The fact that Obama will not release any part of his college record is thought to reflect the fact that he did not go to Columbia University, but Columbia College, which was an affiliated program but virtually an external degree program, aimed at people who already had some college but didn’t have the grades or preparatory courses to get into Columbia University. Obama’s grades at his first college, Occidental, were apparently not very good.
This would explain why nobody knew him, because he lived off-campus and was actually in a different program, although one affiliated with Columbia University.
If this is true, one wonders also how he got into Harvard from the Columbia College program. Supposedly, the same Khalid wrote a letter for him and managed to help him get into Harvard.
Interesting theory.