4B The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 6, 1996
DHEu, uTH PRESIDENT
Dartmouth students, ac lsad t see provostg-
By Katie Wang
Daily StaffReporter
While the University will welcome
back a familiar face to campus in
President-select Lee Bollinger, students
and faculty at Dartmouth College say
they are losing one of their most prized
professors and administrators.
"The University of Michigan is to be
congratulated on an absolutely wonder-
ful appointment," Dartmouth President
James Freedman said yesterday in a
written statement. "Lee Bollinger is an
outstanding academic leader and will
be one of the most distinguished uni-
versity presidents in the country.
"We will miss him very much at
Dartmouth."
Stephen Bosworth, chair of the
Dartmouth College Board of Trustees,
said he was not surprised to hear of
Bollinger's selection and applauded his
intellectual and leadership qualities.
"I think he is an outstanding and
intellectual leader," Bosworth said. "He
is very well respected in the world of
higher education.
"I am pleased for his sake, but I am
sad for Dartmouth's sake," he said.
Students who have taken Bollinger's
class on the First Amendment had noth-
ing but praise for him as a teacher and
as a friend.
"You feel very close to him," said
Dartmouth senior Sashi Bach. "He's
one of the most popular professors. I
don't think I ever hear a bad thing about
him."
Bach said Bollinger is one of her
favorite professors and his class is one
of the most popular on campus.
Andrew May, a Dartmouth senior
and government studies major, said
Bollinger seems like an average guy,.
but at the same time he is very knowl-
edgeable in his field.
"He is a very graceful speaker", May
said. "I think the general reaction is that
students will be dis
him."
R o l a n d
Adams, associ-
ate director of
Dartmouth's
Office of Public
Affairs, compli-
m e n t e d
Bollinger for
balancing his
roles as a
provost and as a
professor.
"Students in his
appointed we lost
Studem
be disapp
we lost h%
knowledge of procedural issues," said
Mary Childers, director of Dartmouth's
office of equal opportunity and affir-
mative action.
"Bollinger is very thoughtful, pas-
sionate, but controlled," she said."H1e 16
clearly ready to be a university pres
dent."
Childers added that Bollinger and his
wife, Jean, a local artist, will also be
missed by the community.
Adams said Bollinger's listening
skills helped ease the development of a
new library at
Dartmouth.
Its will "He effective-
ly mediated the
poi nteddebate betwe*
a traditional and
fl. high - tech
library," Adams
-Andrew May said. Adams said
College senior the library was
one of
Bollinger's pro-
jects as Dartmouth provost and that he
took several views into consideration
while developing it.
Bollinger was also praised by mas$
for his strong relations with members of
the Dartmouth faculty and administra-
tion.
"I think his relations with the faculty
and administration were good. He is
regarded very highly by both,"
Bosworth said. "(His departure) will be
a loss for the institution."
Dartmouth
it
course are wild
about it," Adams said. "To be able to
teach and to carry the office of provost
is quite a tribute to anyone."
Those who work under Bollinger's
supervision also noted his intellectual
abilities and his strong listening skills
- two assets they say will greatly ben-
efit the University.
"I assume the University president
should have his combination of wide-
ranging intellectual interests and
STEPHANIE LEE/The Dartmouth
Dartmouth College Provost Lee Bollinger speaks on "Freedom of Speech at the Turn of the Century," on Oct. 2 in the
Sandborn Library at Dartmouth College.
Bollinger looks at changes ahead
Q&A
Continued from Page 1B
The second thing is, the relationship of the institutions to
the states in which they reside. The University of Michigan, it
evolves out of the state - it is responsible to the state.
Dartmouth, as a private institution, is in a sense a citizen of
the state and has responsibilities, but they're far more volun-
tary.
And then, thirdly, there are important differences between
private institutions and public institu-
tions, not least of which is that the
public institutions must abide by the To m
Constitution, the U.S. Constitution.
And private institutions need not. work, i
Daily: Regent (Deane) Baker (R-
Ann Arbor) talked a bit about some love to C
reservations he had about you being
president. One of the things he said
implied that you might have been Da
involved in a larger effort to call the
regents or fax them about you being
president here. Do you have any comments on that at all?
Bollinger: No. I don't.
Daily: Were you involved in anything of that nature at
all?
Bollinger: I have not heard the comments of Deane
Baker and I really don't want, myself, to comment on it.
Daily: How prepared are you to weather other scrutiny
that might arise as president'? That's something that sort of
inevitably comes up during any administration. Do you con-
sider yourself a pretty thick-skinned person?
Bollinger: (Laughs.) I understand that these positions
often have drawn criticism. I try to be a person who
responds to criticism openly and fairly. But I have been, for
1i
art
a long time, under no illusions that these are positions
where everybody is pleased.
Daily: Have you talked to some of the members of your
family about moving back to Ann Arbor? Are they excited
to come back here?
Bollinger: I have, and they are.
Daily: What are some of the things you do in your spare
time? I know you said before that you're a runner.
Bollinger: Well, I write books. Besides running, I write
books. I very much like outdoor activities, so I like hiking
and that sort of thing. And I spend a
lot of time, most of my time, work-
ing. To me it's not work, it's what I
love to do.
what I Daily: Do you miss being a
straight, focused scholar instead of
being an administrator?
Bollinger: That too is a compli-
- Lee Bollinger cated question. To me, by the way
mouth provost my work goes, there's a great com-
plementary relationship between my
scholarship and the administrative
work I do, as well as with teaching.
Daily: Would you say you're looking forward to coming
back and going to all the Michigan football games and
some of the larger-scale stuff you don't get in Hanover
(N.H.)?
Bollinger: (Laughs.) Yeah.
Daily: Is this your dream job?
Bollinger: I'm not sure I would put it exactly that way.
As I said at the beginning, I'm profoundly honored by the
opportunity and extremely excited about undertaking it.
Daily: Are you doing anything special tonight to cele-
brate the new job?
Bollinger: Probably making an accepting phone call.
BOLLINGER
Continued from Page LB
closest to meeting the criteria I devel-
oped."
Regent Rebecca McGowan (D-Ann
Arbor) said any of the four nominees
could be successful presidents. She said
she reviewed the transcripts from the
four interviews and consulted many
people about the four finalists before
reaching a decision.
"Provost Lee Bollinger returned to
Michigan clear in his purpose,"
McGowan said. She said Bollinger
seemed "refreshed" by his time at
Dartmouth, and would effectively move
the University forward.
THE INITIAL DIDE
After Horning made a motion to
name Bollinger president, Baker
replied with a litany of reservations.
"There's another side of Lee
Bollinger that I think the regents should
understand," Baker said. "He developed
a record which really offended a large
cross-section of people that support this
university.... Particularly offensive was
his trashing of Judge Bork during his
hearing in Washington, D.C."
In 1987, Bollinger testified before
the Senate Judiciary Committee in
Washington, D.C., against Bork, a con-
servative nominee to the Supreme
Court. Bollinger said he disagreed with
Bork's belief that free speech does not
extend to artistic expression.
Along with criticizing the Bork testi-
mony, Baker said there was a "very
heavy-handed political campaign to put
Lee Bollinger in the office of the presi-
dency of the University." An unusually
large amount of L
letters and
faxes support- It was
ing Bollinger
poured in, wonderfu
Baker said,
indicating that they we
this was an
organized come tog
effort to make-E
Bollinger presi-
dent.
"You are put
in a postion of having to sacrifice your
individual judgment because of the
pressure of such things'" Baker said.
Power said he was "saddened" by
Baker's remarks. "I must confess that I
anticipated that we might have an
episode of this sort take place at this
meeting," Power said.
Regent Shirley. McFee (R-Battle
Creek) said she had initial concerns
about Bollinger's testimony against
Bork. McFee said those early worries
were put to rest after reviewing what
Bollinger said and talking to "a number
of other very conservative Republican
thinkers from within the state of
Michigan."
"He is a listener. He does take under
advisement the opinion and viewpoint
of all parties," McFee said, before
"wholeheartedly" endorsing Bollinger.
McGowan attempted to refute
Baker's belief that Bollinger was
involved with a campaign to attain the
presidency.
"At the University, we go for facts
before we reach conclusions,"
exactly as I expected that it would," and
reiterated that he felt bombarded by
Bollinger's outside proponents.
"It's a very difficult thing to be a con-
servative on a university campus," Baker
said. "That's the way the world is."
Deitch said that if he and Baker were
put in a foxhole together during battle,
they "would disagree about a lot of stuff
all the time, and it wouldn't get boring."
Deitch said Bollinger "will be a spec-
tacular president of this university."
Newman said her differences with
Bollinger did not mirror Baker's. After
1991 LETTER TO THE DAILY
JOSH BIGGS/Dafly
Dartmouth Provost Lee Bollinger speaks to the University community at a town
meeting during a visit to campus on Oct. 24.
The following letter was originally
published in The Michigan Daily on
Oct. 25, 1991:
I was very distrubed to read the
front page story in the Ann Arbor
News, this past Friday, Oct. 18, under
the headline, "Law School's View
Questioned." According to the story,
the regents "noted" at their recent
meeting that the "law faculty had
given its blessing to a 1988 student
speech code" of the University which
was later declared unconstitutional by
a Federal District Court judge in
Detroit. Regent Neal Nielson (R-
Brighton) is then quoted as saying that
"it didn't stand very far."
This statement about the law
school's role in the creation of the
1988 student harrassment code is not
true and must be corrected. Certainly
the code was never presented to the
law faculty as a body, nor was any
committee of the faculty convened to
express a view as to the constitutional-
ity or wisdom of the proposed policy.
A few members of the faculty indi-
vidually asked for advice as the
University's Office of Affirmative
Action set about the task of creating a
student code.
