Dear fellow members of the Columbia community:
I write to share that Steve Coll has informed me that he will be stepping down as Dean of Columbia Journalism School, following nine years of extraordinarily thoughtful and intellectual leadership, at the end of June 2022. I am so very pleased that he will continue to be a member of the Journalism faculty.
When I appointed Steve in 2013, he was a renowned journalist, widely admired for his in-depth reporting on politics, finance, and national security, and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Steve’s life experiences gave him a special vantage point for appraising the present and future of journalism, and it served him, and us, exceedingly well during his tenure as Dean. In his understated way, Steve dedicated himself to transforming the School by building new programs and attracting outstanding, award-winning faculty to educate and shape the next generation of journalists.
To support students and alumni working on stories of global concern, he launched the Simon and June Li Center for Global Journalism. To combat disinformation and train journalists to deal with ethical and security challenges, he established the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security. To give reporters the tools they need to write on race, diversity, and civil and human rights, he created the Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights. Under his leadership, endowed professorships were established in these and other areas. He led the creation of a new master’s degree in data journalism to help students navigate the challenges of the data-rich age. And, to fund these efforts, Steve has raised $150 million, including more than $50 million in financial aid to expand access and to advance student wellbeing.
We celebrate journalists for the role they play in promoting freedom of thought, information, and ideas, and in advancing the search for knowledge and sustaining democracy. They bear the closest kinship to academic scholars. No one person embodies those roles, at the very highest levels, or with more commitment, than Steve Coll. We are admiring as well as grateful for all he has done to ensure that our School of Journalism remains at the pinnacle of its field.
Sincerely,
Lee C. Bollinger
