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SIPA to Become Autonomous Professional School Within Arts and Sciences
Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) will become an autonomous professional school on July 1, 2009. “SIPA will maintain close ties to the Arts and Sciences, but will have the financial and academic independence to develop in new and exciting ways,” said SIPA Dean John Coatsworth.
SIPA will now develop its own priorities in recruiting faculty, setting enrollment targets, and developing new programs. The School will implement a new, more focused curriculum next fall. By the end of 2015, the SIPA hopes to move to a new building, designed by Renzo Piano, at the gateway to Columbia’s new Manhattanville campus. “Columbia’s goal,” Coatsworth said, “is to make sure that SIPA is the best global policy school in the world when it moves to its new home.”
SIPA will preserve its strong academic ties to the University’s social science departments and the regional institutes, a long standing source of SIPA's academic strength. Joint appointments of faculty with Arts and Sciences departments will remain in place, joint faculty recruitment will continue in the future, and cross-enrollment between SIPA and the Arts and Sciences will be preserved. Reflecting this close relationship, SIPA will continue to provide financial support to the Arts & Sciences in addition to its contributions to University common costs. As the School acquires new resources, its financial support for Arts and Sciences is expected to fall from 15 percent of SIPA’s budget in the coming fiscal year to a smaller share in the future.
Coatsworth credited Columbia president Lee Bollinger for the “vision that moved the new SIPA from a dream to a real goal.” He praised Arts and Sciences Vice President Nicholas Dirks for “his flexible and effective leadership in an exceptionally challenging environment.” Without Dirks’s “support and commitment to SIPA’s future,” he said “Columbia could not have achieved this huge step forward.”
Read more from the Columbia Spectator.