The presidential search committee on Tuesday offered a first-time glimpse into what thousands of University staff, alumni, and students are looking for in University President Lee Bollinger’s replacement. The committee also revealed for the first time this week the rosters of the four subcommittees advising the search.

A slew of turnover among senior administrators over the past year—and the impending search for replacements that will consume much of the upcoming one—have the potential to shape the University’s priorities and its fate as an institution for decades to come.

A federal judge in Illinois last week denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that Columbia and 16 other top-ranked universities have illegally engaged in information sharing about applicants to reduce financial aid offers and keep their costs of attendance high.

Incoming School of Engineering and Applied Science first-year Fahad Alowaidah has died in a plane crash in his home country of Saudi Arabia, SEAS Dean Shih-Fu Chang wrote in an email to the Columbia College and SEAS communities today.

A second class-action lawsuit potentially seeking millions of dollars has been filed against Columbia’s board of trustees over the University’s alleged misreporting of undergraduate data to U.S. News & World Report that led to its July removal from the No. 2 slot on the publication’s controversial Best Colleges ranking.

The New York Police Department is investigating a suspected subway attack that has left Jay Reist, SoA ’23, a 29-year-old acting student at the School of the Arts, on a ventilator in the ICU with severe brain trauma after a night out in Manhattan last week.

Keren Yarhi-Milo, the ​​Arnold A. Saltzman professor of war and peace studies and the director of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, has been announced by University President Lee Bollinger as the next dean of the School of International and Public Affairs.

Faculty members have voted to pass three proposals endorsing potential changes to the administration of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the budgetary unit that houses Columbia College, the School of General Studies, and three other schools.

University President Lee Bollinger has named Josef Sorett as the new dean of Columbia College and vice president of undergraduate education. Sorett is a professor of religion and African American and African diaspora studies, the chair of the religion department, and the director of the Center on African-American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice. He will replace James Valentini, who has served as dean for a decade.

The University hosted in-person Class Day celebrations this week honoring graduates for the first time in three years. The events included well-known alumni speakers as well as remarks from University President Lee Bollinger and the dean or president of each school.