Later this week, the Trustees will consider a resolution authorizing a bold new campaign. As they do, and as we move toward public launch in the coming year, it is worthwhile to take a moment to reflect on how we have come to this point.

Any campaign is a team effort, of course, but this is especially so. Planning phases for most university campaigns last two or even three years, whereas the Trustees and president first raised the topic just 20 short months ago. Since then, teams of academic leaders and alumni and development professionals have worked together to map out a campaign that feels and looks different from any in the past, at Columbia or elsewhere: in its interdisciplinary framework, in its time frame, in its year-over-year ambition.

Central to these efforts has been the work of the Campaign Core Team, a multidisciplinary planning group representing nearly all job families and both the Morningside and CUMC campuses. The Core Team set out the campaign’s fundamental questions, from goals and strategies to tactics and infrastructure, and catalyzed the work of the entire community in answering those questions. Its members advised OAD, school-based colleagues, and school and University leadership on how to align the campaign best with Columbia’s enduring and emerging priorities.

So please join us in recognizing the members of the Core Team: Suzanne Altshuler, Uzo Aneke, Carolina Castro, Brian Chapman, Ryan Heath, Joanna Hootnick, Jerry Kisslinger, Louise Rosen, Seth Rosenberg, Allen Rosso, Dadjie Saintus, and Daniel Thorn. As we make the transition from planning the campaign to managing the campaign, we build on their efforts.