Diversity Offices and Initiatives

Columbia’s commitment to diversity is supported by a variety of offices and initiatives. The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement partners with these offices and initiatives to advance the University's mission.

Diversity Offices and Initiatives by School/Unit

Barnard’s vibrant community crosses boundaries of background and identity to find shared experiences and to open minds. Voicing opinions, no matter how singular or strong, is the essence of our culture, and respecting the unfamiliar is a challenge we embrace. After all, the College was founded, in great part, because women were excluded from receiving the same rigorous liberal arts education available to men. Over our 125-year history, we have broadened our original commitment to inclusion, diversity, and social responsibility so that no matter where our students come from or where they are heading, they share a boundless passion for learning inspired by our unique and distinguished faculty.

Barnard College believes that supporting diversity is both an individual and institutional responsibility that we must practice every day. We come together to ensure that members of the community feel safe and valued and have the opportunity to collaborate and create understanding.  It is our hope that we can all remain invested in this process.

View the list of diversity and inclusion efforts at Barnard.

The College of Dental Medicine welcomes students and faculty from all backgrounds and ethnicities with the conviction that diversity creates a vibrant and exciting learning environment. It is part of our mission to promote a climate for multiculturalism and inclusion within our community for students, faculty, staff, and patients.

The Office of Diversity Affairs (ODA) serves as the internal support system for underrepresented minority students, faculty and staff and plays an integral role in the recruitment and retention of under-represented students. The ODA has implemented various programs to increase the training of under-represented minorities in the College of Dental Medicine predoctoral and postdoctoral programs. The Office also mentors several student groups, including chapters of the Student National Dental Association (SNDA) and the Hispanic Student Dental Association (HDA), and the CUMC Queer and Ally Partnership (LGBTQ)

 

The Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs is fully committed to increasing the diversity of the student body of the College of Physicians and Surgeons by actively recruiting, enrolling, supporting, and graduating diverse populations. Our diverse student body and faculty ensure a comprehensive and enriching learning experience for all students. Student life is further enriched by a myriad of student organizations including groups that support the academic, social, cultural, and spiritual needs of the student body and faculty. Our students are also active in the multicultural community that surrounds the medical center and throughout New York City.

At Columbia Business School, we believe that diversity strengthens any community or business model and brings it greater success. That's why we're committed to promoting diversity in all its forms by making sure that those from different racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and professional backgrounds are represented, welcomed, and engaged in our community.

The Columbia Business School Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative was established in summer 2019 and focuses on three areas of strategic importance:

  • community diversity
  • curriculum and classroom inclusion; and
  • culture and climate.

The DEI Initiative acts as a platform and resource for the CBS community to uphold its three pillars and foster a culture that values difference, advances community engagement, and promotes an inclusive climate.

We value your feedback. If you have any DEI related recommendations or concerns, we invite you to share your thoughts with us anonymously here.

Columbia’s location in New York City and influence around the world creates communities within communities. It begins on our campus, extends to the Morningside neighborhood, then out to the greatest city in the world and beyond to the world itself. Explore all that these communities have to offer you as a Columbia undergraduate.

Responding to the needs of Columbia’s diverse undergraduate student body is the Columbia College and Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science Office of Multicultural Affairs. The office aims to promote an inclusive University climate by acting as an educational resource that prepares students to succeed in a heterogeneous and ever-changing society. We provide a supportive environment for intercultural communication, constructive interaction, and mutual understanding. Our goal is to create a greater sense of community and improve the quality of life for Columbia students. We also partner with the Columbia’s Center for Career Education to sponsor programming that engages Columbia’s diverse community of scholars in developing successful strategies for career planning. Specially designed seminars, workshops, and lectures help prepare future leaders for a variety of industries through leadership development, mentoring, and multicultural awareness.

Columbia Journalism School’s purpose is to educate students from all over the world to become conscientious, accomplished professional journalists. The school equips them to perform a vital and challenging function: through evidence-based reporting, to find out the truths of complicated situations, usually under time constraint, and communicate them to the public in a clear, engaging fashion. The school also produces and disseminates research about the changing contexts — legal, economic, technological, social — in which journalism takes place, with the aim of helping to shape the future of the profession and of training leaders in scholarship about our field.

At Columbia Law, we cultivate and value a talented community that is broadly and multidimensionally representative. Our students come from countries around the world, speak hundreds of languages, and have earned degrees in every subject, from comparative literature to particle physics. And they have educational backgrounds as diverse as they are, whether they have lawyers in their families or are the first in their family to attend college.

The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Columbia School of Social Work is committed to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and policies in classrooms, social spaces, offices, and all interactions between CSSW students, faculty, and staff. The Office was created as a result of a student-led initiative to demonstrate a commitment to social justice, equity, and inclusion.

The DEI Office oversees and develops programming and services that link issues of diversity, multiculturalism, inclusion, intersectionality, and social justice for students, faculty, and staff, including:

  • facilitating affinity group-based supportive spaces, workshops and trainings for students, faculty and staff
  • organizing school-wide heritage celebrations.
  • collaborating with student caucuses; and
  • providing mediation services.

