For Levin, steadiness is the road to strength

SHAWN CHENG/YH

Yale University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, has a good, firm handshake. Personal attributes such as this one—in addition to his broad smile and light sense of humor—have helped Levin garner a reputation as being hard to rattle and rarely overwhelmed. "He's the calmest person I know. He has an extraordinary sense of balance and perspective," Jane Levin, GRD '75, said of her husband, whom she first saw in her freshman year English class at Stanford University. The two didn't actually meet until their junior year, when they were on a study-abroad program together in Italy.

Many members of the Yale faculty and Administration have found that this sense of perspective comes across in Levin's professional style. "Rick's very balanced and not dogmatic," Larry Haas, Yale's director of public affairs added. "He tries hard to build consensus and not to have a definitive policy."

Such is the personality of Levin, the University's 22nd president. But in many ways, his low profile is exactly what separates his administration from those of his recent predecessors. Levin, who was appointed in April 1993, will never be confused with Yale's previous leader, Benno Schmidt, TC '63, LAW '66, who resigned abruptly on Commencement Day in 1992 amidst a flurry of controversy. Levin isn't as vocal as Kingman Brewster, TD '41, whose outspoken views on the Vietnam War earned him public rebuke from Vice President Spiro Agnew. And he isn't legendary, like A. Bartlett Giamatti, SY '60, GRD '64, a man as fondly remembered for his Boston Red Sox hat as for his upper-level English seminars.

Perhaps more than anything else, the low-profile Levin brings accessibility and security to the presidency. "President Levin is down to earth and not larger than life," Haas said. Now embarking on his sixth year as president, Levin is a living embodiment of the changed nature of the position.

Is talk cheap?

TOP: Levin's predecessor, Benno Schmidt, TC '63, LAW '66. MIDDLE: The president at his 1993 inaguration. BOTTOM: Levin and his wife Jane applaud at Commencement in May of 1998.

Levin's low-key personality doesn't lend itself to the spotlight, and the president acknowledges being ambivalent about public speaking. "I like talking to people, answering questions, and asking my own questions," he said. "It's much more natural than giving a speech. It gives me a much better sense of what the other person's thinking about." Indeed, the president's hallmark trait to many is his affability. In both his personal and professional lives, Levin is known as a good listener. "He likes to weigh things in his mind, to tell someone, `Let me think about that,'" Haas explained.

Levin's careful consideration of other people's opinions was reflected in his recent decision not to demolish the buildings at the Yale Divinity School. On Tues., Sept. 14, he issued a press release announcing that Yale would not, contrary to a plan publicized in December 1997, authorize the demolition of four of the Divinity School's rear buildings. The potential destruction of the buildings had ignited a firestorm of protest from New Haven building preservationists. To this day, Levin believes in his heart that his initial plan was best. "I haven't changed my mind about that," he said. "But in the interest of avoiding future conflicts and getting the divinity renovations underway, we reassessed our plan. It wouldn't be worth it to hold up a program simply to prove a point." When the President's plan, supported by the Administration and the Yale Corporation, was opposed vehemently by prominent History of Art Professor Vincent Scully, JE '40, GRD '49, and Architecture School Dean Robert Stern, ARC '65, Levin heard them out. "Reasonable people were disagreeing with me," he said.

But Haas explained the situation more bluntly: "The last thing Rick wanted to do was get Scully and Bob Stern angry at him." Getting people angry has historically been an unavoidable part of the job. Former President Giamatti was the first to admit that it would be only a matter of time before he stepped on somebody's toes. "I'm going to hate some of the things I'll have to do and people are going to hate me," he stated in an article in the Jan. 2, 1978 issue of Time magazine. Giamatti was more right than he knew; after leaving Yale to be Commissioner of Major League Baseball, he had the unpleasant task of expelling Pete Rose from the sport.

The words of Levin, an economics professor, don't exactly spring to life on paper. His exceptional listening skills come partly from his non-confrontational manner of conversation. Perhaps it was Giamatti's former status as an English professor that allowed him to articulate cleanly the problems with interacting from an administrative position. "[As President], you have to manage so many ambiguities, and you have to become so bland that ambiguities don't intrude," Giamatti explained to a New York Times reporter in an interview. "Or you have to become so conscious of managing ambiguities that it's impossible to follow what you're saying."

Some faculty and students, however, feel that Levin occasionally loses track of what he's saying. Or rather, there are those who are convinced the president's inoffensive verbiage masks the fact that he's not really listening. Several campus groups, such as Students Against Sweatshops (SAS) and Student Coalition for Diversity (SCD), have attacked Levin as being disingenuous about his intents regarding the groups' concerns. "I've been really frustrated by the Administration's inaccessibility," Jess Champagne, BK '01, a coordinator for SAS, said. "Even when they meet with students, they don't seem to take our ideas and concerns seriously enough to act on them promptly or decisively."

Rachel Deutsch, ES '00, former Tenure Action Coalition coordinator, doesn't think Levin has made the recruitment of female and minority faculty enough of a priority. "Sure, he's affable and sure, he's friendly," she said. "But he simply deflects the questions and gives lame answers, making it clear that he's not interested in moving Yale towards a more diverse faculty at anything more than a glacial pace."

