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Continuity and Change wide experience, deep expertise, and an intimate familiarity with Lawrence S. Bacow named Harvard’s twenty-ninth president Harvard’s opportunities and chal- lenges, but also a passionate commit- Lawrence S. Bacow, J.D.-M.P.P. ’76, Ph.D. education. This is a pivotal moment ment to helping universities, and ev- ’78, will become the twenty-ninth president of for higher education—one full of eryone within them, serve the larger Harvard on July 1. He was elected on Sunday, extraordinary possibilities to pur- world. He is ideally positioned to hit February 11, by the Corporation, the Universi- sue new knowledge, enhance edu- the ground running and keep Har- ty’s senior governing board, with the consent cation, and serve society, but also vard moving ambitiously forward. of the Board of Overseers, and introduced at a time when the singular value of In his own remarks, Bacow said: a news briefing that afternoon by William F. higher education and university re- The Harvard I have known has al- Lee, the Corporation’s senior fellow and the search has too often been challenged ways stood for at least three things: leader of the search to identify the successor and called into doubt. Such a time the pursuit of truth, or as we say, Veri- to President . Lee said: calls for skillful leadership, strategic tas; an unwavering commitment to ex- Larry Bacow is one of the most ac- thinking, and disciplined execution. cellence; but also to opportunity. In a complished, admired, insightful, and Larry will provide just that. nation divided, these guiding ideals effective leaders in American higher He will bring to the task not only have never been more important. We

14 May - June 2018 Photograph by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Public Affairs and Communications

Reprinted from . For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 should never shy away from nor be of the search committee that apologetic about affirming our com- chose Faust, recounted this mitment to making the world a better one’s final turning: place through our teaching, through From the summer through our scholarship, but also to our com- late last year, as we reached mitment to a search for truth, a com- out widely to solicit advice mitment to excellence, as well as a and nominations, increas- commitment to opportunity for all. ingly many people within Harvard and beyond—fac- The Case for Continuity ulty, students, staff, alum- In one sense, Bacow did not need much of ni, institutional leaders an introduction: a seasoned hand in higher here and elsewhere—en- education, at Harvard and within Greater couraged us to consider

Boston, he has referred to his “Red Line” ca- Larry for the presidency. STU ROSNER reer along the MBTA subway from Kendall We ultimately decided to ask him if he A homecoming: Announced as president- Square (MIT) to Harvard Square and then would consider becoming a candidate. elect, Lawrence S. Bacow speaks on February 11—and poses with Neil L. back to MIT, up to Davis Square (Tufts), and After pondering the request, he agreed Rudenstine and Drew Gilpin Faust. now back to Harvard. to step down from the search commit- After completing his bachelor’s degree in tee in mid-December. In doing so, he the University for a year, calming matters in economics at MIT (in three years), Bacow emphasized his deep belief in the Uni- the interim. Then came the promise of a new earned three more a couple of miles up Mas- versity’s mission and values and his presidency, with a daunting agenda: restor- sachusetts Avenue; returned to MIT for a desire to do everything he can to en- ing a sense of collegial community; replenish- distinguished 24-year career on the faculty, able Harvard to be the best it can be. ing decanal and senior administrative ranks; where he was Martin professor of environ- (The switch in roles is not unprecedent- and beginning to plan in earnest for a delayed, mental studies, chair of the faculty, and, ul- ed: Corporation member Shirley Tilgh­man pressing capital campaign. Faust came to the timately, chancellor; decamped all of half a served as a faculty member on a Princeton task after a half-dozen years as founding dean dozen miles to Medford, where he had an presidential search committee until it asked of the Radcliffe Institute: a solid place from accomplished record as president of Tufts her to step down and be considered for the which to gain a broad understanding of Har- University from 2001 through 2011; and then post—to which she was elected in 2001, vard, to be sure, but on a much smaller scale made homes at Harvard’s Graduate School serving until 2013.) than the University itself (and without the of Education and Kennedy School of Gov- In turning to Bacow, the Corporation is, complications of leading multiple faculties ernment—respectively, as president-in- in many senses, opting for continuity—wit- and thousands of students). residence and leader-in-residence, advis- ness Lee’s comments on the new president’s Given the complexities of mastering this ing other higher-education leaders, teaching “intimate familiarity with Harvard’s oppor- Byzantine institution and moving its myr- in executive-education classes, and writing tunities and challenges” and capacity to “hit iad parts forward, choosing a new presi- about an array of education issues. Not trivi- the ground running.” Indeed, the announce- dent who already has significant knowledge ally, he was elected a member of the restruc- ment itself, in Barker Center’s Thompson about the place confers a notable operating tured, expanded Corporation in 2011. Room, where Drew Faust was introduced as advantage. Bacow sounded those notes at Because of the latter service, Bacow was the twenty-eighth president exactly 11 years the very beginning of his remarks, acknowl- a member of the search committee, and earlier, on February 11, 2007, lent a further edging Faust and another predecessor, both so his emergence as president-elect flum- aura of continuity to the day’s proceedings. of whom were present: moxed the pundits. (It also made the day a (Note to future Crimeds: calendar February I am truly honored and humbled by complete success for members of Harvard’s 11, 2029—and yes, it’s a Sunday.) this opportunity to succeed my good news staff, whose interim goal was keep- It merits recalling the discontinuities that friend and colleague and somebody ing the resourceful reporters of The Harvard attended Faust’s selection.The turbulent pres- who I admire greatly, Drew Faust, Crimson from discovering the president- idency of Lawrence H. Summers had been and also to have a chance to follow elect’s identity prematurely. Mission accom- cut short by his departure in 2006. Derek in the footsteps of some wonderful plished.) Lee, who was an Overseer member Bok returned to Massachusetts Hall to lead leaders that Harvard has enjoyed. Neil [Rudenstine], it’s an honor to have you here today. IN THIS ISSUE On several substantive matters, he firmly embraced the path established by the ad- 17 Harvard Portrait 25 Brevia ministration and Corporation—on which he 18 University People 28 A Retirement amid Harassment and Faust, of course, have been colleagues. 20 Yesterday’s News Allegations Allston development. As past chair of the gov- 22 Educational Improv 28 The Undergraduate erning board’s committee on facilities and 23 News Briefs 29 Sports capital planning, and chair of its finance 24 Advanced Standing Reduced committee, Bacow has had ample oppor-

