Dear Colleagues:
I am pleased to announce the formation of the provost’s Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid (CAFA). The purpose of the committee is to provide faculty insight and advice on admissions and financial aid policies and procedures in the College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. The Committee will not participate in individual admissions or financial aid decisions. It will not make recommendations regarding the admission of individual applicants nor consider the financial aid awards of individual students.
The Committee will provide advice on admissions criteria, such as curriculum and testing requirements, and evaluate these criteria in relation to student academic performance at Columbia. It will offer guidance on how diversity—of personal experience, of academic interest, of non-academic achievement, of place of origin, of family background, of secondary school—should be considered in evaluation of applicants for their potential to contribute to and benefit from the undergraduate experience at Columbia. The Committee will also advise on programs used to assemble the undergraduate student body, including the use of early decision, the offering of a combined plan and transfer programs, and the provision of visiting student opportunities. It can recommend recruitment initiatives to develop an applicant pool and yield efforts to produce an entering class that reflects the established academic and non-academic criteria for admission. Finally, the Committee will advise on financial aid policies that enable the achievement of admissions goals, and assess the effectiveness of these policies in meeting educational objectives.
I am grateful to the following colleagues for their willingness to serve on this new committee:
Patricia Culligan (SEAS)
Julio Fernandez (Biological Sciences)
Guillermo Gallego (SEAS)
Michael Gerrard (Law)
Farah Griffin (English and Comparative Literature)
Raymond Horton (Business)
John Huber (Political Science)
Soulaymane Kachani (SEAS)
Philip Kim (SEAS and Physics)
Frances Negron-Muntaner (English and Comparative Literature)
Samuel Roberts (History)
Sincerely,
John H. Coatsworth
Provost
