Columbia College has launched a $400 million fundraising and engagement campaign to enhance its undergraduate liberal-arts programs and provide additional financial support for students and faculty. The campaign, called Core to Commencement, is the first-ever fundraising and engagement campaign to be dedicated exclusively to Columbia College.
Core to Commencement details a comprehensive vision for the future of the College and its Core Curriculum, a program of liberal-arts courses that has been required of all undergraduates for almost one hundred years. Among the campaign’s priorities are to develop the Core through the use of innovative technologies and interdisciplinary programming; to increase financial support for faculty, including through the establishment of endowed professorships; to offer all students at least one funded summer internship, research fellowship, or global experience; to reinforce the College Fund; and to strengthen connections among students, parents, faculty, and alumni by creating mentorships, internships, intellectual programming, and volunteer opportunities.
“Columbia College is the greatest college in the greatest university in the greatest city in the world,” says James J. Valentini, the dean of the College. “The Core to Commencement campaign is a commitment to sustaining this greatness.”
Core to Commencement, which is scheduled to run through the Core’s centennial in 2019, is being led by campaign co-chairs Alexander Navab ’87CC, Lisa Carnoy ’89CC, and Jonathan Lavine ’88CC.
