Columbia Celebrates Its Bicentennial (Again)

   With convocations, proclamations and 
perorations, Columbia College is 
celebrating its bicentennial this month - 
the biggest party since 1954 when, with 
convocations, proclamations and 
perorations, it also celebrated a 
bicentennial. 
   While 200th birthdays 33 years apart may 
sound like the mathematical manipulations 
of eager college public relations 
officials, Columbia indeed had a 200th 
birthday in 1954 and can rightfully claim 
one again now.                                                                  
   The college was founded as King's 
College in 1754. It was closed during the 
Revolutionary War and in 1784 was renamed  
Columbia College. On April 13, 1787, a new 
charter was granted by the State of New 
York - thanks mostly to the efforts and 
diplomacy of Alexander Hamilton, an alumnus 
of King's College - and Columbia College 
was established as an independent 
institution under the private control of 
its own trustees, Hamilton among them. 
   It is the bicentennial of that charter 
that Columbia is now observing. 
   Festivities are to begin Friday with a 
celebration stretching much of the length 
of Manhattan. At 10 A.M. hundreds of 
Columbia students, faculty members, 
administrators, alumni and assorted 
supporters are to board a special subway 
train at 116th Street and ride nonstop to 
Lower Manhattan. 
  
'Roar, Lion, Roar' 
 
   A parade led by the Columbia marching  
and concert bands playing "Roar, Lion, 
Roar" and other appropriate tunes, will 
march down lower Broadway, past Trinity 
Church, the birthplace of King's College, 
to Federal Hall. There Mayor Koch will 
read a proclamation and speeches will be 
given by Michael I. Sovern, president of 
the university;  Robert E. Pollack, dean of 
the college, and Henry F. Graff, a 
professor of history. 
   A reception and luncheon will follow 
inside Federal Hall while the Columbia 
Dixieland band plays on the steps. 
   Beginning Friday afternoon and 
continuing through Sunday there will be 
celebrations on campus. On Friday night a 
bicentennial ball will be held at the 
college. 
   Sunday at 8 P.M. there will be a 
celebration at the Metropolitan Opera House,
with Walter Cronkite as the host. 
   The evening will also include excerpts 
from motion pictures filmed at Columbia  
and a number of performers, including the 
New York Oratorio Society, which performed 
at the Columbia centennial celebration. 
   On April 13, the actual anniversary of 
the signing of the charter, a formal 
academic procession, readings and an 
oration will take place at 10:30 A.M. in 
St. Paul's Chapel on the campus.