Announcements

Once again, I must write to you about government action negatively affecting our University community. The differences between the new executive order on immigration and refugee policies issued today and the now superseded January order (about which I wrote earlier) may or may not prove significant in the ultimate judicial determination of the order’s legality.

Over the past two weeks, we have been working with several other academic institutions (sixteen, including all Ivy League universities) on an amicus brief that was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York challenging the Executive Order regarding immigrants from seven designated countries and refugees. 

With the executive order issued by President Trump barring admission to the United States of Syrian refugees and imposing a 90-day ban on all immigrant and nonimmigrant entry from seven Muslim-majority nations, the fear so many have had about federal policies being changed in ways that could affect our community has become disturbingly real.
 

I am writing because of concerns for our community arising out of yesterday’s national election. Certainly, not in my lifetime has there been a choice that is embraced by so many while also causing feelings of apprehension and vulnerability among so many others, including many students, faculty, and staff across our diverse University community.

Not quite a century ago, during World War II, members of our academic community joined together to form the Committee for War Relief, which supported the war effort through organizations such as the United War Fund and the American Red Cross.

Peter Awn, Dean of the School of General Studies for the past 20 years, has informed me that he will be stepping down as Dean at the end of this academic year. 

It is with pride and appreciation that Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian announce that our shared medical campus in Washington Heights is being named in honor of Herbert and Florence Irving and will now be called Columbia University Herbert and Florence Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

With the beginning of the academic year and our renewed commitment to intellectual discovery, we should also be mindful of the importance of addressing Columbia’s role in the broader world.

On a Commencement day when we come together to celebrate a new generation that becomes part of Columbia’s great intellectual tradition, I am sad to report that our university community has lost one of the towering exemplars of that tradition, former Provost and longtime history professor Fritz Stern ’46CC, ’53GSAS.

I am writing to announce my appointment of Gerald Rosberg as Senior Executive Vice President, as of July 1, 2016.

On this day in 1896, Columbia faculty, students, and alumni gathered on what is now College Walk to dedicate a Morningside Heights campus that was still under construction, marking the start of a momentous chapter in Columbia's long history.

As you know, last Thursday evening, April 14, I offered to move up my meeting with Columbia Divest for Climate Justice (CDCJ) then scheduled for April 29.