A brief history of the Graduate Studies Program at The New York Botanical Garden

Abstract

The New York Botanical Garden initiated its Graduate Studies Program through a cooperative agreement with Columbia University in 1896. This arrangement continued until the late 1960s, when the Biology Department at Columbia chose to emphasize laboratory-related research and discontinued its organismal programs. At the time a new partnership was formed with what was to become Lehman College of the City University of New York—a program that has continued through the present. Since the inception of its Graduate Studies Program 100 years ago, the Garden has provided sponsorship, guidance, and resources to help more than 200 studients receive graduate degrees. In recent years the Garden has expanded its graduate program to include four additional university affiliates: the Department of Biology at New York University, the Institute of Systematic Botany at Cornell University, the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, and, in a new agreement with an old partner, the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation at Columbia University.