Barack Obama ’83, My Columbia College Roommate

Columbia College Today - Alumni Corner ^ | Jan/Feb. 2009 | By Phil Boerner ’84

[wildbill]

My daughter had just sent me a questioning email about his Columbia stay. I was glad to be able to send this to her.

[ckilmer]

Obama majored in Political Science with a concentration in Internatioal Relations while attending Columbia College and he received his BA in Poli Sci. from Columbia University.
.....
I did the same thing at the same age at the school of general studies all my courses were over at the the School of International Relations including two courses with Brzezinski. gs poly sci 86

[Red Steel]

What more detail could you possible want?

We know Obama was in New York at that time. How about the details that had to do with college classes or other activities pertaining to Columbia University? Giving the details about living in an NY apartment does not cut it.

[jamese777]

Obama didn’t make the list of notable attendees and alums of the School of General Studies. He does make the Columbia College list. I would think that the School of General Studies would want to claim a US president if one had actually attended.

Notable alumni and attendees
The following list contains some of the notable alumni and attendees of the School of General Studies and its extension school predecessors only. An asterisk (*) indicates an attendee who did not graduate.

Alumni of the School of General Studies and its precursors
Ira Gershwin* (1918) Attended pre-medical classes, Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.
Amelia Earhart* (1920) Attended one semester, American aviator and early female pilot.
Simon Kuznets (1923), Nobel Prize-winning economist.
David O. Selznick* (1923), Hollywood Producer, King Kong (1933 film), Gone with the Wind
Federico García Lorca* (1929), Attended briefly, Spanish poet and dramatist.
Isaac Asimov (1939), science fiction writer and biochemist
Jane Jacobs* (1940s), Attended for two years, author The Death and Life of Great American Cities, urban theorist and activist.
Baruj Benacerraf (1942), Nobel Prize-winning immunologist.
Telly Savalas (1946), Actor, Emmy-award winner and Oscar nominee.
Ossie Davis (1948), Actor and social activist, Emmy- and Golden Globe-award nominee.
John W. Backus (1950), Developer of Fortran, the first true computer language.
Anthony Perkins* (1950s), Actor and writer.
Donald Clarence Judd (1953), Artist.
Donald Richie (1953), Film Critic.
Sandy Koufax* (1955), Pitcher for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Mike Gravel (1956), Former US Senator from Alaska and candidate for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Released full Pentagon Papers.
Pat Boone (1957), Singer and actor.
Gerard W. Ford (1957), Founder of the Ford Modeling Agency.
Hunter S. Thompson*, (1958). Writer.
Mary McFadden (1959), Fashion Designer
Stewart Rawlings Mott (1959), Lobbyist and Philanthropist
Edward Klein (1960), Author.
R.W. Apple (1961), New York Times associate editor.
John Tauranac (1963), Chief designer of the New York City subway map of 1979.
Jehuda Reinharz (1964), President of Brandeis University
Malcolm Borg (1965), Chairman of North Jersey Media Group (formerly Macromedia, Inc.) owner of The Record (Bergen County)
Jacques Pepin (1970), French Chef.
Edward Cecil Harris (1971), Creator of the Harris matrix.
Peter H. Kostmayer (1971), Former (D) Congressman Pennsylvania.
Roger Pilon (1971), Constitutional scholar and legal theorist.
Kristi Zea (1974), Production designer and producer. Academy Award Nominee for Best Picture, As Good As It Gets. (1997)
Howard Dean (1975), Postbaccalureate Premedical Program. Former Governor of Vermont and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Howard G. Chua-Eoan (1983), News Director, TIME.
Gil Shaham (1990), Violinist.
Ted Rall (1991), Syndicated cartoonist.
Patrick Gaspard* (1994-1997), Obama Administration - White House Political Director.
Josh Waitzkin* (1999-), Child chess prodigy and author.
Princess Firyal of Jordan (1999) Jordanian princess, socialite, and philanthropist
Philippe Reines (2000), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Senior Advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

[Centurion2000]

Yeah, because I remember my dorm room numbers from the early 90's.

