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AROUND THE QUADS
Michigan's Bollinger to Succeed Rupp
By Alex Sachare '71
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Lee C. Bollinger
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Lee C. Bollinger '71L, president of the
University of Michigan since 1997, has been confirmed by the Board
of the Trustees as Columbia's 19th president. He will succeed
George Rupp in the summer of 2002.
Bollinger's confirmation in October came just
six months after a search committee, headed by trustee Henry King
'48, was appointed to seek out and then sort through candidates for
a new Columbia president. A recommendation for the trustees had not
been expected until this spring.
But amid reports that Michigan's board of
regents was going to put pressure on Bollinger to commit to
remaining in Ann Arbor, the search committee accelerated its
process and Columbia got the man who was a leading candidate all
along. As soon as Rupp announced his planned resignation,
Bollinger's name had been raised as a possible successor —
with good reason.
At Michigan, Bollinger is the head of a highly
regarded university consisting of 19 schools and colleges with
53,000 students from all 50 states and 130 countries. He worked
with an annual budget of $3.6 billion, dramatically increased
Michigan's endowment and has been a driving force behind the new
$90 million Life Sciences Institute. He is popular with both
students and faculty, holding monthly "fireside chats" with
students and teaching a political science course about the First
Amendment and free speech each fall.
A former clerk to Supreme Court chief justice
Warren Burger, Bollinger was dean of Michigan Law School and
provost at Dartmouth before becoming president of Michigan. And he
has Columbia ties — not only did he graduate from the Law
School, but his daughter is currently a student there.
"Like billions of other people, we have a love
affair with New York," said Bollinger, when his appointment was
confirmed at a meeting of the Board of Trustees on October 6. "I am
looking forward to the opportunity to lead one of the nation's
oldest and most distinguished research universities. As New York
recovers [from September 11], as I am certain it will, and as the
city resumes and broadens its role as the cultural and intellectual
capital of the world, Columbia will be a vital partner."
"We are delighted to have Lee Bollinger rejoin
the Columbia family," said David J. Stern '65L, chairman of the
Board of Trustees. "Columbia has gained tremendous momentum during
the last eight years under George Rupp's leadership. With Lee's
record of accomplishment, with his talent and vision, he will
surely build on that record and ensure that Columbia remains one of
the world's great universities."
The search committee did not release the names
of any other candidates for the presidency, although Stephen
Trachtenberg '59, president of the George Washington University,
told the Columbia Spectator that he had been interviewed about two
weeks before the committee recommended Bollinger. King said his
committee had reviewed some 500 nominations in 10 meetings, first
cutting the list to about 40 and then narrowing it further before
settling on Bollinger, who had been a finalist in Harvard's recent
presidential search and a leading candidate for the position at
Princeton as well.
"He has a proven track record in a major, distinguished university
that is just as complex as Columbia," King said of Bollinger. "We
did a lot of homework, including calls to faculty, students, alumni
and regents in Michigan. The reports we got were very, very
positive, and that is putting it mildly."
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