One of the foundational reasons for the Core’s existence is that it sets for students a specific education that this institution has deemed necessary. By nature, the Core requires adults to select the content that every student will study.
The assumption behind this practice is that the professors who shape the Core simply know more about the world and the knowledge necessary to thrive in it. The choice to come to this Core-obsessed school is a vote of confidence in these older people who will define a full third of our course load at Columbia.
The Global Core breaks from this tradition. Instead of being told what we should know in a globalized world, we are instead invited to select two courses from a list of nearly 100 options. For some reason, the administration thinks it's appropriate to expect 18-22 year olds to know enough about the world to select several courses that will expose them to just a part of it.
