Dear SPS Community,
Welcome to the Fall 2026 semester.
Each new academic year asks us to do something both familiar and profound: to begin again. For those joining Columbia for the first time, this moment marks entry into one of the world’s great intellectual communities. For those returning, it is an invitation to continue the work of inquiry, discovery, professional formation, and public purpose that defines the School of Professional Studies.
We begin this semester at an important moment for SPS and for Columbia. I am deeply grateful for the leadership of President Jennifer Mnookin, whose early engagement with the University community reflects a seriousness about listening, learning, and advancing Columbia’s highest purposes. On her second day as president, she met with student leaders from across the University, including our very own SPS Student Government President Halla al-Moradi, to discuss the student experience, priorities for the academic year, and the possibilities for greater collaboration. That spirit of engagement is exactly what universities require at their best.
At SPS, we continue to build a School equal to the complexity and promise of the world our students will enter and lead. This fall, we are especially pleased to welcome the inaugural cohorts of our M.S. in Biodiversity Data Analytics and M.S. in Project Management programs. These students join a community of learners preparing not only to meet the evolving needs of their professions but also to help shape those professions with intelligence, integrity, and imagination.
For several years, SPS has been integrating artificial intelligence across our programs and curricula. We do so with the conviction that technical fluency alone is not enough. Our students must be prepared to use powerful new tools thoughtfully while strengthening the judgment, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and communication skills that become even more essential in moments of technological change. The recently established SPS AI Lab will help us deepen this work. Drawing on the expertise of our scholar-practitioner faculty, the Lab is exploring how AI can enhance learning, inform new approaches to assignments and assessments, and help us think more carefully about what professional education must become in the years ahead.
This forward-looking work has special meaning as we prepare to mark SPS’s 25th anniversary in 2027. Anniversaries are occasions for celebration, but they are also moments of reflection: on what has been built, on the values that have guided us, and on the responsibilities that come with continued growth.
I encourage each of you to take full advantage of the extraordinary community around you. Learn from your faculty and classmates. Share the knowledge and experience you bring. Be open to disagreement, to discovery, and to the unexpected opportunities that define a real education.
I wish you a rewarding and successful semester, and I look forward to seeing you on campus, in the life of the School, and in this amazing city we call home.
All the very best,
Troy
