Columbia University in The City of New York
Columbia University in The City of New York
Columbia University in The City of New York
Columbia University was founded in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of King George
II of England. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York and the
fifth oldest in the United States.
Controversy preceded the founding of the College, with various groups competing to
determine its location and religious affiliation. Advocates of New York City met with
success on the first point, while the Anglicans prevailed on the latter. However, all
constituencies agreed to commit themselves to principles of religious liberty in establishing
the policies of the College.
In July 1754, Samuel Johnson held the first classes in a new schoolhouse adjoining Trinity
Church, located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan. There were eight students
in the class. At King's College, the future leaders of
colonial society could receive an education designed to
"enlarge the Mind, improve the Understanding, polish
the whole Man, and qualify them to support the
brightest Characters in all the elevated stations in life."
One early manifestation of the institution's lofty goals
was the establishment in 1767 of the first American
medical school to grant the M.D. degree. Columbia's first home
Trinity Church schoolhouse
The American Revolution brought the growth of the
college to a halt, forcing a suspension of instruction in 1776 that lasted for eight years.
However, the institution continued to exert a significant influence on American life through
the people associated with it. Among the earliest students and trustees of King's College
were John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States; Alexander Hamilton, the first
secretary of the treasury; Gouverneur Morris, the author of the final draft of the U.S.
Constitution; and Robert R. Livingston, a member of the five-man committee that drafted
the Declaration of Independence.
The college reopened in 1784 with a new name—Columbia—that embodied the patriotic
fervor that had inspired the nation's quest for independence. The revitalized institution was
recognizable as the descendant of its colonial ancestor, thanks to its inclination toward
Anglicanism and the needs of an urban population, but
there were important differences: Columbia College
reflected the legacy of the Revolution in the greater
economic, denominational, and geographic diversity of
its new students and leaders. Cloistered campus life
gave way to the more common phenomenon of day
students who lived at home or lodged in the city.
In 1857, the College moved from Park Place, near the Columbia's third home
East 49th St. and Madison Ave.
present site of city hall, to Forty-ninth Street and
Madison Avenue, where it remained for the next forty
years. During the last half of the nineteenth century, Columbia rapidly assumed the shape
of a modern university. The Columbia School of Law was founded in 1858. The country's
first mining school, a precursor of today's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied
Science, was established in 1864 and awarded the first Columbia Ph.D. in 1875.
Low's greatest accomplishment, however, was moving the university from Forty-ninth
Street to the more spacious Morningside Heights campus, designed as an urban academic
village by McKim, Mead, and White, the renowned turn-of-the-century architectural firm.
Architect Charles Follen McKim provided Columbia with stately buildings patterned after
those of the Italian Renaissance. The University continued to prosper after its move
uptown in 1897.
By the late 1930s, a Columbia student could study with the likes of Jacques Barzun, Paul
Lazarsfeld, Mark Van Doren, Lionel Trilling, and I. I. Rabi, to name just a few of the great
minds of the Morningside campus. The University's graduates during this time were equally
accomplished—for example, two alumni of Columbia's School of Law, Charles Evans
Hughes and Harlan Fiske Stone (who was also dean of the School of Law), served
successively as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Columbia celebrated its bicentennial in 1954 during a period of steady expansion. This
growth mandated a major campus building program in the 1960s, and, by the end of the
decade, five of the University's schools were housed in new buildings.
It was also in the 1960s that Columbia experienced the most significant crisis in its history.
Currents of unrest sweeping the country—among them opposition to the Vietnam War, an
increasingly militant civil rights movement, and the ongoing decline of America's inner
cities—converged with particular force at Columbia, casting the Morningside campus into
the national spotlight. More than 1,000 protesting students occupied five buildings in the
last week of April 1968, effectively shutting down the University until they were forcibly
removed by the New York City police. Those events led directly to the cancellation of a
proposed gym in Morningside Park, the cessation of certain classified research projects on
campus, the retirement of President Grayson Kirk, and a downturn in the University's
finances and morale. They also led to the creation of the University Senate, in which
faculty, students, and alumni acquired a larger voice in University affairs.
The University also continued to develop the Audubon Biotechnology and Research Park,
securing Columbia's place at the forefront of medical research. As New York City's only
university-related research park, it also is contributing to economic growth through the
creation of private-sector research collaborations and the generation of new biomedically
related business.
A new student-activities center, Alfred Lerner Hall, opened in 1999 and features the Roone
Arledge Auditorium and Cinema. Current building projects include major renovations to
Hamilton Hall and Avery Library.
These and other improvements to the University's physical plant provide a visible reminder
of the continuing growth and development of Columbia's programs of research and
teaching. From its renowned Core Curriculum to the most advanced work now under way
in its graduate and professional schools, the University continues to set the highest
standard for the creation and dissemination of knowledge, both in the United States and
around the world.
Clear in its commitment to carrying out such a wide-ranging and historic mission, and led
by a new president, Lee C. Bollinger, Columbia is proud to celebrate its 250th anniversary
and look ahead to the achievements to come.
The architectural centerpiece of the campus is Low Memorial Library, named in honor of
Seth Low's father. Built in the Roman classical style, it appears in the New York City
Register of Historic Places. The building today houses the University's central
administration offices and the visitors center.
A broad flight of steps descends from Low Library to an expansive plaza, a popular place
for students to gather, and from there to College Walk, a promenade that bisects the
central campus. Beyond College Walk is the South Campus, where Butler Library, the
university's main library, stands. South Campus is also the site of many of Columbia
College's facilities, including student residences, Alfred Lerner Hall (the student center),
and the College's administrative offices and classroom buildings, along with the Graduate
School of Journalism.
