This summer, two eras of Northwestern leadership will overlap.
One era, colored by 14 years of fundraising, jet-setting and rapid university-building, will close with a flourish on August 31. The next, led by a character who is as ready to teach an undergraduate economics course as he is prepared to fly halfway around the world, is about to begin.
Incoming university president Morton Schapiro will move into the provost’s house on July 1, after which he said he will “spend two months picking (university President) Henry Bienen’s brain” and meeting as many of the faculty members and administration as possible. He will assume the presidency on September 1, 14 years after Henry Bienen began his tenure.
The overlap does not, however, mean two presidents, as Bienen and Schapiro are quick to point out. They both subscribe to a “one president at a time” mantra, Bienen said in an interview this spring.
Schapiro recently echoed Bienen’s sentiment, citing his own obligations as president of Williams College.
“Northwestern has a wonderful president and I have my own job at Williams,” he said “I will have two months to try and get to meet people and get the lay of the land without being president.”
According to Communication professor Adam Goodman, who has spent his career consulting universities and corporations during leadership changeovers, “one at a time is considered to be the best practice.”
“At the level of CEO or a university president, you don’t want to send mixed signals to the board or students or faculty or deans about what the strategic vision is for the institution,” Goodman said.
Bienen declined to comment on what he thought Schapiro’s to-do list should consist of when he arrives at NU.
“I wouldn’t want to lock (Schapiro) in,” Bienen said, adding that running a university is “not a one-person show” and that he will leave it up to Schapiro to choose what projects he takes on first.
Goodman agreed that new university priorities are Schapiro’s to set.
“The good news for Morty Schapiro,” Goodman said, “is he gets to decide what the best first use of his time is … Others can step in and fill the void based on what he chooses.”
He added that Schapiro has a wide range of experience he can leverage for his first decisions at, having been both a dean at the University of Southern California, a large research institution, and president of Williams, a small liberal arts college.
With the extent of Schapiro’s experience in higher education and conversations with Bienen, the incoming president is well prepared for the scope of the university presidency, said Associated Student Government President Mike McGee.
When McGee transitioned into the ASG presidency in April, he said he saw the value of talking to constituents to determine what needs to be done. Schapiro will likely be “getting in on the ground” to see what needs to be done, the Communication junior said.
“Definitely don’t move too fast too quickly … The main thing is introducing yourself and seeing whatever you’ve done in the past and how you want to apply that to the future of Northwestern,” McGee said.
Filling Bienen’s shoes successfully, Goodman said, does not mean “being Henry-like.”
“Henry Bienen is really regarded as one of the best university presidents in the country,” Goodman said. “President Schapiro’s biggest challenge is maintaining the momentum while being his own unique leader.”
While Schapiro said he admired the success Bienen had in fundraising and looked forward to traveling on behalf of the university, he said that when he looks forward to NU, he is just as concerned with abridging the econometrics class he is teaching this fall for the quarter system.
“I can’t wait to throw myself into teaching,” Schapiro said, “so that I can meet students and have a relationship with them as their professor and not as some sort of president.”
As NU makes strides in global expansion and secures donors for large-scale projects, it is important that Schapiro play to his strengths as a leader, even if it means spending more time at the Evanston campus, Goodman said.
“If he is a better president because he’s really effective at being the man about campus then that’s how he ought to spend his time,” Goodman said.
In the short term, Goodman said Schapiro should strive to be a presence on campus and then take the insights he garners about NU “on the road.”
“(The transition) is an opportunity for the incoming president to learn the people and the culture and understand what has made it distinctive,” Goodman said. “One of the great challenges in taking over an enterprise that is in great shape is how do you continue to move it forward?”
