At Convocation last week, Columbia’s new President and CEO Shantay Bolton told students she wants them to feel “seen, valued and heard.” She wants to be the kind of leader that students will approach and call “prez.”
Bolton pledged to be present in student spaces where she can see students engaging in campus life, which we welcome.
The challenge now is for Bolton to not just inspire and encourage a sense of community but also to actually deliver on her promises of ensuring that Columbia will thrive by growing enrollment, stabilizing finances and providing the resources students, staff and faculty need to succeed.
Bolton must also address the significant losses students have faced as a result of the looming financial deficit. New students may not know that history, but the rest of us do.
The speech painted Columbia as a place where individuality and creativity always thrive, but in the past budget cuts and rising tuition have strayed from that vision.
Just this summer, more full-time faculty were laid off, bringing the total number this year to 43.
In her address to new students, she touched heavily on the college’s diverse campus, adding that “you belong here.”
While the slogan is nice, students need more than a slogan. Belonging is contingent on having access to the resources that students need to succeed. How much can a student belong to an institution with depleted resources?
She closed her speech with a call-and-response segment, encouraging the audience to respond with an enthusiastic “hell yeah.”
Bolton: “Will it be hard sometimes?”
Crowd: “Hell yeah!”
Bolton: “Will you stumble and still rise stronger?”
Crowd: “Hell yeah!”
The chant continued, leaving no doubt that Bolton is not a president who intends to stay quiet.
Now, the campus community will have to see if that energy translates into action. The next months will reveal whether Bolton can back up her enthusiasm with tangible efforts to build the community and resources that truly allow students to belong.
Copy edited by Manuel Nocera
