President Obama is rumored to be in talks to move to New York and teach as a professor at Columbia Law School once his time in the White House is over.
The president has strong links to Columbia University: He was a transfer student from California’s Occidental College in 1981 as a 20-year-old junior, and graduated from Columbia in 1983.
Obama also taught courses in constitutional law at the University of Chicago from 1992 until his election to the US Senate in 2004. He was a senior lecturer from 1996 to 2004, during which time he taught three courses per year.
A source told us: “President Obama is considering his next move after leaving the White House. It is clear that he is giving thought to his work with his foundation, the creation of his presidential library, and how he could continue to work in an influential role. There has been talk about him teaching at Columbia Law School, but nothing has been confirmed.”
A spokeswoman for Columbia Law School — where Amal Clooney is teaching a course in human rights — declined to comment, and the White House didn’t get back to us.
Previous reports had said that Obama friends in Chicago do not believe the first family will return to the city, where they still own a home, after the president leaves office in January 2017. They believed the Obamas would move to New York and spend more time in Hawaii.
There has also reportedly been competition between New York and Chicago for the presidential library, which Obama has said he hopes would go to Chicago, but Columbia University has offered land it owns in New York to house the facility.
Michelle Obama and their daughter Malia were spotted touring the Columbia campus as well as Barnard and NYU in February. But former presidential aide Reggie Love told BuzzFeed that the Obamas would remain in Washington until younger daughter Sasha graduates from high school in 2019.