<p>I hate to revive this old issue, but its important to correct some misinformation.</p>
<p>A while back there was a ■■■■■ who posted a lot of misinformation about the Barnard/Columbia relationship, including the (repeated) false assertion that Barnard graduates cannot join the Columbia Alumni Association.</p>
<p>The REASON this is important and the reason I am posting this – and the way I found out – is that the Columbia Alumni Association offers some group insurance options. My d. will be graduating soon, and I am working with her to try to line up health insurance – it occured to me to check whether there were any group benefits available to her via the Barnard Alumni Association – and that’s what led me to the info that she is eligible to join the Columbia Alumni Association. </p>
<p>The Columbia Alumni Association does currently offer a short-term health insurance plan at very reasonable rates, though unfortunately it is not available to residents of several states, including New York. However, I thought this information might help some other prospective graduate who needs to obtain insurance. </p>
<p>So I just wanted to make sure that the misinformation previously posted here was corrected… NOT to resurrect the stupid “Barnard v. Columbia” argument, but simply to let Barnard students (and their families) know of a potential resource.</p>
<p>Thanks. We are starting to get very stressed about the “what comes next” part. My daughter wants to stay in NY, but doesn’t have work lined up and hence there is a lot of stress over the housing & insurance issues. I’m pretty sure that I won’t be able to keep her on the Calif. insurance plan that now covers her, once she is out of school, if she stays on the east coast.</p>
<p>Barnard graduates can not join Columbia Alumni Association(CAA). ( This is what CAA officials told me)
You can call CAA to verify this. (or send E-mail)</p>
<p>This can easily be confirmed by reference to the Columbia Alumni Association bylaws-- which confirms that fact. </p>
<p>Please do not spread misinformation over the internet. The Columbia Alumni Association has very expansive criteria for membership – you don’t even have to graduate to be eligible. It may be very important for some people to know about the availability of benefits like group insurance – its a big concern especially as the job market is tight right now.</p>
<p>note: I think collegeboy49 is the return of our old nemesis already appearing under various aliases. Perhaps calmom could close this thread now that the information has been promulgated.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s necessary to close the thread (even if Calmom could…can you do that?). I think most Barnard posters are bright enough to give “collegeboy” exactly the credence he deserves. Which is to say: none.</p>
<p>I’d also add that a degree from Columbia is NOT required to be a member of the alumni association. Again, its in the bylaws. Membership appears to be automatic (no dues, no formal request for membership required), and the only requirement is that the person must have been a student for at least a year in any degree-granting program, at any level, at any of the schools affiliated with Columbia University. So a student who attended any school (SEAS, Barnard, GS, JTS, the School of Nursing, etc) for a single year and then dropped out or transferred to another school, would also be a member. </p>
<p>“Collegeboy” has done a lot of harm, because a Google search will reveal that he’s posted false information all over the internet-- not just on the CC board. You can tell it’s the same poster because of the inability to write a simple sentence using proper English grammar. It’s “harmful” as noted because of those possible benefits like group insurance. </p>
<p>Alumni Associations are generally not exclusive in their membership. They typically are reaching out to widen participation as much as possible, in part because fundraising is a major part of their mission. This is different than, for example, honor societies such as Phi Beta Kappa – which limit membership to individuals meeting specified criteria.</p>
<p>I hadn’t paid much attention to correcting this misinformation before, because I generally don’t get too excited about “Alumni Associations” - I get plenty of email and paper from them, directed both to me and my kids, including a regular stream of mail from a school my son dropped out of after his sophomore year – and most of the mail goes straight to the recycling bin, though I do sometimes enjoy looking at the magazines. But again, as noted – now that the big insurance question is looming, a light bulb went off in my head and I remembered that a whole lot of the junk mail I get from Alumni Associations is offering some type of insurance. (which, from time to time, I have purchased, depending on my particular needs).</p>
<p>Obviously, anyone reading this can call the phone number referenced in my post #5. </p>
<p>Intelligent people obviously rely on written information from official sources rather than from anonymous posters on the internet. I don’t believe that “collegeboy” ever made any phone calls – if he did, given his clear limitations in reading and understanding the English language, it is likely that he either framed a question in a way that wasn’t understood by whoever was speaking to him on the phone, or else he didn’t understand the answer he was given. In any case, he hasn’t supplied anyone here with the name of the person he supposedly spoke to… so its just falls under the category of “totally unreliable information” no matter what he said.</p>
<p>She doesn’t have to “join”. She will automatically become a member upon graduation. There is no registration required, and no dues to pay. I have told my d. about CAA – I told her to check to see if they could help her line up insurance (obviously). (I have told my d. that I will pay for her health insurance for at least 6 months after graduation, unless she finds a job that provides coverage, but she has to arrange the insurance on her own). </p>
<p>She will have access to the CAA web site and resources with her UNI – (the same one that currently gives her access to various Columbia web sites, like clio) – but its possible that as a Barnard graduate she will need to talk to tech support at CAA, because their web site says:</p>
<p>Like what calmom said, the membership of the Columbia Alumni Association appears to be automatic for a degree holder from Columbia. All students are welcome to Columbia Alumni Center. But only Columbia graduates (do not include graduates of affiliate schools like Barnard, Teachers College) are allowed to access Columbia’s online alumni benefits.</p>
<p>No, I think you are mistaken – only the Columbia grads have <em>automatic</em> access to the online services – the other have to contact tech support to activate their UNI’s. (Barnard students DO have active UNI accounts – it looks likes those simply aren’t carried over automatically at graduation, probably because of the tie-in to the email system).</p>
<p>It is clear from the list on that page that the CAA is an umbrella organization for the separate Alumni Associations for each different college and schools, including affiliates. </p>
<p>What would be true is that Barnard grads probably could not join the separate Columbia College Alumni Association, which has a separate web page here - [Alumni</a> | Columbia College](<a href=“http://www.college.columbia.edu/alumni/]Alumni”>Columbia College Alumni Association) – and might possibly offer some different features. </p>
<p>I say “probably” because if I go to the Barnard alumni association web site, I can look up my own name and my daughter’s father’s name, and find us both listed. Plus I get all sorts of Barnard Alumni Association email addressed to me – so I think that at least on the Barnard end of things, there is some category of “membership” open to parents. (Probably the “we hope you might send us a check” category – again, Alumni Associations really like to fund raise – I do also get regular phone calls reminding me of that).</p>
<p>Who is eligible for the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA) UNI-protected services?</p>
<p>All graduates from Columbia University are eligible. Graduates from affiliate schools (Barnard, Teachers College, Union Theological Seminary, and Jewish Theological Seminary) are not eligible.</p>
<p>Well, the main point, again, is that according to the documentation on the Barnard web site, she would be eligible to buy into various group insurance options, which happens to be our only interest at this point - and was my reason for posting. I don’t know whether that would involve online access to any services in any case. (Actually, the only “online” services I see on the alumni site have to do with email forwarding, ordering transcripts, and updating records for the alumnae directory … the insurance applications are probably handled in a different way.).</p>