Harvard Magazine 15

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 's Journal gives us the opportunity to forge new part- boundaries more permeable. Under Faust, nerships across Harvard’s many parts, both that theme has coalesced as “One Harvard,” intellectually and otherwise: between Har- to the point that bringing existing, but scat- vard and our neighbors, between Harvard tered, expertise and capacities together has and our sister institutions, between Harvard often seemed as important as adding to the and the rest of the world. And it also gives professoriate—or even more so. us the opportunity—not just in Allston but Bacow is on board, too. “One of the things across all of Harvard—to envision the uni- that has always drawn so many of us to Har- versity of the future, and to bring that future vard,” he said, “is how it aspires to excel to life. Very exciting indeed.” across such a wide range of academic do- One Harvard. With “every tub on its own mains.” After listing each school, he contin- bottom,” Harvard has historically, and fa- ued, “Our breadth has long been our great mously, been a decentralized university, strength. And our great opportunity now is where deans exercise academic and fiscal the chance to combine our strengths in new

STU ROSNER clout. As the institution has progressively ways that help address some of the world’s Adele Fleet Bacow and directed physical growth and fundraising in most-pressing problems.” Responding to a a coordinated, central way, presidents have reporter’s question about Harvard’s engage- tunity to engage with Harvard’s ambitious sought a larger presence, and have played a ment with society, Bacow returned to this plans for physical growth in the community more visible role, in determining both. And theme, citing world problems the academy abutting . His schol- as intellecctual challenges and opportunities could help resolve. The clash of fundamen- arly work on environmental policy and dis- have arisen across departmental, disciplinary, talism and modernity (in the Middle East, pute resolution, negotiation, economics, and and even school lines, presidents since Ruden- Israel, the United States, and elsewhere), he land use and development surely provided stine have explicitly encouraged interfaculty said, will become “informed in due time by an especially solid foundation for that work. initiatives, sought to foster new intellectual humanists, by philosophers”—the sort of In his February 11 remarks, necessarily collaborations, and pushed to make logistical perspectives Harvard can contribute. Simi- broad in nature, he spoke specifically about obstacles (uncoordinated academic calendars, larly, he declared that the science of climate “being excited by the extension of our cam- for example, or rigidities in teaching arrange- change is “set,” but debate continues about pus that’s taking shape in Allston. Allston ments or appointments) less formidable and the responsibilities of one generation to an- other: that is, the policy questions are mat- ters of ethics and values, where again a broad university like Harvard has much to offer. “That excites me.” Explore More Diversity and inclusion. Asked by a Crimson reporter about diversity (in the context of Harvardmagazine.com brings you the result of the search), Bacow cited his re- cord of promoting excellence at MIT and continuous coverage of University and alumni news. Tufts and said, “I think diversity is a pathway Visit to find these stories and more: to excellence,” which cannot be attained by sampling just a small part of the population. $10 Million for a More Inclusive Faculty When The Boston Globe, noting his own in- The culmination of the work of the Task Force on volvement in a fraternity at MIT, sought his Inclusion and Belonging views on Harvard’s recently enacted sanc- harvardmag.com/diversity-report-18 tions on undergraduate membership in fi- nal clubs, fraternities, and sororities, he ob- “Good Trouble” served the “very different times” (MIT was Students from Parkland, Florida, speak on gun minimally coeducational a half-century ago) violence at . and said that “Drew and her team” have put harvardmag.com/parkland-18 together a policy that is “the right one for Harvard today.” (The Corporation voted to An Imposing Honor for Harvard’s adopt it late last year, before Bacow stepped First Black Graduate down from the search committee.) The University of South Carolina recognizes its And he was blunt and forceful in re- first African-American professor—Richard T. sponse to a question about DACA students Greener, A.B. 1870. (the Dreamers: immigrant children safely harvardmag.com/greener-18 resident through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, until President visit harvardmagazine.com Donald Trump set an expiration deadline,

seemingly with no congressional resolution FROM TOP: KRIS SNIBBE, STEPHANIE MITCHELL AND JON CHASE/HARVARD PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS; MARTHA STEWART/HARVARD KENNEDYSCHOOL; COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

