Bollinger to head CU for 5 more years

University President Lee Bollinger has agreed to head up Columbia for another five years, the Board of Trustees announced Tuesday.

Bollinger could potentially carry the University into the 2015-2016 year if he chooses to retain his office, according to a statement from Trustee Chair William Campbell and the Board.

In that case, he would be the longest-tenured president since Grayson Kirk, who led the University for 15 years until resigning after the 1968 campus protests.

“Lee has recruited and empowered a remarkable array of academic deans and executive talent who are driving both intellectual excellence and solid institutional management,” the Board wrote in its announcement. “Under his stewardship, we have not only maintained our fiscal stability during a period of great economic turbulence, we have achieved a level of scholarship and creativity across the institution that—despite far less space and far fewer dollars than our best endowed peers—has again made Columbia one of the most exciting places in all of higher education.”

Administrators seem to agree that Bollinger is coming off a relatively good year. While the University is still feeling the hurt from the economic downturn, Provost Claude Steele said in an interview that Columbia’s financial situation is starting to stabilize, and the school is seeing some better returns on investments.

And last year his heavily-pushed vision of a “global university” started to see some very tangible results—Columbia launched a series of global centers in China, Jordan, France, and India, and may have two more in the cannon in the not-too-distant future.

“Columbia is thriving on many levels today, and is well positioned for the long-term both locally and globally, because of Lee’s distinctive vision of the university’s vital role in serving our society,” the Board said in their announcement.

If he does stay for the full five additional years, it means that Bollinger will remain the face of—and do heavy lifting for—what has become his key initiative: Columbia’s Manhattanville expansion, which is picking up momentum as the campus looks to the construction of the Mind, Brain, and Behavior building.

“We still have much work to do in building on this extraordinary forward momentum in the years ahead and therefore have every reason to maintain the continuity of Lee’s principled leadership,” the Trustees said.

“For anyone who cares about creating new knowledge and conveying the knowledge we have to the next generation, as well as being engaged in the seemingly endless challenges facing our world, there is no better place to be than Columbia University,” Bollinger wrote in a statement.

“Columbia has come a long way. But its potential for the future is even greater, and I am extremely happy to be able to contribute to the realization of that potential," he added.

alix.pianin@columbiaspectator.com