<p>Shapiro Credited For Rise In Barnard's Status</p>
<p>By: Hayley Negrin
Posted: 4/10/07</p>
<p>Over the years, history professor Rosalind Rosenberg has gotten used to opening up her inbox in the morning to find a personal message from President Judith Shapiro waiting. Sometimes it's just a link to a newspaper article that the president thinks she might find interesting relating to her field, American studies. Other times it's a clipping from a journal that starts an intellectual dialogue between the two women. </p>
<p>Those e-mails and other personal touches that Shapiro brought to the office of the president will stop at the end of the 2007-2008 academic year. </p>
<p>At a meeting of the college faculty yesterday, Shapiro announced she will be stepping down from what she described as "quite possibly the best job in the world" after considering the decision for at least a year.</p>
<p>Rosenberg-along with many students, administrators, and other faculty members-said they will miss Shapiro, who is credited with, among other initiatives, strengthening Barnard's finances by doubling its endowment in the last five years to $171 million.</p>
<p>"Most college presidents focus on fundraising and she's good at that," Rosenberg said. "In addition to that, she reads all her faculty's books. She read my manuscript to my last book and even left comments."</p>
<p>"I think Barnard will definitely miss her," said Ellyn Artis, BC '98 and head of the Barnard Club of Central Maryland. "She has laid a good foundation and whoever takes over ... will have ground to build on."</p>
<p>Robert McCaughey, former Barnard dean of faculty and academic affairs and author of Stand Columbia: A History of Columbia University in the City of New York, said that Shapiro will leave Barnard in better shape than she found it. </p>
<p>Shapiro had big shoes to fill coming into the job, he said-those of previous President Ellen Futter-who struggled to define Barnard when Columbia College became co-educational in 1983.</p>
<p>"I think she has brought Barnard to the attention of American higher education in a way that was started by Ellen Futter, but I think has been carried on very effectively by Judith," McCaughey said. "I think Barnard College is a better-known institution both in the city and in the country. Financially it's better off and it gets along better with its neighborhood and Columbia University."</p>
<p>Rosenberg, who is also the author of Changing the Subject: How the Women of Columbia Shaped the Way We Think about Sex and Politics, agreed that the relationship between Barnard and Columbia has improved due to Shapiro's efforts.</p>
<p>"She has accomplished the extraordinary which has been to allow Barnard and Columbia to work together better than they have before, and give Barnard a greater sense of its own autonomy more than it has ever known before," Rosenberg said.</p>
<p>"There's a sense at Columbia that Barnard is important and that historically has not been a constant. ... The two institutions value each other more than they did when she came in 1994," McCaughey said. </p>
<p>Higher education in the past 10 years has had its fair share of scandal. McCaughey cited the University of Chicago and Harvard as two institutions that have struggled from within to maintain good communication between faculty and administrators. Barnard has been free of scandal, and McCaughey said he thinks Shapiro's years as president may have helped keep it that way.</p>
<p>"Administration and faculty have been at odds at other institutions," McCaughey said. "I think, overall, she has enjoyed a relatively crisis-free administration which was a novelty for Barnard with the past 20 years or so. Part of it has to do with the good will of Columbia towards Barnard. I think she's contributed to that. It always makes life at Barnard easier when Columbia interests ... are viewed as beneficial."</p>
<p>Early in her tenure, Shapiro oversaw a three-year review of Barnard's curriculum. The process resulted in the establishment of nine cross-disciplinary areas of study, dubbed "The Ways of Knowing," that are now required of all students at the college.</p>
<p>"There's a general sense on the part of the faculty that she knows the academic world," Rosenberg said, adding that she believed that the fact that Shapiro is an academic made her presidency more successful.</p>
<p>Anna Steffens, BC '10, expressed hope that a strong new president can be found, in light of the great changes being made to Barnard with the construction of the Nexus student center. </p>
<p>"I'm sure she has her reasons for leaving, which is fine, but I hope we can find someone who can take everything on and be a strong leader," Steffens said. "I like her. I don't want her to go, but I hope that we can get somebody exciting to generate a bit of publicity."</p>
<p>Ida Suen, BC '08, said she isn't too worried about the change.</p>
<p>"It's kind of shocking to hear, but at the same time I'm not so greatly affected by it," she said. </p>
<p>Shapiro's future after her 14 years at Barnard is unknown even to her.</p>
<p>"There are many, many possibilities. Sleeping is obviously one, spending more quality time with my dog. ... There are things I've been wanting to write for a while that I haven't had time to do and there may be specific projects that I might want to do in the field of higher education in association with research institutes or foundations. So it's pretty open still," Shapiro said. "I might want to sing in a cabaret two nights a week. You never know."</p>
<p>"She's a genuinely funny person, and there are very few people who I have met who are over 40 who have serious professional responsibilities who can pull that off," McCaughey said.</p>
<p>Last night, President Shapiro wanted to relax. After a long day of announcements, navigating between meetings with faculty, administrators, students, and the press, she was looking forward to getting home to take advantage of her new Netflix subscription, and start figuring out how to use her spare time.</p>
<p>The first DVD on her list? The Departed.</p>