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Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 in sight)—an increasingly urgent concern for Faust and peer institutions’ leaders through- HARVARD PORTRAIT out this academic year. Referring to his own life circumstances (his father came to the United States to escape pogroms in Eastern Europe, his mother arrived as a refugee on a Liberty ship—the only member of her fam- ily to survive Auschwitz), he said, “I would not be standing before you today, literally, if this country turned its back on refugees.” An experienced hand. Beyond his understand- ing of Harvard’s priorities and alignment with its trajectory, Bacow brings to the presidency broad experience in university management and leadership. Based on his record, he has very much walked the walk. During his de- cade at Tufts, where he had far fewer resourc- es to work with—the endowment now is $1.8 billion, one-twentieth Harvard’s (of course, the institutions differ significantly)—he champi- oned need-based financial aid; directed new resources to the aid budget, replacing loans with grants for low-income undergraduates; realized a significant increase in sponsored research; managed the relationship with the university medical center; and conducted a record capital campaign. As Tufts president, Bacow was a higher- education leader, building a coalition fo- cused on colleges’ and universities’ civic role and social responsibilities. He was chair of the council of presidents of the Associa- tion of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, chair of the executive committee of the Association of Independent Colleg- David Davidson es and Universities in Massachusetts, and a member of the executive committee of the Times have changed since David Davidson started in food service in 1982, managing American Council of Education’s board of a Somerville McDonald’s. Food ethics have become a cultural flashpoint, making his role directors. He has also served as a member more complex and more central to Harvard’s perceived values. His team at Harvard of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- University Dining Services (HUDS), where he is managing director, works to make ences’ Lincoln Project, which made the case meals more “plant-forward”: “Now, I wouldn’t characterize myself as a vegetarian. Tofu— for strengthening public research universi- I could take it or leave it. But last week I had a tofu burger, and I was like, ‘Wow!’” he ties, whose finances were punished as state enthuses. “We’re slowly going to change people’s minds about what they should be governments slashed support in the wake of eating. We’re meeting with the Lentil Board [Saskatchewan Pulse Growers] to learn the financial crisis and recession that began about different ways to use lentils.” At the same time: “We are not the food police! Our in 2008. These ties throughout academe may job is to provide options. The football players come in and get their 12 chicken breasts.” prove potent at the present moment (see Raised on the North Shore (his parents worked alternating shifts at General Electric), “The Challenging Context,” below). Davidson started at HUDS in 1991, as manager of the Dudley House Café. After stints Following news of his Harvard selection, at Yale, the Back Bay Restaurant Group, and Phillips Exeter, he missed Harvard. Exeter the comments about Bacow from through- was small: “We were feeding 600 or 700 kids.” In 2007, he returned to HUDS, where out higher education bordered on the eu- he oversees 650 staff members who deliver 27,000 meals per day—and is looking to phoric. The following, from Overseer John expand. He’s bidding on the cafés at , currently run by an Silvanus Wilson Jr., M.T.S. ’81, Ed.M. ’82, outside contractor. “Our entry-level dishwashers start at $21.89 an hour—I’m very Ed.D. ’85, former president of Morehouse proud of that. But we’re competing with very low labor costs in the service industry,” College, is representative: “Since meet- he says. How does he convince clients to choose HUDS? “I’m exceptionally good at ing and befriending Larry Bacow over 25 developing relationships. I always say, ‘You’re Harvard, I’m Harvard, and we’re going years ago at MIT, I have had the privilege to do everything possible to achieve your mission.’” vmarina bolotnikova of working with one of the most effective

Photograph by Stu Rosner Harvard Magazine 17

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 John Harvard's Journal leaders in all aspects of the living and learn- governance, boards of trustees, and lead- that nonetheless manages not to provoke ad- ing environment of university life.” As past ership—has known Bacow for a couple of vocates or instigate hostile reactions. Those executive director of the White House Ini- decades, and worked with the Tufts board traits are deeply rooted in “a person of unim- tiative on Historically Black Colleges and while Bacow was president. He was also an peachable integrity,” who applies his ener- Universities, Wilson said, “I encouraged important adviser on the reforms that re- gies to institutional ends, not personal ones. President [Barack] Obama’s interest in ap- made the Harvard Corporation at the end As William Lee said in his announcement pointing Larry to the advisory board” of the of 2010 (shortly before Bacow became a fel- to the Harvard community February 11 (sen- initiative “because of the transformational low). Characterizing the president-elect as timents he echoed warmly in the news con- impact he had at Tufts.…” (Their perspec- both a friend and someone he has observed ference), having worked alongside Bacow tives remain closely aligned: Wilson is tak- in action, Chait said, “Nobody dislikes [tak- for six years, he knew this sterling résumé ing leave as an Overseer to become senior ing] credit more broadly than Larry—he is took root in “equally extraordinary human adviser and strategist to the presidents, always explicit in the attribution of credit qualities—of integrity and collegiality, in- implementing the inclusion and belonging to others.” In addressing difficult challenges, telligence and compassion, humility and report released on March 27; see harvard- he said, Bacow demonstrates “a remarkable high standards, openness and warmth.” mag.com/diversity-report-18.) ability to articulate sensitive, delicate issues Lee told the audience in Barker Center Richard P. Chait, professor of education with full frankness and no edge”—dealing (and watching on Facebook) that Harvard’s emeritus—whose scholarship and advisory with controversies over free speech, for in- twenty-ninth president practice have focused on higher-education stance, “with a refreshing forthrightness” inspires trust. He is not just smart,

which were then held 20 times yearly—about 500 round trips, University People with no direct flights.

