University of Alaska Fairbanks - Winter 2022
Sociology 290, Chapter 7 Presentation
Professor Sanders, Section 2
January 11, 2022
The president of Columbia University is the chief officer of Columbia University in New York
City. (Smith, 2021) Additionally, The position was created in 1754 by the original royal
charter for the university, issued by George II, and the power to appoint the president was
given to an autonomous board of trustees.
Teacher’s Note: Good work on addressing counterarguments.
PRESENTATION SLIDES:
Slide 1 Title: Key Points
The university suspended operations upon the outbreak of the American Revolutionary
War, during which no individual served as president. When it was resuscitated by the New
York State Legislature, the university was placed directly under the control of the Board of
Regents of the University of the State of New York; its chancellor, George Clinton, served as
the de facto president of Columbia University. Through the efforts of Alexander Hamilton
and John Jay, control of the university was returned to a private board of trustees in 1787,
which has to this day maintained the right to appoint or remove the president, who also
serves on the board ex officio. The university's first president was Samuel Johnson, who
held the office from 1754 to 1763, and its current interim president is Katrina Armstrong,
whose tenure began on August 14, 2024. Upon the founding of the university, it was
stipulated by the vestrymen of Trinity Church, on whose land King's College sat, that every
president must be a member of the Church of England; otherwise, the land would revert to
the church.
Slide 2 Title: Important Facts
As such, every single president of the university until the appointment of Dwight D.
Eisenhower was Anglican, while the first six presidents, with the exception of William
Samuel Johnson, were all either Anglican priests or bishops. Michael I. Sovern, appointed in
1980, was the university's first Jewish president. In 2023, Minouche Shafik became the first
woman to serve as president of the university. From 1902 to 1970, every president was
involved in foreign relations in some capacity: Nicholas Murray Butler was the president of
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from 1925 to 1945, and was awarded a
Nobel Peace Prize for his promotion of the Kellogg–Briand Pact; Dwight D. Eisenhower
served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II, and
after his tenure would serve as President of the United States; and Grayson L. Kirk and
Andrew W. Cordier were both instrumental to the formation of the United Nations. As
established by Columbia University's governing statutes, it is the duty of the president to
exercise jurisdiction over all affairs of the university; to call special meetings of the
University Senate, faculties, and administration; to report to the Trustees of Columbia on
the state and needs of the university annually; and to administer discipline.
Slide 3 Title: Key Topics
According to the university charter and statutes, the consent of the president is necessary
for any act made by a faculty or administrative board, unless their veto is overridden by
two-thirds vote. Additionally, the president is able to grant leaves of absences, give faculty
permission to use university laboratories for experiments, and confer academic and
honorary degrees on behalf of the board of trustees. The president is ex officio a permanent
member of the Pulitzer Prize Board, and has annually presented the awards to its recipients
since 1984. In addition, the president is a member of the board of trustees of Teachers
College an ex officio member of the board of trustees of Barnard College. == List of
presidents ==
== President's House ==
At Columbia's midtown Manhattan campus (1857–1896), a house for the president was
built in 1862 near the corner of 49th Street and Fourth Avenue (later Park Avenue), which
served as the home of both Charles King and Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard.
Slide 4 Title: Key Topics
It was the president's official residence until that campus' demolition in 1897. The current
house for the president of Columbia University, located on the university's Morningside
Heights campus, was built in 1912, and has served as the official residence of the university
president since, with the exception of during the tenure of Michael Sovern, who chose to
instead continue living in his Upper East Side apartment. The house was reoccupied upon
the accession of George Rupp in 1993, and has remained in use since then. Demolition of the
building was considered as late as 1991, though the building underwent a comprehensive
renovation in 2005. == References ==
References:
1. Wikipedia (n.d.)