<p>Fill me in mate, I'll be living in JJ.</p>
<p>
[quote]
seriously. in your mouth, JohnnyK.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I believe "it's in your face" unless you're going for a more homoerotic insult.</p>
<p>Though I must say, I'm pleased to see that I've risen in stature to being the perennial Columbia bogeyman.</p>
<p>This is wonderful news for Columbia, to be sure. Congratulations! Though technically it doesn't do anything for the alumni giving rate which is counted by % of alums donating, not how much is donated...</p>
<p>Why don't they start the 5 dollar campaign.
Get 90% of alumni to donate 5 bucks then there percentage will be through the roof.</p>
<p>Probably because it would look stupid.</p>
<p>exactly his point about JohnnyK's criticism.</p>
<p>Also,
[quote]
Columbia's careful money management comes at the expense of funds for things like dorm renovations and student activities. The endowment figure has always been more important to Columbia than what it's used for...</p>
<p>But who cares if my bathroom ceiling collapses, as long as we climb US News, right?
[/quote]
They've been renovating floors, gutting buildings, and putting up new dorms at a truly impressive rate, spending (at least in 2003) about $30MM in such efforts. the residents in mcbain, wien, nussbaum, furnald, EC Townhouses, EC highrise floors 18-20, and Broadway are all thanking housing (or should be). Any incidents that may stick out in your mind are the exceptions, rather than the rule.</p>
<p>student activities, i'll concede, while well-funded are not quite as well-funded as some peer schools.</p>
<p>Sorry, Denz, it's still ridiculous that any ceilings cave in at a school to which we - and alums - give so much money. Witness the contrast between this phenomenon, rare as it might seem (it happens at least once a semester, or at least I've only heard of it happening once a semester) and PrezBo's daily 1.5 block chauffeured drive to work. </p>
<p>And ceiling collapses can be a matter of serious injury. Let's not even get into "minor" annoyances, like perennially broken elevators...</p>
<p>They've been renovating buildings continuously since the 60s; the renovations are always cheap and do little good. $300 million is nothing, I guess, when dealing with union labor. </p>
<p>Pre-frosh: don't worry about your ceilings coming down in John Jay. But when you move to Woodbridge, Nussbaum, or Claremont...watch out.</p>
<p>Here is the email that went out to alums:</p>
<p>Dear members of the Columbia community:</p>
<p>This is an historic day in the life of Columbia University and for higher
education in the United States. You may have already seen early news reports
that at midday today we officially announced a spectacular gift from John
Kluge - a pledge of $400 million for scholarships and fellowships at Columbia. </p>
<p>This year marks the 70th anniversary of John Kluge's graduation from Columbia
College. But John's focus is always on the future, on teaching us that what makes
life worth living is what we can do to improve on what we have. We do that
today. </p>
<p>This is an extraordinary development that will help ensure that
Columbia remains an ever-widening avenue of intellectual growth and
opportunity - such a critical value in our nation. John's own life is a
fulfillment of that American dream, and he has spoken frequently and
eloquently of the critical role that Columbia has played in his life. That
he has chosen to direct his amazing generosity to ensuring that young
people will have the chance to benefit from a Columbia education, as he
did, regardless of their wealth or family income is therefore both a
testament to his personal values and a challenge to all of us to do better
than we have in living up to our national ideals.</p>
<p>Although the funds will be paid from John's estate, in due time this will
create positive benefits for countless future Columbia students, for the
University as a whole, and, I believe, for our society. Nothing could be
more important to our mission; and while we are proud of the socioeconomic
diversity we have achieved among our students, we know this gift will allow
us to further expand our efforts in the future.</p>
<p>This extraordinary investment in the diversity of our students and the quality
of our University community is obviously a great boost for the Columbia Campaign;
but John does not want us to become complacent with this gift. Instead, he wants
us to see this as an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to the great work ahead,
including the expansion of the University and the betterment of our
academic programs.</p>
<p>John and I will continue to discuss many of the specifics of how this pledge will
work when it becomes effective. We can say that half of his gift, $200 million,
will be dedicated to supporting and expanding existing financial aid programs for
Columbia College - long a priority of John's and a cornerstone of efforts by Dean
Austin E. Quigley and others to strengthen the College so that it can prepare our
students for the increasingly diverse world they will inherit. I will
consult with John in determining where the remaining $200 million will be
allocated toward scholarships and fellowships in other areas of the
University. </p>
<p>Finally, just to give you a sense of scale, this gift represents the fourth largest
