The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York is the governing board of Columbia University in New York City. Founded in 1754, it is sometimes referred to as the Columbia Corporation.https://secretary.columbia.edu/content/governing-documents The Trustees of Columbia University is a 501(c)3 and the owner of the property and real assets of the university.[1] They are legally distinct from affiliates of the university, which include Barnard College, Jewish Theological Seminary, Teachers College, and Union Theological Seminary, which are themselves separate legal entities.
The board of trustees was originally composed of ex officio members including officials from the New York colonial government, crown officials, and various Protestant ministers from the city. Following the college's resuscitation following the American Revolutionary War, it was placed under the control of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, and the university would finally come under the control of a private board of trustees in 1787. The board is notable for having administered the Pulitzer Prize from the prize's establishment until 1975.
As of 2024, the trustees consists of 21 members and is co-chaired by David Greenwald and Claire Shipman.https://secretary.columbia.edu/directory
The board is governed by a maximum of 24 trustees, including the president of the university, who serves ex officio. Six of the 24 candidates are nominated from a pool of candidates selected by the Columbia Alumni Association. Another six are nominated by the board in consultation with the University Senate. The remaining 12 are nominated by the trustees through an internal process.[2] The board elects its own chair; the first woman to serve as chair, and the first to chair the governing board of any Ivy League university, was Gertrude Michelson, elected in 1989.[3] The term of office for the trustees is six years and trustees serve for no more than two consecutive terms.
The trustees have met in dedicated room in Low Memorial Library since 1897. They select the President, oversee all faculty and senior administrative appointments, monitor the budget, supervise the endowment, and protect university property.[4] The board of trustees holds the exclusive power to grant degrees, including, by memoranda of understanding, to the affiliated institutions of Barnard College and Teachers College. The trustees also oversaw the Pulitzer Prizes until 1975, when authority over the prizes was devolved to a separate board.[5]
The board of trustees was originally established in 1754 as the board of governors of King's College with 41 members, replacing the ten-member Lottery Commission appointed by the New York Assembly to oversee lottery funds allocated to the establishment of the college.[6] The board of governors originally included several ex officio members, including, crown officials, members of the colonial government, and ministers of various Protestant denominations:[7]
A further twenty-four individuals were named in the charter, serving without terms with their successors to be selected by subsequent governors. College faculty were not provided seats ex officio on the board of governors, at variance with contemporary practice at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where the faculty was engaged in the governance of their colleges, but was very much in line with practice of other colonial colleges governed by external boards.
The charter permitted Protestants to serve as governors but excluded Roman Catholics and Jews. Only three members would be Anglicans: the Archbishop of Canterbury, the rector of Trinity Church, and the President of Columbia University, and they were offset by four ex officio members selected from New York's Dutch Reformed Church, French Protestant church, Lutheran Church, and Presbyterian Church. In practice, the board was dominated by Anglicans, members of the Trinity Church, and the Dutch Reformed Church. Of the fifty-nine men who served as governors, only three ex officio members were not from the Anglican or Dutch Reformed churches.
More than half of the fifty-nine New Yorkers who served as governor made their livings as merchants. The next most common occupation among the governors was law (20 percent), followed by ministers (16 percent), and there was only one doctor. The governors met 102 times in 22 years and most meetings were attended by around fifteen governors. A quarter of the governors attended fewer than ten meetings, and another half were absent, leaving a core of sixteen governors. Academic matters such as faculty appointments, the curriculum, and admissions requirements were overseen by degree-bearing ministers, while governors drawing from the city's mercantile and legal ranks oversaw financial matters such as construction of collegiate buildings or the salary of the college steward. This informal division of duties survived the reorganization of the King's College into Columbia College and persisted into the 1960s.
In terms of politics, the ratio of Loyalists to Patriots during the American Revolution among the governors was more than eight to one. The college was severely affected by the revolutionary war, which forced the college to shut down for eight years and a number of governors fled to Canada and the West Indies.
In 1784, it became the Board of Regents of Columbia College after the former King's College was reinstated. The 1784 charter also stipulated that eight of the seats on the board should be held by ranking state officials ex officio, with the remaining 24 regents to be appointed, two each, from the state's 12 counties, with only three places reserved for New York City residents. The number of regents was subsequently expanded to 33 by the New York State Legislature, with 20 of them residents of New York City, including a mix of prominent politicians and clergymen such as John Jay, Samuel Provoost, Leonard Lispenard, Gershom Mendes Seixas, and John Daniel Gros.
It was renamed in a new 1787 charter as the Trustees of Columbia College in the City of New York, and the college was relieved of its duties as a state institution, returning to earlier status as a privately governed college serving the city. None of the college's trustees were to be state officials, and all replacements were to be elected by incumbent board members. Only until 1908 did the board start accepting alumni nominations.
