Correction appended.

At Lisa Anderson's 20th and last town hall as School of International and Public Affairs dean, the outgoing administrator spoke about the search for her replacement, recruiting prospective students, and poor facilities.

After 10 years of serving as SIPA's dean, Anderson will step down at the end of this academic year to become a faculty member instructing Conceptual Foundations of International Politics, the curriculum of which is currently under review. Also at the Town Hall, Academic Affairs Chairs Shanna Brownstein and Chantal Pasquarello, both Masters candidates in SIPA, presented the results of a survey initiated by SIPA Student Association about how students felt regarding different aspects of life at the school.

At the event, Anderson attributed this year's decrease in SIPA applicants to an earlier deadline for applications. "Make sure to recruit students to ensure that next year's class is as good as yours," she said.

SIPA student representative to the dean search committee and MPA student Jaime Koppel explained that the committee will choose three finalists, but that University President Lee Bollinger will make the final decision.

"There is now a short list of finalists," Koppel said.

"Being in SIPA next to the law school is like living in Mexico on the border of the U.S.," said students quoted from one of the submitted surveys. On a 1-5 scale, students on average rated "Buildings and Facilities" between in the 2.6 range, the lowest rating of all categories.

"In the short run, things will get worse," Anderson said in response to a student who decried the state of the toilets. "The emphasis on construction is so much orientated towards making a good impression in Manhattanville."

In an interview after the event, Anderson said, "Physical facilities are just a drag. The single most important thing is to get the school to get the most congenial physical home."

In response to students' calling facilities "Stalin-esque" and "depressing and bad for the eyes," on the survey, Director of Social Sciences Libraries Lin Goodwin announced that over the summer, Lehman Library will be renovated to have more group study space and better lighting.

On average, students rated "Professors" and "Curriculum" as a three out of five, and the features that students thought most enhanced their SIPA experiences were its location in New York City and their peers. More than 30 percent of students surveyed said their SIPA experiences did not meet their expectations.

After a student said that administrators should be alarmed at a neutral rating and compared SIPA to a business product, Anderson said, "I'm not going to treat this like I was producing boxes of cereal."

"My main care is harnessing this moment of leadership transition to ensure various concerns ... are understood by the incoming dean," SIPA masters student Dan McSweeney said.

CORRECTION: This article misidentified the director of social sciences. Jane Winland currently holds that position.