Barnard’s power structure is changing at warp speed.
As Debora Spar began her second year as Barnard’s president, she quickly rattled off a lengthy series of senior staff changes made over the last six months. In her latest staff and student-wide e-mails, Spar noted critical changes among Barnard’s uppermost ranks, including the creation of new offices. Personnel shuffling included:
- Spar repeated the news that Vivian Taylor—previously sophomore class dean—will take on the new chief of staff and vice president for community development posts.
- Kathryn Kolbert, a prominent reproductive rights lawyer, will become the director of the Athena Center.
- Carol Katzman, previously Hunter College’s deputy chief information officer, will serve as the newly-created position of vice president for information technology.
- Angela Haddad, previously sociology department chair at Central Michigan University, will become assistant provost.
- Jessica Nuñez, previously director of the College Activities Office, will fill the new post of Assistant Dean for Student Development and Diversity—a position in the newly-created Office of Diversity Initiatives.
Spar also announced the promotion of several staff members, including the appointment of Joanne Kwong as Vice President of Communications. Spar is still looking to hire a program director for the new office of Diversity Initiatives. In addition to a search committee, a team of students from Barnard was recruited to interview a number of candidates.
Turnover is often expected when new presidents head up educational institutions. Many longtime deans are sticking around, though Spar’s changes came abruptly and will inevitably consume college resources at a time when Barnard is choking for funds.
The school’s endowment plummetted from $200 million to $163 million in that past year, creating a financial outlook already complicated after Barnard underestimated its financial aid budget by $1.5 million and made up the difference by trimming across vice presidents’ budgets.
Spar affirmed that space has freed up in the budget. “We’ve been finding other ways to cut costs in other areas and we’ve had a number of retirements…we’ve done some rearranging which has opened up a little room in the budget.”
Spar touted the changes as an effort to consolidate resources and increase the administration’s efficiency. “It allows us to do what we’ve done more efficiently, more effectively, and more widely,” Spar said in an interview. “We’re just trying to make sure that we have people lined up so we can get things done. [For example], we’re having 30 students coming in with the Visiting International Students Program—that’s going to mean reallocating resources so that we have enough staff to take care of these students [and] we’re going to need more services.”
Some students have expressed concern that new hires in new positions will strain the resources of an institution whose endowment has already taken a hit from the economic crisis.
“It just makes you wonder, if some students are getting less financial aid, how is it that we can afford many new staff members?” asked a Barnard sophomore who asked not to be named because of her financial aid situation.
Some students criticized the changes for coming too suddenly, but several Student Government Association members have been aware that change was on the way. “SGA has been somewhat in the know about some of the changes,” Sharmin Ahmed, SGA Vice President of Finance and BC ’10, said. “Throughout the year they will be great for the community—people expect a lot of things to run efficiently.”
While adding the position of chief of staff seems like a move characteristic of bigger businesses, Spar said Taylor would provide organization and structure to her office. By promoting
Taylor to positions within the President’s Office, for example, Spar said that she will have someone “to help me follow up on a lot of the initiatives that I want to get under way” and “elevate community outreach.”
“I need some more power in my office to help me coordinate things,” Spar said. “A lot of the work that she is doing is coordinating between student groups and faculty…that’s a position that after spending a year here I felt I needed.”
“Vivian Taylor is an extremely popular administrator already on campus,” Katie Palillo, BC ’10 and SGA president said. “She knows what students are about and she will be able to attend our events and it will be great to have another administrator who is really involved and interested.”
This quick shuffling aims to compensate for programs in need of attention, such as information technology, which has hardly changed over the past few years.
“The VP for Information Technology is really the [only] position that was created that didn’t exist in any form before,” Spar said. “A lot of this was moving people into new jobs. … The diversity position is actually the new form of the Office of Multicultural Affairs.”
Rebecca Martin, BC ’12, said she is pleased to see longtime administrators working in broader roles. “I appreciate that Barnard seems to be ‘promoting from within’ because this shows loyalty to its staff and is more effective since these individuals are very familiar with how our school works and what needs to be improved the most,” she said.
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