Debora Spar moved into Morningside Heights less than one year ago, bringing with her a family, a cat, and a chair from Harvard Business School.
But her first year as Barnard’s president may have felt much longer. “When I look back at this year I will remember that it started with the market collapse and ended with the swine flu,” Spar said in a recent interview. “In addition to the usual things that one would have to deal with in that position, there have been a lot of external events that have made it harder.”
At her inauguration during the fall, Spar outlined her plan as president, which included increasing Barnard’s presence abroad and providing more research support for faculty members. As the spring semester comes to a close, Spar has expressed a heightened understanding of Barnard, and students have recognized significant changes at the college—some of which Spar did not address at her inauguration.
Some of those unexpected changes, which have only come to the fore recently, include a restructuring of Barnard’s administration. In a change that reflects Spar’s more corporate tendencies, administrator Greg Brown’s title will be changed from vice president for financial planning to chief operating officer. Additionally, associate dean Vivian Taylor, who previously has overseen Higher Education Opportunity Program and enrichment programs, will now be Spar’s chief of staff in as well as vice president for community development. Michell Tollinchi-Michel will become the new director of academic support and enrichment programs, and Nikki Youngblood will serve as director for HEOP scholars.
Sarah Besnoff, Student Government Association president and BC ’09, said she is confident that the increased bureaucracy will not affect the administration’s relationship with students.
“Changes definitely do make the structure more corporate. But the important thing is that little is actually changing in terms of access to Spar. She will continue to hold office hours, teas and fireside chats,” Besnoff said. “Her chief of staff was created to ensure that someone from her office will be always be able to engage with students.”
During her first year, Spar has developed a reputation for being in touch with students. “She follows through on everything,” said Sharmin Ahmed, next year’s vice president of finance for SGA and BC ’10. “She picked up everything really fast. I’ve seen her at almost every event, wanting to get to know the student body.”
“Even before she came in she was asking student groups and especially the student government on issues that are relevant to the campus,” Reni Calister, sophomore class president and BC ’11, added.
One of Spar’s primary goals was to have more international students enroll at Barnard and send more Barnard students and faculty abroad. The Visiting International Students Program, which was created this semester, brought five visiting students to the college. “Those numbers will almost certainly increase next year,” Spar said.
Spar has also done her part to personally reach out to students in other countries. “When she went to China, that was huge, absolutely enormous,” Calister said, referring to Spar’s trip to China, where she moderated a panel, spoke at the opening of Columbia’s Global Center there, connected with alumnae, and recruited international students.
Spar also spent some of her energy on internal issues, including a proposal outlining plans for relaunching the Athena Center—formerly called the Barnard Leadership Initiative—in September 2009. The center will focus on honing women’s leadership skills, as the initiative had done in the past, but will better fit the framework of a liberal arts college, with changes such as a full-time director advised by a faculty advisory group, courses on different components of women’s leadership, and a capstone seminar taught by the director.
Spar has also focused on faculty development, announcing that there will be a presidential research fund of $100,000 to support research for faculty at all levels—an initiative she first announced at her inauguration.
But along with Spar’s planned changes, she had to adjust the agenda in order to face the economic crisis. Barnard’s endowment fell by about 25 percent, declining from $200 to $163 million as of Dec. 31, 2008. In response to unexpected financial need among students, it came to the fore that Barnard had underestimated its financial aid budget. Under Spar’s leadership, and the guidance of Brown, whom she appointed, vice presidents skimmed from their budgets to put together the missing $1.5 million. The economy might also be the cause of the slight decrease in applicants that Barnard saw this year.
Next year, Spar will work on improving faculty work life. “I think we need to look more closely that we can better manage faculty courseload,” Spar said. “We also just created a new position—dean for faculty development and diversity—which will be held by Janet Jakobsen.
This year, on the other hand, Spar’s focus was learning about life at Barnard.
“I think a lot of this year has been really information gathering,” Besnoff said. “She’s really reached out to students.”
