Lawrence Bacow the Twenty-Ninth President
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Solicitor General • Admissions Lawsuit • Inventing Football SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2018 • $4.95 Lawrence Bacow The twenty-ninth president Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 DREW GILPIN FAUST 2018 Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity Awarded to Renowned Scholar, Historian and Education Leader The John W. Kluge Center brings together the world’s best thinkers to address the challenges facing democracies in the 21st century. Watch the Prize ceremony live on September 12 and see all the research opportunities and scholarly events at loc.gov/kluge. klugectr Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 180910_LibraryofCongress.indd 1 7/20/18 10:35 AM SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2018, VOLUME 121, NUMBER 1 FEATURES 32 The Pragmatist | by John S. Rosenberg Lawrence S. Bacow, Harvard’s twenty-ninth president, is a scholar of negotiation and decisionmaking, and a seasoned higher-education leader 44 Vita: William Morris Davis | by Philip S. Koch Brief life of a pioneering geomorphologist: 1850-1934 47 The Political Solicitor General | by Lincoln Caplan p. 47 The “Tenth Justice” in an era of unprecedented polarization at the Supreme Court 54 The Football Industrial Complex | by Dick Friedman Harvard and the making of modern collegiate sports JOHN HARVARD’S JOURNAL 16 President Bacow’s first day, admissions lawsuit, gender professor, undergraduate architecture studios, when haircuts became passé, mending Medical School finances, 1969 traumas exhibited, new Arts and Sciences dean, at Harvard from Africa, new Undergraduate fellows, and football’s fleet-footed returner p. 22 DEPARTMENTS p. 54 2 Cambridge 02138 | Letters from our readers—and approaching Allston 3 The View from Mass Hall 8 Right Now | Targeted economic strategy for the American heartland, deciphering mass extinctions, slavery and managerial capitalism 2 12A Harvard | Autumn events, quirky sculptures afloat, wandering the Middlesex Fells, the dark side of Boston—after dark, Chilean-American cuisine, and more 59 Montage | Nell Painter as painter, “getting” race, a vaudeville oratorio based on Langston Hughes, “pleasingly strange” dystopian fiction, Jill Lepore’s probing U.S. history, and Du Bois’s data points on black America 69 Alumni | Rebel lawyer Gerald López, HAA’s young president, admissions champions, Aloian honorands, HAA Award winners, and activist class giving 76 The College Pump | Spider man, necktie limericks, and a farewell ice-cream social p. 59 84 Treasure | Chronicling change in the Kalahari 77 Crimson Classifieds On the cover: Photograph by Stu Rosner FROM TOP: PHOTOQUEST/GETTY IMAGES; CHRONICLE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; JOHN EMERSON; HARVARD UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES www.harvardmagazine.com Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 LETTERS EDITOR: John S. Rosenberg SENIOR EDITOR: Jean Martin Cambridge MANAGING EDITOR: Jonathan S. Shaw ART DIRECTOR: Jennifer Carling Faculty diversity, general education, gym clothes ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Marina Bolotnikova, Sophia Nguyen STAFF WRITER/EDITOR: Lydialyle Gibson DIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER: Oset Babür THE FAUST YEARS VOTING, ASSISTANT EDITOR: Nell Porter Brown IMMIGRATION I read the article BERTA GREENWALD LEDECKY about Drew Faust’s ten- In the July-August is- UNDERGRADUATE FELLOWS ure in the July-August issue sue, there is a silly error in Natasha Lasky, Tawanda Mulalu (“Faust in Focus,” page 46). the Moorfield Storey Vita Management consultants (page 44). A “grandfather DANIEL STEINER UNDERGRADUATE EDITORIAL INTERN tell us to measure outputs, clause” was not a rule that Brandon J. Dixon not inputs. But the arti- men whose grandfathers cle discussed fundraising, did not vote before the Civil EDITORIAL INTERN: Shane Brodie building programs, hiring, War (i.e., blacks) could not CONTRIBUTING EDITORS and the like—inputs all— vote. Rather, it was a cynical John T. Bethell, Lincoln Caplan, John with barely a mention of the results. loophole that men who could vote, or whose de Cuevas, Dick Friedman, Adam If I read a similar article about Stanford, fathers or grandfathers could, before 1867 Goodheart, Elizabeth Gudrais, Jim I would expect to see discussion of its role (i.e., whites), were exempt from an onerous Harrison, Courtney Humphries, as an anchor of Silicon Valley, exactly how requirement like a poll tax or literacy test that Christopher S. Johnson, Adam Kirsch, important an anchor it had been, and the most individuals could not meet. Subtle dif- Colleen Lannon, Spencer Lenfield, Stu positive and negative effects of that on Stan- ference and similar effect, but especially given