Urban Studies Program Faces Major Overhauls

As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Following the departure of three popular experts in quick succession, urban studies program affiliates fear that with transition on the horizon, a program known for its success and popularity could find itself in flux.

Urban studies is one of Barnard College’s signature interdisciplinary programs. Majors say they love the program because of the academic lens it provides to urban life. The popularity of urban studies also stems from what students call an individual advising touch, a quality that Barnard considers a point of pride.

But a tenure case whose outcome shocked colleagues, in addition to other professorial departures due to retention and promotion, are collectively shaking up a program known for its stability.

Barnard associate professor of history Owen Gutfreund assumed responsibility for directing the urban studies department after he came to the college nearly 10 years ago as a junior faculty member. Most program and department leadership positions are occupied by tenured professors, giving junior faculty the opportunity to focus chiefly on scholarship and the tenure process.

History professor Elizabeth Blackmar said Gutfreund gave urban studies a “good scholarly spine” by adding a “comparative and international dimension” to the program. Gutfreund “gave it a currency that is important to sustain." Blackmar added that she was "distressed that the administration wasn’t able to realize how important that is.”

Although history departments on both sides of Broadway recommended that Gutfreund receive tenure, the faculty-elected Barnard Advisory Committee on Appointments, Tenure, and Promotion, which had one alternate member at the time, ultimately denied him.

The decision shocked and disappointed professors and students alike. “Owen was a driving and organizing force for the department in a big way,” an urban studies major, Mark Krotov, CC ’08, said.

Some administrative officials also bemoaned the loss. “I did hear that Owen would be leaving, and I am sorry to hear that,” University Provost and professor of history Alan Brinkley said.

Since tenure proceedings are confidential, Gutfreund and his colleagues heard no reasoning behind the decision. Barnard College Provost Elizabeth Boylan, who chairs the ATP, declined to comment about the case.

Gutfreund has the option to stay at Barnard for one more year, at which point tenured economics and urban studies Professor David Weiman, whose research is in urban economics and criminal justice, will take over as director. Weiman, who had already been planning to teach urban studies, said he hopes to continue building on the foundation Gutfreund set forth while expanding its disciplinary scope. Weiman has committed to serve as director for two three-year terms.

According to Barnard Associate Provost Flora Davidson, the takeover of the program by a tenured faculty member will “give a signal to students that there will not be a vacuum, and that there will be stability ... By having a tenured faculty member take over, it’s the best way we say we take the program very seriously and it will have continuity.”

Weiman will have to confront other holes left by popular professors who also are not returning to the department. Art history professor and urban expert Hilary Ballon left Columbia last semester for a curriculum development job at New York University’s new Abu Dhabi campus. Blackmar said Columbia should have made an appropriate counter offer to retain her. Assistant urban studies professor Gregory Smithsimon, who was hired without the possibility of receiving tenure, will leave after the next academic year.

“Losing Smithsimon would be a tremendous, tremendous problem for the department. For me, Smithsimon is the reason why I became a major,” Krotov said.

Weiman said he would get the program back on its feet by finding professors to uphold the program. But the outcome of Gutfreund’s tenure case, which seems arbitrary to colleagues, may taint the recruiting process. A candidate Gutfreund found last semester to fill a tenure-track position in sociology has not yet committed to taking the job—a professor in the department, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said he feared that the candidate’s thoughts may be shaken by Gutfreund’s tenure rejection.

Another professor who wished to remain anonymous noted that his colleagues from outside Barnard have approached him in bewilderment about the ramifications of the Gutfreund decision. But Boylan said this initial reaction may not be specific to Gutfreund’s tenure case. “Every negative tenure decision causes a shudder through the ranks of junior faculty, and apprehension is a normal and understandable reaction,” she said.

Weiman noted that an additional challenge to the growth of the program is the fact that colleges only hire professors within traditional disciplines rather than interdisciplinary programs. This hurdle complicates recruiting, since urban studies professors who can’t be “pigeonholed into the appropriate departments we work in” will have trouble finding employment. He said that transforming urban studies into a department with its own hiring capabilities is certainly an option. In tenure decisions, aspects other than scholarship are just “icing on the cake,” Weiman said.

As the amorphous program transitions, Weiman will work closely with Gutfreund to learn how to operate Gutfreund’s academic progeny. Davidson, whose background is in political science, will help with student advising. But students hope that the soul of the program won’t be lost in the shuffle.

“I hope it won’t change,” urban studies major Julie Raskin, CC ’08, said. “It’s fantastic.”