Office of General Counsel

Reporting directly to the president, the Barnard College General Counsel is the chief legal officer of the College and serves as legal counsel to the President and Board of Trustees (Barnard.edu/generalcounsel). The Office of the General Counsel (OGC) ensures that the College is compliant with federal, state and local laws and regulations, along with other responsibilities. The General Counsel reports directly to the President of the College (Barnard.edu/generalcounsel). Barnard’s first General Counsel was appointed in the early 1980s, though the office may have been called the Office of the General Secretary before it became OGC (Barnard Bulletin, February 3, 1995; Smith College).

OGC is responsible for negotiating contracts with the four unions representing Barnard employees. This includes the Transport Workers Union (TWU), which represents Barnard’s security, housekeeping and maintenance workers, and United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2110 (formerly District 65), which represents the College’s clerical workers (Columbia Spectator, October 24, 1985).

In 1985, OGC developed Barnard’s first formal maternity leave policy for faculty (Columbia Spectator, March 20, 1985). In 1988, the General Counsel was named a vice president of the College and took over some of the responsibilities of the Vice President for Student Affairs, including supervision of Barnard Health Services, student residential life, Barnard Food Services, commuter concerns, and other college activities (Columbia Spectator, January 26, 1988). OGC was also responsible for negotiations of the intercorporate agreement of the College with Columbia University (Columbia Spectator, January 26, 1988).From 1993 to 1994, General Counsel Kathryn J. Rodgers briefly served as interim president of the College (Columbia Spectator, November 15, 1993).

After Rodgers's departure in 1995, the role was restructured so that the Office of Health Services, the Office of College Activities, and Food Services were supervised by the Dean of the College and the Dean of Student Life (Columbia Spectator, January 17, 1995). At the time, OGC’s responsibilities included working with the College’s bylaws and the Board of Trustees; finance and administration, including doing tax assessments; issues with the bursar, including collection matters and student bankruptcies; facilities, including vendor and construction contacts; and personnel, including labor contract negotiations and grievances. In December 1995, when Local 2110’s contract expired, a breakdown of negotiations led to one of the longest strikes in a university setting, which lasted through the spring and fall semesters of 1996 (Columbia Spectator, January 21, 1999).

In 2023, OGC was responsible for negotiations with the newly-formed Barnard RA Union (Columbia Spectator, October 23, 2023). As of June 2024, the Office of Nondiscrimination and Title IX now reports to OGC (Bwog, June 15, 2024). OGC also produces codes of conduct and policies for the student body, faculty and staff of the College, including rules about postings, political activity, and campus demonstrations. These policies have come into greater focus in light of the 2024 student protests against the genocide in Gaza.

Sources:


https://web.archive.org/web/20230922085821/https://barnard.edu/general-counsel
https://web.archive.org/web/20241106155335/https://garden.smith.edu/people/kathy-rodgers-70
https://web.archive.org/web/20230601090212/https://barnard.edu/human-resources/twu-local-264-faq
https://web.archive.org/web/20230601090212/https://digitalcollections.barnard.edu
https://web.archive.org/web/20241106155747/https://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu//
https://web.archive.org/web/20240617124446/https://bwog.com/2024/06/barnard-announces-senior-staff-member-turnover-and-administrative-structural-changes/