For the week leading up to February 2, Barnard buzzed with the excitement of starting a new era at the College with the inauguration of Laura Ann Rosenbury as its ninth president. A long-standing tradition on campus, Inauguration represents the official and public launch of new leadership, while reaffirming Barnard’s future as the most selective educational home in New York City for young women and women leaders.
Celebrants from across the College and Columbia joined President Rosenbury’s colleagues, family, and friends — along with New York City and state government officials — in the grande féte, which officially kicked off at the historic Riverside Church near campus.
A Fearless Barnard
President Rosenbury, who was introduced by Nalini P. Kotamraju, her first-year roommate at Harvard-Radcliffe College, shared her vision for Barnard in her inaugural address by reminding the audience of what makes Barnard special — its bold ability and commitment to meet and solve tough challenges, regardless of the time period. She then discussed her priorities, which fell into five distinct points: build communities of care; reimagine our infrastructure; embrace OneBarnard; lead into the future; and grow our resources.
First, declaring that Barnard is the best college “in the world” for women that also has an enduring partnership with one of the world’s best research universities, President Rosenbury said that strengthening the community beyond Barnard’s gates will help to ensure that more women excel than before. “It’s time to strengthen our relationships with Morningside Heights, Harlem, and the entire City with new and revitalized community partnerships,” said President Rosenbury. “As the physical space of our new Francine LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being opens this summer, we’ll be creating a robust wellness program that supports everyone on our campus — students, faculty, staff — and reaches out beyond our campus as well.”
Second, she expanded Barnard’s community of care to include its physical spaces. In addition to the renovation of Altschul Hall into the new Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Center, which will transform scientific education and research on our campus, President Rosenbury said she’s focused on modernizing the entire infrastructure — from dorms to technology systems. “Ten years from now, every one of our buildings will better reflect and promote our amazing community,” she said.
Third, the campus will come together stronger as OneBarnard. President Rosenbury promised to break down silos and to foster a community of collaboration on both sides of Broadway. “By working together, by sharing our diverse and conflicting perspectives, we will unlock new forms of creativity,” she said.
Fourth, President Rosenbury announced a new student loan forgiveness program that would welcome more students from across different backgrounds. And she said that for the College to continue to create a culture of excellence, it will need to educate the best young minds in the world to confront the climate crisis and artificial intelligence. “We’re going to continue to lead in STEM in our own way — a way that nobody else can — by focusing on how it intersects with the humanities, the arts, and the social sciences,” said President Rosenbury. To set an example, she announced, the College will reach net-zero emissions on campus by 2040.
Finally, President Rosenbury announced a new College funding goal in the next 10 years — a $1 billion endowment. “It means we go from the ‘best-kept secret’ to the best college, period,” she said. Standing proudly and being fearless in telling Barnard’s story is President Rosenbury’s charge to make sure that students are able to attend, regardless of their economic status, and that the College continues to compete alongside other world-class institutions.
Inaugural Greetings
In addition to President Rosenbury, the ceremony featured speakers from the College’s community members and friends. Board of Trustees chair Cheryl Glicker Milstein ’82, P’14, spoke about why President Rosenbury was the perfect choice for president, especially now, “in a world where women see our fundamental rights under attack” and coming together is evermore crucial. “From her very first day, Laura has understood intuitively how important that sense of community is to Barnard. How important those personal relationships are,” said Glicker Milstein. “She set out to meet with every faculty member. She sat down with students and staff.”
Provost and dean of the faculty Linda A. Bell, who is also Claire Tow Professor of Economics, talked about Barnard’s strong past, of having expanded opportunities for students to “become the premier liberal-arts college for women seeking careers in STEM,” and of the resilient future ahead, thanks to the recent “academic centers, departments, and programs that make new forms of scholarship possible at Barnard.” Provost Bell highlighted that President Rosenbury brings to Barnard her lived experience, which “has taught her the transformative power of an intellectually rich undergraduate environment. She knows that power, she is committed to ensuring that all students can feel that power, and I am confident that this commitment will guide the choices she makes as our president.”
Christopher Baswell, the Ann Whitney Olin Professor of English and acting director of Film Studies, expressed the excitement that faculty held: “From a cohort that began under the deanship of Virginia Gildersleeve and arrives in this room, on this day, we welcome you as the newest and my fifth president of Barnard College.”
President of the Student Government Association Mariame Sissoko ’24 spoke of Barnard’s fierce 135-year legacy by way of the myriad groundbreaking alumnae it produced. It was the fierceness of free thinkers like Grace Lee Boggs ’35 and Zora Neale Hurston ’28 who, Sissoko explained, helped to cultivate the spirit of activism that is Barnard. “As we enter this new chapter of Barnard together, let us continue to embody the spirit of Barnard: an intrinsically radical, unafraid spirit that is defined by excellence, empathy, and the ever-growing hope that a better world is possible,” said Sissoko.
Offering congratulations on behalf of Columbia University, President Minouche Shafik highlighted the unique relationship, since Barnard’s founding, between the College and the university, with an emphasis that both places are now being led by women. “Our undergraduates take advantage of the rich array of curricular and extracurricular experiences here. … And our alumni, in turn, are proud to count some of the most celebrated women in the world as partners and friends,” said Shafik.
Martha Minow — Harvard University’s 300th Anniversary University Professor and mentor of President Rosenbury — shared how President Rosenbury cultivated friendships and created connections between the seemingly disconnected, as a student and then as a lawyer and academic scholar. “Even while a law student, Laura imagined how athletics could be different with the engagement of women; she rejected the then-prevailing zero-sum view that more opportunities for women meant fewer for men. She drew upon and reimagined feminist theory. That is dynamic inventiveness at work,” said Minow. “For Laura, schooling is not just a means to an end but also a vibrant world of present experiences. Laura sees Barnard students not only as people invested in their futures but as individuals with current interests, relationships, curiosities, and capacities.”
President Rosenbury’s longtime friend Nalini P. Kotamraju shared her favorite college and post-college stories of her friend, whom she described as a close family member and as an explorative thinker. “When Laura told me she had accepted this role, I laughed aloud in joy at the absolute rightness of the fit. The idea of Laura leading a College for women, a college as revered as Barnard is, seemed completely consistent with the value she’d always placed on the importance of women,” said Kotamraju.
Welcoming A New Chapter
Board of Trustees member Jyoti Menon ’01, who served as the event’s emcee and shared a Mayoral Citation on behalf of the City of New York, concluded the program. “On behalf of the Board of Trustees, my fellow alumnae, and every member of the Barnard community, I thank you all for being here — it has been an historic occasion for the College and a stellar official beginning for our president,” she said.
The weeklong festivities that brought the campus together did so in abundant ways, including science talks and a preview of the the transformation of Altschul Hall into the Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Center; a day of service; a celebration of Barnard’s arts and architecture departments; a fireside chat with Provost Bell and Mallya Professor of Women and Economics Elizabeth Ananat; the 2024 Lewis-Ezekoye Distinguished Lecture in Africana Studies; and a kickoff breakfast the morning of Inauguration. On the big day, following the official ceremony, celebrants convened at the Diana Center to revel in the week’s memorable events.
For more Inaugural excitement, check out the Flickr album below:
