Re: 4/14/03 - AP/Hartford Courant: Also moved in advance
Also moved in advance
April 14, 2003
Associated Press
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- When Richard C. Levin was appointed Yale University's president 10 years ago, the 300-year-old school was in danger of losing its place among the elite universities in the country.
Yale's Gothic buildings were crumbling from neglect. Some of its professional schools were listless. Urban blight and crime encroached, discouraging prospective students and faculty.
A $15.5 million budget deficit divided the campus, as departments were reduced and funding grew scarce.
Today the campus is being restored, its endowment tops $10 billion, city neighborhoods are improved and Yale's importance is rising around the globe.
Levin, 56, is now the longest-serving Ivy League president, following changes at Harvard, Princeton and other top schools.
"I seem to be the survivor," he joked during an interview last week in his office.
Levin's ideas don't end in New Haven. Small colleges around the country have imitated his policies. He has a new book, "The Work of the University," published by Yale University Press.
Colleagues - and even Levin's critics - said he deserves much of the credit for turning things around, helped by a good economy.
"He's been an excellent president, and the times have been kind to him," said Yale historian Gaddis Smith.
Even people who disagree with Levin on certain issues, among them leaders of the university unions who are engaged in a protracted dispute with Yale, praise his intelligence, open-mindedness and energy.
Levin, a native of San Francisco, got his Ph.D. in economics at Yale in 1974 and never left. He worked his way through the faculty ranks to become the head of the economics department and dean of the graduate school.
Levin had not been dean a year when the university president, Benno Schmidt, announced his resignation on graduation day 1992.
A committee searched for a nearly a year and considered about 400 applicants before selecting someone right under their noses.
"With each passing conversation with Rick Levin, the search committee became more and more convinced he was a leader to take Yale into the 21st century," said Linda Lorimer, a member of the panel who is now the secretary of Yale.
Quick to smile, Levin can go on at length on topics as varied as economic theory and San Francisco Giants baseball.
Yale's most recent presidents have been lawyers or experts in the humanities. Before Levin, the university was last led by an economist at the turn of the 20th century.
Being an economist, he said, has been an advantage, as he manages a $1.6 billion annual budget and juggles the varied demands of students, faculty, alumni and the community.
"I think it's a way of thinking, structuring the world and analyzing it in a rational framework," Levin said. "People's behavior, in truth, departs often from rationality, but to be able to decompose a problem, structure it and understand what the working parts are and how they relate to one another, that's what economic modeling is all about."
His agenda was to restore the campus, beef up the study of the sciences, improve Yale's relationship with the city and heal bitterly divisive labor relations.
He also said he wanted to make Yale more of an international player in higher education, and for himself to be more of a presence on campus.
In all areas but labor relations, Levin has scored some successes.
Schmidt was criticized for living in New York and for being inaccessible to students and faculty. Levin, by contrast, has lived in New Haven with his wife, Jane, since they arrived as graduate students. They have raised four children in the city.
Levin eats sometimes in the undergraduate dining hall and plays sports with undergraduates. In one basketball game, he broke three ribs.
As Levin took over, some university leaders proposed cutting costs by reducing or eliminating the engineering and business schools.
Levin said he realized that these schools had to be enhanced, since technology and business would be increasingly important in the 21st century.
He embarked on fund-raising campaigns, often making his pitch in person. About $2.5 billion in donations from 88,000 people and groups came in.
"People give money to him because he is totally authentic," said a Yale trustee, John Pepper, the former chairman of Procter & Gamble.
Yale has invested $1 billion in the science and medical schools and has helped scientists turn some of their discoveries into businesses.
Levin also has recruited several big names: Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, to head a globalization center; Gus Speth, who had headed the United Nations Development Group, to lead the environmental science school.
Several former government officials also came to Yale, such as Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. David Kessler, now dean of the medical school, and Jeffrey Garten, a former economic adviser to President Clinton who is dean of the business school.
To increase the international flavor of the campus, he started a world fellowship program, the globalization center and renewed century-old contacts with scholars in China.
Yale also is trying to attract more foreign students by offering the same financial aid given to Americans. Tuition, room and board for undergraduates next year will be $37,000, and Yale will offer $40 million in financial aid.
Levin has been a leader on some national higher-education issues. Last year he suggested ending binding early decision admissions. Yale has since gone to an nonbinding early action program, and other schools have followed.
Yale's effort to mend town-gown relations has also been a model. Levin started a program to help university employees buy homes in neighborhoods near the campus, and Yale bought and restored blighted buildings in two central shopping districts.
As New Haven's largest employer, the investment was a "moral imperative," Levin said. But it also was a practical move, making the city more attractive to students and faculty.
"Rick has defined the role of the university in a way that is never going to be changed again. The idea of this place behind ivy walls, separate from its host community, is a concept we will never go back to," said New Haven Mayor John DeStefano.
Levin has been criticized for his handling of some crises. He was in the middle of public spats with two alumni, businessman Lee Bass and gay activist Larry Kramer, over how their donations would be spent.
In 1998, student Suzanne Jovin was murdered a few blocks from the Yale campus and police said a Yale lecturer, James Van de Velde, was a suspect. The murder has not been solved.
Levin said he has no major regrets about the way he has done his job. But one major goal remains out of reach: Labor relations are as bitter as ever, as evidenced by a five-day strike last month by secretaries, maintenance workers and graduate students.
Yale hired a consultant last year to improve its relations with the unions. The consultant criticized both sides and offered many recommendations, but they have not been implemented.
John Wilhelm, a Yale alumnus who leads the national Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, has been personally involved in negotiations for Yale's 4,000 union members.
Wilhelm said Levin is "bright, and a decent human being," but said Levin is getting bad advice.
"While he has been a very successful president in many ways, it's also true that success has come at a period of extraordinary prosperity. I think that end of prosperity will provide a test of his stewardship," Wilhelm said.
DeStefano, a Democrat, also was critical of the labor situation.
Levin said that the labor problem remains his "biggest disappointment." He accused the unions of being interested only on forming more unions.
Levin has started a long-term examination of the undergraduate curriculum, which could lead to major changes not only at Yale but at schools that follow Yale's lead.
He could not say how long he plans to lead the university. The average Yale president stays in office about 15 years.
"I really don't have specific aspirations after this job. It's hard to imagine a job that would be more interesting and more rewarding," Levin said.
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