Harold Stolper Named Provost’s Senior Faculty Teaching Scholar
Harold Stolper MPA ’06 has been named a Provost’s Senior Faculty Teaching Scholar for 2024–25. This prestigious program, which brings together faculty from across Columbia University’s schools, aims to enhance teaching and learning by fostering an environment where educators can innovate and reflect on their approaches to pedagogy.
For Stolper, a lecturer at Columbia SIPA, this recognition represents an opportunity to refine his teaching methods and develop strategies that foster a stronger sense of belonging and connection for students, ensuring that all feel included and supported in the classroom environment.
“One idea I really want to explore as a teaching scholar is the idea of belonging in the classroom,” Stolper said. “What moments do students feel more connected to the material, and at what points do they feel less of a sense of belonging?”
Stolper sees this program as a way to advance his understanding of how small, seemingly insignificant decisions made by professors can greatly impact how students experience the learning environment.
A Legacy of Research and Policy Impact
As a scholar and teacher, Harold Stolper has focused primarily on advancing equity and inclusivity in both the classroom and beyond. For example, a research project examining how the New York City Police Department (NYPD) enforces fare evasion across different subway stations in New York City revealed stark disparities in how policing resources are allocated, particularly in Black and Latino communities.
This work has shaped Stolper’s teaching philosophy: In his classroom, he emphasizes the importance of using data and analysis not just to understand policies but to critically evaluate their impact on different communities.
“The research that I’m most proud of is my work examining patterns of NYPD enforcement of fare evasion at subway stations across the city,” he said.
His findings have unveiled stark disparities in how policing targets Black and Brown communities, leading him to question how public resources are being used. His research also shows that enforcement at subway stations in high-poverty neighborhoods often leads to arrests, while in predominantly white and Asian neighborhoods, fare evasion more commonly results in a $100 summons. In this way, his research has raised questions about how the city allocates its limited resources, particularly in relation to policing fare evasion: “We are allocating scarce resources to police poverty and punish people if they can't afford the fare,” Stolper said.
Bridging Academia and the Broader Community
Stolper's approach to teaching is deeply informed by his experience as a student at SIPA, where he remembers how connected—and sometimes disconnected—he felt to different material. But as a student Stolper developed a passion for public policy and economic mobility. After graduation, he pursued a PhD in economics and worked for a nonprofit focused on upward mobility for lower-income New Yorkers. Now, as a lecturer, he aims to center the student experience in his teaching style, always considering how his students will engage with the material and take it into the world. He emphasizes the importance of creating a learning environment that resonates with students’ diverse backgrounds and experiences, aiming to make them feel supported and engaged throughout the course.
For Stolper, the connection between academia and the surrounding New York City community is essential.
“It’s important for all of us here—students, faculty, and staff—to understand the privilege we have to learn and teach in this environment,” he said. “I think we sort of owe it to the community around us and ourselves to consider their experience, their everyday experience, while we go about our lives as students, staff, faculty.”
His research highlights the need for policymakers and future policymakers to consider the everyday experiences of New Yorkers as they design more equitable policies. By encouraging his students to look beyond the classroom and connect policy lessons to real-world contexts, Stolper aims to foster a sense of responsibility and awareness.
”Here at SIPA, however diverse it may be, it can sometimes feel like its own bubble, and we might lose sight of the community we're surrounded by, going about their lives [with] their own needs and struggles,” he said. “As future policymakers, we should be thinking about how we can advance more equitable and inclusive policies that connect to the community around us.”