News Briefs

Jennifer L. Mnookin Named University President

Courtesy Columbia University

On Jan. 25 it was announced that Jennifer L. Mnookin, a nationally recognized legal scholar who previously served as the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was appointed by the Board of Trustees to be the next president of Columbia University. She will assume the role on July 1.


Mnookin’s appointment concluded an extensive national search led by a committee of trustees and faculty who sought input from students, faculty, staff, alumni and other members of the Columbia community.

As UW-Madison’s chancellor, Mnookin led a flagship public research campus serving more than 50,000 students across 13 schools and colleges with more than 25,000 faculty and staff, including a medical school and an affiliated health system. Her tenure included significant investments in faculty hiring and research infrastructure, the launch of major cross-campus initiatives on AI and interdisciplinary research, and sustained leadership through an uncertain federal funding environment. She also advanced initiatives to greatly expand access and increase affordability for students.

Prior to her appointment at UW-Madison, Mnookin served for seven years as dean of the UCLA School of Law, following nearly two decades on the UCLA and UVA Law faculties.

“From the outset of this process, we sought a leader with both intellectual depth and demonstrated leadership,” said Andrew Barth ’83, BUS’85 and Jonathan S. Lavine ’88, co-chairs of the Presidential Search Committee. “Jennifer’s record as a scholar and university leader reflects a deep understanding of how research universities function — how they must continuously evolve in an ever-changing world to enable the pursuit of new knowledge while remaining true to their academic mission and institutional values.”

Mnookin’s academic work focuses on evidence, science and the law, with particular attention to wrongful convictions, forensic evidence and visual evidence. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences whose scholarship reflects a sustained commitment to ensuring that rigorous research informs public decision making and serves the broader public good. She earned her B.A. from Harvard, her J.D. from Yale Law and her Ph.D. in history and social study of science and technology from MIT.

Trilling and Van Doren Awards

Rosalind C. Morris, the Moore Collegiate Professor of Anthropology, has been chosen for the 51st annual Lionel Trilling Book Award, and Rob King, a professor of film and media studies at the School of the Arts (SOA), has been selected for the 65th annual Mark Van Doren Award for Teaching. The awards are given by the Academic Awards Committee of the Columbia College Student Council.

Rosalind C. Morris

Julia Knop

Morris, an anthropologist, cultural theorist, documentarian and writer, was honored for Unstable Ground: The Lives, Deaths, and Afterlives of Gold in South Africa, which the committee said “exhibited profound depth, breadth, seriousness and clarity in its research and prose. [Morris] made the political history and social imaginaries of the South African mining industry both accessible and compelling.” Unstable Ground also was a co-winner of the 2025 Columbia University Press Distinguished Book Prize.


Rob King

King, the head of the film and media studies department and director of undergraduate studies at SOA, is a film historian with interests in American genre cinema, popular culture and cultural history. The committee was impressed with his dedication to the Film and Media Studies Program, and his “great aptitude for teaching undergraduates.” They complimented his innovative approaches to understanding film, observing how King’s investment of time, thought and resources created an optimal learning environment for his students, “allowing for pedagogical exploration and unforgettable experiences during their time at Columbia.”

Welcome, Class of 2030

A total of 2,581 applicants were offered admission to the Class of 2030 by Columbia College and Columbia Engineering. Undergraduate Admissions announced the news in March, and reported that the schools received 61,031 applications — the largest applicant pool in Columbia history.

The admitted class hails from all 50 U.S. states (as well as the District of Columbia, and several U.S. territories including Guam, the Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and 111 countries. About half of admitted students at the time of the announcement had been offered financial aid. Columbia is committed to covering students’ full demonstrated need, without loans.

Diane Bondareff

John Jay Awards: Four Lions were feted on March 4 at the 46th annual John Jay Awards Dinner, which honors College alumni for distinguished professional achievement. The event raised more than $1 million for the John Jay Scholars Program, which provides financial support and academic programming to outstanding College first-years. This year’s awardees, left to right, were Howard Endelman ’87, the Bidyut K. Goswami Head Coach of Men’s Tennis, Columbia University (see “Coach With the Most,”); Melissa de la Cruz ’93, New York Times bestselling author; Christopher McGowan ’92, managing partner, CJM Ventures; and Amanda Peet ’94, actor, author and producer.