Brinkley Juggles Life of History Professor, Provost

Provost Alan Brinkley is a man of many mysteries, not the least of which is where he gets his hats. Though he keeps mum on the latter subject, he sat down recently and opened up about other parts of his career.

As Columbia expands into Manhattanville, Brinkley makes key decisions, sits on the most important committees, answers to University President Lee Bollinger, and will step into the president’s position should Bollinger retire, resign, become disabled, or die.

A day in the life of Alan Brinkley is anything but predictable. He has served as provost of Columbia since 2003, and maintains his status as the Allan Nevins Professor of History by teaching a class every fall (for 2008, it is U.S. History 1919-1945). He oversees Columbia academics and faculty, makes decisions regarding the University budget, reviews tenure applications, selects new deans, is the chief affirmative action officer of the University, oversees the Earth Institute, and still finds time to lead a full family life, appear on television, and occasionally write a New York Times Book Review.

“In some ways, every day is different,” Brinkley said. “This is a position where there are certain fixed obligations ... but there is also an enormous part of my job that is just whatever comes up. There is a lot of immediacy and variety to what I do.”

Brinkley rose through the ranks of academia over several decades, beginning as an undergraduate student at Princeton in the 1960s. Upon graduation, he took time off school to work for the 1972 presidential campaign of Senator Edmund Muskie (D-Maine), after which he moved to Boston and got his Ph.D. in history from Harvard. His teaching career began with a three-year stint at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before he returned to Harvard as a professor.

Brinkley moved to Columbia when Harvard did not offer him tenure. At that point, though, Harvard mostly recruited tenured professors, denying untenured faculty members the change to climb the academic ladder. “Everybody who left Harvard left for the same reason,” said Columbia Vice Provost Roxie Smith. “Many institutions have been the beneficiaries of Harvard’s shortsightedness in that area.”

Brinkley has enjoyed immense popularity as a professor here. Columbia history lecturer David Eisenbach, whom Brinkley advised while Eisenbach wrote his dissertation, had nothing but good things to say about his college mentor.

“It is very rare that you meet someone who combines a generosity of spirit and vast intelligence and knowledge,” Eisenbach said. “Alan Brinkley is one of those people.”
Brinkley transitioned from professor to provost quickly and surprisingly in 2003.

“I had never imagined being provost,” he said. “President Bollinger asked me to be provost with no warning. It was somewhat of a shock.”

While Brinkley enjoys his position, he does miss his faculty job—“even the things I used not to like,” he said. “I love teaching and I loved being a historian. I feel that I still am a teacher and a historian.”

Eisenbach theorized that Brinkley’s natural diplomacy allowed him to transition smoothly from academic to administrator.

“He is extremely diplomatic and has the capacity to listen to all sides, understand where everyone is coming from, and then make a sound decision,” Eisenbach said.

Brinkley has had to be diplomatic in light of the dramatic events that occur frequently at Columbia, from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech in September to the student hunger strike in November. He has had extensive experience with the media, as his parents were journalists and his brother worked for the New York Times for over 20 years.

“Because we are in the media capital of the United States, we get a lot of press attention,” Brinkley said. “I also think that Columbia gets a lot of attention because we are a very diverse community. Diversity is one of the great strengths of Columbia, but it also brings attention and controversy from time to time.”

Brinkley connected Columbia’s history of controversy with Bollinger’s goal of becoming a “global university.”

“We have tried since President Bollinger got here to make Columbia into a very visible, global institution,” Brinkley said. “We have brought lots of people from around the world to speak to us, and some of those people are controversial.”

He also noted that much of the media attention Columbia receives is not controversy, but rather recognition for faculty.

“Ninety percent of how Columbia gets into the press is something our faculty has done, or that they have been asked to comment on something,” he said.

shane.ferro@columbiaspectator.com