With the start of the new academic year comes the introduction of fresh faces to the administration, including the deans of Columbia College, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Continuing Education, financial aid, and student advising, as well as a new provost.
The personnel turnover in many of the University’s most crucial positions has come as Columbia maps its future while weathering an endowment loss of 22 percent.
The most recently announced appointment is that of Kristine Billmyer, currently the executive director of the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Liberal and Professional Studies and associate dean of Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences, whom Columbia President Lee Bollinger named as the dean of Continuing Education in an e-mail on Aug. 27. Billmyer will formally take over as dean on Nov. 1, replacing current School of General Studies Dean Peter Awn, who has held the Continuing Education position on an interim basis since 2006. Billmyer is also a linguistics expert and formerly held the position of executive director of Penn’s English Language Programs.
Stepping into the position of dean of financial aid and associate dean of student affairs for Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science is Daniel Barkowitz, previously the director of student financial aid and unemployment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has also published a book of poems called Talking to Myself: Poetry From Now and Then.
“The combination of financial aid and student affairs that Columbia offers is very exciting for me,” Barkowitz said. “I have begun work on a Ph.D. in student affairs and I appreciate that the financial aid office at Columbia reports through a Dean of Student Affairs who will provide guidance and support for viewing college financing as part of a holistic student experience.”
Michele Moody-Adams left her role as vice provost for undergraduate education at Cornell University to assume Austin Quigley’s former position as Columbia College dean, making her the first African American and the first woman to hold the post. Moody-Adams is also a philosopher and a Plato fan.
“Maybe that’s why I naturally fit at Columbia, because of the Core and the cultures and critical thinking it involves,” she said earlier, citing her background in philosophy as a perfect match for Columbia and its Core Curriculum. She was drawn to Columbia because of its “ability to blend respect for tradition with respect for intellectual innovation.” She is also taking on the newly-created position of vice president for undergraduate education.
After a search that spanned two years, civil engineer Feniosky Peña-Mora—formerly the associate provost of the University of Illinois—is now dean of SEAS. Bollinger believes that Peña-Mora—who he calls “Fenni”—offers “the opportunity to have new leadership, to galvanize around [SEAS’s] objectives, and to build.” Specifically, he cited Peña-Mora’s ambition for advancement in such areas as biomedical engineering, nanoscience, and computer science.
The appointment of Monique Rinere as the dean of advising and associate dean of student affairs for Columbia College and SEAS was announced in May in conjunction with the news that Lerner Hall’s sixth floor would be used to allow for the creation of a centralized advising center on the fourth floor. Previously the associate dean of Harvard College, Rinere oversaw a similar advising program in Cambridge.
“Under her leadership,” Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger wrote in a May e-mail, “Harvard’s Advising Programs Office enhanced services for students by strengthening relationships with students, faculty, and departments, developing a peer advising program, and creating innovative, Web-based resources.”
Bollinger named Claude Steele the University’s new provost, or chief academic officer, in a campus-wide May e-mail. Steele, the first African American to hold the post, is known for applying psychology test results to social problems. He became a renowned psychologist when he developed his widely-used theory of stereotype threats, which states that minorities will underperform on tests when faced with stereotypes that threaten their identities.
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