2000s > People
Jonathan Cole
Serving as Provost from 1989 to 2003, Cole fondly recalled his experiences in general education and the inspiration he drew from a 1960 Lionel Trilling talk on British chemist (and novelist) C.P. Snow's famous essay "The Two Cultures." The latest in a long line of discourses that treated science and the humanities as conflicting scholarly tribes, Snow's talk led Cole to specialize in the sociology of science under Robert K. Merton.
Robert Pollack
College Dean (1982-1989) and biologist Robert Pollack introduced the Theory & Practice of Science in 1981. Based on CC's small-group discussion format, students read and discussed landmark scientific papers. Despite several weeks of drilling in mathematical concepts and logic, however, most students struggled with the technical jargon and data such works typically contain. Although Pollack's course proved untenable as a general introduction to science for all students, it did push the College to keep working towards a more accessible course.
David Helfand
Astronomer David Helfand began advocating for a science component to the Core soon after his arrival in 1977. A graduate of Amherst and a former theater major, Helfand was no stranger to the liberal arts. But he was critical of the Core's exclusion of science. In 1990, Helfand unveiled The Universal Timekeeper: An Introduction to Scientific Habits of the Mind – his first attempt at the science Core. According to the Columbia College Bulletin, the course was "an introduction to ideas and models of thought, adopting as its theme the use of the atom as an imperturbable clock." While the Universal Time Keeper failed to takeoff, its Scientific Habits of Mind textbook would figure prominently in the new science course of the 2000s.
Michael Crow
Throughout Cole's tenure, Vice-Provost Michael Crow led a variety of science-related initiatives including the creation of the Center for Science Policy and Outcomes (CSPO), a Washington, D.C.-based office that lobbied for the creation of a coherent and sustainable national science policy.
Philip Kitcher
Philip Kitcher spent the early 2000s defending science against critics from the right (Intelligent Design: Creationism and its Critics, 2001) and the left (Science, Truth and Democracy, 2001). Kitcher also served as chair of Contemporary Civilization from 2004 to 2007. Kitcher has played a leading role in ongoing efforts to fine tune the Core's science requirement.
Lee C. Bollinger
At his investiture on October 3, 2002, President Bollinger outlined his agenda for the University. After reviewing historical campus luminaries from across the arts and sciences, Bollinger tallied Columbia's important scientific discoveries and the promise of future such work "to increase the understanding of life and the preservation of health." Among the challenges Bollinger promised to accept was "bridging the gap between 168th and 116th streets," between the sciences on one side and the humanities and social sciences on the other.
Click here to read exceprts from Bollinger's inaugural address from the October 18, 2002 issue of The Columbia Record.
