Priorities for Our Spring Semester
Dear members of the Columbia community:
I want to welcome all of you back to campus. As you well know, we begin this spring semester at a moment of significant change in the world and our nation. Institutions succeed at managing such passages when informed by genuine dialogue with people from all backgrounds and experiences, including viewpoints that depart from embedded traditions and orthodoxies. Columbia clearly possesses the capacity to think critically about our institution and its future. This strength is visible in the diversity of our community, the intellectual curiosity on display in our classrooms, and the breadth and depth of academic pursuits unmatched in all of higher education. Our calling is to embrace this moment and its challenges with a feeling of optimism and determination about what we can achieve by working together.
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At the beginning of last semester, I shared my priorities for steadying our community at a time of internal change and uncertainty. As we embark on this semester, I am committed to continuing our progress on those efforts, grounding all that we do in our dedication to our students and their experience, and embracing the critical work that will ensure our university’s success over the years to come.
These are among the issues that I believe warrant our collective attention and dedication of energy this semester:
- How can we strengthen our willingness to consider contrary political and ideological views in a manner consistent with our fundamental values of intellectual humility and interpersonal respect?
- How do we advance our commitment to academic freedom, open inquiry, and accessible spaces while ensuring a community free of harassment and intimidation?
- How do we improve the administration and operation of all aspects of this university, day by day, so that we can more effectively and efficiently support Columbia’s academic mission and the wellbeing of our community members?
- And how do we bring this work together to regain public trust in the purpose of higher education and in Columbia’s role in fulfilling this purpose?
Some of the structures and processes needed to advance these priorities have been created over the last months, including committees on the role of institutional voice, Morningside campus access, and campus climate. Over the next several weeks, we will be working with faculty, student, and staff groups; deans and institute directors; and Senate leadership to determine where and how additional endeavors should be directed to advance these priorities.
Finally, I want to challenge each of you at the outset of our spring term with two thoughts: First, there is an extraordinary opportunity for Columbia to marshal its enormous strengths in service of defining what it means to be a great American research university in these turbulent times, and second, fulfilling this ambitious vision of Columbia University will come only through a collective effort drawing on the insights, work, and dedication of us all. We must both embrace Columbia’s longstanding commitment to the individual pursuit of excellence and recognize that every one of us has a part to play in this important collective endeavor. The time to define our future is now.
All my best,
Katrina Armstrong
Interim President, Columbia University in the City of New York