The School of General Studies is looking for a new name, GS Dean Peter Awn told Spectator Wednesday.
“The conversations have just begun internally,” Awn said. “It will soon move on to discussion with the leadership in the Arts and Sciences and beyond that with the provost, but again we’ll have to wait until the new provost is identified.”
Awn said that the school should change its name to something that better defines its purpose.
“We’re looking for a name that is as unique as this college,” he said. “There is no other college of this kind at an Ivy League university. Ours is the only fully integrated program at an Ivy League university that is an actual college and not just a tiny program attached to a college—we need a name that captures who we are.”
Alternately, it could be named after a donor—similarly to the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science—if someone gives a “sufficient” donation to endow a name. This would take a donation of at least $100 million, although Awn said he would like an endowment as large as $250 million.
Chinese businessman Z. Y. Fu donated $26 million to name SEAS in 1997.
Awn said it’s unclear “in this economic climate whether this is going to be feasible.”
“Where one goes with the name will depend on the avenue that we’ll take,” he added. “Wait for a donor, or don’t wait for a donor?”
Awn wants to get the new name established in two to three years. He said there have been “some general discussions” with potential donors, but that GS administrators are not close to determining a definite donor.
GS students said that a new name could potentially help the school. Josh Lopez, GS, said that if the name does not change, it could potentially hurt the reputation of the college.
“There are other GS schools in the universe that are nothing like this,” he said, referring to some universities’ use of the term “general studies” to refer to their schools of continuing education.
“Changing the name might not make it better, but keeping the name might make it worse. If we just keep ‘General Studies,’ we’d get grouped with schools that also have the name GS, even if we’re not the same kind of college.”
Katie Naum, GS, said, “The name ‘General Studies’ is a little vague—I’ve had people think I’m a traditional undergrad because it sounds like a traditional undergraduate college title.”
Andrew Hamilton, GS, said that the name of the school is a “misnomer” and should change to reflect the type of student diversity it promotes.
In the admissions process, “people get a bump for all kinds of things—athletics, minorities, et cetera,” Hamilton said. GS “has another dimension to that, whether you’re a veteran or have another life experience.”
Awn added that the name “General Studies” originally meant something more prestigious.
The phrase is the translation of the Latin “studium generale,” which Awn said is a “highly distinguished name referring back to a state of the medieval universities when they began to expand their outreach more broadly to students, not solely from their own region,” he said.
Any naming donation would go towards financial aid, Awn said, noting that GS students receive proportionally half the aid Columbia College students receive.
“The level of debt with which students now graduate is untenable,” he said. “It’s really at financial aid—that’s where it impacts the students in a very real, concrete way.”
General Studies Student Council President Jacqueline Thong said that, while she has not spoken with Awn about the decision, improving GS’s financial aid situation should be the main goal of finding a donor to rename GS.
“A name change that is tied to an increase in endowment will be a double win for GS students, as it will allow the school to provide more scholarships to more students and offer more core curriculum classes for GS students,” Thong said in an email.
While the name change might benefit the school financially, Naum said she does not think the new name itself will have a significant impact.
“A name is just a name. I don’t think a single name will change who we are as a school, and it would take some adjusting,” she said.
Awn said that while the process has begun to change the name, it will still take time.
“One has to do this properly—one can’t pull this out of a hat,” he said. “One has to realize that changing the name of any division at Columbia is a lengthy process that requires lengthy consultations and approvals all the way up through the board of trustees.”
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