By The Morningside Post

Last week, SIPA’s new Dean, Keren Yarhi-Milo, announced five global policy challenges that will shape the school’s curriculum, research, and capstones moving forward: 1) energy and climate policy, 2) geopolitics and international security policy, 3) technology and innovation, 4) inequality and the politics of redistribution, and 5) democratic governance and resilience.

The Morningside Post interviewed Dean Yarhi-Milo, who began her new role in July 2022, about her priorities for SIPA and a variety of student concerns — from financial aid and diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) to Columbia’s relationship with Harlem. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What are your top priorities for SIPA?

One of the things that I came in knowing — because I was a student here, spent my sabbatical here, I was faculty here — is that we are a great school, but we are siloed. There are some barriers internally, in terms of how we communicate with one another, how we operate as a community. 

To me, coming in, the first priority is to really create a sense of a community of scholars, students, staff working in a policy school.

What does it mean, for today, this time when everything else that is happening in the world, with all the criticism about higher education and elite universities? What is it that we are offering? How can we offer it in a way that is unique and coming from a community of scholars and students working together to have an impact, or to engage with the problems around the world?

If you think about that, all that shapes almost everything that you've seen and that you will be seeing coming out of this office. So what does it mean? If we're talking about us, as faculty members, as students coming to a policy school, what it is that we want to do — obviously for students it’s getting a job or starting a career. It's very important, and it's a big part of what we're here to do for you and train you.

But it's mainly about engaging and impacting the world's greatest challenges, policy challenges. That's why we are not just in a department, we're in a policy school. This is why you're not in a PhD or a Master's somewhere else in economics or political science. You're in a policy school. So how do we bring the full power of expertise, passion, energy, cutting-edge research to really be out there and have an impact on discussions, policies, strategies?

This is why I said I don't want SIPA to be a school that is known for everything. Because if it's everything, it's nothing. People are just not going to understand who we are and what we're doing. That will be a barrier to communicating. If we internally don't start explaining to ourselves, what are the problems in the world we are working on collectively, we're never going to be around the same table explaining to each other how we are trying to solve those problems. 

Those five areas are a way of organizing our community in an effective way: this is what we do. These are the problems we care deeply about in our research, teaching, capstones, events. It will allow us to work as a community. That's where we're going to have the most impact and power to affect those changes, those problems.

The faculty are organized around those areas. Capstones are going to be organized around those areas. In the first year, some students are going to be research assistants to faculty producing policy reports, which we call commission reports on those five areas, and later on, we will think about different ways of integrating those five areas into the curriculum. 

Priority number one is organizing ourselves in a way that reduces internal barriers, so we can focus on the areas, the problems in the world we care about solving. 

The other part of the community is how do we create a warm and inclusive environment here? One of the most beautiful things that I’m most proud about this school is how diverse it is globally — how people are coming from really different backgrounds, economic statuses, cultures, and they come here because they share a passion about making the world a better place. 

My job, my responsibility as Dean is to bring that community to feel at the end of the two years that they are part of a core, of a family. It's important to do this for the students, but it's also important for the staff working really, really hard. My approach is to figure out how we create this. Part of it is going to be much more communication from the Dean. Many more events that are geared towards bringing people together and celebrating one another. Both for the staff and for the students. 

It's also going to be about making space for different kinds of conversations about things happening in the world and really taking the perspective of students coming from different parts of the world, and therefore viewing the same crisis, same situation, same problem very differently. 

And how do I teach? How do we teach our students to do perspective-taking, empathy? That's something that, if we don't do this, we're not doing our job. If we don't do this, we will never create a sense of community. 

The idea of thinking about a community — what does it mean from the perspective of scholarship and research, but also from the perspective of human beings, students, staff, and alums, and how to bring the alums back in so they feel that they're still part of the family. We still want them, not just to give money and internships, but we want them because they're valuable because of what they're doing in the world. 

That's my passion. I really want this experience for students to be transformative when they come here. I really, really do, because what this place has done to me personally, done for me. Every time that I feel like I have this opportunity to help 1,200 students have this experience be transformative for them. 

I wake up every night, two to four, I'm awake thinking what else am I not doing, what I should be doing in order to further that goal. 

Related to the top five major policy areas that you laid out, how would you say — thinking about what SIPA covers currently — human rights and humanitarian affairs fits in?

Absolutely. There are lots of things that fit in across the five areas, and that's why they're not in one bucket. Think about gender, for example. Gender is something, and not just gender — gender diversity. 

