Remember that contest for a new applied sciences campus that we lost? Well, we got a consolation prize! According to a press release from City Hall, the city will give Columbia $15 million towards the construction of the new Institute of Data Sciences & Engineering. Of course, it’s not really a new campus; Columbia’s just adding three extra buildings an extra building (along with space on currently empty floors) and 75 extra faculty members to the Manhattanville and Morningside campuses. (For more details on the original proposal for the new campus, check out the December 2011 Blue & White) But it’s still a pretty big deal. The press release says that the new campus “will provide a major boost to the City’s economy over the next several decades,” to the tune of nearly $4 billion.

The press release speaks of Columbia in such glowing terms that it might plausibly have been written by a member of the Class of 2016. Apparently, we are “one of the nation’s premier academic research institutions,” and “in the last decade, Columbia’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has grown rapidly in national prominence.”

By national prominence, they of course mean USNews ranking: “in a ranking of the top 20 engineering schools by US News and World Report during this time period, Columbia jumped from 31st to 16th in the country.” Though we’re not sure how SEAS was part of the top 20 when it ranked 31, we get the point: Columbia is so good. And the new data sciences campus will make it even better. Thanks for the 15 mil, Bloomberg!

Lion king reference via the NYC Mayors Office’s Instagram

Full Press Release