Schedule of Events

The General Reunion Weekend includes the following offerings for Friday and Saturday: 

• All intellectual programs including: faculty lectures, alumni panels, and on-campus tours and exhibitions
• All community gatherings including: the Alumni of Color Reception, LGTBQ+ Reception, Veterans Reception and Performing Arts Reception
• Saturday Lunch Under the Tent
• Starlight Celebration
• Access to the new Lion's Lounge, the hospitality tent on Low Plaza, which includes grab-and-go food and beverages, and entertainment throughout the weekend

For the full schedule details, please refer the the Reunion Weekend website

The Engineering General Reunion Weekend includes the following offerings for Friday and Saturday: 

• All intellectual programs including: faculty lectures, alumni panels, and on campus tours and exhibitions (more information on intellectual programming will come at a later date).
• All community gatherings including: the Alumni of Color Reception, LGTBQ+ Reception, Veterans Reception, and Performing Arts Reception, 
• Saturday Lunch Under the Tent
• Starlight Celebration
• Access to the new Lion's Lounge - the hospitality tent on Low Plaza, which includes grab-and-go snacks and beverages, and entertainment throughout the weekend

For the full schedule details, please refer to the Engineering Reunion Weekend website: 

https://www.engineering.columbia.edu/columbia-reunion

Kick off Columbia Reunion 2025 with a special gathering for Columbia College, Barnard College, and Columbia Engineering classmates at the Columbia Alumni Center! Start the weekend’s celebrations with great company and Columbia spirit!

Join your classmates for a gathering at Isla & Co.

Kick off Columbia Reunion 2025 with a special gathering for Columbia College and Barnard College classmates at V&T! Start the weekend’s celebrations with great company, good drinks, food and Columbia spirit!

Kick off Columbia Reunion 2025 with a special gathering for Columbia College, Barnard College, and Columbia Engineering classmates at the Expat! Purchase your ticket to start the weekend’s celebrations with great company, good drinks, food and Columbia spirit!

Join fellow Columbia Engineering alumni for a special dinner to kick off Columbia Reunion 2025, where the Columbia Engineering Alumni Association will bestow the School's most distinguished medals.

6:00 PM: Reception in Faculty Room

7:00 PM: Dinner in Low Rotunda

If you are interested in purchasing a table, please reach out to A.J. Vervoort, Senior Associate Director of Alumni Relations, at ajv2131@columbia.edu.

Reunite with classmates and friends for a casual meetup at Amsterdam Billiards to kick off Columbia Reunion.

Kick off Columbia Reunion 2025 with a special gathering for Columbia College, Barnard College, and Columbia Engineering classmates at 15 Hudson Yard, hosted by Chad Shampine CC'00! Don’t miss this chance to start the weekend’s celebrations with great company, good drinks, and Columbia spirit!

Reunite with classmates and friends for a casual meetup at Tanner Smith's Midtown to kick off Columbia Reunion. 

Kick off Columbia Reunion 2025 with a special gathering for Columbia College, Barnard College, and Columbia Engineering classmates at the Amity Hall. Start the weekend’s celebrations with great company and Columbia spirit! 

Kick off Columbia Reunion 2025 with a special gathering for Columbia College, Barnard College, and Columbia Engineering classmates at Bird in Hand, hosted by Matt Amsterdam CC'10! Don’t miss this chance to start the weekend’s celebrations with great company, good drinks, and Columbia spirit!

• Uncovering the Past: A Journey Through Columbia's Judaica Collection (10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.) Butler Library, Rare Book Room, 6th Fl.

Explore the history of Columbia’s Judaica collection with Norman E. Alexander Librarian for Jewish Studies Michelle Margolis. Delve into the archives in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies.

• Understanding the Highly Selective Admissions Process (10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.) Alfred Lerner Hall, Jed D. Satow Room, 5th Fl.

Join a discussion on the college search process, highly selective admissions and the changing higher education landscape.

• Then vs Now: What’s it Like on the Other Side? — Alumni Panel (11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.) Alfred Lerner Hall, Roone Arledge Cinema, 2nd Fl.

This lively panel features alumni from the 1990s who have returned to the classroom, this time as educators. Hear their reflections on how teaching compares to learning, what’s changed (and what hasn’t) through the decades and how today’s students stack up the panelists’ former selves. A nostalgic and insightful look at education through the eyes of those who’ve seen both sides.

