If you had to pick President Bienen out of a lineup, could you? My guess is that most students couldn’t. I know sophomores and juniors who don’t even know how to pronounce his name.
Despite President Bienen’s Freshman convocation offer to have breakfast or play squash with any student who so desires, very few students ever get to see him. I know that this is a big university and that he has more important people to talk to, but that’s part of the problem.
It seems like the Board of Trustees appointed Bienen just to raise money. During his tenure, he has definitely done that. He successfully steered Campaign Northwestern, which raised millions of dollars. His efforts have enhanced the University enormously. For that, his leadership should be commended.
However, leading a university is about more than money. It’s about passion, commitment and inspiration. It is not enough to gather $20 million checks. President Bienen must understand who we are as a campus, which means he has to talk more to students.
It’s sad to admit, but one of the things I enjoy most about the Martin Luther King Day keynote is that our president comes out of hiding to address the student body. In fact, the happiest I’ve ever seen Bienen was during my freshman year, when his former student at Princeton, Cornel West, came to speak. Bienen gushed over his days with Cornel at Princeton, how wonderful it was at Princeton and how great it was to think back to those times at Princeton. Separation anxiety is tough, but you’ve been here for a decade. It’s time to start embracing NU.
Don’t lock yourself away in an ivory tower within an ivory tower. Drop lunch with the Weinbergs and have lunch in a dining hall. Stop by a fireside instead of sipping champagne by the Searles’ fireplace. Reach out to students instead of expecting them to reach out to you.
Look at other universities: Harvard President Larry Summers created a firestorm with his comments to faculty about women in science. His comments started a conversation around the country, and more importantly, around the Harvard campus. When was the last time that Bienen made a difference in your day? When Donna Shalala became Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison nearly 20 years ago, she sat down with student leaders to better understand the campus. In two years as Associated Student Government academic vice president, I met President Bienen once and exchanged no more than a couple of sentences with him.
If President Bienen lets his guard down and realizes that there’s more to a university than just the bottom line, then maybe he will see Northwestern in a new light. He is a brilliant scholar whose experience could be an incredible asset to all of us – if only we had more access to him.
Maybe we’re a bunch of Princeton rejects, but President Bienen, we’re your Princeton rejects.
Prajwal Ciryam is a Weinberg senior. He can
be reached at [email protected].
