Columbia University

Without question, Columbia University is one of the most prestigious,revered and influential institutes of higher learning in the world, so obviously it is with great pride that I say my oldest daughter Gina has been doing research there as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and will soon be working directly for the university itself.

Gina lives a half block away from the main campus, so we re-created her easy morning commute. By doing so, we also walked in the footsteps of one of my favorite actors, Bill Murray. No, he wasn't a student there, but his character Dr. Peter Venkman did research at Columbia, just like Dr. Gina. Well.... not “just like.” Gina's research doesn't involve playing mind games with her subjects in order to get dates rather than data, and she walks or takes the subway rather than riding around in a converted ambulance.

In any case, I did recognize the Morningside Heights campus where she has worked for for the past three years. Located in the middle of the city, the hallowed halls of academia contrast with the surrounding area.

It looks appropriately aged and distinguished to be the oldest college in New York and fifth oldest college in the United States, so I was surprised when Gina's husband Laszlo said that the campus had been moved there a little more than a hundred years ago.

The original name of Columbia was King's College, so-named because it was created by royal charter from King George II of England in 1754, with the first “campus” being a schoolhouse next to Trinity Church in Manhattan attended by eight students. By 1767, it had become the first American medical school to grant the M.D. Degree, setting the stage for a long history of leading the way in health education and research.

In 1776, the colonies had a bit of a disagreement with the King of England, and the school closed for a few years. However, the college had fulfilled its initial promise to "enlarge the Mind, improve the Understanding, polish the whole Man, and qualify them to support the brightest Characters in all the elevated stations in life." Among the students and trustees of King's College were the first Chief Justice (John Jay), the first Secretary of the Treasury (Alexander Hamilton), author of the final draft of the U.S. Constitution (GouverneurMorris), and one of five men assigned to write the Declaration of Independence (Robert Livingston). That's probably not exactly what King George had in mind.

In 1784, the college re-opened as Columbia University, a name affirming the institution's independence from England just as her country had.