<p>True, I should have taken Obama’s status as a transfer student into consideration. My main point in bringing him up, I suppose, was not to say that he is typical of all, or even most, Columbia alums but rather to note how unusual it is that such a public political figure would seem so unenthusiastic about his undergraduate experience; it’s not something you typically see among politicians who graduated from, say, Harvard, Yale, or other schools in Columbia’s league. At the end of the day I admit it was a poorly-made point…and yes, I could have mentioned that there is certainly no shortage of active Columbia alumni just as famous as Obama.</p>
<p>As for what part of my anatomy I’m speaking from 
…no, I am not an alum, nor did I pretend to be someone with an extensive knowledge of Columbia’s alumni relations (I admitted as much in my first sentence). I do, however, know a number of Columbia alumni personally, some who graduated within the decade and a couple who graduated as many as four decades ago. Some of the alums I know are still extremely active in the school, which is terrific. Some others, however, are not only inactive alumni but seem outright reluctant to talk about their undergraduate experience with me, even when I initially told them of my interest in the school. One asked me almost disdainfully why I wanted to go “there”; another, who not only attended CC but stayed at CU for graduate school and is involved with a number of academic institutions, never even told me he went there until I found out elsewhere, and then (half-jokingly) called himself a “bad alumnus”. Again, I’m not saying these examples are the rule as far as alumni go, but you have to admit that attitude isn’t typical of many alumni of other great colleges and universities. As I said, my anecdotal evidence isn’t the be-all and end-all of this discussion, but I’m certainly not the first to characterize CU’s alumni relations in this way.</p>