Student & Alumni Affairs

Student & Alumni Affairs

COVID-19 Resources

Additional Resources for those in need of support during this time:

A Welcome Message from Laila Maher

Dean of Student and Alumni Affairs

The Office of Student Affairs provides a wide range of services. In addition to guiding new students through the process of transitioning to the School of the Arts, we plan the School-wide orientation, graduation ceremony, and many events and panels in between. We assist students with registration, billing, and co-curricular requirements and activities. We support student groups and manage student events and activities, and we help students navigate many of the central offices across the University, including Health Services (which houses the Office of Disability Services, Insurance, Immunization, and Counseling and Psychological Services), Career Services, Housing, Public Safety, University Life, the International Students and Scholars Office, and the Registrars Office. Our office also helps to uphold many of the School and University-wide policies and we manage the School’s disciplinary procedures.

The Artists’ Resource Center (ARC), also part of our Office, is a portal containing specially curated funding opportunities and career resources for students and alumni at the Columbia University School of the Arts. Available exclusively to School of the Arts students and alumni, the ARC is host to a database of more than 1,100 grants, scholarships, residencies, and other funding opportunities for artists. The ARC also contains resources for professional artists, from financial and legal services to grantwriting tips and information about joining guilds and unions.

After graduation, the Office of Alumni Affairs provides more than 7000 alumni artists, creators, and leaders with meaningful opportunities to stay connected with the School of the Arts, the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA), and one another through alumni programming, benefits, a monthly newsletter, and collaborations with CAA Arts Access.

We are also the best place to go when you’re not sure what to do or whom to ask your question. Ultimately, the most important thing we do is support and advocate for our students during their time at the School and into their lives as alumni.

Student & Alumni News

The Fabelmans, co-written by alumnus Tony Kushner (CC '78) and director Steven Spielberg, was one of the winners at

Four Way Books is set to publish If Some God Shakes Your House by Writing alumna Jennifer Franklin '96 in March.

Arya, a short film by alumna Federica Belletti’16, has been awarded the BAFTA-Yugo Short Film Commissioning Grant. 

Film Student Minkyu Kang recently won a DGA Student Film Award for his short, Children of Light

Thirst for Salt, a debut novel from Adjunct Associate Professor Madelaine Lucas ’19, is forthcoming from Tin House in March of this year. 

The Literature Translation Institute of Korea, with support from the Korean Ministry of Culture, awarded alumna E. J.

Playwriting alumnus Jeffrey James Keyes ’10 has been selected to join Pipeline Theatre Company’s PlayLab Class of 2023.

Translations by Adjunct Assistant Professor Megan McDowell, former Adjunct Assistant Professor Julia Sanches, and Writing alumna Hannah Kauders '20

Directing alumnus Kareem Fahmy ’07 has several upcoming world premieres and productions for his two new plays, American Fast and A Dis

Visual Arts alumni Sophie Kovel ’22 and Adjunct Assistant Professor,

Assistant Professor of Visual Arts, Adama Delphine Fawundu ’18 has been awarded one of three CatchLight Fellowships.

It was Saturday September 17, 2022, and Columbia alumni Kamari Carter ’19 and Julian Day ’20 were performing their collaborative sound and light pi