Jamshed Bharucha, the man selected to become Tufts' next provost, will bring a very different leadership style than Sol Gittleman brought to the post 22 years ago. According to friends and colleagues, Bharucha is a soft-spoken, reserved-yet-effective administrator. But despite a personality that, to many, could not be more different from his outspoken predecessor, Bharucha's selection was met with acclaim from even the most avid Gittleman fans.
Bharucha worked at Dartmouth for 19 years and has been in academic administration for the last three. He works behind the scenes, and is well respected for his ability to listen, according to Dartmouth education professor and long-time friend Andrew Garrod.
"He's a marvelous listener with an absolutely steady moral compass," Garrod said. "You don't always know how the decisions are being made, but clearly when they are made you can tell a immense amount of work has gone into it. He's not a rhetorical, fireworks kind of guy, but a quiet, reflective administrator who does his homework."
His soft-spoken nature was apparent in a Daily interview yesterday, in which Bharucha answered questions with a degree of reticence and without elaboration. The man whose shoes he aims to fill, on the other hand, has proven to be anything but reserved. Over the years, Gittleman's passion for academics and charismatic talent for conversation have earned him such presence that it is difficult to tell where the man ends and his office begins.
But philosophy professor Dan Dennett, who served on the committee that interviewed finalists, said despite an obvious difference in personality, the two men have one important thing in common. "The one striking similarity is that they're both enablers, so we're not going to lose that. That's always been Sol Gittleman's great strength and that's going to continue."
Dennett, whose work in consciousness and neuroscience gave him an extra appreciation of Bharucha, said he met the professor of brain studies while on a trip to Dartmouth last year. "I felt envy and remember thinking, 'I wish we had a Jamshed Bharucha at Tufts.'...He's a lovely person, genuinely curious and interested about all kinds of things."
Dean of Students Bruce Reitman, who had not heard of Bharucha prior to the announcement, said it would be "interesting to see the difference in style, to go from Tufts' mouthpiece to somebody with a different reputation." He said that though he was not looking forward to Gittleman's departure Bharucha seems to be a well-qualified successor.
Abraham Sonenshein, of the medical school's microbiology department and also a member of the search committee, said Bharucha's broad interests in academia and his experience in administration made him the ideal candidate. Bacow speaks frequently of his desire to lower the walls between Tufts' undergraduate college and seven graduate schools, and Bharucha's experience as a philosopher and musician combined with his research in brain science give him an interdisciplinary r?©sum?© which appealed to the president and search committee.
Gittleman also lauded his successor's interdisciplinary experiences, saying he was "thrilled" by the selection. Bharucha comes from a small school that, like Tufts, is committed to both teaching and research, Gittleman said.
For Bharucha, that similarity was among the motivating factors in his decision. "Tufts is an attractive institution for me to move to," he said. "It embodies the dual ideals of teaching and research."
Bharucha, who is familiar with the Boston area from his days as a graduate student in Harvard's psychology department, said he has gotten along "marvelously" with Tufts President Larry Bacow since the search process began.
"He's an important reason for my coming," Bharucha said. "He's going to be terrific for Tufts. Starting as part of a new team is very exciting."
The new provost has not met Gittleman but said he "knows a lot about him" and that the two will speak when he first comes to the Hill, which could be as early as Bacow's April 20 inauguration ceremony.
Bharucha was born in Bombay, India, where he lived for 17 years before coming to the US and attending Vassar College in New York. He said his experiences as an Asian American allows him to "understand some of the aspirations for students wanting the curriculum to reflect cultural diversity."
At Dartmouth, he was a main actor in the initiation of a Korean Studies program. Colleague and sociology professor Christina Gomez said Bharucha is very supportive of interdisciplinary programs and ethnic study programs, and that he "understands the pressures that minority and women faculty have to deal with."
Bacow said that although he sought a provost with an appreciation of diversity, the candidates' ethnicities did not play into his decision. "I selected Dr. Bharucha because he was the best person for the job," Bacow said. "It was extremely important for me that our next provost be committed to diversity regardless of their own background."
Reaction from Tufts faculty not on the search committee was muted, with many professors saying they knew nothing about the new provost beyond what they read in a press release last week. But colleagues at Dartmouth unequivocally endorsed Tufts' choice.
Garrod said that ten years ago he would have been surprised to hear that Bharucha would become a provost. "He's generally a modest, even self-effacing man, and it's only become clear in the last few years that he has a whole range of talents in the administrative area... In his four years as a dean, I simply haven't heard the criticism and carping that you often hear about administrators."
Yale Cohen from the psychology department at Dartmouth said Bharucha was supportive and fair as an administrator. "Jamshed is wonderful. He's talented as a teacher and scientists, and also as a dean. He's soft-spoken but that doesn't imply that he's a wallflower; he's accessible to faculty and students."
Bharucha will become provost on Aug. 1, while Gittleman will remain at Tufts as a professor. The current provost said he will remain in his house on Professor's Row for the next academic year.
