A New College Challenges Canada's Public Model

The first private, secular, liberal-arts institution in the country promises a different approach to teaching

David J. Helfand, chairman of the astronomy department at Columbia University, dashes around the classroom as students fire questions at him from all sides.

In this freshman physics-and-astronomy course, he has asked his small group to tackle a big project: design a solar system.

"You've got the science," he tells them. "Now here's the fiction part."

The

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