Posts Tagged ‘SEAS’
Opening night!
You know what I’m talking about. I’m taking about the 119th Varsity Show. CUMB, FroSci, Nutella, nothing and no one will be spared. Come see it today, tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday. Tickets are selling out! While you’re waiting for the TIC calendar to load, why not see what’s in today’s new?
Read this: Joseph DelPreto was named valedictorian of SEAS, and Claire Duvallet, the salutatorian.
Know this: Columbia Ballet Collaborative’s spring performance is coming up, featuring pieces by students and professional choreographers.
Here’s more: Barnard studio singles cost more than ever, rising from $12,000 to $14,500, in an effort to move the singles closer to market pricing.
barnard.edu
Bollinger appoints head of MIT mech. engineering Dean of SEAS
University President Lee Bollinger appointed Mary Cunningham Boyce, effective July 1, 2013. A University statement includes the full details of the appointment, which may be read in full below.
NEW YORK, March 26, 2013 —Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger today announced his appointment of Mary Cunningham Boyce as the new Dean of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, effective July 1, 2013. Professor Boyce comes to Columbia after more than 25 years at MIT, where she is currently the Ford Professor of Engineering and Department Head of Mechanical Engineering.
eHarmony@CU
Did you go to Glass House Rocks by yourself? Did you stroll down College Walk with clasped hands, pretending you were holding someone else’s hand?
Did you get super excited when someone knocked on your door, thinking it was a secret Valentines, only to open the door to your disgruntled neighbour who asked you to stop blasting “All By Myself”?
If you answered yes to two out of three questions, then it’s time for a change. eHarmony@CU is here to find the love of your life. If you’re still not sure that this dating service is for you, check out these students who got a little more love in their life thanks to eHarmony@CU.
The Athlete Scholar
SEAS dean search down to Final Four
We got word a few minutes ago that Provost John Coatsworth emailed SEAS alumni a list of four finalist candidates for the school’s top job. The next dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science will be one of the following people:
- Mary Cunningham Boyce (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Andrew Gellman (Carnegie Mellon University)
- Donald Goldfarb (Columbia)
- Paul Weiss (University of California, Los Angeles)
Boyce is the head of MIT’s mechanical engineering department; Gellman is the head of CMU’s chemical engineering department; Weiss is the director of UCLA’s NanoSystems Institute. Goldfarb, of course, is the current interim dean of SEAS.
SEAS has been without a permanent dean since Feniosky Peña-Mora resigned last July following a faculty revolt. Coatsworth said in his email that the search committee hopes to choose a permanent dean by the middle of this semester.
Check back later for a full story from the News Desk, and see after the jump for Coatsworth’s full email. More »
This week in ESC: How’s life?
The News Desk’s Avantika Kumar brings you the highlights from last night’s Engineering Student Council meeting:
- Carleton lounging: The current engineering library in Mudd Hall will be phased out to accommodate the new Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering, and its resources will be redistributed to other libraries. As a result, SEAS Vice Dean of Academic Affairs Soulaymane Kachani said on Monday night, Carleton Lounge, Mudd’s only “student space,” may be partially converted to a digital library. The “digital library” would include computer terminals with special digital resources and technology tools. Check back in the morning for a full story from the News Desk. More »
The latest from LCB
Spectator sat down with University President Lee Bollinger on Friday to talk dean searches, brownstones, and CUArts, among other hot topics. Some highlights from the interview:
- Four deans and a VP: Searches for permanent deans of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of International and Public Affairs, and the Journalism School should all be completed by April at the latest, Bollinger said, and the search for a new dean of the College of Dental Medicine uptown should also be finished soon. Meanwhile, Bollinger is putting together a search committee for a new executive vice president of Arts and Sciences, following Nicholas Dirks’ resignation earlier this month to become chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley.