Dean Dench Sunstein Shines McLean professor of ancient and modern history Walmsley University Professor Cass Sunstein and of the classics Emma Dench, the interim dean has won the 2018 Holberg Prize, conferred on an of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences during outstanding researcher in the arts and humani- the current academic year, will assume that post on ties, social sciences, law, or theology. The prize, a regular basis as of July 1. She succeeds Jones profes- accompanied by an honorarium of approximately ROSE LINCOLN/HPAC ROSE sor of statistics Xiao-Li Meng, who became dean in $765,000, recognizes his work on behavioral eco- MITCHELL/HPAC STEPHANIE 2012 and is on sabbatical this year; upon his return, Emma nomics and public policy, constitutional law and Cass he will be engaged with the Harvard Data Science Dench democratic theory, administrative law, the regula- Sunstein Institute, launching a journal, and will also become president of the tion of risk, and the relationship between the modern regulatory Institute of Mathematical Sciences. For a full report, with a descrip- state and constitutional law. The prize announcement called him tion of the issues on Dench’s agenda, see harvardmag.com/dench-18. “the leading scholar of administrative law” in the United States, and noted that he is “by far the most cited legal scholar in the Enduring Fellow United States and probably the world.” Sunstein and his research Charles P. Slichter ’45, Ph.D. 49, LL.D. ’96, a physicist (and son of were profiled in depth in “The Legal Olympian” (January-Feb- Lamont University Professor Sumner Slichter) whose quarter- ruary 2015, page 43). century of service on the Harvard Corporation concluded in 1995, died February 19. Slichter was senior fellow for nearly a decade. Faculty Deans The longevity of his service will not be equaled, given the Corpo- Professor of biology Brian D. Farrell (an entomologist whose field ration’s term limits, adopted in 2010. Nor is it likely that his travel work was profiled in “Brian Farrell in Bugdom,” September-Octo- on Harvard’s behalf will be exceeded: he commuted to Cambridge ber 2003, page 66) and Irina Ferreras, a curatorial assistant in the from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for meetings, Harvard herbarium, have been appointed faculty deans of Lever- ett House, succeeding Mallinckrodt professor of Departing Dean Smith physics Howard Georgi Michael D. Smith, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences since 2007, an- and Ann Georgi.…Sepa- nounced on March 19 that he would step down and return to teaching (he is rately, fac- Finley professor of engineering and applied sciences) upon the appointment of ulty deans Diana L. Eck a successor by president-elect Lawrence S. Bacow. Smith had the unenviable and Dorothy A. Austin task of steering his faculty through the financial crisis and recession—which announced they will step constrained distributions from the endowment, the source of about half of down at the end of 2018- FAS’s operating revenue—while advancing the enormous (and enormously ex- 2019; they have been lead- pensive) House renewal project and sustaining enhanced financial aid. A fuller ers of the House, now be-

STEPHANIE MITCHELL/HPAC STEPHANIE account of his deanship appears at harvardmag.com/smithstepsdown-18. ing renovated, for 20 years.

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Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 but wise. He is innovative and en- always asking how Harvard can do many, many challenging issues confronting trepreneurial. He has high academic better, not just for Harvard, but for universities today”; standards and excellent judgment in the wider world. • the ability to apprehend “the huge op- people. He has a strong moral com- portunities before us in education, in re- pass and extraordinary emotional in- The Challenging Context search, and in serving the world broadly”; telligence. He relates easily to all dif- That nod to the the universe beyond Har- and ferent kinds of people and motivates vard’s footprint in Boston and Cambridge • the ability to clearly see and readily them to commit to something larger carries a larger significance. Hanging over confront “the great challenges facing us at than just themselves. He is deeply cu- the discussion of Bacow’s ever-upward a moment when the value of higher educa- rious—intellectually curious, highly higher-education record, and his ready-to- tion is being questioned, at a moment when interdisciplinary, and naturally col- roll preparation for assuming the University the fundamental truth of fact-based inquiry laborative. He has the confidence to presidency, is a pervasive sense that the ex- is being questioned and called into doubt.” set priorities and to make the hard ternal environment is threatening—perhaps The emphasis lingered on the last of those choices to implement them. He is…all even uniquely adverse. desiderata. Underscoring the point, Lee about the institution and the people In reviewing the search, Lee outlined the said the ability to assume the presidency in the institution, not about himself. three characteristics judged most important seamlessly counted “because neither we He is someone who loves Harvard, for the next president as: nor higher education have time to spare.” but whose love isn’t blind, who is • “broad and deep experience with the He amplified that Bacow acceded to the

Alumni Newsmakers Commencement Katherine A. Rowe, Ph.D. ’92, a Renaissance Headliners and medieval drama scholar active in digi- Congressman John Lewis, tal-humanities research, has LL.D. ’12—already in posses- been appointed president of sion of an honorary degree in William & Mary—the first recognition of his lifetime of woman leader of the nation’s leadership in the American second-oldest institution of civil-rights movement—re- higher education (1693); she turns to Tercentenary The-