single donation to an institution of higher education in the United States and is
the largest gift in higher education devoted exclusively to financial aid. It brings
the current Columbia Campaign total to $2.2 billion or 55 percent of the overall
goal.</p>
<p>Columbia owes a great debt of gratitude to John Kluge - not only
for his legendary generosity, but for asking us to focus on the future and
to strive to become better than we are. He has reminded us once more,
through this remarkable gift, that Columbia's possibilities for the future
lie in large part in the hands of its loyal alumni and friends. </p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Lee C. Bollinger</p>
<p>Truely a wonderful gift, not just because of the amount, but because it goes to students and not to buildings.</p>
<p>It also is a reminder of a legacy that Columbia really can take pride in: its history of being known as the "working man's Ivy." At a time when Harvard and Yale were full of bluebloods earning the "Gentleman's C", Columbia took people like Kluge and gave him a world class education. The historical prestige of Harvard and Yale and Princeton (as well as their huge endowments) are partly a legacy of the era when they enforced strict quotas on Jewish students and rarely hired Jewish faculty members. Times changed, of course, and so did the underrepresented groups. Yet, even now, Columbia is probably the most diverse of the Ivies, and takes pride in that fact.</p>
<p>I love the spirit of this gift. Not a monument to his ego, but a continuation of the Columbia tradition. This will help a lot of deserving students, and make Columbia an even more interesting place to be a student.</p>
<p>Forget about silly arguments over selectivity down to the decimal points. This is really a moment to take pride in Columbia for something substantial.</p>
<p>I love this guy, :D. And guess what? He's German, ^^.</p>
<p>i love sac, too. well spoken.</p>
<p>
[quote]
At a time when Harvard and Yale were full of bluebloods earning the "Gentleman's C", Columbia took people like Kluge and gave him a world class education. The historical prestige of Harvard and Yale and Princeton (as well as their huge endowments) are partly a legacy of the era when they enforced strict quotas on Jewish students and rarely hired Jewish faculty members.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Columbia had Jewish quotas, etc. just as the HY.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why don't they start the 5 dollar campaign.
Get 90% of alumni to donate 5 bucks then there percentage will be through the roof.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Princeton does this...something like it anyway.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Columbia had Jewish quotas, etc. just as the HY.
[/quote]
There was an interesting thread on this at one point, and my understanding is that Columbia belatedly tried to restrict Jewish enrollment after it had reached a much more significant percentage of the student body than at the other Ivies. The larger point I was trying to make is that this gift is consistent with Columbia's history of being more ethnically and socio-economically diverse than other Ivies, and that is a history worth taking pride in.</p>
<p>(If you're interested, here is an interesting link about Jews at Yale, where in the 1920s they were afraid that without quotas they would end up like Columbia, with a student body that was about half Jewish:<a href="http://www.asianam.org/yale's_quotas_against_jews.htm">http://www.asianam.org/yale's_quotas_against_jews.htm</a>)</p>
<p>Agreed with sac's larger point and think it's very well said overall; but just wanted to point out that Columbia isn't totally high and mighty and with their hands totally clean in all of this.</p>
<p>How large of a donation would it take to pay the 4-year tuition of every undergraduate student?</p>
<p>I don't think that CU is the most diverse Ivy, nowadays. I think we have about 6-7% international students, right? This can probably be attributed to the fact that CU is not need-blind for international applicants. Princeton, on the other hand, gives better aid to intels and is need-blind for them, just as Yale and Harvard. I wouldn't say that CU is socio-economically more diverse than other Ivies, either. Although you can persuade me with pertinent data.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, Columbia still has the most international students of any Ivy (10% undergraduate). It might have more to do with location than financial aid. </p>
<p>The grad schools, in particular, are probably at least 40% foreigners.</p>
<p>Um... I don't know where you got your info from, but according to this source:
<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/facts.html?international%5B/url%5D">http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/facts.html?international</a></p>
<p>it's 7% as of fall 2005. I doubt that is has changed that much in fall 2006, but maybe you have newer data?</p>
<p>what defines international?</p>
<p>if an american citizen lives in hong kong, are they still internat'l? </p>
<p>if so, your data, pearfire, only counts "non-resident aliens" which would lower the numbers</p>
<p>Edit: i really dont know the definition, the questions are for real. im not being facetious</p>
<p>It is sometimes difficult to communicate with the international students. There is a cultural difference.</p>