Your bulletins are wonderful. Transparent in their intent. Informative. Lucid. Concise. Even, at times, affectionately mocking of the institution we love.
Amidst the ocean of bad faith takes, partisan polemics, and tribal signaling, your principles-based vision for Columbia is a hopeful sign that at least some people are thinking critically about the role, values, and governance of the university.
This email is a masterpiece. Great research, suggestions, and tone… Excellent analysis and its impact on Columbia.  I am super impressed.  
Thank you so much for these fine and necessary compilations, they are heartening during this heartbreaking time.
I am a [senior administrator who has worked here for decades] and I am learning new things in your newsletters… How do you have this kind of access and know all of this?
Working at Columbia, I live this daily and am impressed on how well attuned the newsletter is to what’s happening on campus.
I am extremely impressed by what you have done here. Your reasoned, sound voice is exactly what is needed now. Please keep it up!
I really appreciate what you are doing. By reading your releases, I am learning a lot, and approaching the issues raised by the protests more thoughtfully and evenly.
Today’s issue of Stand Columbia is one for the ages. Please read [as] these people are special.
I am a [tenured professor in the natural sciences]. Brilliant analysis in “the psychology behind the pull.” Keep it up.
I very much appreciate the great job you’re doing in explaining these intricate issues in a clear and unbiased fashion. That’s hard to find these days.
Your weekly updates are profound, constructive and thoroughly researched. You are not only sharing important information but you are also recommending detailed actions on how to move forward. It is my sincere hope that Columbia will find its way back to be a beacon of learning and research, and of dialogue and tolerance.
I’m still not sure I agree [with this post], because of the national implications, but this is far and away the best articulation of this view that I’ve heard or seen.
I am a tenured professor in [the social sciences]. The tone/substance of these missives is perfect. It is deliciously on-the-mark—so much so that I am not sure whether to laugh or cry upon receipt… Please know that you are performing a great service to the community. And many of us are grateful. There is much more I could say in gratitude, but I will spare you the gush. Keep going!
I am consistently impressed by your sober, unbiased, and rigorous reporting. The Sunlight Report, in particular, was a tour de force. A thousand thank you’s from me and from the memory of my mentor, who as the faculty advisor to SDS at Columbia in the 1960s quipped, “Those were the only people in history who wanted to start a revolution and get college credit for it.”
I’ve been at CU for almost two decades, and I feel much of the information and analysis in your newsletter are things that have taken me years to discern, in piecemeal, through experience… I think it should be necessary reading for administrators, faculty, and the public at large.
I am a former University president. You guys add value. I actually learn reading your work. Thank you… We need to fix universities not break them.
I am a [tenured faculty member]. This was a courageous post to publish. Thank you for taking a firm stand on this matter. I personally had not known of these details, but feel more educated as result. Onward, indeed.

Explainers

Concise ‘explainers’ about Columbia’s history, policies, and traditions

Newsletters

Our regular updates on hot topics touching Columbia and higher education in general

Guide to Giving

Our guide to how to support our Alma Mater in a way that aligns with your values

From our newsletters

Read All Newsletters

  • Issue #063: After 250 Years, a 1775 King’s College Diploma Finally Comes Home

    Issue #063: After 250 Years, a 1775 King’s College Diploma Finally Comes Home

    The Stand Columbia Society is pleased to report some happy news. Last week, a King’s College Bachelor of Arts diploma issued in 1775 to John William Livingston unexpectedly showed up on the market. A small group of donors we are in contact with quickly raised the funds in a single afternoon to purchase it and…

  • Issue #062: A Note from the Stand Columbia Society

    Issue #062: A Note from the Stand Columbia Society

    Three hundred and sixty-three days ago, just short of a year, we sent out the first issue of the Stand Columbia Society’s weekly newsletters. We did so with a simple conviction: that institutions matter, that history matters, and that accountability to both is not optional. The chaos then engulfing Columbia—and what we suspected was yet…

  • Issue #061: The Conscience of Columbia College: A Conversation with Dean Emeritus Robert E. Pollack, CC ‘61

    Issue #061: The Conscience of Columbia College: A Conversation with Dean Emeritus Robert E. Pollack, CC ‘61

    TL;DR This week, the Stand Columbia Society is honored to share a wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation with our dear friend Dean Emeritus Robert E. Pollack, CC ‘61, longtime professor of biology, and one of Columbia’s most quietly formative moral voices of the last half-century. In this interview, Pollack reflects on what it meant to…