Those are things that in each one of those five — I want the faculty, the students, I want us to produce papers and teach classes that talk about those issues. What does gender, what does diversity mean for climate policy? How do we think about diversity, inclusion, social justice in issues around climate policy, issues around democratic resilience, and issues involving technology? 

I didn't want to have something that is just about — for example — gender, social justice, or diversity that is separate, because I want to see it integrated across the five. 

The same thing about human rights. There are issues about human rights that are very, very significant. I want to see it coming through each one of those five. Same issues around governance — how does it look? When we presented it to the faculty, to the community, we kept saying, there are many things that we want to see cutting through all those five areas, and then we will have events and policy papers pulling what it looks like, from all five. So that's where I would put human rights, for example. 

How would you respond to people who are still concerned that it’s not an upfront, explicit priority?

If we do this, it would have made it more narrow, more isolated, which is exactly the silo I want to break down, right? I want the faculty working on human rights. And I want the students working on human rights to feel like they have a voice in all five areas, and not just in one. And I think that the questions are a little bit different, depending on the area. 

I see it as an advantage that [human rights] is not an explicit one. But what eventually will happen really depends on the students and their engagement with this topic of human rights across the five areas, and I highly encourage them to do that.

As you know, since you've been at SIPA and Columbia, there are these annual trips to Israel and Palestine. And given your personal background, with the two treks coming up in a few months, what would your message be to students going on these trips?

It's a great question. I've heard about, I know about the trips a little bit — I need to educate myself a little bit more. 

I will work with Jilliene [Rodriguez, Associate Dean for Diversity and Community Engagement] and we will think about what happened last year and two years ago that we need better guidelines, guidance, rules, and have a conversation with the students before they go, more information about the trips. 

But also, again, the space to talk and engage and respect each other and each other’s choices, and how to come to this with intellectual curiosity about what’s happening, but stop short of being aggressive or attacking one another. Because that’s not the community that I want to see.

I want to see the best out of my students. And I want to see that environment. And that kind of exercise and perspective-taking is part of your education and what we train you to do. 

Anything about the Arab-Israeli conflict, given where I grew up, I am not going to say a word about. It’s not that I don’t think — it is not my job, it is not my role, and it is not important. I'm the dean of everybody here, and I want everybody to feel that they can come to me with anything.

It really doesn't matter — it shouldn't matter — where I grew up, or where I had mandatory military service to do. I have great relationships with students from different sides of that conflict, and they feel comfortable coming to me, and I feel comfortable talking to them as students. And we're not talking about those issues. This is not my role, this is not my job. 

But it is my job to make sure that around those trips, there is civility, there is mutual respect, there are boundaries in terms of what type of conduct or behavior is acceptable, and what is not. We will send guidelines around this, and we will talk — not me personally, Jilliene and Tsuya [Yee, Associate Dean for Student Affairs] — we'll talk to those groups before they go and after they come back.

How would you respond to people who try to push you saying, not taking a stand is also a stand?

Our job here is to unpack the complexity of any situation and make sure that the students understand, what is it? It's about any policy questions. Here are different ways of thinking about [them], the different arguments, the different evidence. 

It's not my job to comment on what side we need to be on in any conflict. There is nothing to be gained and nothing to be lost by me not expressing views on this. My job is, as a dean, to be there for all the students and to make sure that they can come to me with whatever, and that's what I'm here to do. And give them the opportunity to engage on those issues. I don't have to play a role in that.

Both the Harvard Kennedy School and Princeton have incorporated required courses on race and policy into their curriculum. Is SIPA planning on doing something similar? Are there any discussions about that?

I want issues of race, identity, and class not to be just discussed in one course, or one dedicated to it. I want it to be across the board. I want it to be in the research, the syllabi, the topics, the speakers we bring, the events we do. I want it to be an inherent part of the fabric of SIPA.

There’s always the danger of saying, okay, we're only going to discuss this in one class or one initiative. It’s almost like an excuse to say we're doing enough, and then not really do it anywhere else. And that's not acceptable to me. This is why I love Jilliene’s approach, and our approach to think about this holistically, strategically. How do we do this? How do we integrate this in all facets of the community and academic life at Columbia, at SIPA? That, to me, is much more valuable.

We are definitely looking at and we studied, last year, different models of integrating DEI into a curriculum. We've interviewed faculty at Princeton, Harvard, and other places and studied different kinds of models. 

We have a new diversity Associate Dean — she just started and I promised her that we're not going to make any immediate moves on DEI initiatives until we give her a little bit of time, which is fair, to study what we've done, what we've looked at, to really think about how it fits into a more strategic plan for DEI activities and figure out what is best suited for our community, which the composition of our community is different from that of, let's say, Princeton's policy school where I taught for 10 years.