The board arrived at its final name of The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York by an order from the Supreme Court of New York in 1912, 16 years after Columbia College was renamed as Columbia University.[8] [9]
Although the trustees usually approve faculty recommendations for hiring and dismissal of Columbia faculty, in some cases they have taken a more direct role. Notably, in 1917 they fired psychologist James McKeen Cattell for his anti-war and anti-conscription views, a case significant in the history of academic freedom.[10] [11]
The trustees' oversight of the Pulitzer Prizes, which ended in 1975, was not without controversy. An early example of this occurred in 1921, when the trustees overruled the jury recommendation and awarded the fiction prize to Edith Wharton for The Age of Innocence instead of the recommendation of Sinclair Lewis for Main Street.[12] A similar controversy ensued in 1962, when the trustees overruled the jury's choice of a biography of William Randolph Hearst by W. A. Swanberg, Citizen Hearst, instead choosing to give no award in that category.[13] [14]
The trustees have been blamed for the violent suppression of protestors in the Columbia University protests of 1968, after they instructed the university administration to call in the police against the protestors and later lauded the police for their efforts.[15]
In 2001, the trustees were accused of pressuring the university to water down its sexual misconduct policy, and the director of the Office of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Education resigned in protest, claiming that the trustees had directed her not to discuss the policy changes.[16]
As with most governing boards of private universities, the deliberations of the trustees are confidential, and despite any internal disagreements the trustees generally present a unified front to the public on the decisions they have taken. A notable exception to this occurred in 2012, when trustee José A. Cabranes published a dissenting opinion on the status of Columbia College and its core curriculum within the university, in a column in Columbia's student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator.[17]
During the 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus occupation a group of 21 members of the United States House of Representatives suggested that the trustees resign if they were unwilling to call in the NYPD to arrest student protestors.[18]
The board consists of the following 21 members as of April 2024, according to Columbia University's official website and the biographies of the trustees:https://secretary.columbia.edu/directory
| Name | Columbia Degree(s) | Occupation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| David Greenwald (Co- Chair) | JD 1983 | chairman of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson | |
| Claire Shipman (Co-Chair) | BA 1986, MIA 1994 | senior national correspondent for Good Morning America | |
| Abigail Black Elbaum (Vice Chair) | BA 1992, MBA 1994 | co-founder and principal of Ogden CAP Properties | |
| Mark Gallogly (Vice Chair) | MBA 1986 | co-managing partner and founder of Centerbridge Partners | |
| Wanda M. Holland Greene | BA 1989, MA 1991, EdM | Head of School at the Hamlin School | |
| Andrew F. Barth | BA 1983, MBA 1985 | former chairman of Capital Guardian Trust Company | |
| Dean Dakolias | BS 1989 | co-CIO of the credit funds group at Fortress Investment Group | |
| Duchesne Drew | BA 1989 | President of Minnesota Public Radio | |
| Keith Goggin | MS 1991 | market maker on NYSE | |
| Joseph A. Greenaway Jr. | BA 1978 | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit | |
| Kikka Hanazawa | BA 2000 | social entrepreneur | |
| Jeh Johnson | JD 1982 | partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017 | |
| Li Lu | BA 1996, JD 1996, MBA 1996 | founder and chairman of Himalaya Capital Management | |
| Victor Mendelson | BA 1989 | co-president and director of HEICO | |
| Adam Pritzker | BA 2008 | co-founder and chairman of General Assembly | |
| Jonathan Rosand | BA 1989, MD 1994 | Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School | |
| Minouche Shafik | none | President of Columbia University | |
| Shoshana Shendelman | MA 2003, MSc 2004, PhD 2005 | Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the Board of Directors at Applied Therapeutics | |
| Kathy Surace-Smith | JD 1984 | Senior Vice President at NanoString Technologies | |
| Fermi Wang | MS 1989, PhD 1991 | CEO and co-founder of Ambarella Inc. | |
| Shirley Wang | MBA 1993 | founder and CEO of Plastpro Inc |
According to the university website and Columbia Daily Spectator archives, the following people have served as trustees in the past:[19]
| Name | Columbia Degree(s) | Occupation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rolando Acosta | BA 1979, JD 1982 | presiding justice of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, First Judicial Department | |
| MS 1976 | journalist, news producer, author | ||
