Denise Cruz

Columbia University

Denise Cruz, Ph.D.

2024-25 Role: Director of Special Initiatives

Denise Cruz will carry the title of Director of Special Initiatives for two years. Reporting to the Dean and Executive Vice President of Arts & Sciences, the charge of this role is to build and direct initiatives that aim to enhance the academic experience for students across Columbia University's undergraduate schools, with a focus on student experience in their largest majors, and special attention to students who are on the cusp of choosing their majors in the second year. 

Prof. Cruz will work closely with Arts & Sciences decanal leadership (including the Dean and EVP; the divisional deans of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences; and senior academic staff deans) as well as the Dean and other leaders in Columbia College and in the School of General Studies. In the context of a new initiative on enhancing our largest majors, she will work also with the chairs of departments who are piloting the initiative in the coming year.

In the context of Columbia's Arts & Sciences Large Majors Initiative, Prof. Cruz will engage with as many aspects of the second-year experience as possible, asking important questions alongside department leaders. What is working? What could be better? What do students and faculty need? What do advising staff need to assist? How can departments intentionally craft the transition into the major so that the second-year experience is as robust, and ripe with opportunities for belonging, as the first?

Supervisor: Amy Hungerford, Executive VP and Dean of the Faculty for Arts & Sciences, Columbia University

Mentors: Miguel Urquiola, Dean for Social Sciences, Columbia University; Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park, Dean, Samueli School of Engineering, University of California Los Angeles