emerged as a preeminent national center for educational innovation and
scholarly achievement. John Erskine taught the first Great Books Honors
Seminar at Columbia College in 1919, making the study of original
masterworks the foundation of undergraduate education. Columbia became, in
the words of College alumnus Herman Wouk, a place of “doubled magic,” where
“the best things of the moment were outside the rectangle of Columbia; the
best things of all human history and thought were inside the rectangle.”
The study of the sciences flourished along with the liberal arts, and in
1928, Columbia–Presbyterian Medical Center, the first such center to
combine teaching, research, and patient care, was officially opened as a
joint project between the medical school and The Presbyterian Hospital.
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 Law School, Charles Evans Hughes and
Harlan Fiske Stone (who also held the position of Law School dean), served
successively as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Research into the atom by faculty members I.I. Rabi, Enrico Fermi, and
Polykarp Kusch placed Columbia’s Physics Department in the international
spotlight in the 1940s, and the founding of the School of International
Affairs (now the School of International and Public Affairs) in 1946 marked
the beginning of intensive growth in international relations as a major
scholarly focus of the University. The Oral History movement in the United
States was launched at Columbia in 1948.
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.
The revival of spirit and energy on Columbia’s campus in recent years has
been even more sweeping. The 1980s saw the completion of over $145 million
worth of new construction, including two residence halls, a computer
science center, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, a chemistry building,
the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Lawrence A. Wien Stadium, and
much more. The quality of student life on campus has been a primary
concern, and the opening of Morris A. Schapiro Hall in 1988 enabled
Columbia College to achieve its long-held goal of offering four years of
housing to all undergraduate students. A second gift from this farsighted
benefactor led to the opening in 1992 of the Morris A. Schapiro Center for
Engineering and Physical Science Research, which is helping to secure
Columbia’s leadership in telecommunications and high-tech research.
On the Health Sciences campus, a generous commitment from the Sherman
Fairchild Foundation has lent impetus to the development of the Audubon
Biomedical Science and Technology Park by providing funds for construction
of the Center for Disease Prevention. In addition to securing Columbia’s
place at the forefront of medical research, this project will help spur the
growth of the biotechnology industry in New York City, forge vital new
links between Columbia and the local community, and help to revitalize the
area around the medical center.
Thanks to concerted efforts to place the University on the strongest
possible foundations, Columbia is approaching the twenty-first century with
a firm sense of the importance of what has been accomplished in the past
and confidence in what it can achieve in the years to come.
In 1897, the University moved from 49th Street and Madison Avenue, where it
had stood for fifty years, to its present location on Morningside Heights
at 116th Street and Broadway. Seth Low, the President of the University at
the time of the move, sought to create an academic village in a more
spacious setting. Charles Follen McKim of the architectural firm of McKim,
Mead & White modeled the new campus after the Athenian agora. The Columbia
campus comprises the largest single collection of McKim, Mead & White
buildings in existence.
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, the Ferris Booth Hall activities center, and the
College’s administrative offices and classroom buildings, along with the
building housing the Journalism School.
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, the
Computer Science building, Morris A. Schapiro Hall, and the Morris A.
Schapiro Center for Engineering and Physical Science Research.
Two miles to the north of Morningside Heights is the twenty-acre campus of
the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, overlooking the Hudson River in
Manhattan’s Washington Heights. Among the most prominent buildings on the
site are the twenty-story Julius and Armand Hammer Health Sciences Center,
the William Black Medical Research building, and the seventeen-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 will be the Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park, which
will include the new Center for Disease Prevention. The Park is being
developed as a major urban research complex to house activities on the
cutting edge of scientific and medical research.
Other interesting information.
It is also very interesting, that in the USA many universities are
connected with each other. They belong to different unions. For example,
Dartmouth College, Brown University, Columbia University, Princeton
University and Yale University are the parts of «Ivy League». It is a union
of the most respectable and famous universities in the United States of
America.
«Ivy League» consists of eight colleges and universities. All of them are
rather old and popular. But they are not cheap, because students must pay
much money for their education.
The most expensive University is Dartmouth. The cheapest one is Yale.
All the universities have their own emblems, which are always different and
have definite meanings.
The
Report.
Klimenko Ekaterina.
9
form «V».
Education and Culture
In the United States, education, cultural activities, and the
communications media exert a tremendous influence on the lives of
individuals. Through these means, knowledge and cultural values are
generated, transmitted, and preserved from one generation to the next.
In most of the United States, illiteracy has been virtually eliminated.
However, census estimates suggest that 2.4 percent of the population over
age 25 is functionally illiterate, that is, they are unable to read and
write well enough to meet the demands of everyday life. More of the
population has received more education than ever before. Among Americans
aged 25 and older in 1993, about four-fifths had completed high school, as
compared with only about one-fourth as recently as 1940. In 1993 nearly 22
percent of the population had com pleted four or more years of college.
This same trend toward increased accessibility and usage applies to
America's cultural institutions, which have continued to thrive despite a
troubled economy.
Education
In the United States, education is offered at all levels from
prekindergarten to graduate school by both public and private institutions.
Elementary and secondary education involves 12 years of schooling, the
successful completion of which leads to a high school diploma. Although
public education can be defined in various ways, one key concept is the
accountability of school officials to the voters. In theory, responsibility
for operating the public education system in the United States is local. In
fact, much of the local control has been superseded, and state legislation
controls financing methods, academic standards, and policy and curriculum
guidelines. Because public education is separately developed within each
state, variations exist from one state to another. Parallel paths among
states have developed, however, in part because public education is also a
matter of national interest.
Public elementary and secondary education is supported financially by three
levels of government—local, state, and federal. Local school districts
often levy property taxes, which are the major source of financing for the
public school systems. One of the problems that arises because of the heavy
