The Columbia Alumni Welcome Center, which since its opening in 2009 has provided a space for graduates to meet, relax, and access University resources, was recently named in honor of longtime administrator Susan K. Feagin ’74GS. President Lee C. Bollinger formally dedicated the center on November 16 in recognition of Feagin’s “exemplary service to the University,” according to a special resolution from the Trustees.
Before retiring last year, Feagin led a distinguished career at Columbia, most recently as special adviser to the president. She served as the executive vice president for University development and alumni relations from 2003 to 2010, during which time she brought together alumni donors and friends of the University to achieve the largest fundraising effort in Ivy League history, the $6.1 billion Columbia Campaign. Together with Trustees and other alumni leaders, she was instrumental in the creation of the Columbia Alumni Association, the global network that links 320,000 alumni in more than one hundred countries. Feagin also spearheaded the re-launch of Columbia Magazine, the opening of the Columbia Alumni Center, and the revitalization of the Columbia University Club of New York.
Feagin began her career at the University’s development office in 1974, after receiving a bachelor’s degree from the School of General Studies.
“The defining characteristic of Susan’s extraordinary accomplishments lies in her deep capacity to draw people in to work together to achieve seemingly unattainable goals,” said President Bollinger at the naming ceremony. “It is most appropriate that we celebrate her achievements here, in the house that Susan built.”
The Susan K. Feagin Alumni Welcome Center, which is on the ground floor of the Columbia Alumni Center, at 622 West 113th Street, includes a lounge, library, and office space, and is open to all alumni visiting campus.