We want to make sure that whatever we include in the curriculum is not just — we have data that it works, it's effective, and it's well done, but also that it's aligned with the composition of our student body and the goals that we have for ourselves. That takes time to really study this, as opposed to just picking up something from the shelf just because somebody else adopted it.

Some of the places, by the way, reported to us mixed findings about what they implemented and their success. We want to do this right. For that we need to take the time, not just for her to study this, because that's part of her purview and role, but also for us to make sure that what we do is going to make sense. 

The other thing we are looking at for next year, thinking about changing parts in the curriculum. The curriculum has not really been modified, changed, or looked at significantly, with an eye towards thinking about what is it, does it work, do all the parts do what they’re supposed to be doing? Beyond DEI. 

We don't want to do this piecemeal, where we are adding and taking out things, but not part of overall strategic thinking about this and how to do it. Everything that I want to do here, I want to do with the thought of strategy, vision — where do we want to end up with any process, anything that we do? I don't want to do piecemeal, cover-ups, or just rapid response. And how do we think about what could be intended, but also unintended consequences? And when they’re half-baked or when they're just a response? 

We’re looking at ethics, writing, incorporating DEI. We’re trying to be creative and think on our own and what makes sense, as opposed to copycatting what others have done. Some of them have done this and reported that it’s not super successful.

What specific actions have you been pursuing to increase not only diverse faculty, but also students? And you speak about urgency, are there things you’re trying to do that we can see changes within a year or two?

I didn't start from the faculty, but I do believe that when you are bringing diverse sets of underrepresented students, or minorities, to school, we have our responsibility and duty to make sure that the faculty is there, that those students can look up at faculty and see people who come from a similar background. Sometimes it's race, sometimes it's culture — whatever it is. 

And we are not doing well on this, period. We have a lot of work to do.

From the moment I took over, I put together the Target of Opportunity Task Force with some of our top faculty who I know are very passionate about this cause. We had a deadline of mid-October to submit lines for Target of Opportunity faculty. Every person and every dean, I asked over the summer. I said, how can we possibly make a mid-October deadline — where the process of thinking about underrepresented faculty, you have to lead the work, identify the people, ask a lot of people, vote, write a five- to six-page report — all of that before October? They all told me, Keren, forget about the October deadline. It's too soon, you're never going to be able to do it. And I said no, no, no, no, no, I'm not missing this important deadline for submitting lines for underrepresented faculty.

We worked all summer, all September, not to put one or two, but to put three. And that is one of the things that I am so proud of the faculty working on it, because it was a lot of work. But we all did it, because we knew this is so important. 

I'm crossing my fingers that the process will result in what we want it to achieve. The faculty is not [only] a priority, but it's a force multiplier, where you have faculty that are diverse from underrepresented minorities, there's just so much more than you can do with the students. And it's much more fair to them. That's how it should be. That's on the faculty side, which is, again, never in the history of SIPA that we put out three names, and so fast.

Was this to the University? So they have to ultimately approve?

Yes, they have to approve and then their interviews, but the idea of just getting to this point, it's really, really hard to do because it's a lot of work.

On the students, I am so fortunate that we have — I was a member of the [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Climate, Engagement Committee]. And I've been really inspired by the work that they've been doing. It's just a perfect example of student-led initiatives and how it produces results. 

We're so fortunate to have Jilliene. She and I have a strategic plan for diversity and inclusion in the university. I wanted to give her a little bit of time to get to know the groups and the students to feel comfortable. And then we will launch different types of initiatives that you will hear about — for creating an inclusive community, thinking about our values that we want to have as a community, creating space for discussions around diversity, but also discussions that bring people together and not further apart. A lot of that. 

And thinking about things that we've never done before. One of the things that we're looking at, and very early on, can we partner with traditionally Black universities? Can we have a program with Howard University where we do a dual degree or bring students straight from undergrad, or something like that? We have an initiative to mentor PhD students who are BIPOC, who are in economics and political science and other fields that we recruit from, but from other universities, so they get to know us. So when they are on the market, they come, they have a relationship with us, and they will feel more comfortable. 

In terms of talks, I want to see and I talked to Michael Nutter about it — how do we bring more guest speakers that are going to talk about issues like social justice? We have an event that we're now putting together on this. So there's constant, even if we don't right now have on our faculty enough of a diverse group, that there's a constant cohort of people coming and engaging with the students. 

These are just a couple of initiatives that you're going to hear more about, but now are the initial stages of planning. But I'm very optimistic that we're going to make a very quick turnaround. 

