Building the Strength of Alumni

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(< Continued from the first page of this section) To build on that momentum, the University Trustees established CAA in June 2005 to connect alumni of all schools worldwide and to engage them in shaping the alumni experience. Since CAA’s founding, many new clubs have been created, and some 17,000 alumni and friends have participated in more than 230 CAA programs. In April 2007, alumni in sixteen CAA regional clubs around the globe joined in a day of local service, inspired by the student-led Columbia Community Outreach program, helping with food banks, environmental fundraisers, and housing rebuilding for families in need. In the fall of 2007, CAA launched a survey project to gauge alumni interests. More than 500 participants from twenty-eight countries were on hand in September 2007 for CAA’s European launch in Paris. On behalf of President Bollinger and Jean Magnano Bollinger, CAA and the Columbia University Arts Initiative provided 2007 graduates with a free one-year membership to Columbia Alumni Arts League (CAAL), which provides access to more than thirty New York City cultural institutions. As an ongoing benefit, alumni of all schools receive Columbia magazine four times a year. Each Columbia school connects its alumni in other ways that complement CAA programs. These range from school-based magazines and newsletters to events, including Journalism’s annual Alumni Weekend, Columbia College and SEAS Homecoming each fall, and the Business School Pan-Asian and Pan-European reunions. Visit the CAA Web site to find out more about alumni events around the world > Alumni Profiles: A’Lelia Bundles In early 2006, A’Lelia Bundles made a transition from a thirty-year career as an executive and producer in network television news to being a full-time author. She is currently at work on her third book, Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance, a biography of her great-grandmother. Bundle’s book On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker was named a Borders Books-Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist and a New York Times Notable Book. Bundles is a member of the board of the Madam Walker Theatre Center in Indianapolis, the dean's council of the Radcliffe Institute for Advance Study at Harvard and the board of the Foundation for the National Archives. She also chairs a committee charged with revamping the Alumni Association of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. Alumni Profiles: Steve Case Stephen Case was the inaugural chair of the Columbia Alumni Association and is currently a Trustee of the University. “I’m really proud to be involved in this effort,” he said. Case received both his undergraduate (CC’64) and graduate degrees (LAW’68) from Columbia and is managing director and general counsel of Cohen & Company LLC. With a long history of active involvement with the University as a volunteer and benefactor of the College and the Law School, Case has endowed the Edwin H. Case Professorship in Music and a scholarship at the College, both in memory of his late son, who was a member of the Columbia College Class of 1992. Case also serves as member of the Law School’s Board of Visitors and on its capital campaign executive committee.

RELATED LINKS Columbia Alumni Association The Columbia Campaign