It all comes back to money and swine flu.
Both of these topics were featured prominently at the first plenary meeting of the University Senate on Friday, when senators convened in Schermerhorn Hall to talk University issues.
University President Lee Bollinger kicked off the meeting by discussing the endowment and financial status of the University.
Columbia has “begun to emerge from a frightening period in the economy,” he said. The University’s returns show that there has been a 16.1 percent decrease in the endowment, but Bollinger assured the room that this is a “first rate performance” and he is “optimistic” about where Columbia stands relative to other institutions.
He said Columbia’s capital campaign has already raised $3.2 billion toward its goal of $4 billion, which is $500 million ahead of schedule.
Bollinger then welcomed the University’s new provost, Claude Steele. “If you have any problems, take them to Claude,” Bollinger said. The new dean of Columbia College, Michelle Moody-Adams, was also present at the meeting.
As far as the University’s budget goes, he said they are “just at the beginning of the budget process for the upcoming year” and things might change some from what was projected. They have already cut “millions of dollars” from the central administration, he said.
Then the meeting turned to a hot topic among students—smoking on campus.
The Columbia University Medical Center is now completely smoke-free, and the Morningside Heights’ campus may soon follow suit.
One student senator asked if the senate had the authority to ban smoking on campus. Bollinger responded that the senate’s job is to give “advice to the University about the policies, but we don’t have the power to implement them.”
“The Senate can’t force a policy,” he added.
But Sharyn O’Halloran, chair of the senate executive committee, said that the “voice of the senate on this kind of issue is very important.”
The discussion lightened up as it led to smoking jokes among senate members. “We will smoke these questions out to move forward in an uncancerous way,” O’Halloran quipped.
Swine flu also came up, and O’Halloran mentioned that the vaccination should become available in mid-October. All medical school students will be required to take this vaccination along with the flu vaccine. This is the first year that the vaccinations are required for all medical students.
Another hot topic of the afternoon was financial aid for international students. Bollinger said they discussed establishing a relationship with the international Deutsche Bank, which could help students who already have ongoing loans.
Bollinger explained that the University cannot reward student loans personally to these students because it values its triple-A credit rating, which would decrease if it began loaning money to international students. “The University values its triple-A rating, but it also values its international students enormously,” he said.
“We might not be able to keep our high rate of international students if students cannot afford to come here,” he added.
Daniel Savin, the chair of the committee of research officers, gave a report on the delays in the publication of a provisional report on salary inequities among groups of researchers.
According to Savin, the committee feels that the University is taking an “unreasonably long time” to complete a gender equity report requested by the committee of research officers and the status of women three years ago and is “pushing the administration to have the results out this coming academic year,” but is afraid Steele will delay the process.
COMMENTS
Comments will be moderated in accordance with our comment policy