• A Beautiful Response to Adversity: Lessons from Jazz — Faculty Lecture (10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.) Alfred Lerner Hall, Rm 555

The lecture explores how jazz offers valuable lessons that extend far beyond music performance. It examines how jazz musicians use improvisation to create their art and how these improvisatory processes can translate into daily life, enriching our experiences. Additionally, it highlights how jazz fosters creativity, enhances interpersonal interactions and strengthens survival skills. Ultimately, jazz is a powerful strategic model for resilience.

• Study, Eat, Sleep: A history of everyday student life at Columbia (11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.) Butler Library, Room 523 

For 270 years, Columbia students have followed a similar routine: study, eat, sleep, repeat. With the University Archives staff as your guide, discover (or revisit) the everyday experiences of Columbia students at the three campuses: Park Place, 49th Street and Morningside Heights. We will explore how and where Columbians studied, what their dining options were and what kind of accommodations were available.

Experience the Museum of Modern Art like never before! Take a guided tour through the Collection 1950-70s. 

Climb more than 124 feet on this adventurous tour that includes spiral staircases to get to the top of the world’s largest cathedral. Hear the stories of the stained-glass windows and sculptures, and study the cathedral’s grand architecture.

 Quantum computing has been making splashy headlines. Srivani Family Associate Professor of Computer Science Henry Yuen will break down and share some scientific perspectives on the pace of advancement of quantum computing, its promises, and the many things we still don't know about it.

Please note: there is no pre-registration required to attend this event. 

• Rousseau, Revolution and Repetition Compulsion – Faculty Lecture (1:00 p.m–2:30 p.m.)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s relationship to the French Revolution has obsessed scholars and political actors since 1789. For some, the self-styled citizen of Geneva heralded the dawn of a new age of freedom. For others, his pernicious influence led directly to the horrors of totalitarianism in the 20th century. This lecture offers a reading of Rousseau in dialogue with interlocutors known to students of Contemporary Civilization, from Augustine of Hippo to Frantz Fanon, to challenge this belief.

• Sympathy for the Devil: How Dante Invented Hell to Make Us Question Moral Absolutism – Faculty Lecture (1:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m.)

Dante’s Divine Comedy is arguably the most influential work of medieval vernacular literature in the European Middle Ages. Without fully realizing it, modern Christianity, and even popular culture, are heavily reliant on Dante for their understandings and depictions of Hell, as well as for their sense of how divine justice might work to punish sin. But it’s important to remember that Dante wasn’t blindly following contemporary theology; he was rethinking, reinventing and reimagining baseline Christian beliefs. If you read the Inferno closely, you find a vision of God and a vision of Hell that are radical, shocking and far more critical of the idea of divine justice than we might imagine.

• Morningside Heights Campus Tour 1 (2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.)

Tour the Morningside campus.

• Columbia/Barnard Hillel: Jewish Life Alumni Reception (2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.) 

Join Columbia/Barnard Hillel for a warm and welcoming Jewish Life Alumni Reception. Reconnect with fellow alumni, reminisce about your time on campus and hear about the vibrant Jewish life thriving at Columbia and Barnard today.

Climb more than 124 feet on this adventurous tour that includes spiral staircases to get to the top of the world’s largest cathedral. Hear the stories of the stained-glass windows and sculptures, and study the cathedral’s grand architecture.

The new Lincoln Center Tour provides a behind-the-scenes perspective of the past and present of Lincoln Center. During 75-minute, weekday guided tours, guests will learn about Lincoln Center’s history; explore the iconic arts organizations that call Lincoln Center home; and experience our vibrant campus the way only artists and staff do.

• Alumni Panel: Athletics (3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.) Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall

Get an inside look at what it's like to coach a Columbia sports team. 

• Morningside Heights Campus Tour 2 (3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.) Meet at Alma Mater

Tour the Morningside campus.

• Frank Lloyd Wright’s Technologies of Trust — Faculty Lecture (3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.) Pulitzer Hall (Journalism), Pulitzer Lecture Hall

Frank Lloyd Wright has been a longstanding component of the Art Humanities syllabus. This lecture interprets anew a well-known building by Wright, the Larkin Administration Building in Buffalo, N.Y., by closely examining a little-known aspect of its design: its built-in technologies to process information. This lecture hopes to offer an architectural account of the history of the contemporary regime of “big data” by arguing that the building’s proto-database was, first and foremost, a moral technology that was predicated on managing networks of trust.

