Columbia University demonstrates its commitment to the community though dozens of long-standing programs and initiatives, including tutoring and job training in Morningside Heights, Harlem and Washington Heights. More recently, the University has turned its attention to fostering economic growth in the areas surrounding its campus by spending more, purchasing more and hiring more people from surrounding communities. Click on the following for details on:

Collaboration with Public Schools

Community Service

Economic Links to the Community

Graduate and Professional School Service Programs

Academic Programs

Consultation with Community

There are many ways in which various segments of the University have become involved with the New York City Public Schools. The following gives a sense of the breadth and depth of Columbia's involvement with the public schools.

Teachers College (TC) and New York City Public Schools: Over 20 TC programs benefit supervisors, principals, novice teachers and students of New York City public schools. The following is a sampling of some of these current programs:

• The Principals' Institute: a year-long training at TC for exemplary supervisors and assistant principals
• The First Year Teacher Program: connects novice teachers with TC faculty as mentors
• The Reading and Writing Project: helps teachers in NYC and nationwide to improve students' reading and writing skills.
• The Eiffel Project: a program that strives to integrate digital learning into the curriculum of 46 public schools in six districts in New York City, directly benefiting 30,000 students from minority, immigrant and economically disadvantaged families in the New York metropolitan area.
• Project Synergy: a cooperative effort between TC and Community School District 3 in Manhattan designed to identify and serve economically disadvantaged, potentially gifted kindergarten students in the NYC public schools.
• The Capstone Program: gives current/former TC students teaching experience by working with 10th - 12th grade students in alternative schools in New York City.

Collaboration with area school districts: As part of the planning process for the Columbia University School, administrators have worked closely with District Superintendent Patricia Rommandetto of C.S.D. #3, and have been in contact with the Superintendents in C.S.D. #5 and #2 resulting in the following:

• A collaboration between C.S.D. #3 and Impact II, a non-profit organization with a 15-year history of successful professional development in New York City is expected to lead to a substantial private donation to C.S.D. #3. This gift will be used to fund an extensive faculty development program in the area of using new media in the curriculum. The Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning and/or the Institute for Learning Technologies will play a major role in the faculty development program.
• Collaborations between the Columbia University School and C.S.D. #3 would result in materials and methods developed at the University to be available for use in the public schools.
• The University School would act as a portal to the extensive new media resources of the University for C.S.D. #3.
• The Columbia University School would offer faculty development programs and faculty exchange programs to the public schools.
• The Columbia University School would offer leadership training to administrators in C.S.D. #3.

Consultation with City Schools Chancellor Harold O. Levy: At the request of the Chancellor, the Assistant Provost for Special Projects Gardner Dunnan, has been acting as an informal advisor during this interim period. It is possible that this informal arrangement will evolve into a regular two-day-a-week consultation on a pro bono basis.

Convening of Community School District Superintendents: Assistant Vice President and Director of Government Relations and Community Affairs Larry Dais has inaugurated a forum for all Manhattan community superintendents to discuss common concerns and to plan areas for future collaborations between the public schools and the University.

The Collaborative Public School Improvement Project: The Office of Community Affairs over the past several years has sponsored this project, which has contributed toward the improvement of local schools in School Districts 3 and 5. This comes from a multi-year commitment to one school where services are orchestrated based upon a needs assessment utilizing Columbia faculty and students.

Wired schools: More than 70 New York City schools have been "wired"through an $8 million Department of Education grant to the Institute for Learning Technologies at Teachers College.

The Double Discovery Center: Founded in 1965 by Columbia College students, the program annually serves 1,000 first generation college-bound high school students from the surrounding communities, in particular Harlem, who are tutored and mentored by Columbia students. Nearly 100 percent of DDC students graduate from high school and 66 percent finish college in four years. The program was cited by the White House as an exemplar of racial reconciliation.

Community Impact: Over 900 Columbia students participate annually in 25 direct service programs in Harlem and Morningside Heights including tutoring, assistance with GED and English as a Second Language studies and work with the elderly, homeless, and housing rehabilitation.

Columbia Community Outreach: An entirely student organized week of activities culminating in a community service day, when 1,000 Columbians -- mostly students - complete labor intensive short-term projects in the community, such as painting classrooms and cleaning parks. Several other Ivy League schools, following Columbia's lead, have organized similar community service days, establishing what has become known as the "Ivy Corps."

The Malcolm X Medical Scholars Program: Working with Malcolm X's widow, the late Betty Shabazz, scholarships were created at the College of Physicians and Surgeons to assist minority students who intend to pursue community medicine. To date, 22 doctors have graduated from the program.

Columbia Community Service: This year the faculty and staff of Columbia, Barnard and Teachers Colleges contributed more than $200,000, which directly aided more than 90 commuity groups, including soup kitchens, job skills training organizations, children's tutoring programs, activities for elders and other charitable agencies in the local community.

Harlem YMCA: Columbia's Office of Community Relations provided leadership for the Harlem YMCA's Campaign to raise $3.5 million for the renovation of its Jackie Robinson Youth Center.

Host to Community Groups: Community organizations and officials are welcomed to campus and provided with space for events, including the New York Urban League, the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, The Abyssinian Development Corporation's Samuel D. Proctor Phoenix Awards, the Harlem Week Scholarship Breakfast, the Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement (HCCI) annual banquet, and the New York City Games. Town meetings by local elected officials from Morningside Heights, Harlem, Inwood, and Washington Heights are also held on campus.

Created Uptown W.I.N.S. (Women in Neighborhood Sports), providing educational and recreational programs for 200 young women athletes in the Washington Heights community.

