Global University

The term global university has been popularized as the centerpiece of University President Lee Bollinger's agenda to extend Columbia's reputation as an international institution and brand. Although vague and fuzzy in concept, the notion has spun out several concrete initiatives:

• The creation of the Earth Institute, which is, in effect, a powerful think thank focusing on both environmental and economic issues, and headed by the conspicuous Jeffrey Sachs
• The initiation of the World Leaders Forum, bringing global heads of state to campus during the UN General Assembly and other parts of the year
• The establishment of Columbia Global Centers in Amman, Beijing, Paris (Reid Hall), and Mumbai in order to coordinate research and (to a lesser degree) teaching in their respective regions
• GSAPP's parallel establishment of Studio-X spaces for student designers in Amman, Beijing, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, and New York, with a forthcoming site in Moscow
• Revamping Columbia's study abroad programs under a newly-created Office of Global Programs
• CCE's creation of the Columbia Experience Overseas to give students work experience abroad
• Giving Mahmood Mamdani oversight of Africa-related programs in order to revamp the university's commitment to that continent
• The creation of the Committee on Global Thought, a sort of high council of scholars with a vague but definitively global purpose

Curiously, several preexisting Columbia international assets or programs have not been folded into the above programs, and remain free-floating entities . These include:

• The Berlin Consortium for German Studies
• The recently-acquired Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies
• Casa Murano in Venice, which is being fitted out as a study center
• The Oxford/Cambridge exchange program
• Columbia's Medieval France study program
• The Columbia archaeological dig at Amheida, Egypt