On Wednesday, March 6, five accomplished alumni will be presented with 2013 John Jay Awards for distinguished professional achievement at the annual John Jay Awards Dinner at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City.

Proceeds from the dinner benefit the John Jay National Scholars Program, which aims to enhance academic and extracurricular experiences for outstanding first-year College students.

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The United Way of New York City is expected to name the leader of a Harlem economic-development group founded by the Rev. Calvin Butts as its first female president and chief executive.

Sheena Wright, president and CEO of Abyssinian Development Corp., will take the reins at the United Way in November, officials said. The appointment was set to be announced Thursday.

Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan.

Sheena Wright in October 2011.

With a $62 million budget, the New York chapter of the national charity focuses on income inequality, education and health care and assists more than a million people a year, working with other nonprofits in New York on programs that range from mentoring chronically absent high-school students to connecting food pantries with farms.

Read Full Story at WSJ.com…

August 10-12, 2012

The 2012 Committee is delighted to welcome you to please visit the reunion website. It was constructed and designed with you in mind. Please take full advantage of the user friendly links to facilitate the payment of your fees, make your hotel reservations and peruse the elegant ship Odyssey which will be our host on Saturday. Your committee is an extraordinary assembly of gifted and talented Brothers and Sisters…all devoted to making your 2012 Reunion the most memorable ever. As the years continue to pass, and our hair gets a little grayer… it is truly good to be BACK TOGETHER AGAIN! Until then…God bless you and keep you.

http://www.columbiabarnardreunion2012.com/

Come join the Columbia University Alumni Affinity Groups on Thursday, June 14th at Hudson Terrace for our first co-sponsored event of the summer. There will be beautiful roof-top views and a FREE ONE HOUR OPEN BAR from 6:30pm-7:30pm, so arrive on time!

Location Details:

621 West 46th Street
(between 11th and 12th Avenues)
New York, NY 10036
(212) 315-9400

Time:
6:30pm – 9:30pm
(FREE OPEN BAR 6:30pm – 7:30pm)

Sponsored By:
Asian Columbia Alumni Association (ACAA)
Black Alumni Council (BAC)
Columbia College Woman (CCW)
Latino Alumni Association of Columbia University (LAACU)

About Hudson Terrace:
With its magnificent urban vista, is an unparalleled entertainment destination. Discreetly tucked at the edge of midtown along the Hudson River, this spectacular haven of serene opulence offers unforgettable venue amenities. The Hudson Terrace event venue imaginatively unites intimate interiors with all-season exterior spaces. Erected from imported heirloom woods, handcrafted tiles and treasured stone, the venue promises nothing short of uncompromised artistry.

Columbia Spectator

By Nataly Sauceda, Michelle Rosales, Jennifer Alzate, Devyn Tyler, and Daniel Valella

Published April 8, 2012

Last Monday, President Lee Bollinger announced a new $30 million commitment to support the recruitment of “outstanding female and underrepresented minority scholars” in the ongoing effort to diversify Columbia faculty (“Columbia commits $30 million to increasing faculty diversity,” Apr. 2). Following their reports of the announcement, Spectator and Bwog’s comment sections exploded with debates over the existence of institutionalized racism and the value of actively recruiting women and people of color.

As members of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, the writers of this piece are personally implicated in debates over diversity. MMUF is an international organization which addresses “the serious shortage of faculty of color in higher education” by intellectually and financially supporting young scholars of color who plan to pursue graduate degrees. As CC students and MMUF fellows that represent academia’s underrepresented minorities, we hope to convince others that faculty diversity helps the entire university environment.

Diversity initiatives can be controversial because we are taught that hiring somebody based on their gender and/or race is always discriminatory and wrong. According to this logic, the ideal hiring practices should be gender- and race-blind, making it equally possible for people of all identities to attain faculty positions. Anything short of this merely reaffirms the second-class status of women and people of color (POC for short).

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“The regeneration of Africa means that a new and unique civilization is soon to be added to the world.”

Pixley ka Isaka Seme (1882–1951)
Political Activist
BA 1906, LLD 1928

Seme and three colleagues laid a foundation of modern South Africa when they organized the South African Native National Congress in 1912. Renamed the African National Congress in 1923, the group has led the struggle for political, social, and economic rights for black South Africans. Seme was a major force in the Congress, serving as its first treasurer and as president-general from 1930 to 1936.  He also launched its newspaper Abantu-Batho, the country’s first for black readers, and led the movement to buy land for black settlers.

Seme was the first black South African to graduate from Columbia, earning his BA in 1906 along with the George William Curtis medal, the University’s highest oratorical honor.  (The quotation above comes from his prize-winning address.) He later studied law at Oxford, and in 1928 received an LLD from Columbia.  Of the University, he wrote, “I enjoy hard work, and I have always desired to be in the center of things. This is why I came to Columbia. New York City is the cynosure of all American life; the greatest interests of the country are directed from this center. A glance through the city’s records is enough to convince any mind that Columbia is a force behind the throne in the greater movements of New York life.”

Read the Offical Release HERE

Join us for our Spring happy hour!

Date:  Thursday, April 12, 2012

Time:  6:00PM – 9:00PM

Location:  Slate Bar & Billiards (54 West 21st Street, New York, NY 10010)

Join us for a game of pool or ping pong, great networking and drink specials:

$4 beers
$4 well drinks
$5 wine
$6 House Martinis

We will also be raffling off of great raffle prizes including Knicks Tickets, Yankees Tickets, Alvin Ailey Tickets, Complimentary Bottle Service, Free Happy Hours, and gift cards to Dinosaur BBQ, Hill Country BBQ, Calle Ocho and other great restaurants and retailers. All proceeds from the raffle will benefit our scholarship fund.

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I Love My Wife So I Will Not Cheat

Greetings from the Office of Multicultural Affairs!

The Columbia Mentoring Initiative in conjunction with Columbia Career Services is excited to announce a new career series. The Columbia Mentoring Initiative (CMI) is a program administered through the Columbia Office of Multicultural Affairs and is an inter-generational, identity based mentorship program that connects first years with returning students (Upper-Class Mentors), and all students with alumni.  This year the topics will be the Not-for-Profit sector [with special attention to Social Justice and Advocacy], Communications & Media and in the Health Care Professions. The talks will feature alumni of color, International alumni, and those who identify as LGBTQ as panelists. It is our hope that they will further engage Columbia students involved in CMI and other OMA programming as they think critically about their career and the resources available to them.

We are looking for alumni interested in being on one of our moderated panels. We would ask you to discuss the successes and challenges that you have faced in the professional sphere and how you have negotiated issues of identity in the workplace. Listed below are the dates and topics for the series. Each panel will conclude in a Q&A session with our students as well as a social mixer, giving our students a chance to meet with the panelists and other alumni for additional dialogue.

If you are interested in potentially being on such a panel, and have at least five years of professional experience in the field please send a short bio to sab2118@columbia.edu and CC’ info@columbiabac.org. The next panel is going to focus on Careers in the Non-Profit Arena, with special attention to Social Justice and Advocacy.

Wednesday, February 8th  6-7:30                 Careers in the Non-Profit Arena [with special attention to Social Justice and Advocacy]
Wednesday, March 7th  6-7:30                      Careers in Communications and Media
Wednesday, April 18th  6-7:30                      Careers in the Health Care Field

Please let us know if you have any questions and we look forward to hearing from you!

For more information about Columbia Mentoring Initiative please email the 2011-2012 Black Family Tree Chair, Kelicia Hollis, at krh2121@columbia.edu and CC’ info@columbiabac.org.