School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

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School of International and Public Affairs
Image:Sipa.jpg
Established 1946
School type Private
Dean John H. Coatsworth
Location New York, New York, USA
Enrollment ca. 1,200
Homepage www.sipa.columbia.edu

The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) of Columbia University is a public policy school in the United States and one of the most prestigious schools of international affairs and/or public affairs in the world. It is located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of the Borough of Manhattan, in New York City.

Contents

[edit] Degree Programs

SIPA provides an education that enables its graduates to function wisely and effectively in a variety of professional settings – in government, business, finance, media, the nonprofit sector and international organizations. The school currently offers six degree programs and dual degree programs:

[edit] International Affairs Building

International Affairs Building
International Affairs Building

The School of International and Public Affairs is housed in the International Affairs Building on Columbia's Morningside Heights campus in Manhattan. The building sits on the southeast corner of W. 118th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, and was completed in 1971. It consists of a fifteen-storey tower and a large four-storey wing built mostly below grade level, so that the roof of the top storey of the wing serves as a plaza one level up from the street. These two sections total well over 400,000 square feet.

[edit] History

Columbia University's School of International Affairs was founded in 1946, in the aftermath of World War II. Emphasizing practical training, the mission of the School was to foster understanding of regions of vital interest and to prepare diplomats, officials, and other professionals to meet the complexities of the postwar world. It originated in dynamic regional institutes that, with an interdisciplinary vision bold for its day, drew on Columbia's renowned faculties in history, economics, political science, linguistics, and other traditional fields. The School awarded a Master of International Affairs (MIA) degree.

By 1950, three regional institutes were in operation--the Russian Institute (now Harriman Institute), established in 1946 and the first of its kind in the United States; the East Asian Institute, and the European Institute (now the Institute for the Study of Europe) both founded in 1949. During the 1950s and 1960s, the School expanded in scope and depth: SIA, as it was then called, developed a national and international profile as a leading center for educational and research programs in area studies, international security, and international relations. By 1967, the School was home to eight regional institutes, covering nearly every part of the globe. Originally housed in a row of brownstones, the School moved into its own 15-story building in 1971.

To meet a growing demand for skilled public service professionals at home as well as abroad, in 1977 the School added a second degree, the Master of Public Administration. In 1981, the program was renamed the Graduate Program in Public Policy and Administration and the School renamed the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). With its principal degree programs firmly established, SIPA added functional concentrations to both the MIA and MPA in response to emerging areas of need and professional opportunity--from international finance to urban policy, from human rights to environmental policy.

In the early 1990s, SIPA began appointing its own faculty, supplementing the distinguished social and natural scientists and humanists with whom SIPA students studied around the University. Within 15 years, SIPA faculty were among the most prominent in their fields, including the one-time director of the U.S. census, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, a judge on the appellate body of the World Trade Organization, economic advisors in both the Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush administrations, a former assistant secretary general of the United Nations, and many distinguished research scholars.

SIPA has continued to evolve, adding programs that mirror a globalized world in which the boundaries between international and public affairs, like the boundaries between states, have grown less distinct. In 1992, with support from the World Bank, The Program in Economic Policy Management (PEPM) was established to provide mid-career finance professionals with the skills required for effective design and implementation of economic policy, emphasizing the problems of developing and transition economies. Students who complete PEPM’s requirements are awarded an MPA degree.

One of the School's most notable initiatives over the years has been the International Fellows program which has given the best graduate students in the various schools at Columbia an immersion into international affairs in a one academic year program of seminars and networking events with high level international affairs practitioners. The program has a distinguished list of alumni which include a former Deputy Secretary of State,a Nobel Laureate, a Fortune 100 CEO and a prestigious national news magazine editor.

To accommodate the needs of working professionals who could not pursue full-time study, SIPA established the Executive MPA program in 1999 as part of the Picker Center for Executive Education. In 2001 the School introduced an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy (ESP), which condenses the usual two years of study into twelve months, and provides core courses in management and policy analysis with a concentration in environmental science and earth systems. The ESP MPA program is offered in cooperation with The Earth Institute and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. In fall 2004 SIPA inaugurated its first doctoral program, the interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Sustainable Development, which combines elements of a traditional graduate education in social science, particularly economics, with a significant training in the natural sciences.