• The Purpose of the University in a Democratic Society — Faculty Lecture (3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.) Alfred Lerner Hall—Room 555

Inspired by philosopher John Dewey’s vision of education, the founders of the Core Curriculum emphasized the continuity between active learning in the classroom and participation in a democratic society. How does that vision continue to guide us more than a century later, and what are the greatest challenges that we face? Drawing on the history and philosophical underpinnings of the Core Curriculum, as well as works and ideas from its syllabi, this lecture will explore the civic purpose of universities.

• Annual Double Discovery Alumni Reception (4:00 p.m. -6:00 p.m. )  Alfred Lerner Hall—Room 569
  

DDC alumni, friends and former staff are invited to this all-class celebration to reminisce, reconnect and renew their involvement with the DDC.

Gather with fellow Engineering alumni to celebrate the school! Enjoy light bites and refreshments, connect with your classmates and meet alumni from other decades, and join in a celebrating the classes of 1975 and 2000 on their golden and silver anniversaries.

Join the Class of 2015 Reunion Committee and members of the Class of 1975 for this roundtable discussion. Fellow alumni will discuss how we move forward as a community and engage with the current campus climate. This event is exclusively for our Young Alumni from the Classes of 2015–25.

Join alumni for this Reunion Weekend favorite! Enjoy light bites and refreshments at this low-key gathering and enjoy reminiscing about your college experiences and beyond! 

The Columbia School of General Studies has long been home to some of the world's leading performing artists. Guests are invited to join a thrilling evening of live dance and music performances by talented Columbia alumni and students. Performances will be followed by Q&A and a dessert reception.

Every week, hundreds of students come together at the Kraft Family Center for Jewish Student Life for Shabbat dinner. Share in this joyous Shabbat experience by joining fellow alumni from Columbia College, Columbia Engineering, the School of General Studies and Barnard College for a festive family-style dinner. Alumni families are welcome too!

Enjoy dinner, drinks and dancing with Columbia College, Columbia Engineering, Columbia General Studies, and Barnard College classmates and friends as the sun sets at Pier Sixty, one of Manhattan’s most spectacular waterfront venues!

Enjoy breakfast followed by the presentation of the President’s Cup, the highest recognition awarded by the Columbia College Alumni Association for service in a reunion year. Then, Dean Josef Sorett’s will host the State of the College Discussion.

All alumni are invited to start the day with inspiration and camaraderie at a special breakfast! Get a glimpse into the latest developments at Columbia Engineering with Dean Shih-Fu Chang, share in the excitement of what’s to come, and join in a celebratory toast to the Classes of 1975 and 2000 on their golden and silver anniversaries.

Join fellow alumni for a sit-down lunch and have the opportunity to hear from current GS students and the GS Office of Development and Alumni Relations.

It’s time to catch up with friends from Columbia College, Columbia Engineering, ColumbiaGeneral Studies and Barnard College! This al fresco buffet lunch on South Lawn will offer a wide array of food and beverages. Families are welcome!

Presented by the Asian Columbia Alumni Association, Black Alumni Council and Latino Alumni Association of Columbia University

• Alumni of Color and Allies Reception (1:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m.) Alfred Lerner Hall, Rm 555

Presented by the Asian Columbia Alumni Association, Black Alumni Council and Latino Alumni Association of Columbia University

• WKCR Alumni Reception (2:30 p.m.–3:30 p.m.) WKCR-FM, N.W. Corner of Broadway and West 114th Street

Join alumni from the College, Engineering, Barnard and General Studies.

• Performing Arts Reception (3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.) Low Plaza, Lion’s Lounge

Reconnect with fellow alumni from Columbia’s vocal, instrumental and theater groups and enjoy refreshments and light food. All alumni and guests are invited.

• 1754 Reception (3:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.) Alfred Lerner Hall, Rm 555

This reception will honor members of the 1754 Society and give attendees the opportunity to learn more about planned gifts to Columbia.

• Veterans Reception (3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m.) Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI), 1180 Amsterdam Ave., Kent Hall, Rm 205

Presented by Columbia General Studies.

• LGBTQ+ Reception (4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.) Location: TBD

Join alumni from the College, Engineering, Barnard and General Studies.

Explore Blockchain protocols with Professor of Computer Science Tim Roughgarden. 

Blockchain protocols such as Ethereum and Solana approximate the idealized abstraction of a shared “computer in the sky” that is open access (anyone can install software or interact with already-installed software), runs in plain view, and, in effect, has no owner or operator. This technology can, among other things, enable stronger notions of ownership of digital possessions than we have ever had before. Building the computer in the sky is hard (and scientifically fascinating), and requires the synthesis of multiple disciplines, both within computer science (distributed computing, cryptography, algorithmic game theory) and beyond (mechanism design, macroeconomics, finance, political science).