COURTESY OF WILLIAM & MARY has been provost and dean atre as the principal guest ADVANCED STUDY, HARVARDADVANCED UNIVERSITY STUDY, COURTESY OF THE RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE FOR Katherine A. of the faculty at Smith Col- speaker for the 367th Com- COURTESY OF CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS Rowe lege.…The Andrew W. Mel- mencement. His appearance on the afternoon of May 24 comes 50 years after the class of lon Foundation, the leading source of phil- 1968 invited Martin Luther King Jr. to be its Class Day speaker; after his assassination, anthropic support for the humanities and on April 4, his widow, Coretta Scott King, appeared in his place. That background, related fields, has appointed poetElizabeth and Lewis’s connection to President Drew Faust, are detailed at harvardmag.com/ Alexander, RI ’08, a former faculty member comm-lewis-18. On Radcliffe Day, May 25,Hillary Rodham Clinton—former U.S. at Yale and Columbia, as its president; Conant senator, secretary of state, and presidential candidate—will receive the institute’s University Professor Danielle S. Allen, chair Radcliffe Medal; further information appears atharvardmag.com/rias -clinton-18. of the Mellon board of trustees, made the an- The poet and orator at the Phi Beta Kappa Literary Exercises on May 22 will be Kevin nouncement.…Columbia’s Hamilton professor Young ’92, poetry editor of The New Yorker (read a review of his new book, Bunk, at har- of American studies, Andrew Delbanco ’73, vardmag.com/bunk-18), and paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin, Ph.D. ’80, a National Humanities Medal hon- Ph.D. ’87 (profiled atharvardmag.com/shubin -08). orand and literary scholar who has written forcefully on higher education, has been ap- pointed president of the Teagle Foundation, which supports efforts liam Smith Colleges, has been appointed director of the Kennedy to improve teaching and learning in the liberal arts.…The Perelman School’s Institute of Politics.…Andrew Elrick, Ed.M. ’07, most re- Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, in New York cently director of administration for the Business School’s global City, has appointed Bill Rauch ’84 as its first artistic director. He initiative, has been appointed executive director of the David Rock- was a co-founder of the Cornerstone Theater efeller Center for Latin American Studies, the University-wide en-

Company, profiled in the magazine in 1990, and tity that organizes research and learning experiences throughout has been artistic director of the acclaimed Ore- Central and South America.…The 2018 Tyler Prize for Environmen- gon Shakespeare Festival since 2007 (see “Bards tal Achievement, a leading recognition for work in environmen- of America,” September-October 2017, page 55). tal science, environmental health, and energy, will be conferred on professor of biological oceanography James J. McCarthy in Faculty and Staff AT HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL KENNEDY HARVARD AT THE INSTITUTE OF POLITICS OF INSTITUTE THE early May; past honorands include Pellegrino University Profes- Mark D. Gearan ’78, former director of the Mark D. sor emeritus E. O. Wilson and Heinz professor of environmental Peace Corps and president of Hobart and Wil- Gearan policy John P. Holdren.

Harvard Magazine 19

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 John Harvard's Journal search committee’s request that he consid- er becoming a candidate because he felt the Yesterday’s News present moment was critical for higher edu- From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine cation in general and Harvard in particular. Taking education personally. During the news conference, Bacow addressed those issues in 1913 The Alumni Bulletin applauds the of visual and environmental studies is set a way that began to make the presidency-to- Crimson for advocating more enthusiasm up in the College to replace the existing be his own. Drew Faust entered Mass Hall at Harvard baseball games, which have fields of architectural sciences and the as an historian of the first rank; her default been “as staid and solemn as the literary practice of the visual arts. approach in situating Harvard issues and exercises on Commencement Day.” pointing a way forward was to delve into 1973 “Flying in the face of tradition,” the institution’s history. Bacow’s scholar- 1918 The Harvard Club of North Chi- a committee representing a cross-section ship, as noted, has focused on negotiating na contacts President Lowell, offering a of the Harvard community reschedules and making policy in complicated circum- prize of $100 to the Harvard undergradu- the annual alumni meeting and alumni pa- stances—but his research career has now ate or graduate student “who writes the rade to Wednesday afternoon, a day be- been succeeded, for two decades, by a second best paper on any subject connected with fore Commencement, rather than on one, as a leader in and thinker about higher China.” The 64 Chinese students on cam- Commencement afternoon. When rain education. As he takes up the reins for this pus far outnumber those from any other pours down on Wednesday, experienced ultimate stage of that second career, he chose country: Canada is second with 25, and alumni grumble that it’s “asking too much to frame the stakes in highly personal terms. Japan, with 21, is third. to expect two fair days in a row.” Rather than talking abstractly about why * * * higher education matters, he told about his 1933 The Phillips Brooks House As- Commencement-week protest at the parents’ paths from the Old World to the sociation votes to forgo its annual dinner University, meanwhile, shifts from politics New and then said: and use the money to send undernour- to plumbing as women distressed by the When I reflect upon my parents’ ished children to summer camp. general shortage at Harvard of toilet fa- journey to this country, I realize how cilities for their sex stage a protest in lucky I am. Where else can one go, 1938 Lucius N. Littauer, A.B. 1878, front of Lowell Lecture Hall. in one generation, from off the boat, lays the cornerstone for the Littauer with literally nothing, to enjoy the Center of Public Administration, the new 2003 With a record 20,986 appli- kind of life and opportunity that I home of the new Graduate School of cants having sought spots in the future and my family have been fortunate Public Administration. Inaugural dean class of 2007, the acceptance rate at the to enjoy. It was higher education that John H. Williams tells the audience that College falls below 10 percent for the made this all possible. I look forward in addressing policy problems, “the first time. to working every day as president of economist, the political scientist, Harvard to ensure that future genera- the sociologist, and the law- tions benefit from the same oppor- yer all have contribu- tunity my family had—and so many tions that may of us that I suspect sit in this room lead to a today also had. And that is the op- broader and portunity to experience the Ameri- clearer un- can dream. derstanding….” That personal journey, as it hap- pens, took root in Pontiac, Michigan: 1968 A new a place that could be a poster child for department the industrial transformations that have shaken Americans’ assumptions about globalization and their person- al prospects, in a battleground state during the 2016 election. Asked what larger role Harvard might play in the national po- litical conversa- tion, Bacow homed in on his hometown; when he was grow- ing up, he said, the three General Mo-

