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The story
18th century
Discussions regarding the founding of a college in the Province of New York began as early as 1704. Classes were initially held in July 1754 and were presided over by the college's first president, Samuel Johnson. The college was officially founded on October 31, 1754, as King's College by royal charter of George II, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the State of New York and the fifth oldest in the United States.
In 1763, Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by Myles Cooper, a graduate of The Queen's College, Oxford, and an ardent Tory. In the charged political climate of the American Revolution, his chief opponent in discussions at the college was an undergraduate of the class of 1777, Alexander Hamilton. The Irish anatomist, Samuel Clossy, was appointed professor of natural philosophy in October 1765 and later the college's first professor of anatomy in 1767.
Following the start of the American Revolutionary War and the arrival of Continental Army in 1776, the school suspended instruction for eight years. The suspension continued through the military occupation of New York City by British troops until their departure in 1783. During this time, the college's library was looted and its sole building requisitioned for use as a barracks and military hospital first by American and then British forces.
The legislature agreed to assist the college. On May 1, 1784, it passed "an Act for granting certain privileges to the College heretofore called King's College". The Act created a board of regents to oversee the resuscitation of King's College. In an effort to demonstrate its support for the new Republic, the legislature stipulated that "the College within the City of New York heretofore called King's College be forever hereafter called and known by the name of Columbia College." In February 1787, the Regents appointed a revision committee, which was headed by John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. In April of that same year, a new charter was adopted for the college granted the power to a separate board of 24 trustees. For a period in the 1790s, with New York City as the federal and state capital and the country under successive Federalist governments, a revived Columbia operated under Federalists such as Hamilton and Jay. President George Washington and Vice President John Adams, in addition to both houses of Congress attended the college's commencement on May 6, 1789, as a tribute of honor to the alumni of the school who had been involved in the American Revolution.
19th century
In 1813, the college incorporated its medical school with The College of Physicians and Surgeons, a new school created by the Regents of New York, forming Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1857, the college moved from the King's College campus at Park Place to a primarily Gothic Revival campus on 49th Street and Madison Avenue, where it remained for the next forty years. During the last half of the 19th century, under the presidency of Frederick A. P. Barnard, for whom Barnard College is named, the institution rapidly assumed the shape of a modern university. Barnard College was created in 1889 as a response to the university's refusal to accept women. In 1896, university president Seth Low moved the campus from 49th Street to its present location, a more spacious campus in the developing neighborhood of Morningside Heights.
20th century
In March 1917, as a result of America's entrance into World War 1, Columbia president Nicholas Murray Butler formed the Columbia Reserve Officers Training Corps. All students over the age of 18 who passed a physical exam were entered into this program. Within 4 months, over 1,400 students were enrolled within the program. They were one of 12 universities designated by the War department to create a naval section for the Student Army Training Corps. As part of this new program, the US Army charged Columbia to create a "War Issues" course. In 1919, a similar course was created for Columbia students, a "peace issues" course that evolved into "Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West", part of the university's core curriculum for undergraduate students.
In 1919, Columbia established a student application process characterized by The New York Times as "the first modern college application". In 1928, Seth Low Junior College was established by Columbia University in order to mitigate the number of Jewish applicants to Columbia College. The college was closed in 1936 due to the adverse effects of the Great Depression and its students were subsequently taught at the Morningside Heights campus, although they did not belong to any college but to the university at large.
In the 1940s, faculty members, including John R. Dunning, Isidor Isaac Rabi, Enrico Fermi, and Polykarp Kusch, began what became the Manhattan Project, creating the first nuclear fission reactor in the Americas and researching gaseous diffusion. In the aftermath of World War II, the discipline of international relations became a major scholarly focus of the university, and in response, the School of International and Public Affairs was founded in 1946, drawing upon the resources of the faculties of political science, economics, and history. In 1947, University Extension, an evening school program open to all for a fee, was reorganized as an undergraduate college and designated the School of General Studies in response to the return of GIs after World War II.
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The Columbia University Bicentennial was celebrated in 1954. During the 1960s, student activism reached a climax with protests in the spring of 1968, when hundreds of students occupied buildings on campus. The incident forced the resignation of Columbia's president, Grayson Kirk, and the establishment of the University Senate. Though several schools in the university had admitted women for years, Columbia College first admitted women in the fall of 1983, after a decade of failed negotiations with Barnard College, the all-female institution affiliated with the university, to merge the two schools. Barnard College still remains affiliated with Columbia, and all Barnard graduates are issued diplomas signed by the presidents of Columbia University and Barnard College.