To the north of Low Library stands Pupin Hall, which in 1966 was designated a national
historic landmark in recognition of the atomic research undertaken there by Columbia's
scientists beginning in 1925. To the east is St. Paul's Chapel, which is listed with the New
York City Register of Historic Places.
Many newer buildings surround the original campus. Among the most impressive are the
Sherman Fairchild Center for the Life Sciences and the Morris A. Schapiro Center for
Engineering and Physical Science Research. Two miles to the north of Morningside Heights
is the 20-acre campus of the Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan's
Washington Heights, overlooking the Hudson River. Among the most prominent buildings
on the site are the 20-story Julius and Armand Hammer Health Sciences Center, the
William Black Medical Research Building, and the 17-story tower of the College of
Physicians and Surgeons. In 1989, The Presbyterian Hospital opened the Milstein Hospital
Building, a 745-bed facility that incorporates the very latest advances in medical
technology and patient care.
To the west is the New York State Psychiatric Institute; east of Broadway is the Audubon
Biomedical Science and Technology Park, which includes the Mary Woodard Lasker
Biomedical Research Building, the Audubon Business Technology Center, Russ Berrie
Medical Science Pavilion, and the Irving Cancer Research Center as well as other
institutions of cutting-edge scientific and medical research.
In addition to its New York City campuses, Columbia has two facilities outside of
Manhattan. Nevis Laboratories, established in 1947, is Columbia's primary center for the
study of high-energy experimental particle and nuclear physics. Located in Irvington, New
York, Nevis is situated on a 60-acre estate originally owned by the son of Alexander
Hamilton.
The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory was established in 1949 in Palisades, New York,
and is a leading research institution focusing on global climate change, earthquakes,
volcanoes, nonrenewable resources, and environmental hazards. It examines the planet
from its core to its atmosphere, across every continent and every ocean.
Princeton's History
Chartered in 1746 as the College of New Jersey—the name by which it was known for 150 years
—Princeton University was British North America's fourth college. Located in Elizabeth for one
year and then in Newark for nine, the College of New Jersey moved to Princeton in 1756. It was
housed in Nassau Hall, which was newly built on land donated by Nathaniel FitzRandolph.
Nassau Hall contained the entire College for nearly half a century.
In 1896, when expanded program offerings brought the College university status, the College of
New Jersey was officially renamed Princeton University in honor of its host community of
Princeton. Four years later, in 1900, the Graduate School was established.
Yale University comprises three major academic components: Yale College (the undergraduate
program), the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the professional schools. In addition, Yale
encompasses a wide array of centers and programs, libraries, museums, and administrative support
offices. Approximately 11,250 students attend Yale.
Yale’s roots can be traced back to the 1640s, when colonial clergymen led an effort to establish a college
in New Haven to preserve the tradition of European liberal education in the New World. This vision was
fulfilled in 1701, when the charter was granted for a school “wherein Youth may be instructed in the Arts
and Sciences [and] through the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Publick employment both in
Church and Civil State.” In 1718 the school was renamed “Yale College” in gratitude to the Welsh
merchant Elihu Yale, who had donated the proceeds from the sale of nine bales of goods together with
417 books and a portrait of King George I.
Yale Charter
Yale College survived the American Revolutionary War (1776–1781) intact and, by the end of its first
hundred years, had grown rapidly. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries brought the establishment of
the graduate and professional schools that would make Yale a true university. The Yale School of
Medicine was chartered in 1810, followed by the Divinity School in 1822, the Law School in 1824, and
the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1847 (which, in 1861, awarded the first Ph.D. in the United
States), followed by the schools of Art in 1869, Music in 1894, Forestry & Environmental Studies in
1900, Nursing in 1923, Drama in 1955, Architecture in 1972, and Management in 1974.
International students have made their way to Yale since the 1830s, when the first Latin American
student enrolled. The first Chinese citizen to earn a degree at a Western college or university came to
Yale in 1850. Today, international students make up nearly 9 percent of the undergraduate student
body, and 16 percent of all students at the University. Yale’s distinguished faculty includes many who
have been trained or educated abroad and many whose fields of research have a global emphasis; and
international studies and exchanges play an increasingly important role in the Yale College curriculum.
The University began admitting women students at the graduate level in 1869, and as undergraduates in
1969.
Yale College was transformed, beginning in the early 1930s, by the establishment of residential colleges.
Taking medieval English universities such as Oxford and Cambridge as its model, this distinctive system
divides the undergraduate population into twelve separate communities of approximately 450 members
each, thereby enabling Yale to offer its students both the intimacy of a small college environment and
the vast resources of a major research university. Each college surrounds a courtyard and occupies up to
a full city block, providing a congenial community where residents live, eat, socialize, and pursue a
variety of academic and extracurricular activities. Each college has a master and dean, as well as a
number of resident faculty members known as fellows, and each has its own dining hall, library, seminar
rooms, recreation lounges, and other facilities.
Today, Yale has matured into one of the world’s great universities. Its 11,000 students come from all fifty
American states and from 108 countries. The 3,200-member faculty is a richly diverse group of men and
women who are leaders in their respective fields. The central campus now covers 310 acres (125
hectares) stretching from the School of Nursing in downtown New Haven to tree-shaded residential
neighborhoods around the Divinity School. Yale’s 260 buildings include contributions from
distinguished architects of every period in its history. Styles range from New England Colonial to High
Victorian Gothic, from Moorish Revival to contemporary. Yale’s buildings, towers, lawns, courtyards,
walkways, gates, and arches comprise what one architecture critic has called “the most beautiful urban
campus in America.” The University also maintains over 600 acres (243 hectares) of athletic fields and
natural preserves just a short bus ride from the center of town.