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 tors plants there practically guaranteed that high-school graduates could get a job and at- tain the accoutrements of the middle-class good life. Today, he said, “That’s all gone” (in unspoken contrast to the advantages accruing to those able to pursue higher education). Ac- cordingly, “academic institutions, including Experience HARRISON JIM Commencement 2018 Harvard, have to pay more attention to those in this economy who have been left behind.” with Harvard Magazine Alongside the day’s messages about uni- This year’s Commencement will feature John Lewis, Hillary Clinton, versities’ potential to advance discovery and others. Read our in-depth coverage of the events, faces, and and teaching, and the expectations of those themes of Commencement week, May 22-25. seeking a higher education, Bacow urgently sounded a theme about the threats to the Follow @harvardmagazine to experience Commencement essential enterprise itself, beginning with even if you aren’t in Cambridge this year. that warning note about “a nation divided.” Echoing Lee, he said, “these are challeng- harvardmag.com/commencement ing times for higher education in America.” In the questions and answers that fol- lowed the formal news-conference re- place, he went further: ing of truth and facts generally; the newly marks, he responded to a query about his These days, higher education has legislated tax on elite institutions’ endow- decision to become a candidate by talking plenty of critics. And candidly, I think ments (in part a vivid reflection of that pub- about the “tough times” he perceived: that some of the criticism is fair. We need lic mood); threats to federal research fund- for the first time in a life shaped entirely by to do a better job of controlling our ing and support for financial aid; litigation academe, the value of attaining higher edu- costs. We need to do a better job of about selective institutions’ admissions cation had come into question, as had the operating more efficiently. We need policies; and arguments about campuses’ utility of supporting it. Accepting the Har- to collaborate with others, with our political biases and elitism. vard presidency, he said, was an opportunity peer institutions, with industry, and As noted, these concerns seem at the to serve higher education, “and I hope serve the broader world. And we need to be forefront of the Corporation’s, and Bacow’s, the nation.” In a brief private conversation vigilant to ensure that our campuses minds. How to address them? Therein may later, he emphasized again, “I feel like I owe are always open to new ideas—that lie the appeal of Bacow’s compelling per- my entire life to higher education.” He de- they are places where all our members sonal narrative and the reach of his higher- scribed the present circumstances, and the feel free to express themselves, and education contacts list. Defining and leading announcement of his presidency, almost as also where every member of this com- the debate over the importance of higher a calling: “This was not an opportunity I munity feels that he or she belongs. education, at this political moment, from sought, but I also realized this was not an this Crimson redoubt, promises to be a de- opportunity which I could turn away, be- Striking a Balance manding, time-consuming effort. cause of the challenging times we face.” It is premature to leap from that language At the same time, there are plenty of items Minding the store. Emphasizing the external to an actionable agenda: Bacow, after all, on the University’s internal agenda—some concerns opens a way to consider another doesn’t assume office until mid year—and his of which pertain importantly to how suc- prospective element of the Bacow presiden- installation will not occur cessful it might be in ad- cy: the sense that he can identify needed until October 5. Nonethe- vancing the conversa- changes—and effect them. Hence Lee’s line, less, his words merit care- tion in the world beyond not a throw-away, about Bacow as some- ful consideration. (See page Greater Boston. one whose love of Harvard “isn’t blind, who 5 for some crystal-ball gaz- The crude way of per- is always asking how Harvard can do bet- ing; and look for a detailed ceiving such issues is ter, not just for Harvard, but for the wider profile of the president- through a financial lens. world.” In the president-elect’s formula- elect in a future issue.) Yes, the endowment was tion (following his enumeration of Har- But the knowns con- $37.1 billion at the end of

vard’s commitment to Veritas, excellence, fronting any new Harvard CARMICHAEL/HM LYDIA last fiscal year; and yes, and opportunity), “[W]e should always leader are clear enough. Installation manual: a binder The Harvard Campaign recognize that [despite] all of our progress The external environ- summarizing Drew Faust’s will certainly bring in at inauguration toward realizing these ideals over decades, ment is certainly not pro- least $9 billion by its end, even centuries, at a place like Harvard that pitious. The list of worries on June 30, and perhaps there is still much we can do, much we can includes, inter alia, citizens’ alienation from considerably more. But three intersecting learn, and more that we can contribute to higher education (its high sticker price and trends tell a tale perhaps at odds with that make the world better, together.” doubts about the return on investment)— eye-popping headline figure. But rather than stopping at that lofty and proliferating challenges to the mean- First, the University has had not one but

