After Months Of Contention, Arts And Sciences Faculty Endorse Restructuring Proposals

Upper West Side NY

26 May, 2022

4:01 PM

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By Zachary Schermele, Columbia Daily Spectator • May 26, 2022, 3:14 AM Faculty members have voted to pass three proposals endorsing potential changes to the administration of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the budgetary unit that houses Columbia College, the School of General Studies, and three other schools. The results provide a first-time gauge for how much of the faculty feels about the highly contentious debate over the relationship between the College and FAS that has caused months of political turmoil. University President Lee Bollinger created a task force in September 2021 to explore the issue, which has long been fraught because the College has a strong base of alumni donors while Arts and Sciences is perennially cash-strapped. The task force released its recommendations in April; in May, the Policy and Planning Committee, an elected faculty body, released three proposals based on the recommendations for a faculty vote. At the same time, pushback from students and alumni groups reached a crescendo, prompting the PPC to adjust the language of the proposals shortly before the faculty began voting. In an email to faculty on Tuesday, Rhiannon Stephens, a history professor and outgoing PPC chair, said each of the three proposals received majority support. Of the 893 faculty members who received an electronic ballot, 467 voted, constituting a 52 percent response rate. A recent prior FAS vote, which approved the addition of a senior lecturer to the PPC, had 57 percent participation. The first proposal endorses the "principle" of faculty oversight of the curriculum—which already exists at Columbia—and the creation of a PPC subcommittee in the fall to "propose an oversight body accountable to the faculty that can ensure the integration of educational policy, curricular review, and transparent communication across the Arts and Sciences." The proposal passed with 57 percent support, 34 percent opposed, and nine percent abstaining. Stephens wrote in a statement to Spectator that the work of the subcommittee "will involve consultation with faculty and students as well as administrators." The PPC has also assured student leaders in Columbia College Student Council and General Studies Student Council—both of whom came out generally opposed to restructuring efforts ahead of the faculty vote in early May—that students will be included in its work, unlike in the task force. The creation of the subcommittee is the only proposal that falls within the direct purview of the faculty. However, any recommendations from the subcommittee would not be directly implemented but would be brought back to the faculty for a separate vote. The second proposal, which endorsed the principle of "collaborative fundraising and combined development activities between Columbia College and the Arts and Sciences," passed with 59 percent of faculty voting yes, 32 percent voting no, and nine percent abstaining. The proposal "strongly encourage[s]" more "communication and collaboration" among the development offices, alumni leaders, the executive vice president of Arts and Sciences, and the faculty. It also calls on the College dean and the EVP of Arts and Sciences—two positions that have at times been at loggerheads historically—to "jointly participate in the ritual functions of the university," which could potentially include speaking at events such as Class Day or the John Jay Awards Dinner. The third proposal endorses the principle of "decanal review." It passed by a wider margin than the other proposals, with 75 percent of respondents in support. The proposal would require the length of appointments to be announced along with new EVPs of Arts and Sciences, Columbia College deans, deans of General Studies, and deans of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. It would also require the University president, or another "appointing official," to consult the PPC and department chairs to conduct a performance review of those administrators when they are being considered for reappointment. Nineteen percent of respondents voted against the third proposal, and five percent abstained. Bollinger publicly announced Josef Sorett as the new dean of Columbia College in an email to the College community on Tuesday, the same day the PPC chair emailed faculty with the results showing the third proposal had passed. Bollinger's email did not include the length of Sorett's appointment. "The majority support of the other two proposals is an expression of faculty opinion, but any decision to move forward on those lies with President Bollinger and the Board of Trustees," Stephens wrote in a statement to Spectator. In an email to faculty, Stephens wrote that Bollinger has indicated that he will be "consulting further" before making any final decisions about implementing the last two proposals. The proposals are somewhat based on the final report from Bollinger's task force. The report was released in early April and recommended creating a centralized curricular committee and allowing the EVP of Arts and Sciences to share certain powers with the dean of the College. Although much of the task force's work was done confidentially, a series of documents obtained by Spectator revealed an alacrity within some segments of the task force, including on Bollinger's part, to alter the role of the College dean—who currently has notable control over academic, alumni, and student affairs—to that of a dean of students. Opponents characterized the potential changes in the report as significantly decreasing the dean's power and proposing changes out of proportion to current problems posed by decentralized decision-making. Supporters saw the recommendations as a positive step toward making the executive vice president, who oversees the whole of FAS, a more visible administrator, strengthening their role in alumni relations. Supporters also said the shifts in curricular decision-making would improve longtime logistical challenges that they claim has come with siloed authority. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.