It is a well-known fact that University President Lawrence Bacow runs marathons. Yet while a 26-mile race and the confines of a Ballou Hall office seem worlds apart, his hobby and his job of presiding over a major university with three campuses and 10 schools are intrinsically connected. A glimpse into a typical day in his life reveals how marathon training perfectly prepares one for the stamina and energy that the life of a university president demands.
7:00 am
Bacow's morning started, as it does every day, at 5 a.m. with a quick read of the newspapers and the emails in his inbox. As he readies to leave Gifford House at 7 a.m., he makes sure to stop and call up the stairs, where Adele is playing the flute, to say goodbye. The couple became grandparents on March 31 with the birth of their first grandchild, Adam Landon Bacow.
Mike, a public safety officer, gives Bacow a ride downtown to avoid the hassle of parking. In what is to emerge as a common theme throughout the day, Bacow spends most of the car ride glued to his BlackBerry; he receives hundreds of emails in a day and personally reads each of them.
Given that just the week before, Bacow took the bold step of declaring an end to the Naked Quad Run (NQR) — an established university tradition — many of the emails in his inbox that day feature the cancellation as their subject, including from a supportive parent sharing that her son nearly died during NQR in 2004. Bacow is fully aware of the unpopularity of his decision, expressing surprise that he has not received any angry emails.
7:30 am
The first item on the day's agenda is a Tufts Medical Center Board of Directors meeting. Although the hospital and university are distinct entities, Bacow sits on the board of the medical center, the School of Medicine's principal teaching hospital. The hospital and the university buildings share a connecting walkway that serves as a physical manifestation of the close institutional link between them.
Bacow has his first meal of the day at the board meeting, helping himself to the bagels, fruit and tea set out in the boardroom while making conversation with fellow board members, one of whom is a former student of his from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Every remaining meal of the day will similarly be eaten on the job at various appointments and functions.
"I call myself the university stomach — I eat for Tufts. And that's why I have to run, so that I can eat," he says.
Following a few jokes about upcoming retirements, the board's work progresses quickly. For the first 90 minutes, board members listen to and deliberate on briefings by the hospital's senior administration on major developments and updates, including recent labor negotiations with the nurses' union. The board also votes to pass a number of resolutions, including one to make the medical center campus a tobacco-free zone.
The meeting then shifts for the remaining hour into an executive session to plan for upcoming leadership transitions: Like Bacow, Tufts Medical Center President and CEO Ellen Zane, widely credited for the once-flailing hospital's transformation and revival, is stepping down from her position later this year.
10:30 am
Once the board meeting ends, Bacow quickly crosses over to the Sackler School auditorium for a Boston campus town hall meeting scheduled to take place at 10:30 a.m. These meetings are held once a semester on each of the three campuses and present an opportunity for staff and faculty to hear Bacow's overview of the university and ask questions.
This is the final town hall meeting of the semester, and Bacow's last. These "lasts" have been coming more frequently in recent days for Bacow, who is stepping down in June after 10 years at Tufts; just the night before, he and Adele hosted an emotional final Senior Dinner at Gifford House.
Bacow stands at the front of the auditorium alone, checking his email, but as the room fills up, he slips easily and naturally into the role of teacher and educator that is his first love. He launches into an overview of macroeconomic trends, delving into the implications for the university. The picture he paints is one of cautious optimism and, as he acknowledges later in response to a question, the worst of the economic troubles appears to be over.
A remarkably candid exchange follows Bacow's presentation as staff and faculty voice their questions and concerns. A common sentiment in the room is anxiety over the impending departures of a number of senior administrators, including the provost and the deans of several of the university's schools.
Bacow reiterates that the university is in a good position to weather this transitory period given that the core team of senior administrators will remain intact and that the central values of the institution will continue to serve as a firm foundation.
"The presidential search showed the strength and the integrity of the Tufts culture — our core values were clearly communicated, and they are a far deeper commitment that goes beyond just individuals," he says.
The meeting takes a more personal turn as Bacow responds to questions about his hopes and future plans, which he defines as a more contemplative lifestyle with a mixture of service, teaching and research.
