Moody-Adams will work for a ‘21st century’ CC

Shortly after moving in from Ithaca, philosophy professor and new Columbia College Dean Michele Moody-Adams sat down with Spectator’s Alexa Davis for an exclusive interview on her transition to Columbia from Cornell, love of spicy food, and her thoughts on being the first African American and woman to hold her post.

Spec:
What have you been up to since July, when you officially moved in?

MMA:
Lots of things. I’ve been touring residence halls and getting a sense of the first-year student residential experience, learning more about upperclass students and how they make their way on campus. I’ve toured a lot of other student spaces in Lerner and some of the fraternities and sorority houses. So I’ve seen a great deal and met a lot of people and I’ve walked a lot! You wouldn’t think with a campus this compact, but I’ve done a lot of walking.

But the transition has been good. It’s not something that will end even when the beginning of the academic year starts because you can’t come new to a really complicated research university and think you know what you need to know for some time. And I’m aware of that. People joke about the phrase “the learning curve is steep.” The learning curve is steep, but I’ve been at a lot of similar institutions, large, and I’ve been at some not so similar institutions that are small so I know higher education really well but I don’t know Columbia really well. I’ve talked to students, talked with staff, and some faculty. It’s going well but I have a lot more to learn.

Spec:
What has been the most challenging part of the transition to Columbia from Cornell?

MMA:
I’m a city person. I grew up in Chicago. I used to take the bus to school in high school. For piano lessons I’d be on the subway and the elevator train going back and forth. And I lived in cities for much of my time other than my time in Ithaca. I spent a lot of my life in the Boston area, so it comes very naturally to me, and I like New York. For a while I actually felt a little disloyal when I realized, maybe it was late last week, that I like New York a whole lot.

You know I’m a born and bred native Chicagoan and it’s very much a part of me, but I like New York. There have been challenges, when you drive much of the time in your daily life and then you come to New York and you put your car in the garage for much of the week, that’s a very different experience. I walk more here, probably take more public transportation in the weekends than I ever would’ve dreamt of doing in Ithaca. In many ways, I don’t know enough to know just how many differences there will be in the sort of culture of the places, but in a lot of ways there aren’t many differences at all: smart students; smart, talented faculty; very experienced and accomplished administrators. That’s going to be almost a seamless transition. The culture of the place, what people expect about interactions between the various units of the school, that’s going to look different, but I couldn’t have learned that in the time I’ve been here. But I’m working on it.

Spec:
Your husband and daughter moved with you to New York. How has the transition been for them?

MMA:
It’s been good. My daughter and I are thrilled that my husband is here at Columbia as a professor of English and comp lit. And he’s a specialist in British Victorian literature, every dimension of it. He teaches other things as well, but he’s delighted to be here. And in fact he has for years had several connections with the people he’ll now have as colleagues in the English department. We’ve been welcomed very fully into Columbia. My daughter is going to be starting school in the fall at Brearley. She’s used to being driven places, she’s ready for the independence but it will be a study in getting yourself to places on time with public transportation. We’re working out a few routes, so that’s a fun thing.

Spec:
Besides academics, what are you passionate about? What are your hobbies? I know you consider yourself a “foodie.”

MMA:
I love any food that’s well prepared and delicious. I love good food, I love “international” and ethnic food, particularly if it’s spicy.

I’m also getting back into photography as a hobby. I just for Mother’s Day was given a pretty nice little SLR digital [camera]. When I was growing up my father had photography as a major hobby and he had even built a dark room in our basement. I was never very good at developing so digital is good for me.

I’m not especially knowledgeable as I’d like to be about with technological things but I’m kind of a low-level techie kind of person so I like gadgets and I do a lot of stuff with photography.

I’m the family photographer, even for our holiday picture! We do the self-timer with the tripod. We’re a wacky group.

I’m also a big fan of architecture. I would even say if I hadn’t done this I would’ve wanted to be talented in architecture. I love city architecture, I love learning about it, I love seeing it. Even though I think I know New York sort of well, at least Manhattan, at some point I want to take a tour where I can be given a sense of locations and get to the other boroughs.

I used to be more of an exercise person than I’ve become as I’ve gotten old. I used to actually be, when I first got married about 25 years ago, I used to do weight lifting. I would go two times a day to the gym! This was to keep me sane while I was trying to finish up some writing.

