Barnard’s 15th Annual Awards Dinner Honoring Judy C. Lewent of Merck & Co., Inc., and David H. Komansky of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., Raises $1.22 Million for College Financial Aid Programs, May 14

New York, NY, May 16, 2002—Barnard College’s 15th Annual Awards Dinner, honoring Judy C. Lewent, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Merck & Co., Inc., and David H. Komansky, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., for their civic and charitable contributions, was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Tuesday, May 14.

"Barnard’s version of the Academy Awards," as the annual event has come to be known, drew over 500 guests to the Ballroom to raise $1.22 million for financial aid programs at the College.

"A colleague of mine asked me if I was getting paid for this gig," said Master of Ceremonies Anna Quindlen ’74 in her opening remarks. "I responded that I was already paid in full 30 years ago, and of course that is when I attended Barnard College."

She went on to say, "Barnard made me what I am today and I owe it to her to pay it back."

"A first-rate liberal arts education," said Judith Shapiro, President of Barnard, in thanking the sponsors of the dinner, "depends on faculty who have themselves had lengthy, specialized education; it depends on sophisticated facilities and equipment that must continually be renewed and upgraded; it depends on quality programs and fresh ideas. Great colleges like Barnard, which make our country’s system of higher education the envy of the rest of the world, are the creations and achievements of philanthropy."

"It’s always wonderful to participate in hosting the Barnard Annual Dinner," said John Furth, a dinner chair. "It is vital to give so that these bright students get a chance to obtain the education Barnard has to offer. Barnard students are incredibly diverse. They maybe a daughter of immigrants who did not have a chance to attend college or they maybe a daughter of a Washington diplomat. One thing is for sure, they are carrying two majors, working part-time, performing community service, and perhaps readying a novel for publication."

"Barnard is committed to admitting the most promising of applicants, without regard to their ability to meet the costs," said Gayle Robinson, Chair of Barnard’s Board of Trustees. "By being here tonight, you are helping us honor that commitment."

Two students affirmed the difference financial aid has made in their lives. Meredith Doster ’03 came to Barnard from Germany with the intention of studying French and music. After encountering a large Jewish community for the first time in her life, she became interested in learning more about that culture. "I soon realized," she said, "that although I had learned a lot of factual and historical information about the Holocaust in Germany, I had no understanding of the remaining Jewish communities in the world."

Alexis Pauline Gumbs ’04 opened her speech with a poem, ‘blink,’ written the summer after her first year at Barnard while she was living in her father’s childhood home and working on a book about her grandmother’s lifelong activism in the Caribbean. She feels Barnard’s atmosphere of excellence and her family’s strong examples of womanhood have simultaneously driven her to found publications, publish her own books of poetry and lead organizations on campus and around the country. "The generous contributions that our honorees and their corporations donate to Barnard College allow students from traditionally under-represented backgrounds and experiences to enrich and inform our educational environment," she said.

In her introduction of Judy C. Lewent, one of the honorees, President Shapiro mentioned Lewent’s advice to a graduating class to cultivate their special passions and to keep knocking on doors until one opened. This advice, President Shapiro went on, has certainly been followed by Lewent, who, in addition to her position at Merck, also serves as a member of the RAND Health Board of Advisors, a nonprofit institute that helps improve the nation’s healthcare policy.

Lewent received the etched-crystal Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger Award, named after the alumna and civic leader, noting the honor she felt to receive an award named after Sulzberger. "Iphigene was much more than a civic leader," she said. "She was an ardent supporter of women’s education and it gives me great honor to receive this special award in her name."

Lewent described the special connection she feels to Barnard and Columbia. Her great aunt, Irma Schuler, was class of 1917 and her husband, graduated from Columbia’s law and business schools. She also thanked her friend and mentor, honorary dinner chair Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Merck, who with his wife, Barnard alumna Diana T. Vagelos have made possible Barnard’s new Vagelos Alumnae Center. She also mentioned Helen Gayle ’76, director of HIV/AIDS & TB at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who is also working with Merck to build an AIDS foundation.

"At Merck we are working globally on the AIDS crisis on prevention and medical treatment programs," she said. "We are both hoping to save lives and to build long-term models for others to emulate. I am proud to follow in the footsteps of the great Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger."

The Frederick A.P. Barnard Award, named for Columbia’s tenth president and an early proponent of women’s education, went to David H. Komansky, who began as chairman of the board in April 1997 and chief executive officer in December 1996, the culmination of 34 years at Merrill Lynch. Among Komansky’s civic and charitable activities are serving on the board of trustees of the American Museum of Natural History and the New York City Police Foundations; governor of the United Way of Tri-State; member of the University of Miami’s International Advisory Board; and trustee of Tsinghua University in China, where he serves on the Executive Education Advisory Board.

"[You] have played an instrumental role in [Merrill Lynch]’s increasingly worldwide reach," said President Shapiro, "And you, yourself, have been globalized."

Komansky began his remarks by thanking President Shapiro, "Under her leadership, the College’s endowment has grown to an impressive figure."

"At Merrill Lynch our goal has been to support a variety of causes in education, the arts and social services," he said. "Our goal is to provide opportunities for underprivileged children and provide a pipeline for their future success. Our giving is not totally altruistic, however: it is not only the right thing to do, but it is the smart thing to do."

Along the same vein, Quindlen noted, "I got my degree in unafraid and I can observe the unafraid as I look at the women that have graduated from Barnard. Women in their 70s fighting for causes. Women in their 40s going to law school after teaching for a long time, or visa versa. Women in their 30s getting into fields which have been traditionally difficult to enter; becoming rabbis, researchers, litigators. Or even taking the chance to stay home and have kids. And look at the graduating seniors! Some from families with no college grads or English as a second language – they are unafraid. We see our investment paying back."