THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE SCHOOL OF GENERAL STUDIES FINANCING A COLUMBIA GS DEGREE FINANCING A COLUMBIA GS DEGREE 2009 Table of CONTENTS Letter from the Dean PETER J. AWN DEAN This issue of The Owl explores what it means to be a nontraditional student who is 4 MALCOLM A. BORG ’65 CHAIR, GS ADVISORY COUNCIL trying to finance an Ivy League degree in the 21st century. As our alumni know well, the sacrifices are significant, and the efforts, at times, Herculean. For many GS CURTIS RODGERS students, paying for a Columbia education is the most serious challenge they will face DEAN OF CommunicaTIONS 14 during their time on Morningside Heights. In the current economic environment, JOSE R. GONZALEZ the challenges are more daunting and the difficulties greater than at any other time EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR ALUMNI RELATIONS 10 in the history of the School of General Studies. ERICH ERVING ’06 ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR ALUMNI RELATIONS Fortunately, GS is positioned well to withstand these difficult times. The School EDITOR continues to solidify its place as the nation’s premier undergraduate college for ALLISON SCOLA ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR nontraditional students. For much of its history GS has been a well-kept secret, 28 OF COMMUNICATIONS with a student body drawn primarily from the New York metropolitan area; now, ASSOCIATE EDITOR however, GS is truly a national school, with all 50 states represented in an increasingly roberT AST select, exceedingly diverse and talented student body. At no other elite university are NO MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS communicaTIONS OFFICER nontraditional students—now estimated to comprise roughly 73 percent of all college 4 GS students attempting to finance a Columbia education face an array of obstacles, ASSOCIATE EDITOR students—so fully integrated into the larger undergraduate community, a distinction ANNA O’SULLIVAN most evident in the classroom. including escalating debt loads and a system not designed for nontraditional students. communicaTIONS OFFICER CONTRIBUTORS The enhancement of the GS undergraduate experience has been accompanied by a LISTEN, MAC: GS HACKS ROBERT ASt ’08 corresponding increase in financial aid. Seventy percent of GS students receive financial 10 Many GS alumni have put themselves through school in New York’s most iconic ERICH ERVING ’06 aid, and the amount of institutional aid given yearly to GS students has nearly tripled over profession. the last decade. For the current academic year, GS announced a 17-percent increase in ALEXANDER gelfand financial aid that targeted students with the highest demonstrated economic need and CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY ALAN ORLING substantial loan debt. Yet, even with this considerable increase in funding, our students Peter J. Awn Appointed Director of Middle East Institute ANNA O’SULLIVAN must still find external, and frequently expensive, ways to supplement their GS scholarship. 9 In July, Dean Awn took over as head of Columbia’s Middle East Institute. ALLISON SCOLA Acting on the Facts As The Columbia Campaign aims to enhance financial aid to meet these challenges, I am daVID WENTWORTH 9 Current postbac student Benjamin Robison was awarded a MacArthur Foundation reminded that it is only with your ongoing support and generosity that we can continue to grant to help launch his website Fractor: Act on Facts. ROB WESTERBERG attract the best and brightest nontraditional students regardless of their financial circumstances. As a concrete sign of the progress we are making, I am happy to announce GS and the Core FRONT COVER ILLUSTRATION that two GS families—Larry Lawrence ’69 and his wife Sally, and one family that wishes 21 As Columbia works to develop a more coherent academic experience for all under- ROB WESTERBERG to remain anonymous—have pledged 3 million dollars as a matching challenge fund for graduates, one famed curricular difference remains. QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, new GS scholarships. Our gratitude to these alumni is immense, but we also need each AND CHANGE OF ADDRESS THE OWL of you to help if we are to achieve our goal, the dramatic enhancement of financial aid. DepaRTMENTS OFFICE OF ALUMNI AND DEVELOPMENT Enjoy the 2009 issue of The Owl and thank you for your continued support. 