Letter of Unity and Support
Dear VP&S community,
Over the past week our community has been engaged in crucial conversations about our University’s values, its societal role, and the imminent challenges posed by federal actions related to our research and training funding.
I would like to share a letter I received from the leaders of our clinical and basic science departments, and our institute directors and vice deans, who came together to offer their unified perspective in this critical moment. I am sharing these views with the entire VP&S community to reiterate our dedication to our mission and principles in this difficult time.
Sincerely,
James McKiernan, MD
Interim Dean, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
CEO, ColumbiaDoctors
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Dear Interim Dean McKiernan,
As leaders at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, we feel it is important to articulate our beliefs and values at this critical moment in the history of Columbia University. Our medical school has met and overcome many challenges in our 258-year history since granting the first medical degree in the 13 colonies. These challenges have included the Revolutionary War, the New York City doctors’ riots, the yellow fever epidemic of the late 1700s, the cholera epidemic of the mid-1800s, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Great Depression, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout this history we have remained united and steadfastly focused on our missions to provide excellent care to our patients, to educate the next generation of America’s best doctors, and to advance groundbreaking scientific discoveries and innovations. Our lifesaving work in research, education, and clinical care has improved the health and well-being of hundreds of millions of individuals, from our closest neighbors to communities around the world.
The United States government has canceled federal research grants that support our missions of discovery, innovation, education, and health care delivery. The cancellations disproportionately affect the medical school campus where grants support the work of investigators in critical fields such as pediatric and adult cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, maternal and neonatal health, and the translation of lab-based studies to clinical care. The cancellations have also affected nearly all training grants supporting graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, which will cause long-lasting damage to the scientific workforce at every level, and therefore, to the delivery of patient care. The terminated programs were all awarded through national competition in which they were deemed to be among the most well-considered, impactful, and beneficial to the future of biomedical research and human health.
We feel it is imperative that the leadership of the medical school expresses our beliefs and states our values:
- We are passionately devoted to patient care, education, research, and human health, present and future.
- Federal support of these missions is critical; cancellation of funding will cause irreparable harm to patient health, the biomedical workforce, and society at large.
- We are vehemently opposed to antisemitism in all its forms. We are united in our commitment to provide an atmosphere free of antisemitism or any other form of identity-based discrimination. All members of our community deserve the opportunity to work and learn in an environment free of harassment or intimidation.
- Behavior within our community that disrupts this atmosphere, and especially any threatening, violent, or illegal behavior, must be met with definitive consequences, determined and implemented by our community.
- The campus climate of Columbia University must remain an environment open to the free and peaceful exchange of ideas and expressions of opinions and beliefs. This freedom must extend to popular as well as unpopular expressions, regardless of who agrees or disagrees with those opinions or beliefs.
While we are strongly in favor of common-sense approaches to achieve the above aims, our University's admissions process, our operations, and our governance are founded on the essential principles of independence and freedom of inquiry and speech—principles that must guide every institution of higher learning.
Our mission is to protect and transform human health by driving discovery, advancing care, and educating future leaders. We remain dedicated to our values and convictions and will uphold them even in the face of external challenges that test our commitment to this mission.
Sincerely,
David Brenner, PhD, DSc
Higgins Professor of Radiation Biophysics (in Radiation Oncology) and of Environmental Health Sciences
Director, Center for Radiological Research
Tricia Brentjens, MD
Interim Chair, Department of Anesthesiology
Professor of Anesthesiology at CUMC
Rita Charon, MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics
Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine & Professor of Medicine
Jack Cioffi, MD
Chair, Department of Ophthalmology
Edward S. Harkness Professor and Jean and Richard Deems Professor of Ophthalmology
Ophthalmologist-in-Chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC
Henry Colecraft, PhD
Interim Chair, Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics
John C. Dalton Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and Professor of Pharmacology
E. Sander Connolly, MD
Chair, Department of Neurosurgery
Byron Stookey Professor of Neurological Surgery
Neurosurgeon-in-Chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC
Director, Cerebrovascular Research Laboratory
Surgical Director, Neuro-Intensive Care Unit
Mary D'Alton, MD
Chair, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Willard C. Rappleye Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Obstetrician and Gynecologist-in-Chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC
Riccardo Dalla-Favera, MD
Percy and Joanne Uris Professor of Clinical Medicine
Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology, Genetics and Development and Microbiology and Immunology (in the Institute for Cancer Genetics and the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center)
Director, Institute for Cancer Genetics
Sabrina Diano, PhD