UNT West Hall Room 504 first year in college. Next

[ckilmer]

can you include the columbia college list

[jamese777]

Columbia College of Columbia University: Notable alumni and former students

Many eminent individuals have attended or taught at Columbia College and King’s College, its predecessor. They are enumerated more fully in the list of Columbia College people.

Among those College alumni categorized as “remarkable” by the university during its 250th anniversary celebrations in 2004 were Founding Fathers of the United States Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and Gouverneur Morris (author of Preamble to U.S. Constitution, “We, The People”). Other political figures in this group include statesman and educator Nicholas Murray Butler, New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, US Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, South African anti-apartheid leader Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Chinese diplomat Wellington Koo, many New York City mayors, including Seth Low and John Purroy Mitchel, as well as spymaster William Joseph Donovan.

Academics listed include philosophers Mortimer Adler and Irwin Edman, historians Jacques Barzun, Alfred Thayer Mahan, and James Shenton, economist Arthur Burns, paleontologist Niles Eldredge, drama scholar Brander Matthews, art historian Meyer Schapiro and literary critic Lionel Trilling.

Public intellectuals and journalists, including broadcaster Roone Arledge, social critic Randolph Bourne, environmentalist Barry Commoner, and writers like Henry Demarest Lloyd and Norman Podhoretz are also prominent on the list. Major publishers included were Alfred Knopf, Arthur Sulzberger, and Bennett Cerf. Social activist Milton Weston and rabbi Stephen Wise were also considered prominent.

Columbia College graduates recognized in the arts include pianist Emanuel Ax, actor James Cagney, musician Art Garfunkel, composers Richard Rodgers and John Corigliano, lyricists Oscar Hammerstein II and Lorenz Hart, playwrights Samuel Spewack, Tony Kushner and Terrence McNally, writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Herman Wouk, Thomas Merton, Clement Clarke Moore, and Clifton Fadiman, screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, filmmaker Joseph Mankiewicz, sculptor Isamu Noguchi, and violinist Gil Shaham.

Architects James Renwick, Jr., Robert A.M. Stern, engineer William Barclay Parsons, baseball player Lou Gehrig, football player Sid Luckman, and business leader John Kluge were also Columbia College students.

Additionally, highly visible former Columbia College students in recent years include President Barack Obama,Attorney General Eric Holder (as well as former Bush Administration Attorney General Michael Mukasey) New York Governor David Paterson, New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg, New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, political advisor and commentator George Stephanopoulos, actors Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anna Paquin, Casey Affleck, Ed Harris, Amanda Peet, Matthew Fox and Julia Stiles, radio personality Max Kellerman, directors Jim Jarmusch, Brian DePalma and Bill Condon, writer Paul Auster, historian Eric Foner, economist Michael Wolf, the chart-topping alt-rock band Vampire Weekend, and Grammy Award-winning R&B singers and songwriters Alicia Keys and Lauryn Hill.

Among its alumni, Columbia College can count at least 16 Nobel Prize winners.

“Columbia College Today”: “Barack Obama ‘83: Is He The New Face of the Democratic Party?” http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/jan05/cover.php

[MrRobertPlant2009]

My graduating class at Princeton had about 1500 in it, and we actually all lived on campus. Going through a Facebook search last year, I realized that I have a memories of about 100 of my classmates. 80 percent of the class is a complete mystery to me.

[PA-RIVER]

There is one common thread, they all appear to be gay.

I suspect BO was working as a male prostitute in NYC.

[GOPJ]

We both transferred from Oxy to Columbia in fall 1981. Barack had found an apartment on West 109th Street, between Amsterdam and Columbus, and suggested that I room with him. Our sublet was a third-story walk-up in a so-so neighborhood; the unit next door was burned out and vacant. The doorbell didn’t work; to be let in when I first arrived I had to yell up to Barack from the street. It was a railroad apartment: From the kitchen, you walked into Barack’s room, then my room, and lastly the living room..

Strange... apartments like that use to be called 'shotgun' because every room could be hit with one shot.