In addition, SIPA has established a Global Public Policy Network with the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (often referred to as "Sciences Po") and a variety of other collaborations with public policy programs at the Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogotá, Renmin University in Beijing and other universities in Europe and Asia. SIPA also offers non-degree training programs in its home city of New York and around the world through the Picker Center for Executive Education. A history of the School written in 1954 boasts that students came from six countries outside the United States and that graduates were working in 17 different countries. The class of 2005 came from over a hundred countries, and the School’s 11,000 alumni are working in 155 countries.

[edit] Student Life

There is an active student life at SIPA, despite the fact that most students are at the School for two years or less. Most of the activities are centered around interest-driven student groups, the student government (School of International Affairs Student Association, known as SIPASA), a student newspaper, Communiqué, student-edited policy journal 'Journal of International Affairs,' and a number of athletic groups.

Elections for student government are among the most lively of the activities at the School, as one might expect for a school of government. SIPASA is led by an Executive Board chaired by MPA and MIA Co-Presidents. The following positions comprise the rest of the Executive Board: Vice President of Communications, ESP-MPA President, PEPM-MPA President, Treasurer, EMPA Representative and University Senator. Each program, MPA/MIA/ESP-MPA/PEPM-MPA, has seven functional chairs that serve student interests ranging from career services and alumni affairs to student life and academics.

The courtyard nestled between Columbia Law School and the International Affairs Building is a key attraction for students who gather there to work on their assignments, have lunch, or relax. During the warmer months, the School frequently sponsors beer and barbecue events which give students the opportunity to socialize.

SIPASA

[edit] Publications

Communiqué - Communiqué is a student-written, student-run newspaper of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. The editors are solely responsible for its content.

Conflict Resolution Journal - Dedicated to conflict resolution, the Conflict Resolution Journal is a dynamic, evolving Web project founded by students at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

Journal of International Affairs - Established in 1947, the Journal of International Affairs is the second oldest publication in the field of international relations, affiliated with and run by students at the School of International and Public Affairs.

SIPA News - The School of International and Public Affairs’ biannual publication featuring articles by faculty, students and alumni as well as current news about SIPA’s programs, events and alumni.

www.themorningsidepost.com posts information on activities and research at SIPA

[edit] Noteworthy alumni

[edit] Noteworthy faculty

  • Lisa Anderson, former dean of SIPA and a leading expert on the Middle East
  • Jagdish Bhagwati (scholar), prominent economist
  • Richard K. Betts, prominent political scientist and director of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
  • J. Bowyer Bell, historian, artist and art critic.
  • David Dinkins, first African American mayor of New York City
  • Michael Doyle, author of the democratic peace theory and prominent analyst of empires, former U.N. Assistant Secretary-General
  • Albert Fishlow, noted expert on Brazil and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs
  • Ester Fuchs, former Special Advisor to the Mayor of New York City and noted expert on urban politics & policy
  • Merit Janow, the only North American member of the WTO appellate body; former Deputy Assistant US Trade Representative for Japan and China (1990-93)
  • Robert Jervis, one of the most influential international relations scholars, expert on foreign policy analysis and political psychology
  • Rashid Khalidi, historian and director of SIPA's Middle East Institute
  • Kenneth Lipper, former deputy mayor of New York City, financier, novelist, and screenwriter
  • Edward Luck, noted expert on the United Nations
  • Mahmood Mamdani, a leading scholar on Africa
  • Jack F. Matlock, Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union
  • Mary Robinson, the first female President of the Republic of Ireland, serving from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002.
  • Arvind Panagariya, professor of economics
  • Kenneth Prewitt
  • Jeffrey Sachs, chief economic advisor to many governments, former Director of the UN Millennium Project, Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals
  • Stephen Sestanovich, former Ambassador-at-large and Special Advisor to the Secretary of State on the New Independent States (NIS).
  • Gary Sick, noted expert on Iran and three-time member of the National Security Council.
  • David Stark, professor of sociology
  • Alfred Stepan, professor of government
  • Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank and former chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisors
  • Elisabeth A. Lindenmayer, former U.N. Assistant Secretary General
  • Mark M. Lowenthal, former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence Research
  • David Rothkopf, Chairman and CEO of The Rothkopf Group, LLC and Garten Rothkopf LLC and former Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade
  • José Antonio Ocampo, former U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs

[edit] Noteworthy former faculty

[edit] Noteworthy former international fellows

[edit] External links

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