Columbia, NYU to Begin Searching for New Leadership
NEW YORK
Two of the nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning — Columbia University and New York University — said earlier this month that they will be searching for new leadership following announcements that their presidents will step down next year.
Columbia University President George Rupp made his announcement at a meeting of the university’s trustees. The statement was posted on the school’s Web site, and also sent via e-mail to Columbia University alumni.
NYU President L. Jay Oliva has also told NYU’s board of trustees that he plans to step aside next year, according to NYU Trustees Chairman Martin Lipton.
Rupp has served for almost eight years at the helm of one of the nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning. Oliva has overseen NYU since 1991.
“I have decided that next year will be my last as Columbia’s president,” Rupp said in a statement. “I am announcing my intention to resign now in order to allow time for an orderly succession.”
Rupp, who took over as Columbia’s president in July 1993, said he has no definite plans for his future, but that he may return to teaching and writing. He earns about $500,000 a year as head of Columbia.
The only option Rupp ruled out was serving as president of another university.
Lipton says Oliva will continue to teach classes at NYU. “He’s been such an integral part of the life of the university that it would be a huge loss if he wasn’t around,” Lipton says.
Oliva served as NYU provost for 10 years under his predecessor as NYU president, John Brademas.
Both men were praised as superior educators and administrators.
In addition, Harvard recently named former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers as its new president earlier this month. Summers, once a young academic star at Harvard who later became Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, will return to the university as its 27th president.
Summers, 46, a native of New Haven, Conn., will replace Neil H. Rudenstine, who is stepping down in June after a decade at the helm of the nation’s oldest university. The appointment was approved earlier this month by Harvard’s Board of Overseers.
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