turmoil due to the ongoing civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War. In April of 1968, over 1,000 students forcefully occupied five campus buildings in protest to the proposed expansion of the university's campus into Morningside Park. University officials wished to build new gymnasium facilities in the park, which while located directly adjacent to the university, is separated by a steep cliff. The location of the park in the middle of Harlem, which was at that time an economically disadvantaged neighborhood was perhaps the primary objection of the student protesters to the proposed expansion plan. After five days, the functions of the university were brought to a halt, and the students were forcibly removed by the New York Police Department. As a result of the student protests, the university president Grayson Kirk retired, classified research projects on campus were abruptly ended, and the proposed expansion plans were canceled. While academics and admissions selectivity at ‘'Columbia College remained strong through the late
1960s and
1970s, the university as a whole experienced financial difficulties.
In the
1980s and
1990s, the university experienced a drastic increase in gifts and endowment growth. Due to the leadership of university presidents
Michael Sovern and
George Rupp, many of
Columbia College's facilities were extensively expanded and renovated. The number of residence halls was increased to accommodate all
Columbia College students for all four years of the undergraduate education. Hamilton Hall, the primary academic building of
Columbia College has undergone an extensive renovations, and the college's athletic facilities, located at Baker Field on
Manhattan's far northern tip at 218th St., were renovated and expanded.
Butler Library, the university's main library and the home to over 2 million volumes of the university's humanities collection underwent an extensive 4 year renovation. A generous gift from Philip L. Milstein allowed for the creation of
The Philip L. Milstein Family College Library, a specialized collection of some 100,000 volumes concentrated in history, literature, philosophy, and the social sciences and especially designed to complement the curriculum of ‘'Columbia College''. The collection
Columbia University Libraries consists of over 8.6 million volumes held in 25 specialized libraries.
Columbia College is known for its rigorous
Core Curriculum. The Core has changed slightly over the years, but students are currently required to take the following:
| Course | Semesters Required |
|---|
| Literature Humanities | 2 |
| Contemporary Civilization | 2 |
| Art Humanities | 1 |
| Music Humanities | 1 |
| University Writing | 1 |
| Foreign Language | 4 |
| Frontiers of Science | 1 |
| Other Science | 2 |
| Major Non-Western Cultures | 2 |
| Physical Education | 2 (only one unit each) |
Students are also required to pass a swimming test before receiving their diploma.
Most students graduate within four years with a
Bachelor of Arts degree. Most of the college's facilities are located on Columbia University's
Morningside Heights campus.
Students are guaranteed housing for four years. Most residence halls are within a few blocks of the main campus. First years are housed in John Jay, Carman, Wallach, Hartley and Furnald residence halls.
The
Dean of Columbia College, since 1995, is
Austin E. Quigley.
The students of Columbia College elect the Columbia College Student Council (CCSC) to serve as their primary representative, advocate, and liaison to the Columbia University community, including its administration, faculty, alumni and students, as well as to the public.
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John Jay (1764)
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Gouverneur Morris (1769)
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Alexander Hamilton (1776)
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DeWitt Clinton (1786)
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Stephen Kearny (1812)
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Nicholas Murray Butler (1882)
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Stephen Samuel Wise (1892)
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Harlan Stone (1898)
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Alfred Harcourt (1904)
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Donald Brace (1904)
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William Joseph Donovan (1905)
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Wellington Koo (1908)
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Harry Dexter White*
Alfred Knopf (1912)
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Ben-Zion Goldberg (1917)
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Randolph Bourne*
Armand Hammer (1919)
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Jacob Javits (1920s)
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Whittaker Chambers (expelled 1922)
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Oscar Hammerstein II*
Langston Hughes (1922)
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Lou Gehrig (1925)
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Lionel Trilling (1925)
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Jacques Barzun (1927)
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Lorenz Hart*
Richard Rodgers*
Nathaniel Weyl (1931)
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Victor Perlo (1933)
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Herman Wouk (1934)
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Norman F. Ramsey, Jr. (1935)
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Ad Reinhardt (1935)
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Julian Schwinger (1936)
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Morris Cohen (Soviet spy)*
William Remington (1940)
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Jack Kerouac (1943)
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Allen Ginsberg (1949)
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Arnold Friedman (
Capturing the Friedmans)
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Leon Cooper (1951)
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Max Frankel (1952)
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Roone Arledge (1952)
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Melvin Schwartz (1953)
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Jerry Fodor (1956)
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Brian Dennehy*
Roald Hoffman (1958)
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Norman Podhoretz*
Terrence McNally (1958)
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Robert Nozick (1959)
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Johan Jorgen Holst (1960)
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Brian DePalma*
Rabbi Jerrold Levy (1963)
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Ben Stein (1966)
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Joel Klein (1967)
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Dov Zakheim (1970)
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Paul Auster (1970)
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Dore Gold (1975)
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Jim McGreevey (1978)
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Tony Kushner (1978)
*Derek Johnson (1982)
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George Stephanopolous (1982)
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Barack Obama (1983)
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Alexis Glick (1994)
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Maggie Gyllenhaal*
Daniel Fulton (2004)
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Julia Stiles (2005)
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Great Books,
Educational perennialism,
Mortimer Adler,
John Erskine (educator): context for the Contemporary Civilization curriculum
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Official website*
Columbia College Student Council website*
Office of Undergraduate Admissions, Admission Statistics*
Stand, Columbia : A History of Columbia University by Robert McCaughey
