Meet your administrators: the people behind the names

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT LEE BOLLINGER
Known to students as “PrezBo,” Bollinger has served as the 19th president of Columbia since 2002. Bollinger serves as the University’s chief executive officer and has the final say in important decisions, such as administrative appointments. He holds student fireside chats at his residence at 116th Street and Morningside Avenue, so keep your eyes peeled for the selection lotteries. In the past, he has taught an undergraduate course on the First Amendment, but this year he’ll be leading a Journalism School class called “Free Press for Global Society.”

PROVOST CLAUDE STEELE
Last year, Steele became the University’s 21st provost, otherwise known as the senior academic officer. He is the first African American to hold the post. Among many duties, Steele oversees all academic plans and policies at Columbia and decides who should be recommended for tenure. He is also a professor of psychology, a field in which he gained fame for his theories on stereotype threat.

COLUMBIA COLLEGE DEAN MICHELE MOODY-ADAMS
Moody-Adams set a precedent when she became the first woman and first African-American dean of Columbia College last year. She is also the vice president for undergraduate education, a new position that involves the dean in academia as well as student affairs administration. She is well known for her undergraduate philosophy lectures and tea parties, which are similar to Bollinger’s fireside chats. She is a professor of political philosophy and legal theory.

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE DEAN FENIOSKY PENA-MORA
Since he was appointed the 14th dean of SEAS last year, Peña-Mora has instituted a “Rising Superstars” strategy to attract the best faculty to SEAS and to reward the current top faculty. He has also focused on the new field of “CyberBioPhysical Systems,” which fuses the biological, physical, and digital worlds. He has said that he plans to promote interdisciplinary work among the applied sciences departments and to encourage engineers to take on leadership roles. Bollinger affectionately calls him “Feni.”

GENERAL STUDIES DEAN PETER AWN
Awn has been dean of GS since 1997 and has worked to integrate GS courses with those of the rest of the University. He is also a professor of Islamic and comparative religion and the director of the Middle East Institute. Awn has lectured widely on the role Islam plays in international social and political development.

BARNARD PRESIDENT DEBORA SPAR
Two years ago, Spar became the 11th president of Barnard. Known as “DSpar” among students, she has sought to broaden Barnard’s presence abroad and amp up student leadership initiatives with programs like the Athena Center for Leadership Studies. She has also written books on a variety of topics, including the economics of the human fertility industry.