I cannot speak for each of them, but
I can speak for myself.
I was asked to attend a meeting
early in the drafting process to discuss
what behavior a policy should attempt
to regulate and the free speech inter-
ests that had to be respected. My posi-
tion was then, and remains to this day,
the following: The First Amendment
clearly permits the University to regu-
late some speech behavior.
Under Supreme Court precedents,
however, it cannot be said with certain-
ty where constitutional protection of
speech begins. My advice was to use
language forbidding only forms of
"verbal harrassment" and to build into
the code a recognition that the free
speech interests increased as one
moved from the dormitiories to the
classroom and then to areas like the
Diag.
I expressed the view that the lan-
guage proposed and ultimately adopted
was dangerously vague, from a First
Amendment standpoint.
After the code was adopted, the
Office of Affirmative Action issued a
statement (known as the "yellow"
booklet) explaining what behavior
would be prohibited under the new
code. Neither I nor as far as as I know
any other member of the faculty, was
ever asked for advice about this docu-
ment. In my judgement, the yellow
booklet showed such insensitivity to
freedom of speech that it unconstitu-
tionally tainted the code it purported to
interpret.
At that point I, along with Terrance
Sandalow, asked for a meeting with the
University vice president responsible
for overcoming and implementing the
new code. We informed that individual
that in our view, with the publication
or the yellow booklet, the code was
unconstitutional and should be with-
drawn. That advice was not taken.
After the litigation against the code
began, I personally felt awkward about
my responsibilities to the University as
an administrator and as a scholar. I
decided that it was inappropriate to
remain silent about the matter and
publicly stated my belief that the code
was in violation of the First
Amendment. At the time, I also deliv-
ered a lecture, which was subsequently
published, explaining the views I had
taken on the subject of the student
codes and the Michigan code in partic-
ular.
I hope that this statement clarifies
for everyone just how incorrect it is to
say that the "law faculty... gave its
blessing" to the 1988 code.
There are many reasons why it is
unwise for the University to use its law
school as its attorney, but let me sug-
gest that, at the very least, when you
want the views of members of the law
faculty you should speak to them per-
sonally or ask to receive their advice in
writing.
- Lee Bollinger
Law School dean
truly
I that
e able to
ether"
die Goldenberg
LSA dean
not the issues
twice passing the
opportunity to
state a preference,
Newman gave her
approval to a
Bollinger presi-
dency.
"I have many
differences of
opinion with
P r o v o s t
Bollinger, but the
social issues are
I've focused on,"
didates. It delayed the process by three
days and prompted one candidate -
later identified as LSA DeanEF
Goldenberg - to withdraw from co
sideration.
Goldenberg said the regents served
Bollinger well in reaching a group con-
sensus.
"I thought it was truly wonderful that
they were able to come together,"
Goldenberg said. "They were coming
together to support the president. That's -
very important."
Though apparently pleased with th,
conclusion of the search, Horning sg
the lawsuit set an unfortunate tone for
the final days of the process.
"It's upsetting," Horning said. "It
takes away from the sparkle of the can-
didates."
McFee called a newspaper editorial
criticizing the quality of the finalists "an
enigma with an ironic twist," since the
newspapers' case against the search
might have impacted the list of finalists.
Varner said "it was very unfair... 9
the press to label our candidates as 'B-
list,"' and that the four finalists brought
with them "extraordinary achievement."
THE MEETING'S
AFTERMTH
Power, a newspaper publisher him-
self, entered the meeting with a neon-
orange "Observer and Eccent
Newspapers" paperboy bag slung ovW
his shoulder. He said he couldn't
"cram" every important document into
his briefcase, and needed the newspa-
per bag for overflow.
Power said he looks forward to
returning to his day job now that the
search is over. After the meeting, he
said he was "relieved and pleased" that
the board has chosen the next presi-
dent.
There are currently no estimates for
when Bollinger will step into the-presi-
dency, Harrison said. But interim
President Homer Neal has indicated he
would like to step down by late June,
Bollinger said.
Rnliner inicatedpcIthat 1he nlans to
Newman said. "Provost Bollinger needs
everybody on this board to support
him."
Vice President for University
Relations Walter Harrison said the
regents made the right choice by unani-
mously supporting one person.
"I think it's terrific that they made it
unanimous," Harrison said. "I think that
after the first round of comments, it was
clear that the vast majority supported
Lee. I think it was great, but not neces-
sary, that it became unanimous."
If Bollinger's liberalism makes the
University a target for state lawmakers,
Horning - a conservative - said he
will stand up for the president-designate.
"If there's a problem in Lansing
because of Lee Bollinger's political
views, I'm there to go hand-in-hand
and help him any way I can," Horning
said.
THE LAWSUIT'S
LONG SHADOW
OFFICIALS
Officials also concluded that the
open meeting process, enforced by a
that the new president will provide a
fresh outlook on University issues.