"You know, I've absolutely loved the job, and it was made more manageable because at the start I said 10 years; there was an end point and I could pace myself. But at the end of 10 years, I'm tired and looking forward to other things," he says.
Bacow is excited to once again have the time to enjoy the luxury of boredom after leaving his hectic life at Tufts. He also looks forward to spending more time with Adele and his new grandchild, reading recreationally and sailing.
"I've enjoyed these conversations and the opportunity to be in a ‘classroom.' The future of this institution is incredibly bright; it's a special place with a really dedicated team of individuals," Bacow says as his final town hall meeting draws to a close. His words are greeted with an extended round of applause, a reception that visibly moves him.
12:00 pm
There is little time to linger after the meeting as Bacow moves on to the medical school to participate in Match Day, a ceremony in which fourth-year medical students at Tufts and across the country find out where they will be serving their residencies.
Amid a tense and buzzing atmosphere, the medical school's dean and the dean of students deliver their remarks to the nervous students, many decked in green for St. Patrick's Day. Bacow joins in the champagne toast and looks on as the room erupts in shouts, screams, laughter and tears as students receive their match letters. The class of 2011 has done extremely well, with many placing into highly competitive specializations and programs.
Bacow receives an honorary match letter of his own and laughs appreciatively as he reads that he was found not a match for Tufts but instead had been assigned to "relaxation in Hawaii."
He grabs a plate of food from the prepared lunch reception and, as he eats standing, begins to clear the emails that have amassed over the course of the last hour. It is not long, however, before he has to duck out to field two phone calls, one regarding Tufts' study abroad program in Japan and the other from a trustee.
12:30 pm
Bacow returns to the medical center, where he is scheduled to have a working lunch with Zane at 12:30 p.m. The two make it a point to meet monthly to ensure that the relationship between their respective institutions is one of mutually beneficial collaboration. These lunches are a reflection of years of deliberate effort at relationship-building and mark a departure from the conflict-ridden time of their predecessors. In fact, for a time, the hospital dropped "Tufts" entirely from its name and had a crimson logo.
The New England Medical Center has since become the Tufts Medical Center and adopted the typography and color scheme of the Tufts logo in a deliberate blurring of lines.
"We have changed from conflict to co-dependency. This is not a power struggle but a relationship of equals," Bacow says.
The chemistry between Bacow and Zane is obvious, and the two have developed a certain level of ease around each other. To his disappointment, Bacow's boxed lunch came without dessert, and Zane offers up her mint chocolate chip brownie in response. One gets the sense that this is a meeting of minds — the coming together of two individuals who have a unique grasp of the intricacies and complexities of leading large influential organizations and are committed to putting aside their egos to work together and iron out their differences.
2:00 pm
By 1:30 p.m., Bacow is done with his engagements on the Boston campus and heads back to Medford. En route to Ballou Hall, he comes across a tour group and stops to give a spiel about how to pick a school. The group of parents and prospective students seem shocked that the university president is addressing them. While Bacow has plenty of advice to give, he steers clear of a hard sell of Tufts.
Back in his office at 2 p.m., Bacow has his first down time since 7 in the morning. He proceeds to clear his mail with the help of his assistant Elise, whom he has known since 1972 — longer than he has known Adele. As he looks through his mail, he dictates his responses to Elise. Many of the letters come from individuals writing to introduce themselves and request meetings. One in particular is from the president of Dartmouth College, who asks him to join in a group examining the problem of high-risk drinking.
Bacow then returns phone calls and touches base with Adele for the first time since saying good-bye that morning. By then, the dictated letters are ready for him to sign, and he works at his computer replying to emails until Vice President of University Relations Mary Jeka arrives for their weekly meeting.
Jeka, one of a handful of administrators who report to Bacow directly on a weekly basis, oversees an office covering government relations on the state, city and national levels; community relations; legal affairs; and communications. Her meeting with Bacow today centers on budgetary decisions — the university's budget for the upcoming year is in the process of being finalized — and Tufts' response to the city of Boston's proposal to institute pilot payments, where tax-exempt nonprofits have to make contributions to the city.
