In the Spring of 2023, Barnard’s Board of Trustees announced the appointment of Laura Rosenbury as Barnard’s ninth president. As has become clear over the course of her presidency, Rosenbury’s leadership style is not a good fit for Barnard. She has not demonstrated an understanding of the College’s values, culture, and mission.
President Rosenbury is a legal scholar who was serving as dean of the University of Florida’s College of Law when she was tapped by the Board of Trustees as Barnard’s ninth president. She was selected because of her fundraising record as well as her apparent success in boosting the law school’s ratings (we say “apparent” because this record has been seriously questioned by observers). President Rosenbury’s tenure as dean at UF included such questionable practices as counting guest speakers as faculty (to increase the faculty to student ratio) and purchasing new and unneeded chairs (to increase spending per student), according to a front-page New York Times article that appeared in November 2024.
As has been widely reported, in recent years, the system of public education in Florida has suffered an unprecedented political assault under the administration of Governor Ron DeSantis. An AAUP investigation concluded that “academic freedom, tenure, and shared governance in Florida’s public colleges and universities currently face a politically and ideologically driven assault unparalleled in US history.”
As dean of the UF law school, Rosenbury proved willing to support this assault. When four law school professors sought to join colleagues in signing an amicus brief in a suit against Florida for violating voting rights, Rosenbury objected on the grounds that the professors, as state employees, could not speak out against the state’s alleged violations. A group of professors subsequently filed a suit to challenge this policy. A federal judge ruled in their favor–and criticized Rosenbury for her “preemptive subservience” to DeSantis’s brazen assault on academic freedom.
Quite apart from these political conflicts, Rosenbury’s problematic leadership style became a major issue while she was at the University of Florida. A personnel evaluation conducted during Rosenbury’s tenure as dean records a litany troubling comments from faculty respondents about a variety of issues:
Rosenbury’s lack of consultation and transparency in decision making:
“the admin works behind a veil. the faculty/staff are not kept in the loop of what changes are being considered. we are told after decisions have been made, without opportunity for comment”; “operates unilaterally on all matters”; “Extremely autocratic and opaque. The faculty is pushed away and not well informed. .”; “she does not seek faculty input”
The resulting administrative chaos:
“the law school has become a[n] inefficient, unworkable bureaucracy... There is constant confusion and chaos. One hand does not know what the other is doing. Processes are constantly changing such that faculty and staff do not know how to get anything done. Everything takes ten times longer than it used to. The inefficiency interferes with our ability to do our jobs well”; “law school is completely dysfunctional.”
The demoralizing environment her leadership created:
“Morale is at an all time low”; “The general environment is toxic”; “The Dean needs to push a fresh start button or do something, because working life is becoming intolerable.”
What is striking about these comments, besides their negativity, is how familiar they are. Many of these observations about Rosenbury’s time at University of Florida could just as easily describe her tenure at Barnard.
One notable feature of the performance reviews is that they frequently name Rosenbury’s Chief of Staff, Kelli Murray. They criticize Murray as unprepared for the job and unfamiliar with established processes. Critics observe she “has a specially-created position...she has made numerous errors in this position and does not appear to take responsibility for errors” and that she has “zero training experience or competence for any of what she does and makes mistake after mistake with the money and everything else, but instead of getting fired she gets more titles.”
When Rosenbury arrived at Barnard, she brought an advisor along with her and gave the advisor the title of Executive VP for Strategy and Chief Administrative Officer of Barnard. That advisor is Kelli Murray.
When faculty at UF law school learned of Rosenbury’s departure for Barnard, they asked this very question. They were shocked she had “failed up,” moving on to a plumb position given her record of accommodating the DeSantis administration.
It’s important to note that the selection of the college president is not a democratic process; the Board of Trustees has full and unencumbered power to choose whomever they wish as president. While the hiring committee that vets candidates includes representatives of staff, students, and faculty, they have no formal voting power and their opinions are purely consultative.