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Letter from the Dean
September 2009
Dear SIPA Students, Faculty and Staff,
Following our recently invented tradition, I use the occasion of a new academic year to write with an annual update on the School.
This fall’s entering MIA and MPA classes were the first to enroll under SIPA’s newly reformed curriculum in which the Core requirements for both degrees have become nearly identical, due to the addition of general management and financial management courses (long required of MPA students) to the MIA requirements. The new curriculum also reduces the number of concentrations from nineteen to six. This focus on six fields of excellence should enable the School to concentrate its energies to improve the quality of both education and research at SIPA.
During the summer a number of alterations were made in the International Affairs Building, all undertaken to reclaim student social and group work space. The sixth floor Stetten Lounge, home to social events and Follies for many generations of students, was renovated this summer. The lounge can now be used for student study and working groups during the day and for student social events in the evening. First on the schedule is a new monthly happy hour to provide more opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to interact, made possible by the generosity of SIPA alumni with additional support from my office.
I am also pleased to announce the creation of the George W. Ball Adjunct Professorship, which supports the recruitment to SIPA of distinguished practitioner faculty in international affairs. George Ball served as Under Secretary of State from 1961 to 1968 and briefly as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. His service in these posts was marked by his vigorous and lonely dissent against the escalation of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. The first George W. Ball Adjunct Professor will be Kemal Derviş, former head of the United National Development Program, who will teach a course on Global Governance with Professor of Practice José Antonio Ocampo.
Despite the economic downturn, SIPA’s financial circumstances, although constrained as in the past, remain stable. Enrollments for the fall have met targets, and we have managed through careful planning, despite the decrease in the size of all fellowship endowments, to maintain fellowship spending at 2008 levels. I am also pleased to report that despite the challenging economic environment, SIPA’s fund-raising efforts in 2008-09 once again broke records. Over 1,724 donors contributed more than $12 million to support SIPA's programs during the year. On top of that, Columbia President Lee Bollinger announced in April his decision to allocate to SIPA $30 million of John Kluge’s generous $400 million bequest to Columbia, all of which will be designated for student fellowships.
On July 1, 2009, SIPA became financially and academically independent of Columbia’s Arts and Sciences, though many SIPA faculty will continue to hold joint appointments and SIPA students will be able to register in Arts and Sciences courses as in the past. Independence makes it possible to plan SIPA’s future development more coherently and effectively. Thus, the School has begun a strategic planning process that will help to ensure that we stay focused on our three major priorities: improving the student experience at SIPA, raising the School’s profile as a leader in policy-relevant research, and placing the School at the center of debate and discussion of key public policy issues.
Sincerely,
John H. Coatsworth
Dean
Professor of History and International and Public Affairs