One of us

Since his appointment on Apr. 1, 1993, Levin has tried to avoid conflict. He has devoted much of his energy to smoothing over wrinkles lingering from Schmidt's unexpected resignation. After all, when Levin was inaugurated, the University had a $22 million deficit, most of the buildings on campus were in dire need of repair, and the faculty was uneasy about its relationship with the Administration.

Nonetheless, in June of 1993, Levin calmly yet enthusiastically walked into Woodbridge Hall office and began to pick up where Schmidt had left off. He set out to accomplish many of the same goals that Schmidt had gotten underway—balancing the budget, renovating the buildings on campus, and improving relations between Yale and New Haven. And that's pretty much what he's been doing ever since. "It's not like when Levin came in a whole new administrative agenda took over," Haas explained. "It wasn't like a change in the White House where one president leaves and new policies are implemented. Levin had the same goals in mind. The difference between Levin and Schmidt lies in their dramatically different management styles."

Schmidt, who often left New Haven on weekends for New York, had earned a reputation for being distant and aloof from Yale. He also aggravated professors who thought that he put buildings before people and didn't respect the faculty's power as a decision-making body. In contrast, Levin, who's originally from San Francisco, has lived in New Haven for over 25 years—ever since he came to Yale as a graduate student in economics. He spends his weekends with his family at his home in the East Rock neighborhood. He coached the baseball teams of three of his four kids, and he often attends Yale sporting events.

As far as the faculty goes, Levin has taken them seriously from the outset. "There sure is a difference between President Levin and President Schmidt," English Professor Leslie Brisman said. "Levin is a dear, affable, approachable, sweet man, and Schmidt remained aloof and took care of the money end of things almost exclusively."

It wasn't very hard for Levin to relate to the faculty; he had taught at Yale for over 20 years. In 1971, after getting his doctorate, he became an assistant professor of economics. In 1982, the department made him a full professor, and he later became chair of the department until 1992, when Schmidt appointed him the dean of the graduate school.

A million-dollar smile

Levin's first goal and subsequent accomplishment was to balance Yale's budget. "Historians are bad fortune tellers," Garry Reeder, a research assistant to Yale historian Professor Gaddis Smith, DC '54, GRD '61, said. "But getting Yale's financial house in order is something that Levin should be remembered for in years to come." Levin had the luck to be at the helm during a robust economy, but according to Haas, the president deserves much of the credit for the financial turnaround. "He's got a management style that lends itself perfectly to fundraising."

Since fundraising is an increasing part of a University's job, Levin's ability to do this one-on-one activity well is a large part of what makes him a good president. Paul Bass, JE '82, a reporter for the New Haven Advocate who has written about Yale for over a decade, said, "I think it's a trend among university presidents to be nuts-and-bolts pragmatists, with non-ideological, bottom-line orientations. They're not as concerned with justice as with efficiency, good management."

Like Schmidt, Levin really does care about Yale's buildings. Since he has been president, Yale has spent over $200 million a year on renovations and the campus, physically, has a different feel than it did in 1993. Berkeley College, the reading room in Sterling Memorial Library, Linsley-Chittenden Hall, and Payne Whitney Gymnasium have all undergone considerable renovations. "We've still got major plans ahead," Levin said. "All in all, hundreds of millions of dollars are going to be spent. We have a plan for the arts and one for Science Hill."

In the eyes of many, Levin has set a new standard for working towards the improvement of town-gown relations. "He has a familiarity with city issues that his predecessors lacked," Bass said. Levin, in fact, created the Office of New Haven Affairs and has spoken at various times about the role of the University as an urban citizen. "Institutions like Yale are especially well-suited to contributing to the betterment of the cities they're in because the faculty, students and staff possess considerable expertise," he explained. "City leaders should recognize that healthy universities provide a stable base of urban employment that is increasingly the engine of urban economic growth."

In an effort to stay in touch with city affairs, the President maintains close contact with New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. "Both Rick and I share a view that there shouldn't be a dividing line between the city and the University," DeStefano explained. "Yale, in many ways, defines New Haven. We don't want it to be like the Vatican sitting in the middle of Rome. We want it to be a part of the community." As far as town gown relations are going, DeStefano commented, "Like Rick and I, the University and the city are learning to get along with one another. We don't always agree on everything, but we don't want to hurt each other, and we know how to talk things out. We both acknowledge that the time has come to move beyond the `tax Yale, not us' bumper stickers.'"

Leadership in America

However, there are faculty members and whole departments that would like to see an increase in tenured faculty. "Just about every department complains that it needs more resources and wants the number of faculty to grow," University Provost Alison Richard admitted.

But to others, like Haas, Levin exemplifies the modern university president today. "We're in an era where university presidents don't carry that much weight in society," he said. "What Rick does is important in the arena of higher education, but most people don't look to the Yale president to determine their course of action."

It's hard to say how successful Levin would have been in an earlier era, one in which the president of Yale set a standard for the country—both intellectually and morally. His passive style likely wouldn't have earned him a place in Time's "Leadership in America: 50 Faces for the Future" issue, where Giamatti ranked number 20 in 1979. Students burning flags on Old Campus during the Johnson presidency might not have been swayed by his calm demeanor. But in a time of relative peace and prosperity, Levin has done no worse than keep Yale a relatively peaceful, prosperous institution—one in which everyone gets a chance to defend his own point of view, and less ends are loose than tied. For better or for worse, so stands the office of the University President at the end of the millennium.

Top and middle photos courtesy of Yale University Office of Public Affairs, bottom by Fabian Rosado.

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