The White House on Monday tried to tamp down remarks by Columbia University’s president that President Obama would return to the New York-based campus in some capacity after leaving office in 2017.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest issued a statement Monday evening that said no final decisions had been made about an affiliation with Columbia after Obama leaves office.
“The president has long talked about his respect for Columbia University and his desire to continue working with them,” Earnest said. “However, at this point, no decisions have been finalized about his post-presidency plans.”
The Columbia Daily Spectator student newspaper Monday reported that the university’s president, Lee Bollinger, said at a Convocation that afternoon that he is looking forward to “welcoming back our most famous alumnus … in 2017.”
Bollinger, the paper said, didn’t not elaborate on what type of role or presence Obama would have on campus.
The paper later updated the story with statement from the university on Bollinger’s remarks, acknowledging no formal association with Obama yet.
“Lee Bollinger’s comment at Convocation today that he was looking forward to welcoming back Columbia’s most famous alumnus only reiterated the May 12 statement by the Barack Obama Foundation that it ‘intends to maintain a presence at Columbia University for the purpose of exploring and developing opportunities for a long term association’ and reflected no further developments concerning President Obama’s plans,” the statement said.
