Relationship with Columbia University
The Barnard Bulletin in 1976 described the relationship between the college and Columbia University as "intricate and ambiguous." Barnard president Debora Spar said in 2012 that "the relationship is admittedly a complicated one, a unique one and one that may take a few sentences to explain to the outside community." Outside sources often describe Barnard as part of Columbia; The New York Times in 2013, for example, called Barnard "an undergraduate women's college of Columbia University." Its front gates read "Barnard College of Columbia University."
Barnard describes itself as "both an independently incorporated educational institution and an official college of Columbia University" that is "one of the University's four colleges, but we're largely autonomous, with our own leadership and purse strings," and advises students to state "Barnard College, Columbia University" or "Barnard College of Columbia University" on résumés.
Columbia refers to Barnard as one of its schools
and an affiliated institution that is a faculty of the university. Both the college and Columbia evaluate Barnard faculty for tenure; in other words, a Barnard tenured professor is a Columbia tenured professor.
Barnard graduates receive Columbia diplomas signed by the Barnard and the Columbia presidents; both diplomas are titled Cvratores Vniversitatis Colvmbiae ('Trustees of Columbia University'). According to the university, the Barnard College degree is held to the same standard as the Columbia College degree. Additionally, both—Barnard College and Columbia College—Columbia University diplomas are written in Latin.
Barnard graduates are also considered members of the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA), and are eligible to receive honors such as the annual Columbia Alumni Medal.
Barnard students wear the same graduation gown as undergraduates from Columbia College, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the School of General Studies, and their degrees are conferred during the University Commencement ceremony.
Smith and Columbia president Seth Low worked to open Columbia classes to Barnard students. By 1900 they could attend Columbia classes in philosophy, political science, and several scientific fields. That year, Barnard formalized an affiliation with the university that made available to its students the instruction and facilities of Columbia. Franz Boas, who taught at both Columbia and Barnard in the early 1900s, was among those faculty members who reportedly found Barnard students superior to their male Columbia counterparts. From 1955, Columbia and Barnard students could register for the other school's classes with the permission of the instructor; from 1973 no permission was needed.
Except for Columbia College, by the 1940s, other undergraduate and graduate divisions of Columbia University admitted women. Columbia president William J. McGill predicted in 1970 that Barnard College and Columbia College would merge within five years. In 1973, Columbia and Barnard signed a three-year agreement to increase sharing classrooms, facilities, and housing, and cooperation in faculty appointments, which they described as "integration without assimilation"; by the mid-1970s, most Columbia dormitories were coed. The university's financial difficulties during the decade increased its desire to merge to end what Columbia described as the "anachronism" of single-sex education, but Barnard resisted doing so because of Columbia's large debt, rejecting in 1975 Columbia dean Peter Pouncey's proposal to merge Barnard and the three Columbia undergraduate schools. The 1973–1976 chairwoman of the board at Barnard, Eleanor Thomas Elliott, led the resistance to the takeover. The college's marketing emphasized the Columbia relationship, however; the Bulletin in 1976 said that Barnard described it as identical to the one between Harvard College and Radcliffe College ("who are merged in practically everything but name at this point").
After Barnard rejected later merger proposals from Columbia and a one-year extension to the 1973 agreement expired, in 1977, the two schools began discussing their future relationship. By 1979, the relationship had so deteriorated that Barnard officials stopped attending meetings. Because of an expected decline in enrollment, in 1980 a Columbia committee recommended that Columbia College begin admitting women without Barnard's cooperation. A 1981 committee found that Columbia was no longer competitive with other Ivy League universities without women, and that admitting women would not affect Barnard's applicant pool. That year Columbia president Michael Sovern agreed for the two schools to cooperate in admitting women to Columbia, but Barnard faculty's opposition caused president Ellen Futter to reject the agreement.
A decade of negotiations for a Columbia-Barnard merger akin to Harvard and Radcliffe had failed. In January 1982, the two schools instead announced that Columbia College would begin admitting women in 1983, and Barnard's control over tenure for its faculty would increase; previously, a committee on which Columbia faculty outnumbered Barnard's three to two controlled the latter's tenure. Applications to Columbia rose 56% that year, making admission more selective, and nine Barnard students transferred to Columbia. Eight students admitted to both Columbia and Barnard chose Barnard, while 78 chose Columbia. Within a few years, however, selectivity rose at both schools as they received more women applicants than expected.
The Columbia-Barnard affiliation continued. As of 2012, Barnard paid Columbia about $5 million a year under the terms of the "interoperate relationship,
" which the two schools renegotiate every 15 years. Despite the affiliation, Barnard is legally and financially separate from Columbia with an independent faculty and board of trustees. It is responsible for its own separate admissions, health, security, guidance and placement services, and has its own alumnae association. Nonetheless, Barnard students participate in the academic, social, athletic and extracurricular life of the broader university community on a reciprocal basis. The affiliation permits the two schools to share some academic resources; for example, only Barnard has an urban studies and dance department and only Columbia has a computer science department. Most Columbia classes are open to Barnard students and vice versa. Barnard students and faculty are represented in the University Senate, and student organizations such as the Columbia Daily Spectator are open to all students. Barnard students play on Columbia athletics teams, including the Ivy League Consortium, and Barnard uses Columbia email, telephone, and network services.
Barnard athletes compete in the Ivy League (NCAA Division I) through the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium, which was established in 1983. Through the arrangement, Barnard is the only women's college offering Division I athletics. There are 15 intercollegiate teams, and students also compete at the intramural and club levels. From 1975 to 1983, before the establishment of the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium, Barnard students competed as the "Barnard Bears." Prior to 1975, students referred to themselves as the "Barnard Honeybears."
