International House of New York

The International House of New York, also known as I House, is a graduate and professional residence hall and program center servicing various universities throughout the City of New York, including Columbia University, Juilliard School, New York University, the Manhattan School of Music, the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, the Teachers College, and the City University of New York, among others.

Housing 700 students from over 100 countries, it is currently located at 500 Riverside Drive, next to Grants Tomb in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The original entrance to International House is inscribed with the motto written by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.: "That Brotherhood May Prevail." The piazza of the original, gracious entrance opens into Sakura Park, or would, if the gates were not kept chained shut.

History

The initial impetus for the I House was the YMCA official Harry Edmonds, who spearheaded efforts to obtain initial funding for the house after a chance encounter with a lonely Chinese graduate student at Columbia University in 1909. It was finally created in 1924 with funding from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (who later funded identical houses at the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkeley), as well as the Cleveland H. Dodge family, to foster relationships between students from different countries. Other Rockefeller family members to have served on the board of trustees include Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, David and Peggy Rockefeller, David Rockefeller, Jr., and Abby O'Neill.

The New York International House was the first of many international houses in a coast-to-coast movement to create a safe space for international students seeking to further their education. Other cities with international houses include: Berkeley, Chicago, Philadelphia, London, Melbourne, Brisbane (Australia), and Paris.

The chairman of the Board of Trustees is former Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, Paul A. Volcker. The Chairman of the Board's Executive Committee is William D. Rueckert, a member of the Dodge family, whose generous gifts contributed to the development of both International House and the Columbia University Teachers College.

I House's current president is Donald L. Cuneo, an alumnus of I House and Columbia University's law and business schools.

Notable alumni

There are currently 65,000 living I House alumni worldwide. Among the more notable:

*Chinua Achebe, Nigerian writer, author of "Things Fall Apart"
*Pina Bausch, German chroreographer
*Mark Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium
*Jorge Ibargüengoitia, Mexican novelist
*Burl Ives, actor
*Jerzy Kosinski, writer, author of "Being There"
*Flora Lewis, journalist
*Mark Mathabane, South African writer, author of "Kaffir Boy"
*Ashley Montague, anthropologist
*I.M. Pei, architect
*Leontyne Price, opera star
*David Sainsbury, British supermarket magnate
*George Soros, billionaire Hungarian investor
*Shirley Verrett, opera star
*Dale Peck, US writer, novelist, literary columnist and critic
* Nobel laureates Wassily Leontief and Carlo Rubbia
*Kiran Desai, author

External links

* [http://www.ihouse-nyc.org/s/707/index.aspx?sid=707&gid=1&pgid=261 International House - New York: History]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE7DC1E30F932A15757C0A963958260 NYT Chronicle (1995): International House]