THIS REPORT ON COLUMBIA'S 246TH ACADEMIC YEAR IS A COMPANION PIECE TO LAST YEAR'S ANNUAL REPORT ON THE UNIVERSITY'S INTERNATIONAL ORIENTATION.

   HERE I TAKE UP COLUMBIA'S ROLE IN THE COMMUNITY OF WHICH WE ARE AN INDISPENSABLE PART: NEW YORK CITY AS A WHOLE AND THE CITY'S NEIGHBORHOODS, PARTICULARLY MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, HARLEM, AND WASHINGTON HEIGHTS.

Introduction

President George Rupp was one of the many Columbians and area residents who participated in Our Common Ground, the annual Morningside Park cleanup.

Ours is a thoroughly urban university in the world's premier international city. Even as our research and scholarship have achieved global reach and significance, we have been deeply immersed in our local communities. To cite just one example of this dual emphasis, the University's medical researchers are making extraordinary breakthroughs that benefit millions of people the world over, while at the same time Columbia is providing basic, vitally needed medical care to the New York neighborhoods in which we live.

This report offers an impressionistic survey designed to illustrate the extent to which Columbia, through the actions of its students, alumni, and faculty, continues to shape our city after nearly two-and-a-half centuries. The scope of involvement during this time ensures that any survey must be far from exhaustive. But the data demonstrate the cumulative impact that Columbians have achieved in one sphere after the next. I therefore invite you to savor an overview of the roles that individual Columbians have played and are playing in the drama of New York as a backdrop for considering the University's continuing institutional impact on the city we proudly call home.

As this report moves from the influential role of individuals to the pervasive impact of the University as an institution, it in effect also maps a sea change in the relationship of Columbia to our home city. In the first century and a half of this relationship, the University remained the preserve of the elite of New York: promising offspring of leading families, with the occasional addition of an enormously talented newcomer, were educated for the distinction that their social standing presumed. In contrast, recent years have witnessed the emergence of an extraordinarily diverse student body and faculty drawn from across the country and around the world and destined to permeate every aspect of the life of New York.

The social and cultural presuppositions and ramifications of this massive change are far too profound to be captured in this report. Even within the context of the very recent history of the University, the shift from a predominantly commuter school to a fully residential college is a significant indicator of the development from a local institution to a University that attracts global talent to New York. While this report cannot hope to tell the full story, it aspires to capture the sense of how Columbia and New York City have benefited each other over the course of almost 250 years.