Dear fellow members of the Columbia community:
I write to announce that Suzanne Goldberg, Columbia’s founding Executive Vice President for University Life, will be stepping down as EVP to join the Biden-Harris administration, effective this afternoon. We could not be more pleased and proud that she has chosen to bring her considerable talents and expertise to Washington, D.C.
Suzanne will be taking a temporary leave of absence from her faculty position at Columbia Law School, where she serves as the Herbert and Doris Wechsler Clinical Professor of Law, founder and director of the Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic, and co-director of the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law. She has spent decades advocating for the rights of LGBTQ individuals. In Lawrence v. Texas, she successfully represented defendants prosecuted under an anti-sodomy law, with the Supreme Court declaring it unconstitutional.
In the six years since she established the Office of University Life, Professor Goldberg has transformed it into a bedrock Columbia institution. Among other accomplishments, Suzanne has overseen the Sexual Respect and Community Citizenship Initiative, created the University-wide Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging, launched the Awakening Our Democracy event series, and co-produced reports on Columbia’s Commitment to Anti-Racism. This work and more will continue. We are fortunate to have in Radhika Patel, Suzanne’s long-time Chief of Staff, and Joseph Greenwell, Vice President for Student Affairs, exceptional interim leaders of the Office as we work through this period of transition.
I am personally deeply grateful for all that Suzanne has done for Columbia and the nation, and, on behalf of all of us, I congratulate her on this new role.
Sincerely,
Lee C. Bollinger
