Columbia University

**Columbia University** is a private Ivy League research university in New York City.

## Roswell

*Events during the Roswell period (1947 - 1952)*

In the aftermath of World War II, the discipline of international relations became a major scholarly focus of Columbia 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.

There was an evening school called University Extension, which taught night classes, for a fee, to anyone willing to attend. In 1947, the program was reorganized as an undergraduate college and designated the School of General Studies in response to the return of GIs after World War II.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of Columbia University from 1948 to 1953. Eisenhower appointed Grayson Kirk as the University's provost in 1949. In 1951, when Eisenhower took leave to serve as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Kirk became acting president of the University. He assumed the presidency in 1953 after Eisenhower was sworn in as President of the United States.

## MKUltra

*Events during the MKUltra period (1953 - XXXX)*

During Kirk's tenure at Columbia, he quadrupled the University's endowment, added a dozen new buildings to the Morningside Heights campus, and doubled the University library's holdings. However, the University's academic standing experienced a slight decline in comparison to the ascendant institutions: Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

During the 1960s Columbia experienced large-scale student activism, which reached a climax 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.

Aggravating the situation was Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, whose professor Donald Davidson was claiming that Phi Beta Kappa was under the influence of Communists.

## Post Roswell

Columbia is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Columbia was the first North American site where the uranium atom was split. The College of Physicians and Surgeons played a central role in developing the modern understanding of neuroscience with the publication of *Principles of Neural Science*, described by historian of science Katja Huenther as the "neuroscience 'bible' ".

Since the turn of the 21th century, Columbia scientists have been credited with about 175 new inventions in the health sciences each year. More than 30 pharmaceutical products based on discoveries and inventions made at Columbia reached the market. These include Remicade (for arthritis), Reopro (for blood clot complications), Xalatan (for glaucoma), Benefix, Latanoprost (a glaucoma treatment), shoulder prosthesis, homocysteine (testing for cardiovascular disease), and Zolinza (for cancer therapy).

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight\_D.\_Eisenhower#President\_at\_Columbia\_University\_and\_NATO\_Supreme\_Commander
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayson\_L.\_Kirk#Columbia\_University
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia\_University#19th\_century\_to\_present
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi\_Beta\_Kappa#Transition\_to\_academic\_honor\_society