Columbia University names Jennifer Mnookin as new president effective July 1

Columbia University announced Monday that it has selected a new president who will begin her term in July 2026.

“The Columbia University Board of Trustees has named Jennifer L. Mnookin, a nationally recognized jurist who serves as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as the next president of Columbia University, effective July 1, 2026,” it said Monday. announcement from Columbia University, read. “This appointment concludes an extensive national search conducted by a committee of administrators and faculty, who solicited input from students, faculty, staff, alumni and other members of the Columbia community.”

Before becoming chancellor of UW-Madison, Mnookin previously served as dean of the UCLA School of Law, where he spent 17 years. Prior to that, he was Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law and Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

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Columbia University announced Monday that it has chosen a new president, whose term will begin in July 2026. (iStock)

Mnookin’s biopage on the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s website says she is “committed to pushing the boundaries to bring the university to new levels of excellence in research and education.”

In 2025, Mnookin told the New York Times that colleges had overemphasized identity diversity, saying, “I think many universities, not all, but many, have for a while been deeply focused on identity diversity, and really not as much on viewpoint diversity or belief diversity.”

She added: “I think there is a danger of a pendulum swinging too far the other way, and we need to be concerned about that. But I think universities should be spaces where ideas, and different ideas, embodied by people from different backgrounds, come together, and where that won’t always be comfortable, but where we can learn and do better through that engagement.

Earlier in 2025, Mnookin announced that the university’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Success would “cease to be a stand-alone division” and that the office would be “moved to the Division of Teaching and Learning, with leadership and faculty advisors supporting this work.”

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During her tenure as dean and the Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Professor of Law at UCLA Law, she expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement. (Stanton Sharpe/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Federal campaign finance records show Mnookin has made donations to Democratic campaigns, including $2,000 to former President Barack Obama in 2008, $500 to former President Joe Biden in 2020 and $250 to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Mnookin also openly expressed her support for the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 when she was dean of UCLA Law.

“As members of a law school community in particular, we must recognize and address the complicity of the justice system and law enforcement in acts of racism and violence. These recent horrific cases are unfortunately not aberrations; our legal system is an integral part of our nation’s shameful history of institutionalized racism,” she wrote.

Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R., who had criticized Mnookin, thanked her for her service in a statement Monday.

“I want to thank Chancellor Mnookin for her service to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and applaud her commitment to students,” Vos said.

“Chancellor Mnookin has made many great accomplishments during her tenure, such as bringing more free speech to campus and closing its DEI division,” Vos added. “I enjoyed working with her because we both wanted students to reach their full potential and have successful, impactful lives after graduation.”

Mnookin’s appointment comes as Colombia continues to face increased federal oversight.

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Protesters demonstrate near Columbia University on February 2, 2024, in New York. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

In July, President Donald Trump reached a $221 million deal with Columbia University to address various issues. federal civil rights investigationsincluding allegations of discriminatory practices and allegations of anti-Semitic employment discrimination against Jewish professors following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Mnookin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.