BREAKING NEWS. Posted at 11:30 a.m. Michele Moody-Adams, vice provost for undergraduate education at Cornell University, will become Columbia College's next dean, assuming the mantle from Austin Quigley and becoming the first woman and first African American to hold the post. She will begin her tenure on July 1, 2009.
Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger broke the news to "student leaders" in a message sent at about 11 a.m. "You will receive an email from President Bollinger shortly regarding the official appointment of the new dean of Columbia College," Shollenberger wrote. "I am extremely pleased that Michele Moody-Adams, Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Education at Cornell University, has accepted the university's offer to come to Columbia. Not only is Dr. Moody-Adams an established scholar and administrator, her commitment to student life is notable and I look forward to her arrival on campus." Moody-Adams was chosen by a confidential selection committee spearheaded by Vice President for Arts and Sciences Nicholas Dirks, and composed of professors, students, and alumni.
“The Columbia undergraduate experience combines the best ideals of a liberal education with the highest respect for cutting-edge scholarship and research,” Moody-Adams said in a press release from the University. “I look forward to joining the Columbia community and to taking a leading role in the continuing development of its outstanding undergraduate programs.”
Later in the day, Bollinger notified undergraduates in an e-mail. "With the appointment of Michele Moody-Adams, we know that Columbia College will continue to be in good hands in the years ahead," he wrote.
Aside from her administrative post, Moody-Adams holds an appointment in the department of philosophy, and is Hutchinson Professor of Ethics and Public Life at Cornell. She is also the director of Cornell's Program on Ethics and Public Life. According to Cornell's Web site, "She does research and teaching on a variety of issues in ethical theory, the history of ethics, political philosophy, practical ethics, the philosophy of law, and the history of philosophy. Professor Moody-Adams has published on such topics as moral relativism, moral objectivity, and moral psychology, as well as on problems of social and economic justice, feminism and equality, and the moral implications of reproductive technologies."
Moody-Adams graduated from Wellesley College in 1978 with a B.A. in philosophy. She attended Somerville College at Oxford University on a Marshall Scholarship, and received a B.A. in philosophy, politics, and economics, in 1980. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University in 1986. Moody-Adams wrote her dissertation on “Moral Philosophy Naturalized: Morality and Mitigated Skepticism in Hume" under the supervision of John Rawls. Before coming to Cornell in Fall of 2000, Moody-Adams worked at Indiana University, Bloomington as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education.
According to a press release from the University, Moody-Adams’ husband, James Eli Adams, will also move to the city. Adams, a Victorianist at Cornell, will teach as a visiting professor in English and comparative literature at Columbia.
“Professor Moody-Adams’ extraordinary commitment to teaching, scholarship and public service, as well as her hands-on experience as an academic administrator for undergraduate education, make her uniquely well suited to this new challenge,” University President Lee Bollinger said in the release. “Hers is the kind of approach to undergraduate education imagined by Columbians who created and nurtured a Core Curriculum that has called on generations of students to reflect deeply on our shared intellectual traditions, challenge their own preconceptions about the world, remain open to the perspectives of others and grapple with the questions essential to active citizenship in a democracy.”
“I am so pleased that Michele Moody-Adams is the person who will succeed me as dean of the College,” Quigley said in the release. “She has a splendid record of academic and administrative achievement and has all the abilities needed to sustain the momentum of the College’s progress.”
The search for Quigley's successor began after he announced in a May 2008 e-mail that he would be stepping down from his administrative post. Quigley, who has served in the position since 1995, gave no specific reason for retiring other than time. “Deciding when to move on from a position of responsibility is always a challenge,” Quigley wrote, “but wisdom is on the side of doing so when things continue to go well.” Quigley, known as a champion fundraiser, will remain on Columbia’s faculty as the Brander Matthews professor of dramatic literature, and will also serve as special advisor to the president for undergraduate education.
Stay tuned for updates.
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