Columbia and the World

Since University President Lee Bollinger announced his initiative to make Columbia a global university five years ago, the School of International and Public Affairs has been among the most public faces of the effort.

If University President Lee Bollinger got a nickel every time he said “global,” he might be able to fund all of the global projects he has in mind.

University President Lee Bollinger has said one of his top priorities is making Columbia a leading institution for the study of Africa. But Columbia’s decentralized initiatives regarding the continent, strewn throughout multiple schools, institutes, and departments with no central oversight, inhibit the University’s goals.

If there is one sector of the internationalized landscape of higher education in which Columbia seems to lag behind other schools, it is its physical presence.

In December of 2005, University President Lee Bollinger established a committee unlike any other in its structure, stature, and scope at Columbia: the Committee on Global Thought.

Among the many ways in which University President Lee Bollinger is working to transform Columbia into a “global university,” one of the least tangible is how Columbia is working to amend the undergraduate curriculum to require students to engage in global thought in their everyday academic lives.

Columbia made national headlines when its University President invited the representative of an oppressive anti-Semitic regime to speak at its Morningside Heights campus.

Last week, the eyes of the world turned their focus to Columbia University and its president, Lee Bollinger.