Bollinger Carves Out Niche

A year ago, he was much like any other Columbia first-year.

Accepted early, he was excited about the school and especially the city, but more eager than knowledgeable. He had a lot to learn, he acknowledged from the start, but he wasn't going to let that fact hold him back. He was going to get involved in all the campus issues even while he was still finding his way around campus because, well, there was so much to do, and darned if he was going to watch from the sidelines.

And now, as he completes his first year at Columbia, University President Lee Bollinger still sounds a little like his classmates in Carman and John Jay--he had fun, he met some great people, and he learned a few things about life in the big city.

"For me personally it's been a great year," Bollinger said earlier this month. "I have thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I really in many ways couldn't be happier professionally. It's a tremendous institution, and it's been very welcoming, and the issues that I have to work on are of great intrinsic interest to me."

At the same time, Bollinger said, "Getting your mind around the institution is very difficult; you really have to know a lot about its history, you have to know a lot about the individuals you need to work with. You need to work out very complex systems that have been worked out over time."

Bollinger has shown little fear at making changes to those systems. He has begun widely publicized changes to the Graduate School of Journalism and the School of the Arts and launched a major space-planning initiative that will likely help decide the shape of Columbia long after Bollinger has left office.

Of equal, perhaps even greater, importance are decisions he has made about the structure of his administration that have received far less press: he has taken personal oversight of the health sciences away from the provost, thoroughly revamped the offices of Public Affairs and Alumni Relations, and broken down the barriers between financial and administrative sectors of the University.

Bollinger has made sweeping personnel changes as well. He brought in new vice presidents to head the restructured Public Affairs and Alumni Relations offices and appointed a new vice president for Student Services, and he radically changed the role of Executive Vice President for Community and Government Affairs Emily Lloyd. But perhaps the most significant personnel change of Bollinger's first year was the hiring of one of his closest aides from the University of Michigan, Robert Kasdin, whom he gave the newly created title of senior executive vice president.

Kasdin has quickly become a hugely influential member of the administration, playing a leading role in the decision to withdraw from the failed online venture Fathom.com, helping to oversee both the space-planning and budget processes, and conducting a general review of the structure of the administration. He has become Bollinger's chief problem-solver, or, in the words of Lloyd, a "utility infielder."

"He is the head and hands that Lee trusts ... to work a difficult problem for him," Lloyd said of Kasdin.

Bollinger has also appointed a new provost, Allen Nevins Professor of History Alan Brinkley, to replace Jonathan Cole and expects to name a new vice president for Arts and Sciences to replace David Cohen by the end of this month, although he says both Cole and Cohen are stepping down by choice. Despite all the major changes, however, Bollinger has retained many officials from former President George Rupp's administration, particularly at the lower levels, and he says he does not expect any other major changes.

Bollinger said at the beginning of his term that he had much to learn and that he would spend much of his first year listening to those who knew more about Columbia than he did, but he has quickly drawn criticism, especially from faculty members, for failing to consult them enough before decision making. Over the summer he caught faculty in the journalism school off guard by announcing that he was halting the search for a new dean and rethinking the entire mission of the school. He then appointed a task force dominated by outsiders to help him think about the future of journalism education and was criticized by several members of the task force for using the committee for show.

Similar criticisms have been levelled against Bollinger by members of the search committees chosen to select the new provost and vice president for Arts and Sciences and by faculty members involved in the space-planning process.

Bollinger acknowledged that he has strong opinions on many issues but denied that he was unreceptive to alternative viewpoints.

"I've listened to a lot of people who disagree with what I'm doing," Bollinger said. "It certainly is true that I have ideas about things and that I am willing to articulate them, but it is certainly not the case that I am uninterested in having opportunities for discussions and changing my mind where there are good arguments for doing so."

Bollinger said he was still in the process of figuring out how best to interact with faculty members and others, a process he called "more difficult than one might think."

"The more you get to know people and know generally their viewpoints, I think the more you can, as you confront a hard decision, construct ways to discuss issues with people," Bollinger said. "You can anticipate who is going to disagree with you and you can call them and you can have meetings with them, and I just don't know enough yet in that way to be able to do it."

Lloyd also defended Bollinger, saying his strong opinions actually helped get more people involved in decisions.

"The fact that he's really bold in the beginning really elicits more response than you might have had otherwise," Lloyd said. "He doesn't tease it all out of people; he jolts it out of them."

And, Lloyd added, Bollinger is actually extremely adept at listening to a wide variety of people and incorporating their ideas into his plans.

Bollinger has not had to worry about dissent only from within Columbia's walls. Several of his initiatives drew national press attention, as did the turmoil over comments made by Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Latino Studies Nicholas De Genova at a teach-in earlier this semester. Bollinger said he was struck this year by how much attention is paid to everything that goes on at Columbia.

"Columbia's an amazing place in the world," Bollinger said. "Things that happen at Columbia, or can happen at Columbia, seem to have a 10-fold impact in the world, or are perceived as having a 10-fold impact, from almost any other place."

But Bollinger said he did not mind the attention.

"I find debate and discussion very stimulating. It's what I like to do," he said. "I mean, I think it's the essence of what a great university is. At some point, you must arrive at judgments, you have to arrive at decisions, but I am very comfortable taking on major questions and working them through, not being distracted by harsh, unfair criticism or unthinking support. ... You need to listen to people and you need to articulate what you think, and that kind of engagement with these issues, I really enjoy. Forget about my enjoying it, I think that it's important to do. So what's interesting to me is the degree to which that's possible at Columbia, on a much wider scale than, as I said, almost any place else that I can imagine."