News

I am writing to announce that, after more than twelve years of wonderful service to the University as Executive Vice President for Communications, David Stone will be stepping down from this role at the end of September.

I am very sorry to say that we have lost another great friend of the University in H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, who died on Sunday at the age of 88 in his beloved home city of Philadelphia.

The passing of Florence Irving on July 25, at the age of 98, is a great loss.  She was a remarkable person of enormous accomplishment and consequence.

Following my March message regarding David Madigan’s decision to return to his academic pursuits at the end of the summer, I write to announce my appointment of Maya Tolstoy, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, as Interim Executive Vice President for Arts and Sciences, effective September 1, 2018. 

I am writing to announce that Professor Simon Tavaré is coming to Columbia from the University of Cambridge to become the founding Director of the newly established Herbert and Florence Irving Institute of Cancer Dynamics. 

We are very pleased to announce the appointment of Lorraine Frazier, PhD, RN, FAAN, as the new Dean of the Columbia University School of Nursing, the Mary O'Neil Mundinger, DrPH Professor of Nursing, and Senior Vice President at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. 

I write to share the news that, following a remarkably successful five-year term, David Madigan has informed me of his desire to conclude his service as Executive Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences this August.

Bobbie Berkowitz, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, Dean of the School of Nursing and Senior Vice President at Columbia University Irving Medical Center since 2010, has advised us of her wish to step down on August 31, 2018. 

I am writing to announce the appointment of Alexander N. Halliday, a geochemistry professor at the University of Oxford and Vice President of the U.K.’s Royal Society, as the new Director of the Columbia University Earth Institute.

We are proud to announce a gift of $250 million from Dr. P. Roy and Diana Vagelos to our College of Physicians and Surgeons.  A major portion of the gift, $150 million, will endow a fund to help Columbia eliminate student loans for medical students who qualify for financial aid—about half of the medical school student body at present.   Approximately twenty percent of students—those with the greatest need—will receive full-tuition scholarships.

I am writing to announce a new and important initiative that will reside at Reid Hall, home of our Paris Global Center, and will be called the Institute for Ideas and Imagination. 

We are proud to announce that Florence Irving and the late Herbert Irving have made a bequest of $700 million to Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian to support pioneering cancer research and clinical care at our shared medical campus. 

I am writing to announce the appointment of Lisa Rosen-Metsch, currently the Stephen Smith Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health, as the next Dean of the School of General Studies.

In April I wrote to the community announcing the creation of a new dimension of the University called Columbia World Projects. 

We are writing, as we do each fall, to ask for your support of a singular University charitable campaign, Columbia Community Service (CCS).