At Columbia, Faith of Some in the President is Shaken

The New York Times
September 1, 2011

By ALAN SCHWARZ
Several Columbia University professors said this week that the recent resignations of two high-ranking black administrators have shaken their confidence in the institution’s president, Lee C. Bollinger, and reignited concerns among their colleagues about other aspects of his leadership.
Fredrick C. Harris, a professor of political science and director of Columbia’s Institute for Research in African-American Studies, said in an interview that the resignation of the university’s provost, Claude M. Steele, in June, followed by the more acrimonious departure last week of the undergraduate dean, Michele M. Moody-Adams, were significant not just because the officials were the first African-Americans to hold those key positions, but also because their authority appeared to wither during their tenures.
Dr. Harris said that he wrote to Mr. Bollinger this week to explain how the departures “have shaken my confidence — as well as the confidence of many others at Columbia — in the ability of Columbia to maintain diverse leadership at the top.”

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/nyregion/columbia-resignations-shake-faith-of-some-in-lee-bollinger.html?nl=nyregion&emc=ura1

Stanford psychologist Claude Steele named 21st University Provost

Columbia Spectator
by Joy Resmovits

WEB EXCLUSIVE 2:20p.m. Claude Steele, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, will become Columbia's next provost, according to a University announcement and an e-mail University President Lee Bollinger sent to students on Wednesday afternoon. Steele will become the first African American to hold the post.
He will begin his tenure on Sept. 1, 2009, succeeding current Provost Academic Brinkley to the role of the University's chief academic officer and the president's right-hand man. Coming from an external institution, Steele will have to learn about Columbia's idiosyncrasies and bureaucratic structure fairly quickly.
Steele is currently Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences and director of Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He has been teaching psychology in Stanford since 1991, and worked as the department's chair from 1997 to 2000. Steele has also directed Stanford's Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity since 2002.
In a phone interview on Wednesday afternoon, Bollinger said that his contact with Steele, though not intimate, stretches back over a decade. From 1987-1991 he taught at the University of Michigan, Steele overlapped with Bollinger. "He's very well known, one of the leading figures in the field of psychology, in stereotyping work," Bollinger said.

Full Post: http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2009/05/13/stanford-psychologist-claude-steele-named-21st-university-provost