Gillian Lindt

Gillian Lindt MA '55 PhD '65 was the Dean of the School of General Studies from 1994 - 1997. She was first named acting dean of General Studies in 1994.

In 1980, she was the only woman on the Breslow Committee, a panel appointed by Columbia College Dean Arnold Collery to examine the question of co-education. Lindt wrote a minority dissenting opinion, expressing that Columbia should wait a few years to implement coeducation so that it could be properly implemented. In 1981, the Breslow Commitee's report was presented by Michael I. Sovern to the trustees, and Columbia College was made co-educational.

Lindt was also dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 1984 to 1989. . In January 2001, she was named interim dean of GSAS when Eduardo Macagno stepped down from the post. During a drive to unionize that was ultimately unsuccessful, she emailed the students of GSAS expressing "profound disquiet and doubts about the wisdom of such unionization."

Lindt was a dean of faculty emerita. At one point, she was married to sociologist Albert Gollin.

She retired as professor of religion in 1998. She had taught at Columbia since 1973, and received a master's and a doctorate in sociology from the university in 1955 and 1965. Her research area was on religious sects and cults in America from the colonial period to the present.

Preceded by Caroline W. Bynum

Dean of the School of General Studies  1994 - 1997

Succeeded by Peter Awn

Preceded by George K. Fraenkel

Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences  1984-1989

Succeeded by ?

Preceded by Eduardo Macagno

Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Interim)  2001 - ?

Succeeded by ?