On March 18, 2024, Dean Lisa Rosen-Metsch shared the following message via email with the Columbia GS student community regarding updates to the Columbia GS diploma.
After much consideration and significant feedback from Columbia GS students and alumni, I am thrilled to share that we have decided to begin issuing diplomas in Latin for all Columbia GS graduates beginning with the upcoming May 2024 graduation term. This decision was not taken lightly and was informed by multiple surveys of students and alumni over the last few years. Most recently, the majority of students on our student survey conducted last Spring (with a 67% response rate) and the alumni survey conducted last fall indicated that students preferred their diploma in Latin. This change will now align our school with Columbia College, Barnard College, and most of the other Ivy League colleges. Please note that this change will not affect GS alumni who completed their coursework before May 2024—nor will those alumni be able to request a Latin diploma—as the Columbia Registrar cannot modify diplomas that have already been issued. Many thanks to the student leaders over the years who persisted in their partnership with our administrative team to get us to this point. I also want to thank our Columbia University Registrar for collaborating with us to make this possible for our graduates starting this May.
I wish you all the best in this last stretch of the semester and look forward to celebrating our new GS graduates on May 13 at Class Day.