- A scholar and a gentleman: Bollinger said that Dirks has “done wonderful things and is very much appreciated for them,” adding that his new job is good for both Berkeley and Columbia. Asked about the potential field of candidates for Arts and Sciences EVP, Bollinger said there’s “no question that it’s a challenging role, a challenging environment, but I am completely confident that I will be able to appoint someone who is superb… We want a very strong EVP for Arts and Sciences.”
Goldfarb would take dean job permanently, and more from SEAS
Spectator journeyed deep into Mudd this month to chat with Donald Goldfarb. He may be the interim dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, but he said he’d be happy to take on the job permanently. Below, some other highlights from the interview, including the fundraising and recruiting the school is doing, study abroad for SEAS students, and the development of the Institute for Data Sciences:
- Although Goldfarb, who was appointed interim dean in July, is not involved directly in the search process for a permanent SEAS dean, he said that he suggested a few search committee members to University Provost John Coatsworth last month. Goldfarb said he’d be honored if he were considered as a candidate. “I would be happy to be a candidate,” he said. “I would hope that the committee would view me favorably. I would hope that the Provost and the President enjoy interacting with me.”
- One of the primary complaints lodged about former dean Feniosky Peña-Mora, who resigned in July, was that he did not understand the atmosphere and operations of the school because he did not have a background at Columbia. While the dean search committee has made the decision to consider both internal and external candidates, Goldfarb acknowledged that the move to any institution is often a difficult one. “Every University is different,” he said. “Every school has its own culture and history. Very often, when you bring someone from the outside, they don’t understand the culture and it’s hard.” More »
The search continues
It’s been three months already since civil engineering professor Feniosky Peña-Mora resigned as SEAS dean after that awkward “faculty revolt.” But steps are finally being taken to fill the void.
As Margaret Mattes reported in today’s paper, the dean search committee is holding a town hall meeting tomorrow to hear what students want from their next dean.
Assuming a majority of the SEAS community will not be present at this meeting tomorrow, I reached out to a few SEAS students and asked what they want to see from the next dean. Read on after the jump:
Till the semester do you part
Good morning, Columbia! Just a reminder that today is the last day for CC, Barnard, GS, GSAS, and Continuing Education (Not SEAS) students to drop a class. This is obviously a more binding commitment than marriage, so either put some socks on those cold feet or runaway bride over to Kent and get an add/drop form pronto.
Read this: Amanda Gutterman takes a stand for humanities majors against all the haters who joke about uselessness and no job market (or the only market being in fast food chains).
Know this: There will be a town hall Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. to garner student input regarding the search for an engineering school dean.
Here’s more: Barnard’s counseling center is reducing the number of free sessions for students from 10 to eight, with the reasoning that center usage has sharply increased and a reduction in free sessions will also reduce wait times. But along with the closing of Barnard pool, some students are concerned about student wellness.
PrezBo on politics, college rankings, and dean searches
University President Lee Bollinger loves to talk about Manhattanville and globalization—a fact he acknolwedged in an interview last week with Spectator.
But he also dished on why college rankings (kinda) matter, what he’s looking for in the new dean for SEAS, and which presidential candidate’s candidates policies would be better from an academic standpoint. Some highlights from the interview:
- There’s a presidential election a month away, in case you didn’t know, and while Bollinger would not express his personal views on the election, he said he thought that the policies of Democrat Barack Obama, CC ’83, were generally more supportive of student loans, funding for research, affirmative action, and other issues in academia and education administration than those of his Republican opponent Mitt Romney.
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The leeway that the Department of Education and Department of Justice granted admissions offices last December with regard to the educational benefits of diversity is something that “you would not expect to come out of the Romney administration,” Bollinger said.
- Many people are skeptical of college rankings, Bollinger included. But he said that it is important that all of Columbia’s schools are in the top 10 in the country. “I think these are crude ways of saying something that’s pretty deep and profound,” Bollinger said. “You do not want to run your institution according to what U.S. News and World Reports says. More »