The job comes with a car and driver, a manse on Cambridge's "ToryRow," and a salary in the neighborhood of $600,000 a year. Butpresidents of Harvard University don't last as long as they used to.Lawrence H. Summers resigned after only five years, far short of the20-year tenures that once were common. Summers's predecessor, NeilRudenstine, lasted a decade, but sheer exhaustion forced him to takea three-month leave in the middle.
Now, Drew Gilpin Faust, named Harvard's first woman presidentyesterday, is about to discover why the nation's richest and arguablymost powerful university is so stressful and difficult to manage. Shewill move only about 1,200 feet down Garden Street from her currentHarvard offices. But Faust will go from managing a small think tankto juggling the demands of 2,500 faculty members, 20,000 students,and an annual budget of $3 billion - all in the glare of the publicspotlight.
"It just seems to me close to an impossible job," said John T.Bethell, a former editor of Harvard Magazine and coauthor of "HarvardA to Z." "I would have said it's a man-killing job. I don't know ifit is a woman-killing job, but she is very courageous to take it on."
Yesterday, Bethell and other Harvard-watchers agreed that lifewill speed up dramatically for Faust as she prepares to move herfamily into the president's residence, Elmwood, and take the reins ofthe 371-year-old school.
From her office on the first floor of Massachusetts Hall - locateddownstairs from a dormitory for freshmen - Faust will attempt to leada notoriously decentralized university. The historian will serve asthe inspirational "closer" on major gifts, and will become animportant voice for US higher education.
The Harvard Corporation encourages presidents to continue theiracademic work - Summers taught a course each semester, while DerekBok published three books during his presidency. But the juggling actcan be overwhelming.
Rudenstine, Harvard's all-time champion fund-raiser, pushedhimself so hard - traveling endlessly and staying up until the weehours writing personal notes - that he took a doctor-ordered leave ofabsence in 1994 to recover from exhaustion and slight anemia.
When he returned, Rudenstine was careful to delegate moreresponsibilities, though he continued to write all his notes by handinstead of computer.
"The days are past where the Harvard president can do everythingand be everything," said the Rev. Peter Gomes, head minister inHarvard's Memorial Church for more than 30 years. "She's 59 yearsold. At that age, you've pretty much learned all your tricks. ...She'll have to figure out how to pace herself."
Complaints about the difficulty of managing Harvard have echoedthrough the university's halls for centuries. President EdwardHolyoke, who died in office in 1769 at age 80, said, "If any manwishes to be humbled and mortified, let him become president ofHarvard College," according to Bethell's book.
But Bethell believes that the job has become more difficultbecause of fund-raising demands, the rapid growth of the university,and the hectic pace of the Internet age.
Summers, a former US Treasury secretary and one of the youngesttenured professors in Harvard history, seemed bred for long-termleadership when he arrived in 2001, and the university rewarded himhandsomely. In addition to the official residence, Summers received$595,871 in the 2004-05 academic year and he was assigned a driverand a black Lincoln Town Car - with license plate "1636" for the yearof Harvard's founding.
Summers had a lot of zeal for the job - he was known to stay upuntil 4 a.m. with friends, brainstorming about the university'sfuture - but his brusque, sometimes provocative style made him adivisive figure, especially when he questioned women's ability forscience or challenged the African-American studies department.
"He was prepared for the long haul, but the institution was notprepared for him," Gomes said.
Faust comes to office with a better reputation for people skillsthan Summers, but she has a steeper learning curve since she hasnever run a major institution. The Radcliffe Institute for AdvancedStudy, where she is dean, has 87 employees compared with the 24,000who work for Harvard University.
Faust herself seemed aware of the challenge, saying, "Our sharedenterprise is to make Harvard's future even more remarkable than itspast."
The next few years will be an interesting test both for Faust andfor Harvard itself, Gomes said.
"If the job is truly impossible to be done nowadays and shortterms are in order," he said, "we'll soon find out."
Scott Allen can be reached at allen@globe.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment