Thank You for Your Work for Columbia This Year

Dear members of the Columbia community,

As we approach the end of the semester, I want to share my deepest gratitude to the many faculty, staff, and students across the University who have volunteered their time and talents in ways both formal and informal to building an even brighter future for Columbia. 

We are so grateful to all of you who have devoted yourselves to committees that strengthen our academic excellence, improve our policies, and support our community. 

Below, I highlight several of the efforts underway in the Provost’s Office in which faculty, staff, and students have been working together in recent months to address shared challenges and advance institutional priorities.

Academic Excellence and Governance

Across the academic landscape, committees focused on research strategy, academic standards, and school-level reviews have continued their essential work. 

Most recently, the Advisory Committee on Conduct and Accountability, co-sponsored by Executive Vice President for University Life and Wellbeing Melanie Bernitz, has begun an important, independent review of our core disciplinary processes, with the aim of providing recommendations to safeguard the University’s mission and maximize the integrity, efficiency, and effectiveness of these processes. 

Also new this semester: the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Academic Freedom, which has met frequently throughout the fall to gather input, hear concerns, and share feedback with University leadership, with the goal of strengthening the open dialogue necessary to deepen understanding, advance serious scholarship, and expand the frontiers of knowledge.

The University Scientific Strategic Advisory Group, one of the central workgroups of the 2025 Presidential Task Force on Columbia's Research Mission, has worked tirelessly since this summer to bring together deans, research deans, and more than 65 faculty to identify Columbia’s most significant research opportunities. Their work has yielded a clear map of school priorities and cross-school themes. That framework will guide Columbia’s CONNECT initiative and strengthen our national and global research leadership.

These groups join a host of ongoing initiatives, including committees supporting school Academic Reviews and the newly launched decanal reviews underway this year, the Faculty Leadership Council, and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education Monitoring Report Working Group. The Provost’s Working Group on Generative AI recently added two student members, who now serve alongside faculty and administrators in evaluating the rapidly evolving generative AI landscape and its impact on research, teaching, learning, and administration. 

Faculty Advancement and Support

Our faculty remain at the heart of our mission, and several committees have advanced efforts to support their development, recognition, and success.

The Provost's Advisory Council for Faculty Advancement continues to advise me on both emerging faculty needs and ongoing programming. Faculty Advancement and Work/Life will also be launching the Early Career Faculty Advisory Committee at the beginning of 2026 to gather feedback on the unique challenges faculty members in the early stages of their careers face as they build their academic and personal homes at Columbia.

In addition, the Vice Deans Working Groups have continued to advance important faculty-focused initiatives. The Officer of Instruction Issues group has developed proposals to strengthen instructional career pathways and clarify roles and titles. The Research and Appointments Issues group has focused on updating appointment structures and increasing flexibility for research faculty. And the Tenure-Track Faculty Support group has examined ways to support tenure-track faculty amid shifting funding environments and evolving research collaborations, while maintaining rigorous tenure standards. At the same time, the stalwart Tenure Review Advisory Committee (TRAC) is navigating one of its busiest years in recent memory, even for a group that routinely sees some 80 cases a year. We are grateful for the care the committee brings to this vital process.

We remain deeply committed to fostering a healthy and supportive community here at Columbia. With that in mind, I would like to recognize in particular the work of the Anti-Bullying Task Force, which this semester has convened to focus on proactive measures, including training and mentorship resources and a presentation from our CUIMC partners on tools and programs currently in development. The Task Force has also drafted a new definition of bullying and will next form a subcommittee to develop clear implementation frameworks, reporting pathways, and adjudication procedures. 

The International Working Group has met weekly to assess institutional resources for international students, faculty, and researchers, and to monitor changes in visa and immigration rules. The group is also helping to examine factors that will shape international enrollment and institutional needs for fall 2026.

The members of the Provost’s Advisory Committee on the Libraries continue to provide essential insight into how our libraries can best meet the needs and aspirations of Columbia’s schools and departments and the faculty they serve. I met with the committee to review its most recent recommendations, which include improvements to collection development and management policies, expanded digital preservation for unique audiovisual materials, strengthened environmental conditions for rare collections, and new programs supporting research data management, computational skills development, and other interdisciplinary initiatives in research and learning.

This work is ongoing across all these committees and many others, and we will continue to share updates as their efforts advance. None of the great progress made to date would be possible without the time, judgment, and generosity of those who serve. I am very grateful to every committee member and all our colleagues who have contributed to these efforts. You are helping us build a stronger academic foundation and a healthier path forward for our community at a pivotal moment for the University and for higher education.

Thank you for your work this semester. I look forward to all we will continue to accomplish together in the year ahead.

Best wishes,

Angela V. Olinto
Provost
Rutherfurd Professor of Astronomy and Professor of Physics