University Senate Proposed: April 26, 2002

Adopted

RESOLUTION TO HONOR GEORGE RUPP

AT HIS LAST SENATE MEETING

WHEREAS George Rupp's tenure as Columbia University president, which began in 1993, is coming to an end, and

WHEREAS his responsibilities during that span, along with restoring the primacy of Columbia’s undergraduate programs, raising the quality and morale of its faculty and students, reviving its community relations, strengthening its fundraising, and renewing its physical plant, has included the stewardship of the University Senate, through nine full sessions and 71 plenary meetings, and

WHEREAS the president has participated in a similar number of Executive Committee meetings during that period, including one in his office in April of 1996, called in accordance with the Senate by-laws, to decide what to do about student demonstrators who had occupied buildings to demand programs in ethnic studies, and

WHEREAS during that span he has presided over Senate deliberations on issues great and small, fleeting and chronic, including student sexual misconduct, which the Senate started discussing at the beginning of his presidency and will still be discussing after he is gone, and

WHEREAS he has helped to foster some Senate interactions with Trustees, particularly in the nomination of Senate-consulted Trustees and in discussions of issues of community concern, and

WHEREAS, despite his sometimes impatient and acerbic words about the Senate and its inefficiencies, he has chaired its meetings with sensitivity and great skill, seeming to grow only more comfortable in politically charged settings, and he has handled day-to-day dealings with staff and individual senators with unfailing courtesy;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the University Senate express its appreciation and gratitude to George Rupp for his management of Columbia University, including his leadership of the Senate;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate offer its best wishes to President Rupp in meeting the challenges of his next mission, as president of the International Rescue Committee, and in all other future endeavors.

Proponent:

Executive Committee