News Briefs

Shipman Named Acting President

Claire Shipman

EILEEN BARROSO

Claire Shipman ’86, SIPA’94 became acting president of Columbia University on March 28, following the decision by Interim President Katrina A. Armstrong to return to her primary role as CEO of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center.


Shipman — a distinguished journalist, author and leading voice for the advancement of women’s leadership — had been co-chair of the Board of Trustees since 2023, and a trustee since 2013. “I assume this role with a clear understanding of the serious challenges before us and a steadfast commitment to act with urgency and integrity, and to work with our faculty to advance our mission, implement needed reforms, protect our students, and uphold academic freedom and open inquiry,” she said.

With the BBC’s Katty Kay, Shipman has co-written four New York Times bestsellers, including The Confidence Code and The Power Code. She also is a renowned international and political journalist, having reported for CNN, NBC and ABC. She spent 15 years as a senior correspondent and substitute anchor for ABC’s Good Morning America. She also was a White House correspondent for NBC News, covering presidential policy for Nightly News and Today.

Shipman received a DuPont and an Emmy Award for her coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student uprising, a second DuPont Award for reporting on the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and a Peabody Award as part of CNN’s team covering the failed 1993 Soviet coup. From the College, she has received a John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement as well as the Alexander Hamilton Medal.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Search Committee has begun its work, co-chaired by Board of Trustees Chair Emeritus Jonathan S. Lavine ’88 and Trustee Andrew Barth ’83, BUS’85. The committee intends to name a new president as soon as practicable, with a goal of the individual taking office no later than Jan. 1, 2026.

New Trustees Co-Chair

Jeh Johnson

Jeh Johnson LAW’82 has been elected co-chair of the University’s Board of Trustees. He will serve alongside David Greenwald LAW’83, who became co-chair in 2023.


Johnson is the 2021 recipient of The American Lawyer’s Lifetime Achievement Award, as an American statesman who “has devoted his career to the public interest.” He served in the Obama administration as general counsel of the Department of Defense from 2009 to 2012 and secretary of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017. Previously, Johnson was general counsel of the Department of the Air Force and assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. He is also on the Board of Directors of MetLife and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

Johnson is retiring from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he had been a partner, in order to dedicate significant time to Columbia.

Trilling and Van Doren Awards

Ying Qian, an associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures, and Eleanor Johnson, a professor of English and comparative literature, have been chosen for the 50th annual Lionel Trilling Book Award and the 64th annual Mark Van Doren Award for Teaching, respectively. The awards are given by the Academic Awards Committee of the Columbia College Student Council.

Ying Qian

Qian, who teaches classes on East Asian cinema, Chinese media cultures, documentary cinema, and comparative media theory and history, was honored for Revolutionary Becomings: Documentary Media in Twentieth-Century China. The book excavates documentary filmmaking’s multi-faceted productivities in China’s revolutionary movements, from the toppling of the Qing Empire in 1911 to the political campaigns and mass protests in the Mao and post-Mao eras. The committee noted it “made the complex links between documentary filmmaking and political upheaval clear and accessible.”


Eleanor Johnson

JILL SHOMER

Of Johnson, the committee agreed she represents “the best of what Columbia has to offer,” praising her care for her students, her ability to lead and motivate both small and large groups, and her embrace of “the thoughts and ideas of her students, inspiring them to think beyond what is said in class.” Johnson, who teaches Literature Humanities, medieval literature and theology, and the literature and cinema of horror, is the first professor to receive the Van Doren Award and Trilling Book Award in consecutive years (and only the fourth professor to receive both awards in the College’s history). She was honored with the Trilling Award in 2024 for Waste and the Wasters: Poetry and Ecosystemic Thought in Medieval England (2023).

Welcome, Class of 2029

A total of 2,557 applicants were offered admission to the Class of 2029 by Columbia College and Columbia Engineering.

Undergraduate Admissions announced the news in March, and reported that the schools received 59,616 applications during the early decision and regular decision cycles. It was one of the largest applicant pools in Columbia history.

The admitted class hails from all 50 U.S. states (as well as American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico) and 115 countries. About half of admitted students at the time of the announcement had been offered financial aid. Columbia College is committed to covering students’ full demonstrated need, without loans and regardless of citizenship.

West Coast Honors

The Columbia College Alumni Association held its third annual West Coast Honors, with ceremonies held on March 19 in San Francisco and March 20 in Los Angeles. At each event, two awards were presented: the Trailblazer Award, which honors individuals for their pioneering and distinguished service or volunteerism to the College, and the Spirit of Creativity and Innovational Award, for exceptional professional achievement.

The 2025 Trailblazer Award went to Wah Chen ’92, an affordable housing real estate developer, and founder and partner at InSite Development, and Wanda Marie Holland Greene ’89, TC’21, head of school at The Hamlin School. The 2025 Spirit of Creativity and Innovation Award went to sisters Chloé Arnold ’02 and Maud Arnold ’08, dancers, choreographers and producing partners (see “Dance Dance Revolution”), and Satyen Sangani ’97, co-founder and CEO at Alation.