News

While Columbia’s graduate and professional schools will proceed as planned, only limited numbers of undergrads will be living in dorms, and undergraduate courses will be online.

"We are all rightly being called upon to do more and to begin again, with a great sense of honesty and new purpose." 

It is my honor to announce that Columbia is establishing the Columbia Climate School, the first new school in 25 years at the University and an institution that I have every expectation will be the most important climate school in the United States. 
 

It is now the moment to focus our attention on how the University will operate in the coming academic year. As you might imagine, no decisions in our history have been taken with more seriousness, care, or rigor than the ones we set forth here and in following correspondence. 

I’ve just announced Columbia’s approach to reopening in the fall. I also want to address a specific group of students, our international students, whose lives have been particularly disrupted by COVID-19—and who are now the subject of a deeply misguided new decision by the U.S. government.

Today, I write in response to the Trump administration’s recently issued proclamation expanding the existing restrictions on immigration to also cover non-immigrants who seek entry into the United States under certain visas—H-1B and J-1, specifically. Unfortunately, even tragically, the new restrictions will make it harder for faculty, physicians, and research scholars to enter the United States.

I write to announce that Juneteenth, June 19, 2020, will be a University holiday for all students, faculty, and staff.

But the horrifying ending of the life of George Floyd, a citizen in the very system of justice intended to protect him, and us, which then, along with other recent tragic deaths, drew back the curtains on centuries of invidious discrimination against African Americans, and others, did that. My hopes for a renewed sense of national purpose to continue the heroic efforts of so many, over so many generations, to change once and for all that terrible course of history have been raised, and then deflated.

I am writing to announce that I have appointed Troy Eggers Interim Dean of the School of Professional Studies, as of July 1, 2020. Troy is currently Executive Vice Provost of the University, a position he will maintain during his tenure as Interim Dean.

I am now equally pleased to say that Avril Haines will take over as the next Director of Columbia World Projects, as of July 1, 2020. In her current role as Deputy Director, Avril has been the principal architect and supervisor of CWP’s distinctive method for developing and managing projects.

Following the guidance of our public health experts, and pending the approvals from the State to ease stay-at-home orders in New York City, we will gradually allow our faculty and certain graduate students to return to their lab research sites, ensuring, most of all, of course, the safety of our community.

We also have been intensely focused on the general form of our next academic year. We all wish to return to in-person instruction and campus life, and our intent is to make that possible as soon as it is safe to do so. The hard fact is, however, that we just cannot predict now when that moment will arrive. Yet, we can put in place structures that maximize prospects for that outcome and offer meaningful steps along the way.

Wingard will conclude his service as Dean at the end of the academic year. 

Now we need to bring our attention to the fall semester and next academic year. The purpose of this message is to say that this process is now underway.

Professor Katznelson will continue serving as Interim Provost through 2020.