<p>There's a new Dean at Columbia. She's a Philosophy Prof. at Cornell, and seems like a good pick.</p>
<p>Discuss among yourselves.</p>
<p>I hope she doesn’t move to dilute the Core.</p>
<p>Aren’t these sort of appointments generally internal folk / people with CU-affiliations?</p>
<p>c02, not necessarily though since columbia has had one guy at the helm for 14 years, few people may remember the deans of the 80s that were both insiders and outsiders, good and bad ideas. Also AEQ was at Columbia only for a handful of years before he was promoted to dean. I am very interested in what the new dean will be able to do. She has a very strong student focus thus far, but also well known for the zeal of her fundraising. Should make a good fit on both sides of the equation.</p>
<p>i hope she DOES move to dilute the core.
its too big, too irrelevant, and too restrictive!</p>
<p>fitchm: then don’t come to Columbia…</p>
<p>speaking of core, this is a long long shot, but someone should replace frontiers of science with principles of econ or have a choice between them, the univ of chicago requires econ, and engineers have to do principles - much better class.</p>
<p>emigre0518: i AM at columbia</p>
<p>Anyone who says the Core is irrelevant needs their head examined. It is CERTAINLY relevant to any citizen of this republic or any other, and more relevant than the “sociology of Harry Potter” nonsense classes that students frequently choose instead. Thank god for Barzun.</p>
<p>Soooo… just about every other peer institution should have its head examined?
What year are you?</p>
<p>Graduated.</p>
<p>And yes, every peer institution (save for UChicago) SHOULD have its head examined.
Every curricular review initiated for these distribution requirement type courses concludes that their current curriculum is a swampy mess, and then after much discussion they reshuffle it and throw in a bit more “cross-cultural” sops, and it remains the same mess with no clear educational vision that it was before. (to wit: the College curriculum reviews of Penn and Harvard)</p>
<p>I suggest you read “The Culture We Deserve” by Barzun. A very short but very good reader on education and culture.</p>
<p>I applaud and salute Columbia College for its Core. I never had any desire to go to Columbia for undergrad (NYC location being the primary deterrent), but I think the Core should be [re]-established at all of America’s great institutions.</p>