Columbia and its affiliates are responsible for about $2 billion worth of direct and indirect spending in the City's economy. Despite an already significant impact (most employees live in the City; most institutional spending occurs in the City), the University is working to increase its impact in construction spending, employment, and purchasing.

Construction spending: Columbia has adopted minority-hiring goals in construction projects, an unusual step for a private institution. They are: 15% for minority-owned subcontractors, 5% for women-owned and 5% locally-owned businesses; 20% for minority work force composition, 5% for women and 5% for local residents in the work force. The University encourages contractors to buy from local merchants. Sixty-eight percent of the contractors who routinely perform small to medium-sized projects worth $7 to $8 million on campus are minority, women or locally-owned firms. On one of its recent projects, Broadway Residence Hall, the workforce is 50 percent minority on average and five percent local.

Employment: A new program, Job Connections, matches Upper Manhattan residents with local institutions that are hiring and collaborates with social services agencies and community development organizations. Thirty-eight people have been hired at Columbia as clerks, secretaries, food service specialists, maintenance workers, custodians, etc. Over ten of those have moved on to permanent positions within the University.

Purchasing: Columbia has retained the services of the Urban Affairs Group, led by a recognized specialist in the development of minority businesses, to serve as a liaison between local businesses and the University. The Urban Affairs Group assists in Columbia's outreach to local businesses in Harlem and Upper Manhattan and aid them in becoming Columbia vendors. The University is making an effort to enter into master agreements with local vendors for services such as inventory, car services, storage, etc. Most recently Facilities Management has made linking with local businesses a criteria for selection as the University searches for a company to handle its inventory supplies operation.

Searchable Online Local Purchasing Directory: This new site highlights 120 businesses in northern Manhattan that aren't already in the purchasing system is now available on the web and is easily accessible by University employees.

The Procurement Card: A credit-like card enables Columbia employees to make local purchases with payment to local vendors within 72 hours, instead of the normal payment period of 30 to 60 days.

Neighborhood Survey: The University's survey determined the types of retail services residents of Morningside Heights sought for the neighborhood. Columbia began acting on the results as the owner of retail properties.

The Mandatory Pro Bono Program: Columbia Law School requires every student to perform a minimum of 40 hours of Pro Bono work. These hours must be spent serving low-income clients on issues ranging from basic civil and human rights to child advocacy, housing, immigration and prison issues.

The Human Rights Internship Program: Columbia Law School offers annually approximately 100 Human Rights Interns and Public Service Fellows the opportunity to provide greatly needed legal assistance in 40 countries. The 10-week program gives interns and fellows direct experience in international civil rights, civil liberties and criminal justice.

The Harlem Tutorial Program: a joint project between the Business School and the Law School which links students from these schools with junior high students from New York Prep, a public school in East Harlem. The tutor-student pairs meet one to three afternoons per week on the Columbia campus.

Teaching Internships in New York City Schools: Teachers College provides internships for graduate students in 400 schools in New York City.

Service Clinics: Two clinics run by Teachers College provide free, low-cost professional services to the public: MYSAK Laboratory assists people with hearing or speech impediments and the Center for Educational. And Psychological Services provides low-cost counseling performed by graduate students.

Social Services: The School of Social Work incorporates many social and public service opportunities into its curriculum. A heavy emphasis is placed on involvement with Columbia's surrounding communities of Harlem, Washington Heights and the South Bronx.

Medical Services for Community: Columbia University's Health Science Division at Columbia-Presbyterian Medial Center is a major center for teaching and research. The center is also an important provider of programs that reach out to the Washington Heights/Inwood, Harlem communities and neighborhoods throughout New York City. The Center sponsors staff dental clinics in many public schools, provides extensive nursing services in elementary and high schools and furnish students and staff to teach science in many junior high and high schools in these under-served communities.

Inner City Entrepreneurship: Business School students proviide Harlem firms with pro bono marketing, management and planning advice through their course work.

Urban Technical Assistance Program: Provides low-cost urban planning technical assistance to community-based organizations, predominantly in northern Manhattan. UTAP also works with the Empowerment Zones in northern Manhattan and Camden, N.J.

Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Management Assistance Program: The Ford Foundation-funded Empowerment Zone Management Assistance Program, housed at Columbia assists the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. Clients include the Camden Empowerment Zone, Coalition of Harlem and the United TIL (Tenant Interim Lease).

All of the centers listed above provided research and administrative support for the Empowerment Zone applications submitted by the Harlem Urban Development Corporation.

Audubon Biotechnology and Research Park: The two buildings, with stories and services have aided in the stability of and brought jobs to the Washington Heights neighborhood.

Harlem Hospital: Columbia has a long-term commitment to help meet the health needs of the Harlem community through academic affiliation with Harlem Hospital.

Construction Projects: The University recently completed a $667 million, 5-year capital construction program, the evidence of which can be seen all over campus. Collaboration with the community helped reduce the impact of noise and inconvenience and ensured that new buildings fit into the Morningside Heights context. Two of the major buildings of the current construction boom were significantly impacted by discussions with the community: Alfred Lerner Hall and the new Broadway Residence Hall under construction at 113th Street and Broadway. In response to residents' concerns, the western facade of Lerner was designed to look like the other brick buildings along the campus's western edge; and the height of the new residence hall was significantly reduced, among other design modifications. In planning for the new residence hall, Columbia collaborated with the community and the New York Public Library to incorporate a new, larger branch library into the project.

The Planning Framework: To address community concerns about the preservation of historic buildings on Morningside Heights, and to better our knowledge of some of the University's buildings, a team of planning and preservation consultants was hired to create a planning framework. This document, published last year, identified future potential development sites and set up guidelines for building and campus maintenance. A community advisory group reviewed all the work of the consultant. Much of this work will be used by community residents as they pursue historic district designation for parts of Morningside Heights.