And then obviously, there's issues around financial aid and increasing that amount, which we will. There are issues around thinking about other countries that we haven't recruited or done enough to recruit from. That's one of the things I told the Associate Dean of Admissions: can we think about countries that we will get a more diverse set of students from, and I'm happy to go and travel and present the case of why students should come to SIPA. I’m happy to fundraise for scholarships for students coming here.

That's what we're building now. All of that, it takes time. It's tons of effort, but it's important, so we're all energized to do it. But those things take time. And I don't have a lot of patience. I need to, I want to see movement. And I’m very fast-paced. So I'll try to push all of this as fast as I can, as I'm driving a couple people crazy because it's a lot, but that's just the way, I mean, once I know where I think we should be. And I see that people agree that this is where we should be. 

It's important that people know, even though we're not at the end of the process. We're just at the beginning. Regular updates are very important. I have nothing to hide, I need advice and input.

Especially over the past few years, as enrollment has gone up, are there plans to increase the financial aid budget? 

We're looking to increase financial aid. We're allocating a larger sum of money and we're trying to do this in all kinds of different creative ways. It's definitely on my agenda and something that we are going to do. 

In a lot of the initiatives we’re going to launch, there’s going to be much more room and money available for students to engage in research with faculty. I think that serves two purposes. It gives students an additional sum of money, which is important, but also gives them experience they can use for getting jobs. It can give them access to faculty. That's the way of helping students grow intellectually, but also helping them financially. 

I am allocating more and more money for different kinds of initiatives that involve student research and collaboration with faculty. It checks multiple boxes and it's very, very good for students to have those opportunities.

There are criticisms both within SIPA, but also outside from potential applicants that SIPA actually isn't worth the huge cost every year, especially for students who don't receive any aid or receive very little aid. How would you respond to those types of criticisms? 

I was in undergrad, I could only afford it because I was on scholarships. I come from the background, I totally understand. This is the outrage, these questions of why does it have to be so expensive?

Sitting now where I sit, you understand that being in New York, being a top university that attracts top talent, and the real estate in New York and cost of doing business in Manhattan in a university — it’s very, very, very significant too. The expenses go up every year significantly.

We are at the point where we want to think about, what is it that we unfortunately have to charge students in order to make sure that when they do come through the door, we offer them the kind of education that we promised them, which means the kind of education with top people and not being in classrooms that are very, very large, but have the opportunities for small seminars and so on. That's where it becomes a problem, that if we don't start that, then it means that we will not be able to offer what students have come to expect from a leading institution. 

A big focus of fundraising is going to be trying to see how we can increase the package for financial aid, trying to see how we can, when we fundraise for programs or different things in the school, we make sure that there is more money geared to students and their ability to be paid for things they're doing while students. 

I fully understand the criticism, I wish we did not have to do this. I'm saying that, growing up in a place where I thought that this would never be a possibility for me, this kind of education, I really understand the frustration. I'm frustrated by it personally. It's a constant push for us to say, what is the minimum we can charge to be able to offer what we need to offer? 

A few years ago, the Columbia Spectator reported that SIPA was designated to eventually move up to Manhattanville. Is that still being planned? Have there been any recent updates?

The initial plan for SIPA to move to Manhattanville was alive for a short period of time, and the site is now designated for the Climate School.

I think that SIPA’s number one challenge is an issue of space, especially now with an agenda, a new vision for the school that involves growth and more activities, more engagement with the world. That agenda and vision require more space, not less space — much more space.

The problem becomes, how do we grow and where do we grow? There's a couple of things that make me stay up at night, that's one of them. How do we do this? Because even if we think about a site in Manhattanville, that takes years — even if I come in and say this is happening, we have a donor for this, it will be years before it's ready.

Right now, there's no plan to move to Manhattanville. Now we are really in the process of thinking immediate-term, medium-term, long-term plans. I have some ideas and plans, and it's too soon to share. For now, that’s all I can say.

Do you think the university overall is doing enough for the Harlem community? Is there anything else Columbia and SIPA can do to better serve Harlem and do no harm?

Absolutely. I cannot speak for the university because I probably don't know enough about what's being done and not done. But I can speak to what I know we've been doing, and what we want to continue. 

We are part of the Harlem community. Our presence here affects the community in different ways, in complex ways. As a policy school, more than any part of the university, I think we have a responsibility and duty to work with the community and try to help, be empathic, and engage always in how things are looking from their perspective, and also what it is that we can do given our resources to help that community. 

Here we have faculty who are really dedicated to this. In urban policy, we have faculty who have been working with the city, NGOs, and community stakeholders from Harlem for years. And trying to think about different creative ways, also working with the Mayor's office. I hope we will work more and extend those relationships. 

