Announcements

Update on the Presidential Task Force on Shared Governance

August 26, 2026
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Dear members of the Columbia community:

Earlier this summer, former Acting President Claire Shipman announced the formation of a Presidential Task Force on Shared Governance. Today, I’m pleased to share with you the membership of the task force and more information about the vital work it will undertake in the months ahead.

As announced in June, the task force will be co-chaired by Daniel Abebe, dean of Columbia Law School and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law, and Adam Kosto, James R. Barker Professor of Contemporary Civilization in the Department of History. After consultation with Provost Angela Olinto, our deans, the University Senate executive committee, and additional faculty governance groups, and reviewing the many suggestions that came in from members of our community, I am pleased to announce the following members of the task force, who will serve alongside Dean Abebe and Professor Kosto:

  • Denise Cruz, professor of English and comparative literature
  • Wafaa El-Sadr, executive vice president, Columbia Global; global director, ICAP at Columbia University; University Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine; Mathilde Krim- amfAR Chair of Global Health
  • Julia Bell Hirschberg, Percy K. and Vida L. W. Hudson Professor of Computer Science
  • Glenn Hubbard, Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and dean emeritus, Columbia Business School; professor of economics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
  • Rosalind Morris, Moore Collegiate Professor of Anthropology; chair, Department of Anthropology
  • Melissa Stockwell, Felice K. Shea Professor of Pediatrics; professor of population and family health
  • Nim Tottenham, professor of psychology

This group, which includes two current University senators and one former University senator and faculty from six of our schools and colleges, brings the range of experience, disciplinary and institutional expertise, and broad perspectives this work requires. Well-functioning governance is vitally important to advancing our academic mission, and I want to thank each of these colleagues for their willingness to serve on the task force. I also thank the many members of our community who took the time to offer nominations or share thoughts about the task force and its upcoming work. Your engagement is a sign of how seriously this community takes the work of governing itself well.

The task force’s charge, informed by the Senate Review Committee, will be threefold:

  • evaluate the duties and powers of the University Senate, considering the text of the University Statutes, past and current practice, models at peer institutions, and the need to position the University to flourish in the years ahead;
  • analyze the place of these duties and powers in the context of the broader governance structures of the University; and
  • recommend any changes to the description of the duties and powers in the statutes and to the way they are fulfilled and exercised, and consider additional recommendations, if necessary, that might improve the overall effectiveness of University governance.

This work is not a narrow technical exercise, nor should it be understood simply as about defining the Senate’s jurisdiction. At its heart, this inquiry invites us to assess how we can best engage in shared governance in ways that will recognize both our institutional complexity and our common bonds, and that will permit us to work thoughtfully and effectively, within and across our various governance mechanisms, on behalf of the University, both in times of calm and in moments of greater change or challenge. I am asking the task force, in doing its work, to seek out and value community engagement and input and to be mindful of our traditions and our history.

The task force is expected to complete its work and provide a report to me in Spring 2027. I look forward to receiving its findings and recommendations and sharing them with our community. I want to thank Dean Abebe and Professor Kosto again for their willingness to lead this important effort, alongside every member of the task force for taking on work that is essential and consequential for our University.

Sincerely,

Jennifer L. Mnookin
President, Columbia University in the City of New York