The office of Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger on Thursday published a report on the results of a university-wide task force to assess how Columbia can better achieve what President Bollinger calls its ‘fourth purpose,’ of advancing human welfare and confronting the great challenges of our time.

A task force of 20 faculty members from across the university first convened in February 2020 to assess how Columbia could better bring the deep knowledge generated in the university to the world at large. The report outlines their findings, and Columbia World Projects’ centrality to the university’s mission:

“The newest manifestation of this purpose is in Columbia World Projects, which under the leadership of Nick Lemann, and soon Wafaa El-Sadr, has created a vibrant platform for the development of concrete projects, drawing on the work of our faculty, and for thinking about major questions and issues uniquely possible in this stimulating context bridging knowledge and action,” President Bollinger said in a letter to the university community introducing the report. The full text of the report is available here.