Last Wednesday, Bwog got the chance to sit down with Deantini to talk about the McKinsey report, financial aid, admissions policy, and a bunch of other things College-related.

McKinsey Report: We first asked Deantini how he felt about Spec’s publishing of an executive summary of the McKinsey report. To our surprise, he said he was happy it had come out, and relieved it had only been leaked and publicized now, rather than in Fall 2011. The reason? Arts & Sciences (which encompasses the College, GSAS, GS, the School of the Arts, and SIPA) recently completed an administrative reorganization that was very different from what McKinsey advised last year.

While McKinsey’s recommendations would have seriously diminished the power and authority of the College dean—infamously, McKinsey suggested that the dean should be responsible only for “the care and feeding of undergraduates”—the latest changes to A&S actually confer more power upon the Dean of the College. Deantini now has a spot on the executive committee of the A&S, the three-member group (the other two members being the Dean of GSAS and Executive Vice President of A&S, Nicholas Dirks) that has the final say on the budget for all of A&S. Thanks to these reforms of A&S, Deantini declared, the College has never had more power than it does today.

Financial Aid: Deantini also spoke to us about the changes to the College’s financial aid—namely, that the responsibility for financial aid for College students is moving from A&S to the Provost’s office. Before the shift, the faculty of A&S had to decide how much financial aid to give out, keeping in mind that more money allocated from the (relatively small) A&S budget to financial aid meant less for academic concerns like keeping Core sections small or funding academic. Now that the Provost’s office is responsible for financial aid, the faculty will no longer be placed in such an awkward position.

Read on for Deantini’s thoughts on financial aid and international students

As he does from time to time, last night PrezBo opened the doors to his grandiose abode on Morningside Drive to a number of students and administrators for the latest in his Rooseveltian series of fireside chats. A pair of Bwog editors were in attendance, and positioned themselves on a soft couch to listen in on the night’s discourse.

As the thirty-some undergraduates climbed the elegant staircase within the president’s mansion yesterday evening, they were greeted by a large display of finger foods surrounded by a host of hungry students—many of them notable campus characters. After about 20 minutes of schmoozing and snacking on miniature pizzas and breads, the students were shepherded into the main sitting room, which contained neat rows of chairs as well as the promised fireside.

PrezBo entered without fanfare and made his way to the stool waiting for him at the front of the room, pausing briefly before quieting the room in his trademark soft, paternal tones. He introduced the other administrators in the room—among them KevSho and Kenneth Prewitt—and then solicited questions from the crowd, adding as always the caveat that while they could ask him whatever they liked, he “could choose not to answer whatever he liked,” as well, garnering himself a handful of polite laughs.

When the chuckles waned, the first question was asked—likely one PrezBo never would have predicted: does he have plans to retire after his (recently extended) term as Columbia’s president is over? He hinted vaguely at other side projects he would like to finish up, including helping to see the Manhattanville expansion through as far as possible, before giving an apparently earnest answer that he wishes to continue as an educator and a scholar after he steps down from leadership.

The next question was far more topical, and regarded PrezBo’s reaction to the controversy surrounding the SEAS faculty’s recent vote of no confidence in Dean Peña-Mora. PrezBo expressed nothing but confidence in “Feni,” reminding the attendees that he is still a new dean, and that the engineering school has seen a great deal of improvement, both in the rankings beyond them, over the past few years.

Read on for Manhattanville, student wellness, and the McKinsey Report