If you have a DEI-related concern, feedback or event idea, please share here.

Columbia University School of Nursing is committed to social justice and health equity, promoting an anti-racism environment, and fostering a culture of inclusion. Diversity in our education, research, practice, and our programming within and outside our community leads to transformation, innovation, and leadership in nursing. 

Our culture of inclusion aims to:

  • Promote a work environment of mutual respect and collaboration for all members of the Columbia Nursing community.
  • Uphold the honor and dignity of each student, faculty, staff, patient, client, and visitor in all our interactions. 
  • Promote an environment of inclusiveness where diversity is embraced and celebrated in a climate of tolerance, transparency, accountability, and fair and honest communication.
  • Engender a community in which all persons can work and learn together to promote the highest level of intra-personal reflection about self in an effort to mitigate implicit biases and to engage in inter-professional collaborations.  

The Office of Diversity and Cultural Affairs (ODCA) serves as an internal support system to help advance our social justice and health equity mission and foster a culture of inclusion. Goals include increasing diversity in the recruitment, retention, and mentoring of students, faculty, and staff; providing a platform for open discussion of critical issues; and advancing community connections. Educational forums aim to inform, engage, and develop a deeper understanding of the social/structural/economic/political determinants of health, as well as personal growth challenges that impact one’s ability to see others through a human, social-justice lens.

GSAPP’s strength lies in the diversity of its programs and positions as well as in the breadth of perspectives, backgrounds, and personal experiences that our students and faculty bring to the sustained and critical probing of its disciplines and practices, as a way to understand both what they are and what they can become. To better sustain and serve this breadth of approaches, the School is committed to fostering environments that bring our community together. 

Guided by the recommendations of the Anti-Racism Faculty Taskforce, GSAPP is engaging every aspect of the School with a collective commitment to intensifying its focus in the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion as a community and across its disciplines and practices. 

To learn more about GSAPP's diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives, as well as progress against its Action Plan goals read here.

At Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, diversity is an academic value, a marker of institutional excellence as well as a benchmark of innovation for our research, programming, and student environment. If you have ideas for improving the work of the Office of Academic Diversity, wish to get involved in the upcoming events the office is hosting, or are interested in learning more about the Graduate School’s efforts in the area of diversity, equity, and student inclusion, we strongly encourage you to reach out to us at [email protected]

Lamont-Doherty is strongly committed to fostering a diverse and vibrant community of scientists, faculty, postdocs and students. Housed in the LDEO Directorate, the Office of Academic Affairs and Diversity was created following the recommendation of NSF-ADVANCE, and has within its purview a broad area of activities including diversity, search procedures, academic appointments, salary structures, academic review processes, postdoctoral affairs, LGBTQ issues, Title IX issues, mentoring, campus life and quality of work environment issues. We believe that diversity and excellence go hand in hand, and this creates an inclusive work environment for all.

The Office of Diversity, Culture, and Inclusion facilitates the creation of an inclusive and equitable campus community committed to the development of public health practice and scholarship that reflects structural competency and cultural humility. Through a rich agenda of curricular and co-curricular activities that engage the multiple and intersecting dimensions of our social and cultural identities and promote the recognition and understanding of historical and current social inequalities, members of the Mailman community will learn to develop and implement action steps in our institution, community, and the broader field of public health necessary for the promotion of health equity.

The School of the Arts is committed to nurturing a creative environment where students, faculty, and staff of all backgrounds can work together and thrive. Over the past several years the School has continued to focus on attracting a diverse faculty, staff and student body while working to increase scholarship funding. The School has also committed a great deal of its extensive public programming schedule at the Lenfest Center of the Arts, and elsewhere, to issues of race and anti-racism by collaborating with multiple partners including the Wallach Art Gallery, individual departments, and a wide-range of local and City organizations.

Since its inception, Columbia GS has focused on providing access and opportunity to the full diversity of students to elite higher education. GS is, at its core, a mission for social justice and just societies. Anti-racism work has been a central part of GS, and we continue to evaluate and adapt these efforts in today’s environment. From the launch of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Taskforce and Steering Committee, to the ongoing student and alumni events and staff trainings, GS believes diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to the work we do and to the community we strive to build in support of our students and their future goals. Learn more about the wide array of DEI initiatives at GS here.  

At SIPA, the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential to our mission: to support the global public interest by educating students to serve and to lead, and to produce and share new knowledge on the critical public policy challenges facing the global community. These values are embedded in the work of our faculty, the curriculums of our programs, our public engagement, and our commitment to maintain a respectful, welcoming environment for our incredibly diverse students, faculty, and staff.  

In July 2020, SIPA launched an initiative to critically assess and continually improve on SIPA’s goal to be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive school. Read more about SIPA’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts

In July 2020, President Bollinger outlined Columbia’s commitment to antiracism, announced steps we are taking as an institution to do more, and asked the University community to dedicate ourselves to a New Civil Rights Movement. The School of Professional Studies is heeding that call in several ways to create more inclusive education spaces and workplaces. We are advancing our faculty diversity program; investing in collaborative research initiatives; facilitating discussions between faculty, students, and field experts; and listening to the climate of our programs and departments. 

The Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Community Affairs leads the President's and Teachers College's initiatives concerning community, diversity, civility, equity, and anti-discrimination. The Office, working with others in the College, addresses issues from faculty, staff, students, and alumni. These concerns may overlap with equity, anti-discrimination, retaliation and due process concerns, sexual assault and other gender-based misconduct concerns. The philosophy is to encourage the College community to listen, learn, educate, and work together in positive ways. At the same time, the Office focuses on systemic issues by addressing policy and procedural concerns. 

Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute is committed to becoming a more inclusive, equitable and diverse place of scientific discovery. We believe that promoting diversity in science will help drive the kinds of transformative science that can change the world. We acknowledge the destructive impacts of bias, prejudice and racism on the scientific community and society as a whole. 

To help dismantle the structural underpinnings that have sustained discrimination, we are developing new, more equitable structures. So far, we have:

  • Committed to action: We’ve outlined mission-critical goals, supported by specific actions, designed to promote diversity and inclusion and combat systemic racism and inequality at the Institute and beyond.
  • Created a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Board: This group of researchers and administrations from the Institute and Columbia advises Institute leadership on the best practices and structures that contribute to a more inclusive and diverse place of scientific discovery. 
  • Hired Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Dana E. Crawford: Dr. Crawford, a pediatric and clinical psychologist and the former director of the Trauma-Informed Care Program at Montefiore Medical Group, builds and facilitates a training curriculum for faculty, researchers, staff and students to develop frameworks for recognizing and reducing bias, prejudice and racism. She also works hand-in-hand with the Human Resources team on equitable recruitment efforts.

At the Zuckerman Institute, we know our work has just begun and there’s still much more to be done. You can find the latest information on our efforts here

Campus-wide Diversity Offices and Initiatives

Search the broad spectrum of research institutes and centers in the natural and biomedical sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities.

There are over 100 alumni groups worldwide and all welcome Columbia alumni and students. Join in!

The Commission on the Status of Women inquires into the status, equity, and opportunities available at Columbia to women who are students, supporting staff, and officers of instruction, research, the libraries, or administration. The commission works independently, and reports and make recommendations periodically to the University Senate and its executive committee on the status of women.

Disability Services facilitates equal access for students with disabilities by coordinating accommodations and support services, and cultivating a campus culture that is sensitive and responsive to the needs of students.

Students seeking accommodations or support services from Disability Services are required to register with the office. If you are interested in pursuing an evaluation for a learning disability, please visit the referrals and other campus resources page.

Find information on policies, forms and documents, employee benefits, and other resources for the Morningside and Medical Center campuses.

Columbia has a long-standing commitment to working with minority-, women-, or locally owned businesses, whether by establishing purchasing relationships with vendors, entering into consulting agreements for services, or contracting for construction, renovation, or repair services.   

Columbia University, one of the world’s leading academic institutions, is the size of a small city–one with a uniquely engaged and pluralistic membership. At the Office of University Life, our focus is directly on our University as a community, with special attention to student life across Columbia's many schools. We convene students, faculty, and administrators to work together on issues that need our attention–from inclusion and belonging to mental health and wellness, sexual respect and gender-based misconduct prevention, and much more.

The Office of Work/Life is committed to supporting the well-being of Columbia University’s diverse community of faculty, staff, and students in their pursuit of meaningful and productive academic, personal and work lives. Through our programs and services in the areas of adult/elder care, back-up care, breastfeeding support, faculty spouse/partner dual career search, housing and relocation, early education and child care, schooling and wellness, the Office of Work/Life seeks to support all members of the Columbia community through various phases of life, education, and career. The Office of Work/Life partners with offices across the university to advance policies and initiatives that are designed to address the varied work/life needs of the Columbia community and is particularly dedicated to supporting the recruitment and retention of a diverse faculty population.

In meeting rooms and auditoriums, theaters and playing fields, brownstones and practice rooms, students pursue their passions. At Columbia, there are over 500 opportunities to explore, to grow, to lead, to share, with support from a variety of offices like Student EngagementMulticultural Affairs and Residential Programs. Check out a sampling of some of the club and organization websites, or explore LionLink, the online community for student groups at Columbia.

HERC is the only non-profit organization devoted to connecting exceptional professionals with careers at higher education and affiliated employers that have a shared mission to promote equity and inclusion, support dual-career couples and create a future shaped by diversity of thought and perspectives. As a consortium of over 700 colleges, universities, hospitals, research labs, government agencies, and related non- and for-profit organizations its members share a commitment to hiring the most diverse and talented faculty, staff, and executives. With 18 regions and a growing membership, HERC is a gateway to more jobs in higher education and related fields than any other website and is an expanding resource for its member institutions in recruitment and retention of diverse faculty, staff and administrators.