Internationally national

I remember it like yesterday. We sat huddled in our floor lounge in Carman as the introductions got underway.

“I’m from Canada,” my residential adviser said as he introduced himself. “That seems fairly expected,” I told myself, "since that’s not too far from here, right?” There were Texans, Jersey boys and girls, Floridians, Californians, and, of course, New Yorkers, among other American states which all made sense. Oh, and the guy from Puerto Rico wasn’t much of a shock either.

But then came our turn.

I had more companions from abroad than I expected. Japan, Ireland, Vietnam, France, and Slovakia were the countries mentioned in that initial meeting. When I had to speak I explained that I was born and brought up in India—a land far, far away—before finishing high school in England.

What it means to be an American university is certainly going to depend on one’s own perspective. For me, it initially meant an expectation about the demographic that would surround me. I don’t know if it’s normal to have that many international students on a randomly selected floor in a first-year dorm, but ever since then I always felt Columbia was more an international university than what I imagined an American one would be—I imagined very few foreign students, a curriculum all about America, etc. In fact, I don’t think I can identify all 50 states on a map, or name over 20 American presidents—I’ve never needed to. Surely those would be orientation week material for international students if Columbia were or wished to be an American university?

Before my mental aptitude is called into question, I will admit that it would be ridiculous on my part to think that Columbia is not, in fact, an American school. I don’t mean just geographically—I’m aware that Columbia is steeped in American history and tradition, and that our curriculum is founded on American principles and Enlightenment ideals. In my experience, the curriculum, especially the Core, has been wonderful, and the values it teaches and stands for certainly help establish Columbia as an American university.

However, that focus on American ideals seems to be changing. Even the timeless Core Curriculum underwent a transformation when Major Cultures became the Global Core. And there’s a new kid on the block almost every other month as Columbia has established Global Center after Global Center and the Fifth-Year Fellows Program. With the opening of the Kenya center earlier this month, Columbia established its eighth Global Center.

So I am a firm believer that our Columbia is an American institution—no doubt—but one that is confident enough to try to understand and impact the rest of the world without losing its own identity. I think that because of its open-mindedness and desire to expand its boundaries, Columbia can be understood as the archetype of the modern American university. The attempt to interact with the world at large is an unavoidable consequence of globalization, which I imagine is now crucial to any university that aims to be at the forefront of education in an interconnected world.

I’ve been exposed to the British and Indian systems of higher education in a fair amount of detail thanks to friends of mine, and I don’t think either of those, or any other educational system in the world, is better suited to help young adults mature personally and professionally. In this part of the world, an 18-year-old can come in completely undecided and embrace academia with an open mind. And an 18-year-old who knows what he would like to do can do that very well, while also receiving more than a basic grounding in other fields. However, in India or England, the idea of the liberal arts doesn’t really exist. At the tender age of 17, when you apply, you have to know precisely what it is you’d like to study, and then you study that for the next three, four, or maybe even five years of your life. While I knew that I wanted to study economics, I didn’t want to study only economics. And that, along with the opportunity to be surrounded by people with varied interests, is what brought me here. This is why I think Columbia should continue to be an American university. While I came here expecting the people around me to define what it meant to be an American university, I now am on the verge of leaving with a newfound understanding of what an American education is really meant to be.

For me, the combination of the American liberal arts education and that attempt to embrace the rest of the world—in terms of academic content or diversity of the student body—define the modern American universities that Columbia and its peer institutions are. The word “diversity” is plastered on every Ivy League prospectus today, but in my experience it really has been true here. Even the American students that I’ve been fortunate and privileged enough to encounter come from a wide range of backgrounds, and I think these are the qualities that should define a modern American university. And our Columbia absolutely helps to create that very definition.

Mrinal Mohanka is a Columbia College senior majoring in economics. He is a former Spectator sports editor.