Some Criticize 3-2 Plan for Lacking Integration

Columbia Engineering 3-2 Combined Plan Students integrate degrees while still lacking an integrated experience.

While they account for about 10 percent of the entire Engineering School population, many students who participate in the University’s 3-2 programs feel isolated from the rest of the Columbia community.

Almost all of the first-year 3-2 students live in Carlton Arms, a residence hall located on 108th street and Riverside Drive. They live in suites made up exclusively of 3-2 students, isolated from the rest of the first-years who live on South Campus. There is some concern as to how effectively these students are integrated with the rest of the undergraduate population.

Next May, Kimberley Peterson, SEAS ’08, will complement her B.A. in Liberal Arts with a minor in Mathematics with a B.S. degree in Environmental Engineering. According to her, isolation is a reality of the program. “It was good that they put us together because it made the transition to a new school easier but we were too far from campus and it prevented me from feeling like a regular Columbia student. The only thing that I did on campus last year was go to class. I wouldn’t take part in study groups because I wouldn’t want to walk all the way to campus and back at night,” she said.

When students in this program start at Columbia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, they already have a B.A. from either Columbia College or one of more than 90 liberal arts colleges which work with the University. After only two years at SEAS, they graduate with a second undergraduate degree.

Combined Plan students in their second year enter the regular undergraduate housing lottery as seniors. For many of them, living in mainstream Columbia residence halls makes a huge difference.

“This year is different. I don’t live with any 3-2 people, so I met a lot of my suitemates’ friends who aren’t in the program. I feel more a part of campus life this semester,” Peterson said.

Another Combined Plan student—Sebastian Missura, SEAS ’08—is also in his second year here, but still lives primarily with 3-2 students. Five of the six people in his EC suite are part of the program. “My closest network is definitely other 3-2 students,” he said.

“I feel the most integrated with them. Last year we lived apart from everyone else and we were sort of far from campus, it was only natural that other students in the program would become my closest friends.”

Wesley Couture, SEAS ’08, agreed with Peterson. “I feel integrated with the Columbia community in general but not as much as if I had started here as a freshman. I didn’t have four years with my peers. Last year I did not feel integrated at all, but this year I do. It was good to live with 3-2 students in terms of making friends easily but the distance of Carlton made it hard to get to know everyone else.”

Some students are trying to do something about this isolation. “I think the administration makes some effort to integrate Combined Program students but I don’t think that it’s where it should be. That’s one of the things that my council is involved with,” Warren Reed, SEAS ’09 and president of the 2009 Engineering Student Council, said. “The 3-2 students need to be more socially integrated with SEAS. There should be more events and activities.”

Reed agreed that housing is definitely an isolating factor, but said that “because of the issue of space I am not sure what changes could be made with regard to that.”

Despite the challenges of integration, many Combined Plan students say they don’t regret their choice to join the program. Missura said, “I really like the 3-2 program. I was drawn to it because it’s a great opportunity to get two degrees in a short space of time, plus you get to experience two different universities and two different environments which not all undergraduate students can say.”