408 LEWISOHN HALL, MC 4121 9 Community News 2970 BroadWAY 13 Postbac Premed Alumnus Spotlight NEW YorK, NY 10027-9829 With warmest regards, 14 GS Alumnus Spotlight [email protected] TEL 212-851-7432 16 Class Day Gallery FAX 212-851-1957 18 Development News THE OWL IS DESIGNED BY 21 On Campus DI VISION CREATIVE GROUP Peter J. Awn 22 Alumni Notes NEW YorK, NY 27 In Memoriam 28 New Grad Notes 30 Events Calendar 2 3 FINANCING A COLUMBIA GS DEGREE IN THE 21ST CENTURY BY ALEXANDER GELFAND ILLUSTRATIONS BY ROB WESTERBERG P.J. Bodnar knows something about responsibility and sacrifice. The I have,” he says, the exasperation rising in his voice. “They don’t take 34-year-old former police officer from Half Moon Bay, California, was into account that diapers are expensive, child care is expensive, com- wounded in the line of duty and suffered permanent nerve damage in muting is expensive.” (Bodnar’s wife is earning a PhD in molecular both arms. Unable to serve, with three children under the age of five biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the family rents a and a wife in graduate school, Bodnar knew he needed to complete home in Long Island.) At this rate, he expects to be $80,000 in debt by his education if he wanted to support his family and pursue his dream the time he graduates; not a great place to be for a family man in his of re-entering public service. That’s why he enrolled in 2007 as a late 30s with plans for law school and a career in public service. full-time student in the School of General Studies, the finest liberal Bodnar is not alone. A series of events — some welcome, like the arts college in the country created specifically for students with full integration of General Studies into the Columbia undergraduate nontraditional educational backgrounds. curriculum; some not, like the skyrocketing institutional expenses that That’s also why he’s so frustrated — not with the uncontrollable cir- have inflated college tuition costs across the country — have conspired CO Y cumstances that led to his forced retirement from a job he loved, but with to make a Columbia undergraduate education more expensive than V OR ER T a financial aid system that seems intentionally designed to make his life ever before. Despite the tremendous strides that GS has made in im- S S even harder than it has to be. proving the overall educational experience for nontraditional students T ER OR V Like 70 percent of General Studies students, Bodnar receives fi- at Columbia, the financial aid and fundraising mechanisms that make Y CO nancial assistance — from the university, from the federal govern- such an education possible for adult and returning students have not ment, and from private lenders — to kept pace with the changing economic pay for his education and living expens- environment. As a result, student debt loads es. And, as it is for many GS Students, “They don’t take into account are ballooning, and many students face that assistance is simply not enough. unappealing choices. Like anyone else seeking financial that diapers are expensive, Some, like Bodnar, fear that pur- aid, Bodnar submitted a Free Applica- suing a first-rate education may mean tion for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) child care is expensive, that they won’t be able to afford to send form that was used to determine his commuting is expensive.” their own kids to college. For others, it financial need. But last year, he came means that other dreams will have to be up nearly $20,000 short, and had to put -P.J. Bodnar deferred. This spring, General Studies roughly $10,000 on his credit cards, Student Council President Brody Berg which charge interest at a rate anywhere from 18-30 percent. This expects to graduate with a degree in computer science — and some- year, despite receiving one private loan, one federal loan, one federal where between $100,000 and $150,000 in debt. A former software grant, and an institutional scholarship, Bodnar figures he’ll be an- developer for Microsoft with a passion for literature, Berg looked other $12,000 in the hole — in part because the financial aid system forward to broadening his intellectual horizons at one of the world’s is geared toward helping traditional students aged 18-22 years old who premier liberal-arts institutions. Yet his academic options are tightly enjoy parental support, rather than nontraditional students like him. constrained by his looming debt obligations. “The debt load has an “They don’t take into consideration any of the extra expenses that effect even as I register for classes, because I know that I’m 4 5 going to need an enormous income to pay sional courses to working adults beginning off my loans,” he says. “I’m attending one in 1904. Following World War II, the G.I. of the best universities in the world, and all Bill transformed the model of a closed un- of my choices are determined by what’s go- dergraduate system, as older students began ing to get me a job.” The terrible irony here entering college in record numbers. The is that, early in his Columbia career, Berg School of General Studies had its origins in helped found hungermaps.org, a nonprofit that revolutionary moment, and it became that provides software to organizations that a freestanding college with its own faculty, fight hunger nationwide. Yet Berg doubts admissions, and advising structure.