In an email sent to Columbia, President Bollinger announced that James Valentini, who formerly was the chair of the Chemistry department from 2005 to 2008 and currently is the director of the Chemistry undergraduate studies program, will replace Michele Moody-Adams as Columbia College Dean.
A member of the Columbia faculty since 1991, Valentini according to the Columbia directory is also teaching undergraduate classes Energy & Energy Conservation, a first-year research seminar, and a supervised independent research class this fall. According to the email, Moody-Adams has agreed to be available for the interim dean to consult with for the remainder of the academic year.
UPDATE (7:35 p.m.): Professor Valentini is married to Teodolinda Barolini, a professor in the Italian department who is one of nine faculty members on the Planning and Policy Committee.
UPDATE (6:10 p.m.): In a letter to CC alumni, President Bollinger definitively stated that "the College has never had a stronger role in the University." An excerpt of the letter:
Given the suddenness of Dean Moody-Adams’ resignation, I want to take this opportunity to comment directly. When I came back to Columbia in 2002, having last been here during my years at the Law School in the late 60′s, I was very surprised and frankly confounded by the stories I heard about deep-seated suspicion and mistrust among the College community. Sometimes these stories had cast the president as the antagonist, and in others it was “the University” or “the Arts and Sciences.” It was unthinkable to me that the college that founded Columbia would not be seen as the very center of the University.
Check after the jump for the email to Columbia and the email sent to CC alumni. Check later for a full story from the news desk.
