Enhancing the Undergraduate Experience
Enhancing the Undergraduate Experience at Columbia was a report issued by the administration in February of 1996 describing planned changes and enhancements to Columbia College as part of then-President George Rupp's avowed goal to place the College at the center of the University. Of course "enhancements" is a euphemism for increasing enrollment in the College from 3,500 to 4,000 over a 5 year period. This continued a long tradition of expansion recommendations, such as one made by faculty 35 years earlier in 1960 at the direction of then-Dean John Gorham Palfrey.
The general findings presented in the report were initially presented before the Executive Committee and Chairs of the Arts and Sciences on December 19, 1995. A request for a written report with greater detail resulted in this report 2 months later.
Over 13 years later Columbia would release another report on undergraduate education, "An Agenda for the Future", the product of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, the centerpiece of which was to once again call for the expansion of Columbia College's enrollment. In 2011, undergraduate education would be a central issue in the McKinsey Arts and Sciences Report.
