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ANNA
QUINDLEN ELECTED CHAIR OF BARNARD COLLEGE TRUSTEES
 New
York, N.Y. (April 26, 2003) - Anna Quindlen, the Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalist and acclaimed novelist, has been
elected chair of the trustees of Barnard College, her alma
mater.
Quindlen, a 1974 Barnard graduate and a trustee of the College
since 1983, will succeed Gayle Robinson, chair since 1998
and now finishing her second five-year term as a trustee.
Barnard President Judith Shapiro said: "Barnard has achieved
tremendous momentum over the last five years, and we are grateful
for the assured leadership shown by Gayle Robinson as chair
of the trustees. As we go forward to realize the goals of
our new master plan and other academic and campus priorities
we will be fortunate to have Anna Quindlen's wise and perceptive
voice guiding our discussion and decisions."
Throughout a career that has made her one of the most widely
admired writers in the country, Quindlen has played an active
role as a Barnard alumna for the past 20 years. First
elected as an alumna trustee in 1983, she assumed a regular
seat on the board in 1989 and was reelected in 2001.
She is chair of the trustees committee that oversees the Barnard
affiliation with Columbia University, and serves on the trustees
committee on student life. She will take office as chair after
the June 18 trustees meeting.
"Anyone who has read her columns in our most influential
newspapers and magazines, her published essays and her acclaimed
novels is aware of Anna's prodigious talent," said Shapiro.
"She is admired around the world and her accomplishments
are well known. But through her own extraordinary success,
she has continued to contribute her vision and spirit to building
Barnard's legacy, whether as a trustee, as a mentor to individual
students or as a frequent speaker on our campus, sharing her
honest and perceptive views. We are grateful for her
devotion to Barnard and look forward to her leadership of
the trustees."
"I have often said that I can never repay Barnard for
the gifts it gave me," said Quindlen. "I firmly
believe that my career as a writer has been made possible
because of the intellectual grounding, the skills and the
self-confidence I acquired at the nation's preeminent college
for women. It was a place that didn't suggest a young
woman find her voice--it demanded it! Serving on the board
for many years has been my way of saying 'thank you' to a
place that changed my life, as well as those of thousands
of my fellow Barnard alumnae. To be elected chair of
that board is an enormous honor. I'll continue to try
to be as good to the place as it has been to me."
Quindlen currently writes "The Last Word" column
in Newsweek, and is the author of four best-selling
novels, Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black
and Blue, and Blessings, published last fall. Her
New York Times column "Public and Private"
won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992, and a selection of those columns
was published as a collection, Thinking Out Loud. She
is also the author of a collection of her "Life in the
30's" columns for The Times, Living Out Loud;
a book for the Library of Contemporary Thought, How Reading
Changed My Life; and two children's books, The Tree
That Came to Stay and Happily Ever After. She resides
with her husband and children in New York City.
The Anna Quindlen Writing Fellowship at Barnard supports one
student each year in the College Writing Fellows Program,
which offers exceptional students the opportunity to become
peer tutors in writing. Writing fellows take a seminar
and practicum in the teaching of writing and then go on to
work with fellow students at all levels and in all disciplines.
Writing fellows receive a stipend and enrich student life
and the College curriculum by creating a mutually supportive
and growing community of writers.
The centerpiece of Barnard's new master plan, completed this
year, will be a new six-story building that will knit together
community, academic and research activities under one roof,
including a library, food café, and 900-seat event
space located along Broadway just north of West 117th Street.
A committee made up of trustees and College administrators
is reviewing invited architects' submissions for the "Nexus"
building and will choose a final design in the fall of 2003.
Overall, the
master plan will add new classrooms and research and meeting
rooms in several phases over the next 10 years through renovations
and new construction totaling 100,000 square feet. While easing
crowding on the historic 4 1/2-acre campus on Morningside
Heights in Manhattan, the plan maintains Barnard's appealing
campus greenspace as an urban oasis. The College is
in a strong financial position to implement the master plan
through borrowing and fundraising, despite difficult economic
times. A conservative path during the boom years of the 1990's
has afforded Barnard operating budget surpluses and little
outstanding debt.
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, Barnard Office of Public Affairs,
212-854-7583, strimel@barnard.edu
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