1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,360
Speaker 1: It's time now for our Wall Street Week daily segment.

2
00:00:02,480 --> 00:00:04,480
Speaker 1: To host of Wall Street Week, David Weston joins us,

3
00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:06,280
Speaker 1: as he does every day around this time. And David,

4
00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:07,800
Speaker 1: I'm sure as you know. And there's been a lot

5
00:00:07,800 --> 00:00:10,920
Speaker 1: of protests on college campuses across this country in the

6
00:00:10,920 --> 00:00:13,520
Speaker 1: wake of the Israel Hamas war here, and let's just

7
00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:15,920
Speaker 1: say there's a big debate going on right now about

8
00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:19,160
Speaker 1: free speech and about how these universities are dealing with

9
00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:20,960
Speaker 1: people wanting to voice their opinions.

10
00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,120
Speaker 2: That's certainly true, by the way, having been in college

11
00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:24,840
Speaker 2: in the seventies, we had it in the seventies a

12
00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:26,960
Speaker 2: very different context. We're seeing it once again.

13
00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:27,160
Speaker 1: Now.

14
00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:29,160
Speaker 2: We're gonna bring in somebody who really has the perspective

15
00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:31,760
Speaker 2: on this. She's Drew gilpen Faust. She was the first

16
00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:34,960
Speaker 2: female president of Harvard and she's the author of Necessary Trouble,

17
00:00:35,159 --> 00:00:37,120
Speaker 2: Growing Up at mid Century. So, doctor Fouss, thank you

18
00:00:37,159 --> 00:00:39,479
Speaker 2: so much for being with us the very beginning to

19
00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:41,640
Speaker 2: forward your book. You say history is about choices. You

20
00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:44,159
Speaker 2: of course are an historian. It's about choices, and a

21
00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:46,280
Speaker 2: lot of your book is about choices you observed and

22
00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:48,760
Speaker 2: participated in the middle of last century. I wonder if,

23
00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:51,000
Speaker 2: as an historian, you could compare and contrast what we

24
00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:53,159
Speaker 2: saw in the middle of last century, largely having to

25
00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:55,400
Speaker 2: do with civil rights, with what we're seeing on college

26
00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:58,480
Speaker 2: campuses today in the context of the Israeli Hamas conflict.

27
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,480
Speaker 3: Well, I can try to make some comparisons. I always

28
00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,200
Speaker 3: think it's dangerous to try to connect too directly between

29
00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:10,160
Speaker 3: the past in an effort to somehow predicts the present.

30
00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:13,399
Speaker 3: But let me say a few things about what I

31
00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:17,520
Speaker 3: feel the distinctive characteristics of those demonstrations were in my

32
00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:22,440
Speaker 3: college era. I'm struck by, first of all, the impact

33
00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:26,560
Speaker 3: of social media on demonstrations today and on the ability

34
00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:29,160
Speaker 3: of people to organize, but also the ability of people

35
00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:33,080
Speaker 3: to target not just groups but individuals and call them

36
00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,800
Speaker 3: out and put their names up for others to attack.

37
00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:39,800
Speaker 3: And of course none of that was available to us

38
00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:42,600
Speaker 3: in the nineteen sixties. And I should say I was

39
00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:46,640
Speaker 3: an activist both in civil rights demonstrations but also in

40
00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:49,560
Speaker 3: the anti war movement. I graduated from college in nineteen

41
00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:53,600
Speaker 3: sixty eight, and my book really traces those years. It

42
00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:56,280
Speaker 3: traces my life from nineteen forty seven to when I

43
00:01:56,320 --> 00:01:59,600
Speaker 3: turned twenty one in nineteen sixty eight and ends with

44
00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:04,000
Speaker 3: it sideration of what those demonstrations were like. We could

45
00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:09,000
Speaker 3: not communicate as rapidly, we could not identify people as rapidly,

46
00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:12,720
Speaker 3: we could not target people as rapidly or as effectively.

47
00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:15,760
Speaker 3: And so I think that has led to a very

48
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:22,239
Speaker 3: quick escalation and a dramatic escalation in the ability to

49
00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:26,120
Speaker 3: express oneself but also to disrupt the lives of others

50
00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:31,640
Speaker 3: and to disrupt the lives of those around us in

51
00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:34,519
Speaker 3: the present day. So I'd say that's one distinctive difference.

52
00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:40,160
Speaker 3: Another thing that strikes me as notable is my generation

53
00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:44,079
Speaker 3: of college students felt it wanted to distance itself from

54
00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:48,520
Speaker 3: its parents and from adults. We felt we knew more,

55
00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:52,120
Speaker 3: we were smarter, We saw a new world dawning that

56
00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:56,920
Speaker 3: those older than us did not. The attack on regulations

57
00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:01,800
Speaker 3: in colleges, particularly for women rietals, they were called rules,

58
00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:06,639
Speaker 3: other kinds of controls. These were what we wanted to oppose,

59
00:03:06,880 --> 00:03:10,040
Speaker 3: And when we expressed ourselves politically, I think we would

60
00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:13,120
Speaker 3: have been astonished by the idea of trying to get

61
00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:18,080
Speaker 3: statements from our own universities about their views on the

62
00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:21,600
Speaker 3: issues at hand. That has obviously been a huge focus

63
00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:25,480
Speaker 3: of college students and campuses today because I believe that

64
00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:29,080
Speaker 3: students are now much closer to their parents, to an

65
00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:33,960
Speaker 3: older generation, to those who've come before, and to the

66
00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:36,640
Speaker 3: institutions in which they find themselves, and so they want

67
00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:40,280
Speaker 3: kind of the endorsement and approval of those institutions, and

68
00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:44,040
Speaker 3: they want those institutions to take a stand that was

69
00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:47,920
Speaker 3: quite different from my era. For example, we might ask

70
00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:51,720
Speaker 3: an institution not to give the federal government the record

71
00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:55,960
Speaker 3: of male students' grades, because the draft operated in Vietnam

72
00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,560
Speaker 3: at one point on the basis of how well you

73
00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:00,440
Speaker 3: were doing in college. If you weren't to doing well,

74
00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:02,920
Speaker 3: you were subject to the draft. If you were doing well,

75
00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:06,440
Speaker 3: you would have a lower likelihood of being drafted. So

76
00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:09,400
Speaker 3: we would demand things from the institutions of that sort.

77
00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:12,960
Speaker 3: I do not send in the record of grades. But

78
00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:17,080
Speaker 3: there wasn't that same sense of endorse us that is

79
00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:20,359
Speaker 3: now very much a part of the conflicts that are

80
00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:22,200
Speaker 3: currently underway.

81
00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:25,279
Speaker 1: I am curious, though, I mean as an administrator. I mean,

82
00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:27,159
Speaker 1: and you know this, I mean just from your time

83
00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:29,200
Speaker 1: in college. And I think we all know this that

84
00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:31,320
Speaker 1: you know, kids of a certain age, I mean, we

85
00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:33,839
Speaker 1: say and do things. We're passionate about things here, and

86
00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:36,640
Speaker 1: universities are kind of supposed to be that space that

87
00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,040
Speaker 1: allows folks to have that discourse, obviously in a constructive way,

88
00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:43,320
Speaker 1: but nevertheless to have that discourse here. So, given all

89
00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:45,320
Speaker 1: the sort of things that you mentioned there to sort

90
00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:48,039
Speaker 1: of the modernization of a lot of the issues that

91
00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:50,359
Speaker 1: have now made it more complicated to have that discourse,

92
00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:54,080
Speaker 1: how do university presidents and other administrations, I guess address

93
00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:57,320
Speaker 1: that without just basically shutting down discourse altogether.

94
00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:00,279
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not going to answer that question, student,

95
00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:03,600
Speaker 3: because I'm not a university president. I have a successor

96
00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:06,159
Speaker 3: who is undertaking this, and I no way want to

97
00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:09,279
Speaker 3: position her by coming up with what I think she

98
00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:11,200
Speaker 3: ought to be doing. I'm not in the middle of

99
00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:14,359
Speaker 3: all the pressures. I'm not seeing what she's seen. My

100
00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:18,479
Speaker 3: day at running Harvard is over and has been over

101
00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:22,440
Speaker 3: since twenty eighteen. So I believe that it's important to

102
00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:27,159
Speaker 3: let those who are responsible and charged with these with

103
00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:33,400
Speaker 3: these responsibilities to carry them out independent of my holding

104
00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:37,920
Speaker 3: forth about what I would have might have done had

105
00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:41,800
Speaker 3: I still been in office. I will say that when

106
00:05:41,839 --> 00:05:44,960
Speaker 3: I was president the first number of years I became

107
00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:48,279
Speaker 3: president in two thousand and seven, and students were pretty

108
00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:52,360
Speaker 3: quiet for a while, and then with Occupy Wall Street

109
00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:59,359
Speaker 3: and rising intense feelings about climate change and divestment, the

110
00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:02,520
Speaker 3: student body became much more active and much more engaged.

111
00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:06,400
Speaker 3: And so we've seen, I believe, a kind of escalation

112
00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:11,800
Speaker 3: of student activism but also student concern about the world,

113
00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:15,239
Speaker 3: and that characterizes the moment we find ourselves in now

114
00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:20,760
Speaker 3: and is both a challenge universities that also represents on

115
00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:25,800
Speaker 3: the part of students' passions that are worth considering as

116
00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:29,640
Speaker 3: the hallmark of an individual who cares about the world

117
00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:31,840
Speaker 3: in which they find themselves sects.

118
00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:33,680
Speaker 2: I certainly respect you don't want to second guess what's

119
00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:35,640
Speaker 2: going on in any college campus today. But let me

120
00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:38,360
Speaker 2: ask a related but somewhat different question, That is, how

121
00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:41,360
Speaker 2: is the job of being a university president change as

122
00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:43,200
Speaker 2: you've watched and develop, Because it looks like there are

123
00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:44,880
Speaker 2: a lot of stakeholders you have to be worried about

124
00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:47,960
Speaker 2: right now, from the students, to the faculty, to the administration,

125
00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:49,800
Speaker 2: to yes donors and a loans.

126
00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:53,960
Speaker 3: You've got a great word there, stakeholder. There are a

127
00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,560
Speaker 3: lot of people who consider themselves constituents of any university

128
00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:03,000
Speaker 3: and for the president. Is obviously a source of great

129
00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:07,680
Speaker 3: satisfaction that so many people care about universities, but it

130
00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:10,440
Speaker 3: also means that there are competing voices coming at you

131
00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:15,360
Speaker 3: all the time, with often very different agendas and different perspectives.

132
00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:18,200
Speaker 3: Those enrich your ability to do your job, that they

133
00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:22,000
Speaker 3: can also be extremely challenging to reconcile when they're coming

134
00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:28,280
Speaker 3: from different and sometimes conflicting points of view and conflicting interests.

135
00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:30,800
Speaker 2: Doctor Foss, thank you so far much for being I

136
00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:33,920
Speaker 2: really appreciate this. Drew gilben Faust, former president of Harvard

137
00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:34,440
Speaker 2: University