| José A. Cabranes | BA 1961[20] | judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, former Presiding Judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review | |
| William Campbell | BA 1962, MEd 1964[21] | founder of Claris, former chairman and CEO of Intuit and director of Apple Inc. | |
| Lisa Carnoy (Co-chair) | BA 1986, MIA 1994[22] | CFO of AlixPartners | |
| Jerome Chazen | MBA 1950[23] | founder of Liz Claiborne, Inc | |
| Thomas Ludlow Chrystie II | BA 1955 | former CFO of Merrill Lynch & Company | |
| Patricia Cloherty | MS 1970[24] | chairman and CEO of Delta Private Equity Partners | |
| Edward N. Costikyan | BA 1947, LLB 1949 | partner of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and political adviser | |
| John Curley | MS 1963[25] | professor at Pennsylvania State University, former editor of USA Today and chairman of Gannett | |
| Evan A. Davis | JD 1969 | partner of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, former president of the New York City Bar Association | |
| Marcellus Hartley Dodge Sr.[26] | BA 1903 | former chairman of the Remington Arms Company | |
| Stephen Friedman | JD 1962[27] | chairman of Stone Point Capital, former director of the United States National Economic Council and chairman of Goldman Sachs | |
| Noam Gottesman | BA 1986 | CEO of TOMS Capital and founder of GLG Partners | |
| Samuel L. Higginbottom | BS 1943 | former chairman, CEO, president of Rolls-Royce North America, former CEO and president of Eastern Air Lines | |
| Ben Horowitz | BA 1988[28] | co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz | |
| Ellen Kaden | JD 1977[29] | former chief legal officer of CBS, Inc and Campbell Soup Company | |
| Mark E. Kingdon | BA 1971[30] | hedge fund manager and president of Kingdon Capital Management | |
| Robert Kraft | BA 1963 | chairman and CEO of The Kraft Group | |
| Jonathan Lavine (Co-chair) | BA 1988 | co-managing partner of Bain Capital | |
| Gerry Lenfest | LLB 1958 | lawyer, philanthropist | |
| Anna Kazanjian Longobardo | BS 1949, MS 1952[31] | former executive of Unisys and co-founder of Society of Women Engineers | |
| Donald McHenry | none | professor at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations[32] | |
| Charles Li | JD 1991[33] | former CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing | |
| Julie Menin | BA 1989 | former chair of Manhattan Community Board 1, commissioner of New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection | |
| Charles Miller Metzner | BA 1931, LLB 1933 | former judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York | |
| Gertrude Michelson | LLB 1947[34] | vice president of Macy's, deputy chair of Federal Reserve Bank, director of many corporations | |
| Philip L. Milstein | BA 1971[35] | principal of Ogden CAP Properties and former chairman of Emigrant Bank | |
| Yuzaburo Mogi | MBA 1961[36] | chairman and CEO of Kikkoman | |
| Vikram Pandit | BS 1976, MS 1977, MPhil 1980, PhD 1986[37] | chairman of The Orogen Group and former CEO of Citigroup[38] | |
| Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón | JD 2001 | chief of staff to First Lady Jill Biden, former United States Ambassador to Uruguay and nominee for United States Ambassador to Spain | |
| Lionel Pincus | MBA 1956 | founder of Warburg Pincus | |
| Edmund Prentis | BS 1906[39] | founder of Spencer, White & Prentis, president of the American Standards Association | |
| Warren H. Phillips | none | former CEO of Dow Jones & Company | |
| Arnold S. Relman | MD 1946[40] | former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine | |
| George Erik Rupp | none | former President of Columbia University, Rice University, and the International Rescue Committee | |
| Jonathan Schiller | BA 1969, JD 1973[41] | co-founder of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP | |
| Michael I. Sovern | BA 1953, LLB 1955 | former President of Columbia University, chairman of Sotheby's, American Academy in Rome, and Japan Society | |
| Jerry Speyer | BA 1962, MBA 1964[42] | founder and chairman of Tishman Speyer | |
| Joan E. Spero | MIA 1968[43] | former Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment | |
| David Stern | JD 1966 | former Commissioner of the NBA | |
| Arthur Hays Sulzberger | BA 1913 | former publisher of The New York Times | |
| Punch Sulzberger | BA 1951 | former publisher of The New York Times and chairman of The New York Times Company and Metropolitan Museum of Art | |
| Lawrence Walsh | BA 1931, LLB 1935 | former United States Deputy Attorney General and judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, independent counsel on the Iran–Contra affair investigations | |
| Faye Wattleton | MSN 1967[44] | former president of Planned Parenthood | |
| Felix Wormser | BS 1916 | former Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Mineral Resources | |
| Sheena Wright | BA 1990, JD 1994 | deputy mayor of New York City[45] | |
| John Eugene Zuccotti | none | real estate developer and former U.S. chairman of Brookfield Properties |