Robert R. Williams Professor of Nutrition (in Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and in the Institute of Human Nutrition)
Director, Institute of Human Nutrition
Noémie Elhadad, PhD
Chair, Department of Biomedical Informatics
Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Anthony Ferrante, MD, PhD
Tilden-Weger-Bieler Professor of Preventative Medicine
Chief of Preventive Medicine & Nutrition
Co-Director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center
Kevin Gardner, MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Pathology and Cell Biology
Donald W. King, MD and Mary Elizabeth King, MD Professor of Pathology & Cell Biology
Pathologist-in-Chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC
Ali Gharavi, MD
Chair, Department of Medicine
Jay Meltzer, MD, Professor of Nephrology and Hypertension
Physician-in-Chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC
Sankar Ghosh, PhD
Chair, Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Silverstein and Hutt Family Professor of Microbiology & Immunology
Robin Goland, MD
J. Merrill Eastman Professor of Diabetes (in Medicine, Pediatrics and the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center) at CUMC
Co-Director, Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center
Joshua Gordon, MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Psychiatry
Lawrence C. Kolb Professor of Psychiatry
Psychiatrist-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC
Ajay Gupta, MD, MS
Chair, Department of Radiology
James Picker Professor of Radiology at CUMC
Radiologist-in-Chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC
Lisa Kachnic, MD, FASTRO
Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology
Chu H. Chang Professor of Radiation Oncology
Associate Director for Cancer Network Strategy, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center
Brian Karolewski, VMD, PhD
Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology & Cell Biology
Executive Director, Institute for Comparative Medicine
Gerard Karsenty, MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Genetics and Development
Paul A. Marks Professor of Genetics and Development and Professor of Medicine and of Biomedical Engineering
Peter D. Kwong, PhD
Richard J. Stock Professor of Medical Sciences (Infectious Diseases) (in Medicine)
Director, Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center
William Levine, MD
Chair, Department of Orthopedic Surgery
Frank E. Stinchfield Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at CUMC
Chief, Shoulder Service
Co-Director, Center for Shoulder, Elbow and Sports Medicine
Stavros Lomvardas, PhD
Roy and Diana Vagelos Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
Herbert and Florence Irving Professor at the Zuckerman Institute
Interim Vice Dean for Basic Science Research
Lawrence Lustig, MD
Chair, Department of Otolaryngology
Howard W. Smith Professor of Otolaryngology
Monica Lypson, MD, MPH
Rolf H. Scholdager Professor of Medicine at CUMC
Vice Dean for Medical Education
Andrew Marks, MD
Chair, Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics
Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Clyde ‘56 and Helen Wu Professor of Molecular Cardiology (in Medicine)
Founding Director, Wu Center for Molecular Cardiology
Richard Mayeux, MD, MSc
Chair, Department of Neurology
Gertrude H. Sergievsky Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Epidemiology
Neurologist-in-Chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC
Director, Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center
Co-Director, Taub Institute
Angela Mills, MD
Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine
J.E. Beaumont Professor of Emergency Medicine at CUMC
Jordan Orange, MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Reuben S. Carpentier Professor of Pediatrics
Physician-in-Chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital
Emmanuelle Passegué, PhD
Alumni Professor of Genetics & Development
Director, Columbia Stem Cell Initiative
Aimee Payne, MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Dermatology
Herbert and Florence Irving Professor of Dermatology
Dermatologist-in-Chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC
Muredach Reilly, MD
Vice Dean for Clinical and Translational Research
Florence and Herbert Irving Endowed Professor of Medicine
Director, Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research
Director, Cardiometabolic Precision Medicine Program
Anil Rustgi, MD
Associate Dean of Oncology, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Herbert and Florence Irving Professor of Medicine
Herbert and Florence Irving Director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center
Chief, Cancer Services, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC
Ojas Shah, MD
Interim Chair, Department of Urology
George F. Cahill Professor of Urology at CUMC
Director Endourology and Stone Disease
Michael Shelanski, MD, PhD
Henry Taub Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology
Co-Director, Taub Institute
Steven Siegelbaum, PhD
Chair, Department of Neuroscience
Gerald D. Fischbach, MD, Professor of Neuroscience
Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Craig Smith, MD
Chair, Department of Surgery
Johnson and Johnson Distinguished Professor in the Department of Surgery and Valentine Mott Professor of Surgery
Surgeon-in-Chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC
Joel Stein, MD
Chair, Department of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine
Simon Baruch Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Anne Taylor, MD
Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
John Lindenbaum Professor of Medicine at CUMC
Senior Vice President for Faculty Affairs and Career Development at CUMC
Harris Wang, PhD
Interim Chair, Department of Systems Biology
Associate Professor of Systems Biology and Pathology and Cell Biology
Richard Younge, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Medicine (in the Center for Family and Community Medicine) at CUMC
Director, Columbia University Center for Family and Community Medicine
Chief of Family Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUIMC
Olajide A. Williams, MD, MS
Vice Chair, Department of Neurology
Professor of Neurology
Vice Dean of Community Health, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons