NEW YORK
Dozens of current and former students of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) are expressing outrage over a decision by the Ivy League institution to temporarily shut down its Institute of African Studies.
In recent weeks, students and alumni have bombarded the administration with letters and e-mails, demanding that the university reopen the institute to coincide with the start of the academic calendar next month.
They charge that the university’s decision to abandon the 47-year-old research center and to shift financial resources elsewhere indicates an overall lack of commitment toward the continent of Africa.
But Dr. Lisa Anderson, dean of SIPA, says the temporary suspension was necessary, and that there has been no change in the school’s focus. Over the next year, officials plan to reorganize the institute and strategically plan out ways for it to better serve students on campus, she says.
The problem, she says, has been finding senior faculty who are experts on Africa and are willing to direct the institute’s various initiatives. She says the university has made job offers to several Africanists, and she remains confident that a new director could have the institute up and running again by 2007.
“We need senior people who want to take this and run with it,” she says.
