Columbia University uncovered a $3 million loss related to Bernard Madoff, the school said.

The university said yesterday it discovered the loss after a review of its investments.

An alumnus, whose name wasn’t made public, made a 1980 gift to Columbia’s law school while retaining the right to decide how the money should be invested.

In general, gifts are invested in the university’s “merged endowment pool” overseen by its investment management company, said a university spokesman.

Columbia hasn’t discovered any money in its merged endowment pool that was invested with J. Ezra Merkin, an alumnus of the university’s Columbia College and an emeritus member of the college’s Board of Visitors, the university said.

In Boston, an associate of Madoff’s, Robert Jaffe, failed to appear at a hearing with Massachusetts securities regulators.

Lawyer Stanley Arkin said his client, who raised money for Madoff in Massachusetts and Florida, would not show up yesterday because he is challenging the validity of the subpoena from Secretary of State William Galvin.