Illustration (opposite) by Mark Steele Harvard Magazine 21

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 John Harvard's Journal Educational Improv

Over lunch last fall, faculty members from Suffolk University gath- ered to watch a history class fall apart. As a befuddled professor strained to steer the conversation to the week’s reading on the Boston Tea Party, his students got mired in an argument. “I mean, aren’t India Indians, Indians now? Do you know what I mean?” asked a senior. “‘Native Americans’ isn’t even the politically correct term Mara anymore,” interjected a freshman, rolling her eyes. Sidmore

The scene came from “Teaching Beyond the Timeline,” by Har- HARRISON JIM vard’s resident improv troupe, the Bok Players. Based at the Bok postdoc. At early performances, reactions were mixed. “It’s not Center for Teaching and Learning, they use theater activities to obvious to me how this matters,” one student complained to a educate audiences. “DEIA—diversity, equity, inclusion, and ac- reporter from Nature. “The problems in the play weren’t real cessibility, in whatever order—is the heartbeat of the work that problems, like faked data.” we do,” explains artistic director Mara Sidmore. The players are But administrators were impressed, and various Harvard de- mostly professional actors, whose other credits range from Shear partments kept requesting the players’ help—including one ma- Madness to Shakespeare to portraying “standardized patients” in jor early client, Catalyst, the center for clinical medical research. medical schools. During rehearsals, they go over lines, and also So they spun off more scripts: “Sign Here” explored ethics in other show elements: How big is the audience? Is attendance obtaining consent from study participants; “The Right Fit” tack- mandatory, or voluntary? What are the demographics of the stu- led a faculty hiring committee. As word spread, they started dent body? They adapt each performance to its venue. performing at Boston hospitals and schools throughout New For them, the play’s only half the thing: after a sketch ends, the England. With this steady line of work, the Bok Players weath- actors stay in character for a “talkback” in which the audience ered the financial crisis and a five-year institutional limbo when asks about their motivations. (Everyone involved is impressively Harvard severed ties with them in 2010. Posters from the time committed: at Suffolk, Sidmore polled the characters about how advertised “New plays commissioned on request” and “Impro- “class” had gone, nodded thoughtfully at their answers, and visational programs tailored to client needs,” and even offered thanked them for their honesty.) After that, the real fun begins. one-on-one coaching. Faculty members are invited on stage to act out other ways the Today, the troupe finds itself turning some performance requests scene could have unfolded and afterward, the actors help them down. As Sidmore sees it, “We need to focus on how we fit into role-play similarly “hot” moments from their real work lives. the Center, because otherwise we’re just sort of this satellite pro- The Bok Players formed in 2007, in response to a recommen- gram.” Now incorporated into the Bok Center’s larger Applied dation from the Task Force on Women in Science and Engineer- Theatre Initiative, the players also run “Theater Lab,” a workshop ing (itself a response to the firestorm sparked by former Harvard in which Bok staff discuss how theater concepts can be adapted president Lawrence H. Summers’s comments on women’s “in- into teaching tools. (At one session last semester, participants trinsic aptitude” in those fields): all science doctoral students learned acting warm-ups, and pantomimed “The Three Little Pigs.”) should take a pedagogical training course with a component on They also provide course support, plying their trade in classroom gender bias. Lee Warren, then an associate director at the Bok settings. Recently, faculty members have called them in to coach Center, had been inspired by a University of Michigan teaching students for a class debate, and to role-play as clients seeking legal troupe to try interactive theater at Harvard. “No faculty member advice on the benefits of marriage versus a civil union. wants to go to a training session on diversity,” she says. “They Sidmore, meanwhile, says she’s on the lookout for longer-term just think they’ll throw up!” “strategic alliances” throughout the University. Maybe, she sug- The players’ first sketch, “Trouble in the Lab,” was about an gests, the Office of Student Life would be interested in develop- untenured researcher wading into a fight involving a female first- ing training materials connected to the “Me, Too” movement, year, a short-tempered older student, and an absent-minded or the Presidential Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging will inspire more faculty programming. A freshman’s hand flies up during the Bok Players’ performance at Rhode Island School of Design. A Bok Players performance can be a surreal cocktail: one part corporate-sensitivity workshop, one part avant-garde perfor- mance art, served up by actors radiating the can-do cheer of summer-camp counselors. Yet the ritual of roleplay seems to have intrinsic power. “If you embody it, there’s something that happens with the person you’re embodying it with, where you’re able to see, suddenly, ‘Oh, that’s what that person perceived,’” says Sid- more. “And it’s often kind of a release.” As Lee Warren puts it, theater “gets people below the neck. It’s