Provost Jamshed Bharucha, the chief academic officer of the university, then meets with Bacow to discuss the search processes and interim appointments for departing senior administrators. The administrators preferred to keep these discussions private and confidential.
6:00 pm
Bacow spends his evening at the Westin Copley Place Boston Hotel, where he is being honored at a gala fundraiser dinner for Bottom Line, an organization that helps low-income, first-generation college students in the Boston area get admitted to and graduate from college. Asked to assess his day, he says, "I feel like I haven't done much, actually. Well, we got some stuff done this afternoon, moving forward on some decisions. But a lot of it is ceremonial, like this morning."
Bacow breaks down his role as university president into two key components: running the university and representing the university, the latter a more symbolic function that took some getting used initially but which he has come to accept as part of the job. Adele and her mother, who is in town, join him for the dinner. He estimates that he and his wife dine privately two to three times in a month; the rest of the time he is either attending a function, hosting a function or traveling.
But the dinner is far from all work and no play. As two individuals approach the couple, there is an eruption of gaiety and laughter as Bacow turns and introduces Patti and Lynn, saying, "These are our dearest friends in the whole world."
When most of them were new to the city, the group gathered for dinner and continue to do so 34 years later as a close, tight-knit group of friends who have essentially been each other's Bostonian family.
Tufts has one table at the "Get In, Graduate, and Go Far Dinner," and present at the dinner are the Bacows, Jeka, Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler, Senior Legal Counsel Deke Mathieu, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin and Associate Director of Enrollment Walker Coppedge.
His staffers' ease with him is evident at the table, and jokes abound throughout the live auction, with Coffin suggesting a bid for the vacation packages so that the admissions office can go on an exotic retreat.
Bottom Line Executive Director Gregory Johnson opens the dinner, which he calls a collective effort to end the educational completion crisis. Johnson introduces Bacow as the night's honoree with a string of NQR jokes, drawing laughter from the room. Throughout the night, Bottom Line students share their success stories of having overcome incredible odds to graduate with distinction. Bacow is being honored as a champion of Boston students and for Tufts' support of the Bottom Line program — there are currently just over 20 Bottom Line students at Tufts, including one of Bacow's former advisees.
As the night's honoree, Bacow will be delivering the keynote and throughout the dinner, he takes notes and modifies the speech outline he has prepared. His chief of staff, Michael Baenen, says that Bacow is very "low-maintenance" when it comes to speech writing: Baenen generally provides him with a few background materials and leaves him to do the rest.
The Bacows request a vegetarian meal, and as the food is brought to the table, Bacow leans over and whispers that that same food was served at a function the week before. His dinner and conversation are punctuated with interruptions, as individuals including Tufts parents and alumni, among others, approach the table to introduce themselves.
"This is how it usually is — he can't carry on a conversation for long because everyone wants to come up and speak to him wherever we go," Adele says.
Tufts Bottom Line student Marian Younge, a sophomore, takes the stage to tell her story of adjusting to life in America after she arrived with her mother and younger siblings from Ghana when she was in eighth grade. She is joined by the other Tufts students, and the Tufts contingent rises to give them a standing ovation. Bacow approaches the stage and shakes all the students' hands before starting to deliver his address, which he has shortened, as the program is running late.
The work of Bottom Line and the stories shared that night have struck a personal chord with Bacow, who is himself the child of refugees. He reiterates his belief in the transformative power of higher education and the collective responsibility to support these students. But he goes further, challenging the Bottom Line students to give back to the next generation in response to the opportunities that they have received.
The evening draws to a close around 10 p.m., and the Bacows head home, but the night is not yet over. A file full of preparation materials for the next day's engagements awaits, as do the emails Bacow has yet to clear. And tomorrow he will rise again at 5 a.m., rinse and repeat, except he will be heading to Detroit to fundraise. The weekend will bring more of the same.
"You know, we don't even really know how he does it either. It really is a lifestyle and not just a career," Coffin says. Where does Bacow find the energy to do this day after day?
"That's why I run marathons," he says shrugging his shoulders.
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