I appreciate your clarifications, which make perfect sense. My original purpose was twofold:
1) to encourage those looking for Obama’s name on graduation rosters to check ALL lists for the various schools at Columbia University — not just the College; and,
2) to examine the claims in an article on a webpage clearly labelled as belonging to Columbia College, that proclaims Obama is an alumnus of Columbia College. It makes no reference to Columbia University. This appears to be an official Columbia College website. Is it? (Please see link in Post 52 above).
If someone graduated, or even just attended, a different school within the Columbia University system, but not Columbia College itself, would Columbia College consider that person as a Columbia College graduate or alumnus? Your remarks lead me to believe the answer is NO. (It seems plausible for Columbia College graduates to be considered alumni of the umbrella University, but not the other way around.) We might believe Obama did not graduate from Columbia College. Yet the article says what it says. How can this be?
I have no ideas except these:
1. Everybody loves a winner. It might be that the College decided to ‘adopt’ him after he became famous—but that is another reason not to release information and why no contemporaneous records can be found nor any other ‘classmate’ who remembers him.
2. Columbia used to have a policy about class attendance whereby you actually didn’t have to attend class beyond the allowed absences—IF you maintained a B- or better in the course. This is a remote possibility but it is a practice that I took advantage of so I know it well.
Because I was in NYC and something of a party boy and athlete, I wasn’t about to be constrained by crummy attendance rules. I sometimes scheduled two courses at the same hour and my attendance was spotty at best. However, I still managed to maintain my grades and graduate, but I was pretty well known (not to say notorious) at the school. So a complete absence from attendance with graduation is possible, if unlikely.
General Studies students can take courses that are offered in Columbia College with permission and if that course is necessary for their course of study but not offered in GS.
So it is possible that a GS student could have taken a College course and be remembered by that professor—but not be in the regular student body of Columbia College.