In carrying out Columbia’s great educational mission, today’s faculty must answer many of the same questions that have always confronted outstanding teachers and scholars. What would we have our students know? What bodies of knowledge, what sets of methodologies, what world views should our graduates take away with their degrees?

The Royal Charter formally establishing King’s College in 1754 defined the institution’s goal as “the Instruction and Education of Youth in the Learned Languages and Liberal Arts and Sciences.” This mandate has not essentially changed, even with the transformation of King’s College into Columbia, one of the world’s foremost research universities.

Columbia’s undergraduate curriculum combines the breadth of learning provided by general education courses with the solid mastery of a discipline achieved through a major. And, because Columbia is a great research university as well as a small liberal arts college, students with the will and ability to pursue their majors to the highest levels of scholarly sophistication are free to do so.

Lionel Trilling, the eminent literary critic and a member of Columbia’s faculty for 44 years, spoke for many at the University when he said, “There is a certain minimum of our intellectual and spiritual tradition which one must experience and understand to be called educated.” Through the years, Columbia has resolutely upheld this high standard.

As we approach the twenty-first century, the University is committed to preserving the quest for knowledge as more than simply a practical pursuit. Through its broad range of innovative multidisciplinary programs, and through the earnest exploration of difficult questions, Columbia provides students from the United States and around the world with the depth of understanding and intellectual flexibility they need to respond to the challenges we all will face in the years to come.