Dear Office of the Provost Colleagues,

I am writing to offer a few personal words, following the announcement from President Bollinger, and associated Columbia News article, that I will complete my service as University Provost on June 30.

My decision to step away from university administration at Columbia was not an easy one, as I have found the past ten years to be rewarding in countless ways. The opportunity to lead Columbia Engineering during an era of intellectual and physical transformation, recruiting and supporting an exceptional faculty and student body, including a historic number of female faculty and students, as well as an expansion and renewal of our many research and teaching spaces and programs, gives me enormous pride. The guiding vision Columbia Engineering for Humanity captures Columbia’s unique strengths in engineering and the many collaborations across this premier university. When President Bollinger asked me to serve as Provost, I was hesitant to give up a job I loved, but I believed strongly in advancing Columbia’s unique capacity to engage in world-class scholarship with real-world impact. It has been an honor to serve our faculty and students in this role.

As Provost, it has been a privilege to work with all of you to propel the excellence of our faculty and academic programs. This vantage point has allowed me to witness first-hand how the Office of the Provost supports the exceptional nature of our faculty and student talent, innovative approaches across educational programs, and our strengths in discovery and in translation of new ideas to impact. It has been inspiring to champion the aspirations of our schools as they boldly chart the future of their fields while leveraging cross-disciplinary opportunities across the university. The coming years will surely see Columbia’s collective impact on wide-ranging and increasingly intersecting challenges – from climate and sustainability, to health and medicine, to equity and justice, to democracy, to technology, and beyond. Indeed, we are fortunate that our mission attracts amazing students across diverse disciplines – drawn here to learn and grow, and to bring their talent and optimism to shape the future.

To accomplish all of this, Columbia depends on the critical role that each member of the Office of the Provost team plays in core academic processes as well as groundbreaking initiatives that promise to shape the future of the University. I am grateful for your dedication and the indispensable contributions to this institution you make every day.

Over these past ten years, I have enjoyed working alongside incredible faculty, students, and staff from across the University – true citizens of this great institution who are so deeply committed to our mission and vision. I extend my warmest thanks to all of you for your partnership. I look forward to all that lies ahead in what promises to be a transformative period for Columbia and for higher education more generally.

Sincerely,

Mary

Mary C. Boyce

Provost

Professor of Mechanical Engineering

*****

From: Lee C. Bollinger

Sent: Thursday, April 6, 2023 2:00 PM

Subject: Announcement Regarding Provost Mary C. Boyce

Dear fellow members of the Columbia community:

I write to share that Mary C. Boyce will step down from her role as Provost on June 30, 2023, capping off a decade of masterful service to Columbia in the highest levels of University leadership. I am very happy to announce that she will return to teaching and research full time as a member of the Columbia Engineering faculty.

Mary’s tenure as the chief academic officer of this institution saw the University through some of the most gratifying achievements and complex challenges in its recent history.

As Provost, she helped lead Columbia out of the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, presiding over the return of all students, faculty, and staff to campus in the fall of 2021. Tenaciously, she worked to ensure that we maintained our standards of academic excellence while keeping everyone safe and deepening our shared resilience and empathy.

As she does with every assignment, Mary has brought great dedication and energy to her work as Provost. She focused on building interdisciplinary bridges across schools, in developing programs to support new approaches to teaching and pedagogy, and on accelerating the recruitment of faculty from historically underrepresented groups.

She also brought unprecedented transparency to our admissions process through the launch of Columbia’s Common Data Set Initiative, with its mission to provide comprehensive and independently verified information to prospective students and their parents. She steered what had been a years-long graduate student unionization process to a successful conclusion, and helped us welcome a record numbers of new deans.

Mary’s accomplishments as Provost built upon her eight years of leadership as Dean of Columbia Engineering. There, she recruited a wide array of gifted faculty and oversaw the renovation and expansion of classroom and laboratory spaces across the school. She led impressive fundraising efforts, expanded access to students and faculty from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM, and created educational programs and initiatives focused on entrepreneurship, innovation, and design. Mary was known for prioritizing the growth of collaborative and interdisciplinary efforts to confront global challenges facing society through basic research and real-world implementation. Perhaps most famously, she helped lead a group of scientists from Columbia and Cornell University in designing a reconstruction plan for the L train that avoided closing the line, which had been significantly damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

All that Mary has achieved is grounded in the depth and breadth of her talents as a scholar and scientist. A mechanical engineer who works in nanotechnology and materials research, she has focused on the behaviors of soft polymers and composites. Her groundbreaking contributions include creating new modeling methods for the use of engineers in designing planes, transportation vehicles, and biomedical devices, among others. Her impact as a mentor and scholar is also visible through the doctoral students and postdocs from her group holding faculty positions across the country and around the world. In 2020, she was awarded the Timoshenko Medal, the highest honor accorded by the Applied Mechanics Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, of which she is a fellow. She has also been elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Before coming to Columbia, Mary was on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for more than 25 years, including as Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

We celebrate Mary for her leadership, for her scholarship and teaching, and for her perfect collegiality. She has left an indelible mark on this institution and helped secure its future for generations to come. I am personally grateful to her for her unwavering commitment to academic excellence and to serving Columbia. Plans will be shared for her successor as they take shape. For this moment, however, we all join in thanking her for all she has done for every member and part of our community.

Sincerely,

Lee C. Bollinger