And then there are things like what happened with the tweet about a particular course that come up. The frustrating part about this is that when you really look at the facts, they don't hold up. There was a lot of misinformation in that tweet and a lot of misleading information, because that's not what we're doing. We are working with stakeholders in the community, we are engaging, we're not doing this in a way that is really trying to redesign a neighborhood. We're not redesigning any neighborhood, we're really wrestling with the problems based on input from stakeholders in the community. 

Things like that frustrate me because I responded to this with fact, but in people's perception that tweet sometimes stays longer than the fact. 

On the other hand, when you get something like this, it's always a wake-up call for us to think, are we doing enough? Are we sensitive enough? Are there other ways that we cannot just do more, but also explain better what we do? That's something that always kind of bothered me. Part of it is explaining what we're doing. There's a lot of work for us to do, but the intentions are good. We are deploying resources, working with NGOs and the community. 

With a new mayor, I'm sure that there will be even different types of initiatives and opportunities. And I'm definitely open — more than open, eager — to engage and deploy our resources.

Since you took on as Dean, what has been most surprising to you?

That there is a sense of urgency and momentum. Maybe it's coming out of COVID? I think it's also attributed to the awful, dismal state of the world and the crisis we have, that there is a sense of urgency and momentum on the faculty to do better, to step up, to try different things, for the students to be engaged, to be ready for new ideas, to be open to new ways of thinking. 

The energy has been incredible. I know that I'm very high-energy, that's what I'm getting all the time, I have a nickname of the energizer bunny. But I'm getting this energy from the people around me, it really charges me in some way. We're ready for SIPA 2.0. We're ready to take it to the next level. The world and the university want to see us engage more and do more.

That has been the most surprising, in a pleasant way, that I love what I do. I know I enjoy it, it gives me a lot, it’s a huge sense of responsibility. But it also gives me a lot of joy to do this because I know it's such a fantastic opportunity to make an impact, but it is extremely demanding because the issues that the Dean deals with, especially somebody like me who came with a very ambitious agenda, is that it's constant.

And trying to make change is like moving an aircraft carrier. It’s always the feeling that if you let go a little bit, it will just snap back to the old way of thinking and doing, so I feel that there is a constant need to move the needle so we can move in the right direction. 

It’s with the students, faculty, fundraising. It's with just little practices of even sending those videos, making sure that we actually do this, that we don't forget to communicate, that you know that all the things that we promised we would do — social events and different things and ideas, that we actually see the implementation and follow through and not drop anything — not by intention, but just because we're overwhelmed. There's so many things. That's why I have lists of — just to remember to do, and to schedule, and it’s just endless. The intensity is enormous.

What are some of the best ways that students can engage you throughout the year, beyond the monthly lunches?

In addition to the student lunches, there are lunches with SIPASA, lunches with the student organizations, and veterans are meeting today for lunch. So it’s constant, it’s always meeting with students. I encourage students, when they see me even in the cafeteria or in the hallway, come talk to me. I love this informal exchange. I want to know what's happening. 

Also, feel free to come to my office and sometimes I do have time, and come and talk to me. There are going to be opportunities for students to also engage if there is something that they want to hear from me on. Substance, [I am] always happy to talk about policy issues and share my experience as a student, as a scholar in this field. I love to engage on that and I'm very open — this is why I'm doing the video, to share and ask for input.

Is there anything else important that you want to share?

There's a lot that is happening, bear with me, because it takes a village and we are a village of students, staff, faculty to make things better — to improve. There is this momentum for us to step up, for the entire community to step up, because the world is on fire. We need to lead the way, especially in academia, in the world, and in our training, research, impact. 

It’s a very exciting time to be at SIPA, a very exciting time to imagine different things that we can do, be, and lead. What I want from the students — the same things I told faculty and staff — it’s the time for fresh ideas, creativity, thinking big, thinking original. We want to take the school to the next level of good. That’s where we need everybody, all hands on deck.

It's not going to be a fast process of transformation. But at the end, we get to a point where we're all going to be even more proud of what we're doing and inspired by what we're doing here. 

So that's an invitation, that's why I'm meeting with students. That's why I'm sharing much more than typical — what we're working on, what's in the process, sharing the good news and the — not bad news, but things where I can say, we’re working on it, but we’re not ready now to say exactly what we’re going to do. But bear with me, it's coming. What's coming is going to be significant and it's going to be part of a holistic approach and strategy. That's what I want students to know, I want them to be excited and energized by it, and also feel that it’s their moment to make an impact.