RISD HUMAN RESOURCES RISD not just the heads working.” vsophia nguyen

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 two financial crises in the past decade. The pensive to run. The endowment shortfalls to assume again, perhaps that earlier work, acute losses associated with the national fi- are presumably being addressed: Harvard from the first stage of his life in higher edu- nancial crisis and recession in 2008-2009 de- Management Company, under new leader- cation, assumes relevance anew. creased Harvard’s net worth, abruptly, by $14 ship, is in full tear-down mode. But it may For now, it is hard not to sense the enthu- billion. That has been followed by the sim- take years to improve results, and the invest- siasm about Harvard and the energy about mering, but persistent, underperformance of ment environment is not guaranteed to re- its mission, now his mission, that Lawrence endowment investments in the decade since main effervescent. S. Bacow, soon to be the University’s twen- (over time, a couple of percentage points of And in the meantime, of course, there will ty-ninth president, conveyed in concluding annual return less than the 8 percent goal, ag- be decanal vacancies to fill (notably, in the his remarks on February 11: gregating to hundreds of millions of dollars Faculty of Arts and Sciences; see page 18), When our faculty and students per year, and compounding continuously). In perhaps senior administrative searches to and staff think of Harvard, I want toto, that shortfall has constrained the flow conduct, and the myriad activities of sim- them to think, of funds that deans expected to be distrib- ply running the place. That work—together “This is the place where I can do uted from the endowment into their schools’ with setting and paying for major Harvard my best work. budgets for teaching and scholarship. priorities, and attempting to influence the “This is the place where I can pur- Second, as a result, the endowment is public discourse about higher education— sue opportunities beyond those that nominally about the same size today as in would seem a sufficient presidential to-do might be available to me anywhere fiscal 2008 (and billons of dollars less when list for the next decade or so. else. adjusted for inflation), but it supports op- “This is the place that whatever my erating expenses that have risen from $3.5 “A Harvard Student Again” background, wherever I came from, billion in fiscal 2008 to $4.9 billion last year. At the February news conference, Bacow whatever I look like, whatever my The academic impacts are consequential. was asked how he could possibly balance academic focus, whatever my point Faculty growth has been constrained. Re- the contending, enormous demands that of view, that I can have the greatest search initiatives have been supported with come with the job. “Time is our scarcest re- chance not only to succeed personally, internal grants, not more permanent fund- source,” he acknowledged. Drawing on his but, even more importantly, to make a ing. High-profile ventures like the Univer- prior presidential experience, he observed difference in the lives of others.” sity data-sciences initiative and the Col- that one could never know what each day I am enormously excited to be part lege’s theater, dance, media concentration would bring—but within that context, it of such an adventure. And for these are staffed with postdocs and adjunct teach- was possible to prioritize internal needs next several months, I also look for- ers, not new professorships: a new, flexible and external obligations over time, and ward to being a Harvard student model of investing without incurring perma- that once in Mass Hall he would do so, ap- again. I still have much to learn, and nent costs, maybe—or a sign of stretching propriately, as the circumstances dictate. I know from my prior life here that limited resources. The process, he said, was like asking “which there is no better place to learn than Third, given the depth of the endow- blade of the scissors does the cutting.” at Harvard. ment-income shortfalls, the capital cam- In a conversation after the briefing, the Those of us privileged to lead this paign—essential to shoring up both the bal- president-elect pointed to his recent writ- University are invested with a pre- ance sheet and underwriting operations and ings on higher education as a better guide cious trust. Working together, facul- buildings—could not suffice to fill the gap. to who he is today than his scholarly work, ty, staff, students, and the governing “Capital” is a bit of a misnomer: through last some decades ago, on negotiation and dis- boards, I promise to do everything June, when the campaign reached $8 billion pute resolution in the complex realm of en- within my power to prove worthy of gifts and pledges, about $2.3 billion had vironmental decisionmaking and policy. But of that trust. been received to bolster the endowment. The given the challenges he has now determined vjohn s. rosenberg majority of campaign funds are for nongov- ernment sponsored research and current use (which are obviously quickly spent), and emissions from fossil fuels and investing in building projects (House renewal, the Ken- News Briefs “high-quality, off-campus projects that dis- nedy School campus expansion, the Busi- place comparable amounts of emissions for ness School’s new executive-education and Toward a any emissions that remain.” conference facilities—most of which perma- McArthur University Professor Rebecca nently increase operating expenses). Fossil-Fuel-Free Future Henderson, a co-chair of a University cli- At Harvard, nearly doubling current-use President Drew Faust announced on mate-change task force that developed the giving during the campaign has provided February 6 that Harvard would “seek to be- new policies, noted in a Harvard Gazette in- invaluable support for the University’s aca- come fossil fuel free” by 2050—meeting en- terview that apart from a broader Univer- demic mission. But unless sustained at that ergy needs sustainably and setting goals for sity agenda of working to minimize climate level, it does not substitute for mission-fo- purchased services that “rely as little as pos- change, Cambridge and Boston both have cused endowments and the operating funds sible on fossil fuels.” As an interim objective, set zero-emission goals for 2050, making they theoretically provide in perpetuity. the University will “strive to become fossil that a necessary target. Massachusetts is In short, Harvard is a big university, ex- fuel neutral by 2026” by reducing its own also directing utilities to boost supplies of

Harvard Magazine 23

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746