An Update on Addressing Discrimination and Harassment and Managing Protests and Other Disruptions

Dear members of the Columbia community:

Building on my recent communications, I am writing today to update you on our progress on two of the other priorities I set out for the semester—addressing discrimination and harassment and managing protests and other disruptions.

Columbia, as an institution, has long stood as a space for rigorous inquiry, intellectual diversity, and the free exchange of ideas. Achieving and sustaining this vision requires frameworks and norms that enable all members of our community to speak and to be heard with dignity and respect. Columbia’s Rules of University Conduct are designed to provide these crucial guardrails. Although these guardrails were created over 50 years ago, they had been untested at such a scale until the events of the last year. Given this challenge, the effective articulation and implementation of the Rules has been a major focus of the last few months, and we have made important progress in that regard.

Under the leadership of Professor Greg Wawro, the Office of Rules Administration has emphasized increased communication and transparency, including an updates page, a soon-to-be-launched Rules Administrator website, and meetings with student and faculty groups. At the same time, we continue to emphasize a more effective alignment across the key components of our Rules-based system, including the Senate Rules Committee, the University Judicial Board, and our delegates and Public Safety team members who manage active demonstrations. The willingness of members of the Columbia community to participate in these efforts is essential for ensuring the confidence of our community. I am deeply grateful for their service.

Alongside this commitment, the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) has implemented new processes to improve the community’s experience of their work, with a particular goal of improving timely resolution of reports. OIE’s educational programs and trainings are being expanded so that everyone across the University can understand their responsibilities in identifying and eliminating harassment and discrimination. Given the evolving external and internal landscape, OIE is continuing to refine its processes and programs, engaging experts and stakeholders across our community as we seek to address concerns about harassment and discrimination while upholding our commitment to free expression and discourse.

Beyond any formal guardrails, we know that community norms have the greatest power to create an environment where disagreement coexists with empathy and compassion, and where ideas and viewpoints are exchanged respectfully without fear of retribution or harassment. While Columbia has a long history of such community norms, last year’s experiences, exacerbated by increased social media engagement, have highlighted the need to rebuild this established strength.

While organized trainings and updated policies are important, norms are largely driven by the behavior of leaders, both formal and informal, across our community. Meaningful progress requires deep engagement from student, faculty, and staff leaders who commit to the work that needs to be done and embrace the impact they can have. The Student Leadership Engagement Initiative, which includes over 60 student leaders from across all schools, is one group that exemplifies this effort, as do key staff advisory groups. Over the next weeks, Provost Olinto and I will be holding faculty listening sessions to understand perspectives on several areas, including this critical topic of community leadership.

As we head toward the end of a challenging year, I could not believe more strongly that our success depends upon our willingness to come together around a commitment to treating each person with respect and care, thereby upholding the values that have shaped this institution and ensuring that Columbia continues to exemplify the best of what a University can offer.

Sincerely,

Katrina Armstrong
Interim President, Columbia University in the City of New York