News

When Damon Rodriguez stepped out of prison in 2013, he already had a plan. While in jail, he was fortunate to come across stories in local newspapers about an organization that helps formerly incarcerated people (FIPs) start a new chapter of their lives. Many people face immense challenges finding work after they’re released from prisons. The latest reports reveal that the American criminal justice system holds more than 2.3 million people.

In April 2018, the National Science Foundation (NSF), under its Platform for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) initiative, formally announced the West Harlem area as its wireless testbed for the next wave of mobile technology. The $22.5 million grant was awarded to a New York City–based university team— consisting of Rutgers University, Columbia University (CU), and New York University—that will partner with New York City, Silicon Harlem, City College of New York, and the University of Arizona to develop the Cloud Enhanced Open Software Defined Mobile Wireless Testbed for City-Scale Deployment…

Since 1998, Columbia University has been partnering with Read Ahead (formerly Everybody Wins! NY), a nonprofit organization that matches volunteer mentors with elementary school students throughout New York City, for one-on-one lunchtime mentoring sessions of reading and conversation.

Diversity in the workforce remains a salient issue in the United States. According to Fortune.com, Fortune 500 companies employ 17.5 percent of America’s workforce, but only 3 percent of these companies share full diversity data, suggesting that diversity may not always be a priority. Yet the Harvard Business Review reports that diverse firms are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their national industry median, 45 percent more likely to report market share growth, and 70 percent more likely to report they captured a new market.

The School of Professional Studies (SPS) at Columbia University was founded in 1995 to specialize in career advancement through professional and interdisciplinary education. Under the leadership of Dean Jason Wingard, the SPS Community Relations office was created in fall 2015 to identify and engage individuals and organizations within the community that could serve as potential partners on a variety of initiatives and community service projects. Columbia SPS Community Relations channels the expertise of the school’s faculty, staff, students, and alumni—largely from SPS’s 16 graduate programs—in…

The Harlem Local Vendor Program (HLVP)—a partnership between the Columbia-Harlem Small Business Development Center (SBDC), Harlem Park to Park, Hot Bread Kitchen Incubates, Whole Foods Market, and others—is designed to help manufacturers of locally made consumer goods increase their business acumen and capacity so that they may contract with more and larger
retailers. Columbia Dining supports these local vendors with its purchasing power, having spent over $100,000 to date, and is furthering its efforts and solidifying its commitment to local vendors through the launch of the Uris Incubator…

Thomas Abdallah, an adjunct professor in the Sustainability Management Program of Columbia University, loves mass transit. And that’s a good thing, because Abdallah is also the deputy vice president and chief environmental engineer of Capital Program Management at MTA New York City Transit, where he gets to inspect and improve transit facilities every day.

One week before Kendrick Lamar became the first hip-hop artist to be awarded Columbia University’s Pulitzer Prize, Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies presented the panel discussion “Hip-Hop Education: Propelling and Preserving the Movement” to explore hip-hop as it approaches its 45th anniversary. In the panel, three Columbia University Community Scholars Martha Diaz (founder of the Hip-Hop Education Center), Regan Sommer McCoy (founder of The Mixtape Museum and Hip-Hop Hacks), and author and journalist Peter Noel explored the history and value of Hip-Hop and efforts across…

Rutgers, Columbia, and NYU to Lead Research Aimed at Pushing Limits of Wireless-Networking

Fourth generation wireless, better known as 4G, turned mobile phones into movie-streaming platforms, but the next wireless revolution promises more than speedy downloads. It could pave the way for surgeons operating remotely on patients, cars that rarely crash, and events that can be vividly experienced from thousands of miles away.

Emeritus Professors in Columbia (EPIC) is a professional and social fellowship of people who have formally retired from their Columbia careers as university professors, researchers, and administrators but are still professionally active

Columbia University is seeking established Minority, Women and Local Business Enterprises (MWLBE) to apply to be part of the second cohort of CU Grow, a Columbia-initiated program designed to help MWLBE vendors of the University grow their businesses.

The Columbia-Harlem Small Business Development Center hosted a Harlem Buyer Fair to connect local food, body care and gift vendors with buyers from Whole Foods, FreshDirect, Columbia Dining and more. Participating vendors had completed the Harlem Local Vendor Program, a business accelerator program designed to provide local Harlem vendors with the opportunity to exhibit their products for Whole Foods Market foragers/buyers, Columbia University procurement representatives and other program procurement partners. 

The Community Wellness Center, located at 610 W. 130th Street in the Greene Science Center, is home to two programs dedicated to empowering the community through mental health and stroke prevention education, along with providing free blood pressure readings, cholesterol screening, and AIC Glucose testing. Programs and services at the Wellness Center are free and available to the public. 

The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University announced today that Larry Siems, formerly the Director of Freedom to Write and International Programs at PEN American Center, has joined the Institute as chief of staff. Siems will have a broad role at the Institute, encompassing responsibilities relating to strategic planning, communications, fundraising, management, and administration.

Columbia College has appointed Kecia Hayes, a Teachers College alumna with more than 20 years of education experience, as the new executive director of the Roger Lehecka Double Discovery Center (DDC), a program that works to enhance higher education opportunities for local low-income and first-generation youth ages 12–27. DDC’s academic enrichment program, which serves approximately 1,000 students annually and has become a model for similar programs throughout the United States, focuses on ensuring high school graduation, college enrollment and completion, and responsible adulthood. Hayes…