During the presidency of Dr. George Rupp, Columbia University made significant strides on every front. The university recruited top senior and junior scholars to further enhance its renowned faculty, launched cutting-edge education and research programs, increased student applications and selectivity, expanded both the University's international dimensions and its links to New York City, improved student and faculty services, and revitalized its historic McKim, Mead and White campus on Morningside Heights.

Undergraduate Education

Columbia College has become one of the most selective undergraduate institutions in the Ivy League and across the United States, accepting less than 13 percent of the nearly 14,000 students who applied last year. Applications for admission to the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science are at all-time highs; the number of students applying to the School of General Studies has increased substantially; and Columbia College has set records for applications for seven consecutive years.

Graduate and Professional Education

There have been wide-ranging advances in Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), which now serves more than 3,200 graduate students enrolled in 85 graduate programs. Since 1993, the number of masters degrees programs has expanded, teacher training for doctoral students has been enhanced, and the amount of financial aid for students has increased.

There have been significant programmatic advances in the professional schools as well. The College of Physicians and Surgeons introduced a medical informatics degree, and opened a major diabetes center and a new comprehensive center for cancer research and treatment. The Columbia Business School moved beyond a Wall Street focus to train entrepreneurs for both nearby Harlem and around the world. The School of Law established the Center for the Study of Law and Culture and opened a new high-tech electronic library. The School of the Arts' film program has become nationally recognized.

Faculty Quality

During the last eight years, 159 new named professorships were established, and top senior and junior faculty were recruited to join Columbia's world-class faculty. New faculty include such academic notables as Horst Stormer, the 1998 Nobel Laureate in physics, from Lucent Labs; Simon Schama, the renowned art historian from Harvard; Jon Elster, the distinguished political theorist, from the University of Chicago; and Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist at the World Bank.

Last year, Gerald Fischbach, the distinguished neurobiologist from Harvard and the National Institutes of Health, became vice president for health and biomedical sciences; G. Michael Purdy, renowned geophysicist from the National Science Foundation, became director of Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; and Barry Osmond, world-class plant biologist and fellow of The Royal Academy of Science of London, was named president of Biosphere 2, Columbia's western campus in Oracle, Arizona.

During the last five years, four Columbia faculty members have won Nobel Prizes: William Vickrey (Economics, 1996), Horst Stormer (Physics, 1998), Robert Mundell (Economics, 1999) and Eric Kandel (Medicine, 2000). Overall, 62 individuals who have taught or studied at Columbia have won the Nobel Prize since it was first awarded in 1901, including 18 current or former faculty members who have won the prize for work done while at Columbia.

Multidisciplinary Teaching and Research

Columbia has brought together scholars from different departments, schools, and even outside institutions to develop new ways to organize the search for knowledge. These new centers include The Earth Institute, The Columbia Genome Center, The Center for Biomedical Engineering, The International Research Institute for Climate Prediction, The Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, and the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy.

Path-breaking research projects have included uncovering the DNA sequencing of Kaposi's sarcoma, devising a luminous marker to study DNA in living cells, finding that estrogen can reduce Alzheimer's risk in women, discovering that the Earth's core is spinning faster than the planet itself, uncovering steps in human evolution linked directly to changes in climate, and participating in the development of MPEG-2, a data compression technology used in new computers, digital television and other devices.

Student Services

Columbia has made major improvements in student services, including expanding the counseling center, creating a lower-cost tuition loan program, revitalizing the job placement service, and building a new student center (Alfred Lerner Hall) and a new residence hall.

Fund-raising

The Campaign for Columbia, the university's record-setting $2.8 billion, 10-year capital campaign, concluded on Dec. 31, 2000. This fund-raising effort helped to establish more than 200 named professorships, create new academic programs and multidisciplinary centers, and expand Columbia's endowment to $4 billion.

Construction and Renovation

During the 1990s, the university implemented consecutive capital spending plans amounting to more than $1.5 billion over 10 years. Twenty-five buildings were either constructed or renovated. Projects include the new $28-million Audubon Research Building and a second $66-million research facility in Audubon Park; the new $85-million Alfred Lerner Hall Student Center; the $50-million undergraduate residence hall on Broadway; and the 10-year, $74-million renovation of Butler Library.

The City and Community

The partnership between the university and the community and city has been strengthened. Columbia helped develop the proposal for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ), provided ongoing technical support to the UMEZ, and opened the first biomedical research and development park in New York City. In an effort to strengthen the economic linkages between Columbia and surrounding neighborhoods, the university has embarked on a number of initiative to increase hiring, purchasing, and spending in the local area. It offers "forgivable" loans to employees as an incentive for home-buying within the Empowerment Zone. The University also administers academic, professional, and service programs that assist thousands of Upper Manhattan residents, school children, and businesses.

International Programs

A number of new academic programs were created with institutions abroad. These include the Law School's faculty exchange program with Tokyo University and its four-year double-degree program with the University of Paris; the first American undergraduate program with the Free University of Berlin; and the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation's programs with universities in Brazil, Indonesia and Belize. In addition, for Columbia College students, more than 150 study abroad opportunities are available in more than 50 countries, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Japan, Cameroon, Chile and the Czech Republic. The University offers instruction in 40 languages and houses four dozen institutes and centers that study international affairs, regions of the world, and other cultures. It has one of the largest populations of international students of any academic institution in the country and one of every four faculty was educated abroad.

History and Statistics

Columbia College was founded as King's College in 1754 by royal charter of King George II of England. The institution was renamed Columbia College in 1784 and was subsequently designated as a university in 1896. Today, Columbia University, one of eight Ivy League universities, is comprised of 16 school and colleges: the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, the School of the Arts, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Business School, Columbia College, Continuing Education and Special Programs, the School of Dental and Oral Surgery, The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of General Studies, the School of International and Public Affairs, the School of Journalism, the School of Law, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the School of Nursing, the Mailman School of Public Health, and the School of Social Work.

Libraries

Columbia's libraries are among the nation's top ten largest academic library systems. The collections are housed in 20 libraries and can be searched on-line through LibraryWeb. The collections comprise 7.3 million printed volumes, 5.4 million microform units, 28 million manuscripts and 500,000 rare books.

Student Enrollment

(Fall 2000)

Degrees and Certificates

Faculty

Faculty Awards and Honors

Faculty Researc

(FY 1999-2000)

Research Facilities

Columbia runs or is affiliated with over 80 centers and institutes including:

• Center for Advanced Technology
• Center for Applied Probability
• Center for Biomedical Engineering
• Center for Environmental Research and Conservation
• Center for Jazz Studies
• Center for New Media
• Center for Research on Information Access
• Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
• Center for Telecommunications Research
• Earth Engineering Center
• Earth Institute
• Harriman Institute
• Institute for African Studies
• Institute for East Central Europe
• Institute for Latin America
• Institute for Research in African-American Studies
• Institute for Research on Women and Gender
• Institute for War and Peace Studies