Provost's Advisory Committee on Academic Freedom

About the Provost's Advisory Committee on Academic Freedom

As an institution dedicated to the creation and teaching of knowledge at the highest levels, Columbia is committed to academic freedom and freedom of expression. These foundational values support the open discourse and dialog necessary to deepen our understanding, produce serious scholarship, and expand the frontiers of knowledge. 

As we witnessed increasing national and campus debate, it was essential that we preserved academic freedom and open inquiry while navigating both longstanding and emerging boundaries and pressures.  To that end, we established the Provost's Advisory Committee on Academic Freedom (PACAF).

Comprised of leading faculty from throughout the institution, the committee serves as an advisory board to the Provost.  The committee engages with faculty from across the university and existing campus groups, including the Senate’s Faculty Affairs, Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, to gather input and ideas and hear concerns. It shares this feedback with university leadership and proposes improvements to ensure consistency with our values. The committee’s charge and composition will continuously be reviewed and renewed, reconfigured, or retired as appropriate.

PACAF Committee Members

Oliver Hobert
Professor of Biological Sciences, of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and of Systems Biology (Co-Chair)

David Pozen 
Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law (Co-Chair)

Thomas J. Christensen
James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations

Gil Eyal
Professor of Sociology

Turkuler Isiksel
Associate Professor of Political Science

Meghan Lane-Fall
E.M. Papper Professor of Anesthesiology; Chair, Department of Anesthesiology

John H. McWhorter
Associate Professor of Linguistics, Program of Linguistics, Department of Slavic Languages

Joshua Mitts
David J. Greenwald Professor of Law

Kerstin M. Perez
Professor of Physics

Contacting the Provost's Advisory Committee on Academic Freedom 


You can contact the committee anytime at [email protected].

Please note that questions and comments submitted to the committee will be kept as private as possible. Messages that contain information requiring mandatory reporting will be forwarded to the appropriate University office.

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