Hillary Clinton to be Columbia University professor

NEW YORK – Former U.S. Secretary of State and presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton will join the faculty at Columbia University next month, officials announced Thursday.

Clinton will be a professor of practice at the School of International and Public Affairs, or SIPA, and a presidential fellow at Columbia World Projects, as first reported by the college newspaper The Columbia Spectator.

“Given her extraordinary talents and capacities together with her singular life experiences, Hillary Clinton is unique, and, most importantly, exceptional in what she can bring to the University’s missions of research and teaching, along with public service and engagement for the public good,” university president Lee Bollinger wrote in an email to students and faculty.

Clinton will work on initiatives through SIPA related to global politics and policy, and female leaders in those professions, according to the announcement. As a fellow, she is expected to support programs related to protecting democracy and engaging women and young people worldwide.

Her responsibilities will expand to the classroom starting in the 2023-24 school year.

“I am honored to join Columbia University, and the School of International and Public Affairs and Columbia World Projects,” Clinton said in a statement. “Columbia’s commitment to educating the next generation of U.S. and global policy leaders, translating insights into impact, and helping to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges resonates personally with me. I look forward to contributing to these efforts.”

During the 2016 presidential election, Clinton won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College count to Donald Trump.

The following year, Clinton, previously a law professor, was rumored to be in talks with Columbia to take on a professor role, the Daily News reported.

Clinton earned an honorary degree from the Ivy League school last spring, and delivered impromptu remarks at the graduation ceremony.