“Columbia College does not require a “thesis” for graduation. What the author of the article must be referring to is some type of senior paper. These are always returned to the student and are not kept by the University.”
I don’t know specifically about Columbia, but at Princeton and Duke, seniors must (Princeton) or may (Duke) write a “senior honors thesis” which is not simply a term paper, (which is why it merits the moniker “thesis”). NYT obviously may have been sloppy in its reporting, but my presumption is that it used the term “thesis” because that’s how it was described to the reporter. So the mere fact that Columbia doesn’t require a thesis of all seniors does not mean that Obama could not have written one.
As for retention policies, universities do make a point of retaining these in bound form for their PhD students. But they make no similar effort to systematically retain the far larger volume of theses written by Masters students and seniors. I concur that today, such theses generally are prized by their authors, who generally make a point of at least retaining their own copy and even sending a bound copy to their advisor and/or parents. BUT Obama’s was written in 1983, when the cost of reproduction may have been much more prohibitive than it is today. So there’s nothing sinister or mysterious about Obama’s having failed to do so. Moreover, for all we know his grandmother did have a copy among her possessions, but Obama did a rather thorough job of keeping the press away from her.
To all appearances, Obama “travels light” (leaving aside his 500 person entourage to Europe). He’s no packrat, having apparently tossed all his papers related to being an Illinois legislator. Perhaps there was a sinister motivation to cover up corruption/malfeasance, but it may also simply be a lifestyle choice. Obama always has had his “eye on the prize” and relative to being POTUS, any accomplishments in college or his subsequent career are pretty small potatoes.
Columbia College does not require a thesis for any senior, period. I hardly think Obama would spend hours and hours writing a thesis if it were not required coursework. We can blame this whole flap on the incompetence of the NY Times in misreporting it.