Columbia University Senate

The Columbia University Senate is a legislative body at Columbia University with policymaking and advisory functions, composed of faculty members, students, researchers and other staff, alumni, and members of the University's administration.^[1] It was established after the 1968 Columbia University protests to advance shared governance at the university.^[2]

In the aftermath of the 1968 Columbia University protests centered around Columbia's ties to the Vietnam War and racism and racial inequality in the US, a Joint Committee on Disciplinary Affairs (JDCA) was established on May 2, following the arrests of over 700 student protesters on April 30, in order to administer the discipline of student protesters.^[2][3]

The 1968 Cox Commission Report, produced by a body convened by the faculty to investigate the causes of the protests, found that the ineffective or lacking channels of communication between the university's administration, faculty, and students were at the root of the problem.^[4] The report implicitly supported the idea of establishing a representative university senate.^[4]

At a faculty meeting on September 12, 1968, Professor Michael I. Sovern of the Law School proposed a University Senate led by faculty members.^[5] Pressure from students and trustees led to their inclusion.^[5] On June 4, 1973, the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York established the Rules of University Conduct, disbanded the JCDA, and put a similar body in its place.^[2][6]

On March 31, 2025, the University Senate published The Sundial Report, a 335–page chronology of events around the 2023-24 protests at Columbia prepared by a group within the senate.^[7] The report was critical of how the administration handled the campus protests and occupations during the Gaza war.^[8] The report revealed, for example, that the "Hind's Hall" occupation of Hamilton Hall could have ended without calling in the New York City Police Department.^[8] The New York Law Journal reported that the Stand Columbia Society, a group of led by faculty members, published The Sunlight Report, a reappraisal of The Sundial Report.^[9][10]

On April 18, shortly after delivering her first address as acting president in her first meeting with the University Senate on April 4,^[11] Claire Shipman, who left her position as co-chair of the board of trustees to become acting president of the university on March 28, announced in an email to the Columbia University community that the University Senate would be subject to review.^[12] According to The New York Times, the move was an "effort to potentially diminish the university senate’s authority," and one that Shipman and the trustees have used "vague language" to explain.^[13]