Bollinger to name provost soon

University President Lee Bollinger said in an interview on Friday that he would announce the name of Columbia’s next provost—or chief academic officer—over the next week.
The new candidate will take over after current provost and history professor Alan Brinkley steps down to take a year of leave before returning as a faculty member of the history department.

The appointment of a new provost—whose role includes responsibilities pertaining to the University budget, faculty hiring, tenure, diversity initiatives, the School at Columbia, and the Columbia University Press—is particularly noteworthy in light of the endowment decline and budgetary readjustments that the University has endured due to the financial crisis.

It also takes on a heightened significance during a year of much administrative turnover, as the next year will see new deans at Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

“There will be many things that ... I’ll want that person to get done, one of which will be looking at the budget model across the whole University,” Bollinger said of the incoming provost’s responsibilities. “I think it’s probably a time in which to deal with University finances.”

Bollinger also stated that the new provost will have to continue working on the University’s Capital Campaign, in order to raise funds to compensate for the financial losses sustained recently. Bollinger added that he plans to release an update on the University’s economic situation soon.

In addition to dealing with the repercussions of the economic crisis, the new provost will be responsible for a host of issues that have been developing within the University over time. One such issue is the University’s long-term, large-scale expansion into Manhattanville, and the internal ramifications the new spaces will have.

“The planning of Manhattanville will go into a new stage, and we will be creating a body of advisory groups, faculty, and students to help with the concrete planning of Manhattanville,” Bollinger said.

Aside from continued work on the expansion, Bollinger said he hopes the new provost will take initiative on other aspects of the University that could be improved. These aspects include advancing the Global Centers in various locations—in addition to the current offices that are open in Amman and Beijing, a launch in India and a rededication of Reid Hall in Paris are in the works—as well as changing the relationship between Columbia’s Morningside Heights and Medical Center campuses.

Bollinger also expressed relief at the imminent announcement, because it marks the end of a line of major administrative appointments that have been announced throughout the semester, including the appointment of Michele Moody-Adams as Columbia College Dean and Feniosky Peña-Mora as the dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

“I think we’ll come to a point here where I will not have any more appointments to make,” Bollinger said, laughing. By next year, the deans of most of Columbia’s schools and other top administrators will have been appointed by Bollinger.

While the appointment of the new provost holds great significance for the future of Columbia, the announcement may not seem relevant to students in the short term, especially when it is often not clear to them what exactly the provost does.

For instance, Liana Tedesco, CC ’11, said she knew neither the name of the current provost nor what the title signified.

“The appointment of a new provost doesn’t really affect my everyday life,” Tedesco said. “But since it’s important to Columbia, I guess it’s indirectly important to me too.”