New Faculty Resources

New Faculty Resources

As new faculty you are joining more than 1,000 distinguished colleagues distributed across the five schools that comprise the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which was established in 1991 to unify A&S faculty and allow for shared leadership and governance across schools.

Two of these schools -- Columbia College and the School of General Studies -- are home to Columbia’s Arts and Sciences undergraduate student body. The School of the Arts offers Master’s programs; the School of Professional Studies offers post-baccalaureate and Master's programs; and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is home to many of our department-based Master's programs, as well as to all Arts and Sciences doctoral students.

Below you can read more about the organization and governance of Arts and Sciences and the faculty committees critical to our shared governance structure. You will also find some useful contacts and other information to assist you in settling into your new academic home and city. 

On behalf of our faculty, students, and staff, a warm welcome to Columbia University in the City of New York!

About Columbia University and the Faculty of Arts & Sciences

Arts & Sciences Committees 

Schools and Deans

Key Columbia University Resources 

The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement supports efforts to promote a climate of inclusive excellence across the University.  This office offers faculty development, diversity, planning, and community-building initiatives that help current and future faculty thrive. This office manages faculty diversity data and administers Junior Faculty and Mid-Career Faculty Awards.

The Office of University Life is the hub for University-wide student life information and initiatives. This office maintains the Columbia Faculty & Staff Resource Card, which is a one-stop source for University resources and policies on academic integrity, disability accommodations, discrimination and harassment, gender-based misconduct, student mental health, and more. You can find the card, along with a place to report incidents and concerns, in the top righthand corner to the left of the search box of University Life’s website. 

Columbia University Office of Work/Life is a resource for wellness, housing and relocation, child care and schooling, breastfeeding, and adult and elder care, among other resources to support work and life at Columbia.

The Office of the Executive Vice President for Research has overall responsibility for the University's research enterprise at all locations, including the Morningside and Manhattanville campuses, Columbia University Medical Center, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Nevis Laboratories, and internationally. 

Columbia University Statistics and Facts

Arts & Sciences Faculty Financial Resources 

Faculty Research Allocation Program (FRAP)

The Faculty Research Allowance Program (FRAP) provides limited research funds for Arts and Sciences full-time faculty in professorial and lecturer ranks. Through the use of a special purchasing card (the FRAP Card) the program allows faculty members to charge directly for the following types of research-related expenses: 

  • Travel expenses, including meals associated with conference or research travel.
  • Conference registration
  • Manuscript preparation
  • Equipment purchases
  • PDA (mobile phones and tablets) purchases 

In addition, the FRAP Program will cover hotel room charges related to professional or research trips. These cannot be charged on the FRAP Card, but can be reimbursed to faculty with appropriate documentation. 

The amount of FRAP funding available to faculty is determined by rank: 

  • Professorial rank faculty on multi-year appointments: $2,550 
  • Lecturers and faculty on single-year appointments: $1,133 ($567 for one semester appointments)

Tenured faculty who take the TFRP cash option during the academic year are not eligible for FRAP during that year. 

The FRAP application form can be downloaded here. The complete FRAP guidelines, policies and procedures, including a list of eligible and ineligible purchase, are available at this link. 

If you have any questions or need more information regarding FRAP, please contact Kathy Maqsudi, Manager, at [email protected] or at (646) 745-8591.

Tenured Faculty Research Program (TFRP) 

The Tenured Faculty Research Program (TFRP) offers tenured faculty annually the equivalent of one-ninth of their academic year salary. Alternatively, the TFRP allocation may be used either toward a paid leave with salary or for research assistance. 

If you have any question or need more information regarding TFRP, please contact Joseph Werst, Director, Academic Appointments and Payroll, at [email protected] or at (212) 854-6110. 

Faculty/Student Interaction Dinners (FSID) 

The Faculty/Student Interaction Dinner program facilitates informal communication between full-time faculty members and undergraduate students in their classes. Arts and Sciences faculty members holding a full-time appointment at the rank of Lecturer in Language, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor are eligible to host a lunch or dinner funded by the Office of the Executive Vice President. To help foster informal relationships between faculty and students, the maximum number of students that can attend any one meal is 15; the majority of the students attending must be undergraduates. If the class exceeds 15 students, the faculty member can host additional meals in order to accommodate all students in the class. The meals may take place at either the faculty member’s home or at an on-campus site (found by the faculty member). 

All meals must be scheduled and arranged through the Office of the Executive Vice President. A faculty member wishing to schedule a lunch or dinner should complete the FSID Order Form and provide the list of attendees. Forms are available on the A&S website here. These should be returned to Qamar Said, located on the third floor of the Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Drive (enter on Claremont Avenue and 120th Street), or by email at [email protected], or [email protected]. 

For more specific guidelines regarding the FSID programs, as well as the list and menus of participating restaurants, please visit the website as well, or contact Qamar Said (646) 745-8590, [email protected]. 

A&S Information Technology

Arts & Sciences IT (ASIT) currently provides on-site desktop and laptop support for all Arts and Sciences faculty and departments that are not covered by their own IT staff. Assistance is provided by appointment on a first come, first served basis. When requesting assistance, please indicate times you might be available at your computer for help. Upon receiving your request, ASIT will contact you as soon as possible, the same day in most cases, to set up an appointment. 

In addition to desktop support, ASIT will also provide guidance on hardware purchases and configurations, security protocols and data storage options. For a complete list of services provided by the ASIT team, please refer to the ASIT website.

To set up an appointment for assistance, please contact ASIT at [email protected] (preferred) or at (212) 854-0702. For any additional information, please contact Michael Stanish, Director of IT for A&S, at [email protected]. 

Computer Replacement Program 

The Computer Replacement Program was established to ensure that continuing faculty have a working computer for their instructional and administrative needs. While incoming, multi-year faculty receive an allocation for a new computer when they arrive at Columbia, the Computer Replacement Program is intended to refresh the hardware on a regular four-year cycle. Continuing faculty can apply for computer replacement funds of up to $1,300 if they can demonstrate that they have not purchased another computer with Arts & Sciences funds (e.g., FRAP, research funds, start- up funds) during the prior four academic years. 

For more information about the program and a Computer Replacement request form, please contact Kathy Maqsudi, Manager, at [email protected] or at (646) 745-8591.