SIPA Marks Sixty Years Of Studies

This past weekend, 675 alumni marked the climax of festivities for the 60th anniversary of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, a yearlong celebration that included gatherings from Beijing to Bogota, Colombia.

Despite vast changes in the student body, as well as in the field of international affairs itself, the weekend's events emphasized how certain characteristics of SIPA students have stayed over the past 60 years.

"The temperament about caring about the public interest and caring about how the world is changing is completely the same," SIPA Dean Lisa Anderson said. "Alumni from different generations [at the anniversary] just fell into conversation as if they were in class together."

The School of International Affairs, as it was known at its inception in 1946, aimed to prevent a postwar United States from reverting to its pre-World War I isolationist policy. The school charged each of the 20 students in its first class $600 for tuition.

Today, SIPA serves 1,200 students, half of whom are international, and the school offers six different degree programs. Among the school's graduates are former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, SIPA '68, former CIA Director George Tenet, SIPA '78, and Prime Minister of Tanzania Salim Ahmed Salim, SIPA '75.

"I think what makes SIPA students different is their commitment to public service," said Steven Cohen, director of the masters program in environmental science and policy, who has taught at SIPA since 1981. "People really come here to try and make the world a better place."

SIPA Communications Director Rob Garris, who spent the last year working with alumni and members of Alumni Affairs to prepare for the celebrations, echoed this sentiment, describing SIPA students as "change agents."

"The school gives students the tools to make this world a better place," he said.

The anniversary weekend touted this shared quality among SIPA graduates, and the events began with a cocktail reception at the United Nations Delegates Dining Room. The schedule also included alumni and faculty panels on campus, a dinner in Low Library with special guest James D. Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank and current chairman of consulting firm Wolfensohn & Company LLC, and brunch at the New York Historical Society.

"It's an incredibly interesting [alumni] community ... We had much more fun than we expected to," Anderson said.