NEW YORK — The dean of Columbia College in New York City has abruptly resigned.
The resignation by Dr. Michele Moody-Adams comes two weeks before classes start at the undergraduate division of Columbia University.
She is the first female and the first Black dean of the college. She was recruited in 2009 from Cornell University where she was vice provost.
The New York Times reports that she cited administrative changes that would diminish or eliminate her authority.
In an e-mail message to Columbia alumni and donors Saturday, Moody-Adams said she planned to stay through the academic year. But on Monday, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger said in a statement that it was in the college’s best interest for her to step down immediately. He said an interim dean would be named.
In his statement, Bollinger said that his administration had hoped that Moody-Adams would be “a key voice in the ongoing discussions involving faculty, alumni and administrators about how to position the college even more centrally in the life of Columbia’s faculty of arts and sciences.”
Meanwhile, Moody-Adams wrote in her e-mail message that the university had begun to “transform the administrative structure” of the faculty of arts and sciences, compromising her authority over “crucial policy, fund-raising and budgetary matters.”