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Spec:
What are you particularly passionate about in the realm of higher education?

MMA:
College is such an important moment for people who are able to go, and I hope that everyone who wants to go can go. That’s very much one of my commitments, is the idea of the accessibility of higher education for people who are ready to take advantage of it. I think it’s a really important way of preparing people to be productive citizens and to really lead good lives. Not everybody has to go to college to do that, but many people will profit by doing that, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to be in higher education generally.

Spec:
What are some of the main things you’re looking to accomplish in the coming year?

MMA:
I have a lot to learn, so I’m not going to claim to be the person who’s going to come in and make suddenly everything different. There’s a whole lot of good about CC—there’s an awful lot that does not need to be changed, but only enhanced and strengthened.

The Core is one of them. I don’t have any doubt that a 21st-century education that produces students who are going to take their place as productive and creative citizens of the world, I don’t have any doubt that the Columbia College Core Curriculum is an essential part of that.

One of the reasons I wanted the job was to be able to be part of helping preserve the Core and where it might need to be tweaked, rethought. The Core for me is a crucial part of a 21st-century education. We produce productive, creative, innovative students in every discipline. I have a commitment to making the Core even stronger. That’s very important.

Another commitment is to ensure that students, as part of their 21st-century education, understand and appreciate the value of science. Frontiers of Science is part of that, but I want to make sure that science-interested students who are either thinking about Columbia or are already here feel that we’ve fully addressed the needs they have both in the classroom and laboratory but also out of classroom experiences that help them grow intellectually. That’s very crucial to me. I think that science literacy, and its not just a phrase for me, not everyone can be a scientist for all kinds of reasons. But you can’t really be a good citizen in the 21st century unless you understand the role that science can have in reshaping our lives. Students, even if they’re not science majors, need to be aware of that.

Advising, and the rethinking that we are undertaking about how to strengthen advising for Columbia College students, this is really important to me. And some of this will affect my interactions outside the college as well, because I have this role as the vice president for undergraduate education, so I’m not thinking only about the college, I’m thinking about SEAS, General Studies, and occasionally some issues that affect Barnard students as well.

I’m also very interested in renewing the commitment to making sure that faculty knows how much we value their engagement in the undergraduate experience and doing anything I can to make that more rewarding for faculty. Faculty have a lot going on and we demand a lot of them. One of the most rewarding things, even outside of teaching, that you can do is play a central role in shaping the well-being of students and that’s something I’d like to be part of discussions with faculty and how they can be even more involved than they are and to help them see that it’s rewarding.

I also want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to keep a strong financial aid program so that college remains accessible and affordable—so that Columbia remains accessible and affordable—for students who get in and are qualified and want to come here. We don’t want to price good students out of the market for Columbia.

Spec:
What are you most excited about for the new school year?

MMA:
Meeting students. I really want to just meet all kinds of students from every class from lots of different places. I’d like to know what’s on their minds, both in formal and informal
settings. I would like to have maybe every two weeks some kind of open office hours where students can come see me so they don’t feel like things build up. I’m going to be going to meet with student councils, and I’m going to start going regularly to the senate meetings, which are once a month.

But just getting the chance to meet students. There’s just so much excitement and energy. I need to have time to meet students. I do not enjoy being in a role like this and being cut off from students. And the danger is you forget why you’re doing it, no matter how interested and caring you are, you can forget. There’s no substitute for interaction, and it’s something I thrive on.

Spec:
You’re the first woman and first African American to serve as dean of Columbia college. How do you feel about that?

MMA:
One thing everybody will learn about me over time is that I have identities as a woman and an African American of which I’m very proud, but they aren’t all that I am. They never have been and I hope they never will be. I’ve come to this job thinking I am the dean, but I also come to this job knowing that I am the first dean to have these characteristics, the thing that everybody needs to know is that from my understanding of why I was chosen, I wasn’t chosen because I was black and female, but that wasn’t a bad fact about me given the 21st century.

I’ve come with a lot of experience and expertise in an array of areas and personal interests that do make me some one who can speak very effectively for issues that are connected to those two constituencies, but I will speak to other issues too. Mainly I feel that Columbia has welcomed me with open arms as somebody who wants to be a good dean.