Lawrence Seldon Bacow is the current and 29th president of Harvard University. He is an American lawyer, economist, author, and university administrator. He took over for Drew Gilpin Faust on July 1, 2018. Bacow was the Hauser leader-in-residence at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Center for Public Leadership before taking the president. He previously worked at Harvard Graduate School of Education and has served on the President and Fellows of Harvard College, one of the university’s governing bodies, since 2011.
Bacow started his academic life in 1977 as an environmental studies professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He rose through the ranks at MIT to become chair of his department and chancellor of the university. Bacow was Tufts University’s 12th president from 2001 to 2011.
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Bacow declared on June 8, 2022, that he will leave the presidency of Harvard in June 2023 after five years in office.
Family and early life
Bacow was born to Jewish parents on August 24, 1951, in Detroit, Michigan. After World War II, his mother immigrated from Europe at the age of 19 and was the only one in her family to survive Auschwitz. His father was moved to the United States as a child from Belarus to avoid pogroms. Bacow grew up in Pontiac, Michigan, and was a member of the Boy Scouts of America, where he earned the rank of Eagle Scout. Later in life, the organisation bestowed upon him the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.
Bacow graduated from Bloomfield Hills’ Andover High School. He went on to earn his S.B. in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a part of the Jewish fraternity Zeta Beta Tau. He graduated from Harvard Law School with a J.D., the John F. Kennedy School of Government with an M.P.P., and the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences with a Ph.D. in public policy.
Bacow is an avid runner who has completed five marathons. He and his wife, Adele Fleet Bacow, head of the urban planning firm Community Partners Consultants, have two son, Jay (born in 1980) and Ken.
Academic life begins at MIT
Bacow’s academic career began at MIT. He was a professor there for 24 years, eventually becoming department chair and chancellor. He returned to M.I.T. after finishing graduate school in 1977 to teach in the department of urban studies and planning, eventually becoming the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies. He co-founded and served as the first director of MIT’s Center for Real Estate. He managed undergraduate and graduate education, student life, admissions, financial aid, athletics, campus planning, and MIT’s large-scale industrial and international relationships while serving as chancellor. In 2003, he was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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Stint at Tufts University
Bacow was elected Tufts University’s 12th president on September 1, 2001.
While president of Tufts, Bacow opposed graduate student unionisation as well as technical and clerical employee unionisation. In an email to the student body on February 8, 2010, he announced that he would step down as president in June 2011. Bacow was appointed to the board of advisors for the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities by President Barack Obama on March 1, 2010. Bacow was compensated $2,182,717 in 2011.
Journey at Harvard University
Bacow was appointed to the President and Fellows of Harvard College, one of the boards responsible with steering Harvard University’s undertakings and ambitions, on May 25, 2011. As a result, he had governance obligations at both Tufts and Harvard for roughly a month, until his retirement from Tufts.
On February 11, 2018, it was reported that Bacow would succeed Drew Gilpin Faust as the 29th president of Harvard University on July 1, 2018. He was chosen out of 700 contenders as Faust’s “safe” successor.
Bacow was inducted on October 5, 2018, during a ceremony in Harvard Yard, three months after officially taking over as president on July 1.
Bacow is an outspoken supporter of immigration and international students. In 2019, he wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan, underlining the value of international academics to the higher education community and advocating for the renewal of DACA applicants’ temporary protected status.
Bacow has also attempted to address Harvard’s racial legacy and has promoted inclusivity and belonging during his tenure. In late 2019, he founded the Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery with the goals of clarifying the institution’s ties to slavery, how the institution profited from the Atlantic slave trade and creating events and activities to help others at Harvard analyse the ramifications of slavery. In June 2020, he announced the hiring of Sherri Charleston as the university’s first Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer.
Bacow has also led the university in reexamining its influence on climate change, which he refers to as “the most consequential threat facing humanity.” He said in April 2020 that Harvard’s endowment will be carbon-neutral by 2050, and in September 2021 that the fund would no longer generate fresh investments in the fossil fuel industry, and that it is legacy indirect assets were in “runoff mode.” The institution has also committed to making all campus activities fossil-fuel-neutral by 2026 and fossil-fuel-free by 2050. Bacow announced the nomination of James Stock as the first Vice Provost for Climate & Sustainability in September 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic started roughly a year and a half into Bacow’s presidency. Bacow relied largely on the advise of health professionals and implemented preventative steps to keep university infection rates low. Under his direction, the institution reviewed the quality of air filtration systems in classrooms and campus buildings and implemented regular testing standards. Harvard was also one of the first universities to announce a move to online classes, which will begin on March 10, 2020.
The institution’s financial health during the pandemic has been ascribed largely to the financial plan devised by Bacow upon his election as president, which prepared the university for economic downturns similar to the 2008 Great Recession.
