Kent Hall

Kent Hall, home of the MEALAC and EALAC departments, is named after James Kent, Columbia's first law professor. Built originally to house Columbia University's Law School, it served in that purpose from 1910 to 1960, when the Law School moved across Amsterdam Ave. to the more spacious and ugly Jerome Green Hall. During that time it served as a focal point for the growing movement to admit women to the law school. It was not until 1927 that women were said to have "crossed the threshold of Kent Hall".

The campus level (3rd Floor) library, now the C.V. Starr East Asian Library, was once the Law Library, and the stained glass window on the east side of the Library is a clear relic of that bygone era.

Currently, the building is home to the departments of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures.

On its ground floor, easily accessible from College Walk, Kent also serves as the home of Student Services and several of it's offices including Student Financial Services, the University Registrar, and the ID Center. The offices seamlessly extend through Kent into Philosophy, which are connected by ground level tunnel.