Rosner, Deborah Smullyan, Mark Steele ford’s academic mission. the ubiquity of the term “grandfathering in,” I HARVARD MAGAZINE INC. What would a parallel discussion of Har- expect Harvard to get the details right. PRESIDENT: Margaret H. Marshall, Ed.M. vard’s recent history look like? The underlying premise of “Crimmigration” ’69. DIRECTORS: Peter K. Bol, Jonathan William F. Pedersen ’65, LL.B. ’68 (page 24) is that a non-citizen’s commission L.S. Byrnes, D.B.A. ’80, Scott V. Edwards, South Royalton, Vt. of a crime should not enter into the decision Thomas F. Kelly, Ph.D. ’73, Ann Marie of whether or not to deport. That is a plau- Lipinski, NF ’90, Lars Peter Knoth A DIVERSE FACULTY? sible position for a seriously underpopulated Madsen, John P. Reardon Jr. ’60, The July-august 2018 edition (News and underdeveloped country, but not in the Bryan E. Simmons ’83 Briefs, page 35) mentioned the efforts rela- United States today. If there are going to be tive to faculty “diversity,” the aim to be more limitations on the aggregate numbers of im- BOARD OF INCORPORATORS This magazine, at first called the Harvard Bulletin, was inclusive in terms of race and gender. migrants, one can argue in favor of prioritizing founded in 1898. Its Board of Incorporators was char- Until Harvard realizes its biggest issue is personal considerations (escape from perse- tered in 1924 and remains active in the magazine’s lack of real diversity, of opinion, such shal- cution, close family ties), economics (impor- governance. The membership is as follows: Stephen J. Bailey, AMP ’94; Jeffrey S. Behrens ’89, William I. Ben- low efforts aimed to re-enforce racial and tant skills), or even a diversity lottery, but no nett ’62, M.D. ’69; John T. Bethell ’54; Peter K. Bol; Fox gender-identity politics are doomed to fail. good argument can be advanced against the Butterfield ’61, A.M. ’64; Sewell Chan ’98; Jonathan S. Critical thinking is the heart of a vibrant proposition that a sine qua non is for an immi- Cohn ’91; Philip M. Cronin ’53, J.D. ’56; John de Cuevas ’52; James F. Dwinell III ’62; Anne Fadiman ’74; Benja- center of learning...That requires having a grant of any kind to be a good citizen and min M. Friedman ’66, Ph.D. ’71; Robert H. Giles, NF faculty of diverse opinions. not to commit serious crimes. It is fair to ask ’66; Richard H. Gilman, M.B.A. ’83; Owen Gingerich, David W. Thompson, M.P.A. ’88 what is a serious crime for this purpose, but Ph.D. ’62; Adam K. Goodheart ’92; Philip C. Haughey ’57; Brian R. Hecht ’92; Sarah Blaffer Hrdy ’68, Ph.D. Easley, S.C. it is no answer to criminal activity that some- ’75; Ellen Hume ’68; Alex S. Jones, NF ’82; Bill Kovach, one has been NF ’89; Florence Ladd, BI ’72; Jennifer 8 Lee ’99; Ran- in the United dolph C. Lindel ’66; Ann Marie Lipinski, NF ’90; Scott NOTE TO READERS: You will receive your November- Malkin ’80, J.D.-M.B.A. ’83; Margaret H. Marshall, States for a long Ed.M. ’69, Ed ’77, L ’78; Lisa L. Martin, Ph.D. ’90; David December magazine a week late, as we cover President time, other than McClintick ’62; Winthrop L. McCormack ’67; M. Lee Lawrence S. Bacow’s installation on October 5; read online Pelton, Ph.D. ’84; John P. Reardon Jr. ’60; Harriet Ritvo to demonstrate ’68, Ph.D. ’75; Henry Rosovsky, JF ’57, Ph.D. ’59, LL.D. coverage at www.harvardmagazine.com. —The Editors infrequency of ’98; Barbara Rudolph ’77; Robert N. Shapiro ’72, J.D. criminal activity. ’78; Theda Skocpol, Ph.D. ’75; Peter A. Spiers ’76; Scott H. Stossel ’91; Sherry Turkle ’69, Ph.D. ’76; Robert H. Weiss ’54; Jan Ziolkowski. 2 September - October 2018 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 THE VIEW FROM MASS HALL Beginning Again t was the summer of 1972, and I had one question on my mind: Will I fit in? I was twenty years old and about to begin a graduate degree program in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. As the first day of classes approached, I won- Idered about what I would discover in a new place with new people, confronted by new challenges and opportunities. I found a truly extraordinary experience. My fellow students— two dozen remarkable men and women from across the country— had a wide range of experiences and viewpoints, and they taught me at least as much as the faculty members who offered us a veri- table intellectual feast. Tom Schelling and a group of colleagues he memorably described as “distinguished misfits”—Francis Ba- tor, Philip Heymann, Fred Mosteller, Dick Neustadt, and Howard Raiffa—challenged us not just to learn but also to lead, and a fabu- lous group of younger faculty such as Graham Allison, Mark Moore, David Mundel, and Dick Zeckhauser brought to the classroom in- spiring ambition and energy. Every day was spent in the presence of greatness, and it was absolutely thrilling. Forty-six years later, I can still remember the view from Littauer Center.