Dear fellow members of the Columbia community:
I am pleased to announce that Suzanne Goldberg, Herbert and Doris Wechsler Clinical Professor of Law, has agreed to serve as Special Advisor to the President on Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, effective today. A respected national expert in gender and sexuality law, Suzanne will bring her formidable experience to bear on all aspects of our efforts to address gender-based and sexual misconduct, from prevention and training to response and adjudication.
Suzanne’s professional career manifests a deep commitment to social justice, as both a scholar and advocate. In addition to being a respected teacher and mentor, she currently serves as director of the Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law and as head of its Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic.
One of Suzanne’s responsibilities will be to help create the right organizational structure for the new office of the Executive Vice President for Student Affairs so that it will better support our efforts to prevent and respond to sexual assault matters on campus. I am happy to say that our accelerated national search process has yielded a pool of very promising candidates, and it remains my hope to announce an appointment by early fall. A student advisory committee consisting of undergraduates and graduate students from both the Morningside and Medical Center campuses will assist me in the process of bringing on the new EVP.
As we prepare for the new academic year that will include a significantly expanded new student orientation program addressing issues of sexual respect, consent, and bystander training; a doubling of the number of investigators dedicated to gender-based misconduct; and the opening of the added Lerner Hall location of the Rape Crises Center, Suzanne will also help develop the ongoing programming that is appropriate for all returning students, faculty, and staff. The goal is to ensure that Columbia is a community where all of us meet our shared responsibility to prevent gender-based misconduct in any form.
Please join me in welcoming Suzanne Goldberg’s leadership to this effort at Columbia.
Sincerely,
Lee C. Bollinger