Journey to the Global Center of the Earth

Since its inception last March, Columbia’s Global Center in Amman, Jordan, otherwise known as the Columbia University Middle East Research Center, has brought together architecture students from the United Arab Emirates and Israel, conducted a forensic preservation study, trained teachers in the region, welcomed scholars and fellows, and begun setting up institutes through Columbia’s graduate programs. Established after the king and queen of Jordan offered a facility, the Global Center in Amman marks a tangible step from Columbia University in the City of New York to Columbia University of the Wider World.
The need for global research centers—not to be viewed as branch campuses, since they fulfill research-driven and region-specific roles—is predicated on the administration’s realization that Columbia doesn’t know enough about the world and that the world doesn’t know enough about Columbia. While Morningside Heights may seem like the center of the universe to students on this campus, the Global Center is the product of rethinking what a global university actually looks like. Alma Mater and College Walk are planted on what is and will remain the main campus, but the idea behind the establishment of satellites like the one in Jordan is that the University’s mission can be extended, networks can be woven, regions can be better understood, and students from all over the globe can communicate and learn from one another.
Also laudable is the reciprocal nature of the project. The administration is quite clearly there both to teach and to learn, both to network and to engage intellectually with experts in the region.
Furthermore, although the research opportunities available in Amman are primarily for graduate students, the administration has not neglected to incorporate the undergraduate population. A nine-week Arabic immersion course will be offered at the Center, providing students with the opportunity to engage fully with both the language and the culture of their studies. The School of the Arts will offer a photography class. Perhaps most revolutionary, though, are the possibilities the administration hopes to realize regarding the Global Core, which—through multimedia distance learning technology—has the potential to offer classes taught both by professors here and faculty in Amman.
Unfortunately, many undergraduates know little about the Center and the opportunities it offers, of which interested students can and should take advantage. The Global Center should be a resource for all Columbia students, but it only will be if the administration actively informs and involves its undergraduate population. Columbia is traveling across the globe. Administrators should be sure to bring students along for the voyage.