During the late 20th century, the university underwent significant academic, structural, and administrative changes as it developed into a major research university. For much of the 19th century, the university consisted of decentralized and separate faculties specializing in Political Science, Philosophy, and Pure Science. In 1979, these faculties were merged into the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In 1991, the faculties of Columbia College, the School of General Studies, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of the Arts, and the School of Professional Studies were merged into the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, leading to the academic integration and centralized governance of these schools. In 1995, the Division of Special Programs, later called the School of Continuing Education and now the School of Professional Studies, was established to reprise the former role of University Extension.
Bollinger presidency (2002–2023)
Lee C. Bollinger became Columbia's 19th president in June 2002, succeeding George Rupp. Bollinger was appointed in October 2001 after arriving from the presidency of the University of Michigan. His presidency emphasized campus expansion, defense of affirmative action in college admissions, support for government funding of private sector media, and opposition to disinformation.
Under Bollinger's tenure, the university publicly launched a record $4 billion capital campaign in September 2006. Financial aid was improved, eliminating loans for undergraduates from families earning under $50,000, and additional funds were allocated to support Bollinger's efforts toward the Manhattanville campus expansion, which nearly doubled Columbia's physical footprint. This expansion was supported by a major gift from trustee Gerry Lenfest.
Globalization efforts continued with the World Leaders Forum and the creation of the Committee on Global Thought, chaired by Joseph Stiglitz.
The 2008 financial crisis impacted Columbia's endowment. The endowment recovered, hitting $8.2B in Oct 2013. Despite the downturn, the university pressed on with Manhattanville construction, receiving final state approval in June 2009.
In May 2011, following the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the University Senate voted 51–17 to invite ROTC back after a 40-year absence, and Bollinger announced an agreement with the Navy. Columbia has maintained its Global Centers network (Amman, Athens, Beijing, Mumbai, Paris, Nairobi, Istanbul, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, Tunis, Tel Aviv), aiming to increase global engagement and international student enrollment.
From 2014 to 2021, Columbia University pursued significant physical expansion, notably opening major facilities on the Manhattanville campus (ZMBBI, Lenfest Center, The Forum). Key strategic initiatives launched included the Knight First Amendment Institute, Columbia World Projects, and the new Columbia Climate School (2020). A $5 billion university capital campaign was launched (with a $1.5B A&S target), major gifts like $50M for A&S's Uris Hall renovation were secured, and the endowment grew significantly ($14.35B by mid-2021).
In February 2022, Columbia's mathematics professor Michael Thaddeus published a website and argued that data submitted by Columbia for U.S. News college rankings was "inaccurate, dubious or highly misleading". In July 2022, U.S. News & World Report unranked Columbia citing failed verification. In September 2022, Columbia acknowledged the submission of incorrect data to U.S. News college rankings. In June 2023, Columbia announced its non-participation in the rankings. In July 2025, Columbia offered to pay US$9 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by its students in Manhattan federal court over the alleged submission of false data to boost its U.S. News college rankings.
Acting presidents
Beginning in fall 2023, protests at Columbia University against the Gaza war and what student protesters described as Columbia's complicity in the Gaza genocide, resulted in police action, student disciplinary measures, and the appointment of Katrina Armstrong, MD as interim president in August 2024 after the resignation of former university president Minouche Shafik. The federal government also launched an investigation into antisemitism and then withdrew funding, prompting the university to adopt new policies and adjust disciplinary processes.
Claire Shipman was appointed acting president in March 2025. Columbia also closed its Morningside Heights campus to the general public, allowing access only to holders of Columbia ID cards and approved guests. In July 2025, Columbia finalized a $220 million settlement to resume federal funding, agreeing to implement a set of reforms to address anti-semitism. The university also adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
In January 2026, the university announced that it had chosen Jennifer Mnookin, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as the next president of Columbia, effective July 1, 2026. In March 2026, a $481 million ruling that Columbia University had won against software company Gen Digital for infringing patents related to cybersecurity technology was overturned. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit stated that Columbia's patents may be invalid and sent the case back to Virginia federal court.
From Wikipedia’s article on Columbia University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5