书城外语英语PARTY——时尚之国·美国
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第29章 名校风采Famous Universities(2)

Columbia University is a privateprivate adj.私人的, 私有的, 私营的, 秘密的 n.士兵 university in New York City. It was established in 1754 as King,s College and is the fifth oldest institution of higher education in the United States.

The school, a member of the Ivy League, now legally known as Columbia University in the City of New York, is incorporated under the name Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. The undergraduate schools are Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, known as SEAS. A third undergraduate division, the School of General Studies, is for students who have interrupted their undergraduate studies and want to resumeresume n.摘要, 概略, 〈美〉履历 vt.再继续, 重新开始, 重新占用, 再用, 恢复 in order to obtain their degree. Affiliated programs are offered through the Jewish Theological Seminary, Teachers College, and Barnard College, Columbia,s original sister school. Columbia is considered to be one of the most prestigious universities in the world, as a leader in the sciences, the humanitieshumanities 人文学科, law, medicine, education, architecture, engineering and business. The University boasts excellent graduate programs in the humanities, sciences and engineering as well, the most notable including the Law school, the Business school, the Journalism school, the Medical School, and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), which all offer professional degrees among the top of their field.

Campus

Due to former university president Seth Low,s late 19th century vision of a university campus where all disciplines could be taught and free discourse enjoyed by all, most of Columbia,s graduate and undergraduate studies are conducted in Morningside Heights - quite an achievement, given the difficulty of finding contiguous real estate in Manhattan, even during the 19th century. This campus was designed by acclaimed architects McKim, Mead, and White and is considered one of their greater successes.

Columbia,s main campus occupies six blocks, 32 acres (132,000 m2), in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, and its largest satellitesatellite n.人造卫星 campus, Health Sciences, is situated some fifty blocks uptown in the island,s Washington Heights. This makes Columbia not only New York City,s only Ivy League school but also, by some accounts, the city,s third - largest landownerlandowner n.地主, 土地所有者 after the Catholic Church and the City itself, with holdings that include the fiftystory former General Electric Building at 570 Lexington Avenue (not to be confused with the current GE Building in Rockefeller Center).

Graduate Employee Unionization

In the Fall of 2000, a group of graduate teaching assistants, upset over conditions, decided to form a union, Graduate Student Employees United. They affiliated with UAW Local 2110. These workers expressed outrage over low wages, inadequate health care, inconsistent duties, and lack of voice in their workplace. By March 2001 a majority of teaching assistants at Columbia had signed cards calling for union recognition. Following months of opposition by Columbia administrators, the National Labor Relations Board granted teaching and research assistants a federally supervised election on the question of unionization. Immediately following this election, the university administration appealed, causing the ballots to be impounded. In July 2004, the NLRB reversed earlier precedentprecedent n.先例 and ruled that graduate employees do not have a right to form unions under federal labor law. Consequently, the uncounted ballots have been destroyed.

Prounion graduate employees have sought to pressure Columbia,s administration to recognize their union in other ways. They have struck their work three times. In April 2002, they held a oneday strike calling for the NLRBsupervised election ballots to be counted. In April 2004, an indefinite strike lasted four weeks and disrupted numerous classes and finals at Columbia. In April 2005, a one week strike led to numerous class cancellationscancellation n.取消 and disruptionsdisruption n.中断, 分裂, 瓦解, 破坏.

Cornell University康乃尔大学

康乃尔大学建于1865年,是由艾兹拉·康乃尔创建的。在所有“常春藤盟校”中,康乃尔是历史最短的一个,而同时它又是最大的一个。它拥有本科生13 000多人,遥遥领先于其他“常春藤盟校”,让人想起“百川归海,有容乃大”的古话。

康乃尔大学在纽约市附近的小镇绮色佳,那里景色优美,气势开阔。康乃尔的校园位于山顶,在图书馆凭窗远眺,只见苍苍茫茫,一派辽阔气象。校园面积有3000多英亩,与美国东北部典型的较为拥挤的大学相比,呈现出一派宏大气度。

与完全私立的其他“常春藤盟校”相比,康乃尔大学的体制也是别具特色的,它是“公私合营”式的大学。在七所学院中,农业与生物学院、人类环境学院和工业与劳工关系学院是公立学院,受纽约州政府管辖。而其他四所学院:艺术科学学院、建筑艺术与规划学院、工程学院和旅馆管理学院则是私立的。康乃尔大学汇集了公立与私立学院的优点,张开双臂欢迎来自四面八方的学子们。

康乃尔的旅馆管理学院是全美首屈一指的。为了训练学习,康乃尔自设了酒店。农业学院在全国同类大学中也数一数二,从这里出来的学生很多都进了兽医学院继续深造,攻读硕士和博士学位。此外,康乃尔还有耗资3500万美元的康乃尔国家超级电脑中心。

康乃尔大学的校色是大红,鲜艳热烈,热情奔放。当年老康乃尔创立这所大学的目的,就是“让任何人都能在这里学到想学的科目”。似乎任何人的青春都能在康乃尔这里燃烧。

Cornell University was founded In 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White. It opened October 7, 1868. Morrill Hall was the first building constructed on the main Ithaca campus, which today includes more than 260 major buildings on 745 acres. Cornell is a private endowed university and the federal landgrant institution of New York State. It is a member of the Ivy League and a partner of the State University of New York. There are fourteen colleges and schools, seven undergraduate units and four graduate and professional units in Ithaca, two medical graduate and professional units in New York City, and one in Qatar.

Once called “the first American university” by educational historian Frederick Rudolph, Cornell University represents a distinctive mix of eminenteminent adj.显赫的, 杰出的, 有名的, 优良的 scholarship and democraticdemocratic adj.民主的, 民主主义的, 民主政体的, 平民的 ideals. Adding practical subjects to the classics and admitting qualified students regardless of nationality, race, social circumstance, gender, or religion was quite a departuredeparture n.启程, 出发, 离开 when Cornell was founded in 1865.