Please note: no pre-registration required to attend this event. 

Don’t miss the chance to engage with one of our esteemed faculty members as they present an insightful lecture. This thought-provoking session will offer fresh perspectives and spark meaningful discussions. 

• Behind the Scenes: Alumni Shaping the Entertainment Industry – Alumni Panel (2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.) Alfred Lerner Hall, Jed D. Satow Room, 5th Floor

Get an inside look at the ever-evolving world of entertainment from dynamic group of alumni from the Class of 1990.

• Lion’s Pride Panel (3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.) Faculty House 64 Morningside Dr. Presidential Ballroom, 3rd Fl.

Join us for a special panel celebrating this year’s Lion’s Pride Honors recipients — exceptional young alumni who are creating meaningful change in their communities and beyond. Selected every three years, these honorees exemplify the values of leadership, service and impact. Don’t miss this inspiring conversation highlighting the powerful ways our recent graduates are shaping the world. The Lion’s Pride Honors is a collaboration between Columbia College Young Alumni and Columbia College Today.

Gather with veteran alumni and students from all generations and all Columbia schools to connect, network, and learn about the University's support for veterans, including those provided by the Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI). Appetizers, beer, and wine will be served. 

Join fellow Columbia Engineering graduate program alumni and Engineering leadership for an opportunity to catch up with friends and expand your network.

Join the Society of Columbia Graduates and the deans of Columbia College and Columbia Engineering to recognize this year’s Great Teacher Award recipients:

Professor Nicholas Dames, Director of Undergraduate Studies; Theodore Kahan Professor of Humanities, Columbia College Recipient

Professor Hardeep Johar, Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research,  Columbia Engineering Recipient

Join your peers in celebrating the 5th anniversary graduation year for class of 2020 at a special mixer. Have some bubbly while this milestone class is honored and celebrated. 

Graduates of our Dual and Joint Degree Programs with Sciences Po, Tel Aviv University, Trinity College Dublin, City University of Hong Kong, and List College of the Jewish Theological Seminary are invited to a champagne reception in celebration of these diverse and groundbreaking nontraditional undergraduate programs.

Postbac Premed Program graduates and current students are invited to a welcoming reception hosted by Dean of the Postbac Premed Program, James Colgrove. Guests will hear about the growth of the Program and get the opportunity to connect with fellow members of the community.

Gather with classmates from Columbia College and Columbia Engineering to connect over drinks and dinner to close out the reunion. Arrive by 6:30 p.m. to join your class photo.

Gather with classmates from Columbia College and Columbia Engineering to connect over drinks and dinner to close out the reunion. Arrive by 6:30 p.m. to join your class photo.

Gather with classmates from Columbia College and Columbia Engineering to connect over drinks and dinner to close out the reunion. Arrive by 6:30 p.m. to join your class photo.

Gather with classmates from Columbia College and Columbia Engineering to connect over drinks and dinner to close out the reunion. Arrive by 6:30 p.m. to join your class photo.

Gather with classmates from Columbia College and Columbia Engineering to connect over drinks and dinner to close out the reunion. Arrive by 6:30 p.m. to join your class photo.

Gather with classmates from Columbia College and Columbia Engineering to connect over drinks and dinner to close out the reunion. Arrive by 6:30 p.m. to join your class photo.

Gather with classmates from Columbia College and Columbia Engineering to connect over drinks and dinner to close out the reunion. Arrive by 6:30 p.m. to join your class photo.

Gather with classmates from Columbia College and Columbia Engineering to connect over drinks and dinner to close out the reunion. Arrive by 6:30 p.m. to join your class photo.

Gather with classmates from Columbia College and Columbia Engineering to connect over drinks and dinner to close out the reunion. Arrive by 6:30 p.m. to join your class photo.

Gather with classmates from Columbia College and Columbia Engineering to connect over drinks and dinner to close out the reunion. Arrive by 6:30 p.m. to join your class photo.

Gather with fellow Golden Lions and connect over drinks and dinner to close out the reunion. Arrive by 6:30 p.m. to join your class photo.

Don’t miss the biggest GS alumni event of the year! At this special event, attendees will hear from Dean Rosen-Metsch, and the Owl Award will be presented to this year’s recipient. Following dinner, join alumni from all schools at the Starlight Reception on Low Plaza.

Close out Columbia Reunion 2025 with a bang at this annual party, complete with a live band, dessert and champagne. Lounge on the Steps under the gaze of Alma Mater and take part in one of Columbia’s most special evenings of the year.