Our Mission
The primary Mission of the Society is to celebrate and promote the tradition of Great Teaching at Columbia College (the “College”) and at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (“SEAS”).
Our Society’s principal endeavors have been and remain:
to recognize and shine a light on great undergraduate teaching at Columbia through our Great Teacher Awards;
to bring senior members of the administration, great scholars, great scientists, and great engineers in Columbia’s faculties together with our members and the public at our fellowship events to showcase new educational programs and research at Columbia;
to recognize alumni with a history of service to Columbia with an invitation to become members of the Society.
The present Society of Columbia Graduates, an educational not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, was originally formed in 1909 as the “Society of Older Graduates of Columbia University”. Membership was offered to alumni in recognition of their service to the University after 30 years since graduation.This was later reduced to “25 years out” in 1973, and thereafter to “10 years out” in 1995, to ensure that the Society could begin to accept the first female graduates of the College. The work of the Society is carried out by its Board Members and Officers, who are selected from the Society’s members. The Deans of the College and SEAS are honorary Board Members of the Society, as are the Presidents of the Columbia Engineering (CE) and Columbia College (CC) Alumni Associations.