Issue date: 3/4/08 Section: Campus

When Henry Bienen became Northwestern University's 15th president on Jan. 1, 1995, the university was a different place.

The endowment was one-fifth its current size. The class of 1999 had just shy of 13,000 applicants. A full year of tuition was $16,404.

"I'm not interested in turning Northwestern into a different institution," Bienen said in 1994, a few months before he took over as president.

The transformation happened anyway. As president, Bienen added 15 new buildings to NU's two campuses, established a third campus halfway across the world, and oversaw a burgeoning endowment and soaring application numbers.

On Monday, Board of Trustees chairman Patrick Ryan announced that Bienen would step down from his position Aug. 31, 2009.

Bienen, 68, said he decided at a meeting of the Board of Trustees in August 2006 when to announce his retirement.

"I met with the executive committee of the board and at that time it was determined that I would announce in April of this year," Bienen said. "We accelerated it a little bit because it would let them begin the search (for a new president) earlier."

Now in his 14th year at NU, Bienen is the most senior president in the Big Ten conference. The average tenure of a university president is about eight years, according to the American Council on Education.

"We've all looked up to him for historic perspective and memory and wisdom," said John Wiley, Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Bienen said he stayed longer than was originally planned in order to finish long-term projects that only recently came to fruition, including NU's Qatar campus, the partial sale of Lyrica rights and the finalization of plans for a new School of Music building.

"Everything worked out," Bienen said. "There's always things to do. You can always say that you have 20 other things that you want to get finished, but these were some things that I had on my agenda."

Bienen came to NU in 1995, having previously served as dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

At the time, the search committee praised him for understanding the needs of undergraduates and faculty.

The former political science professor quickly made the transition from academic to executive, multiplying NU's endowment and earning a reputation as a prolific fundraiser.

During his term, the university made great strides forward in building community and fundraising, said Sarah Pearson, vice president for development and alumni relations. Between 1998 and 2003, NU completed its first major fundraising drive, Campaign Northwestern, generating $1.55 billion - far above the $1 billion goal set.

Pearson, who has previously worked at the University of Chicago, Cornell University and Harvard University, said she felt Bienen was more accessible than other presidents she had worked for and cited his frequent attendance at concerts and sporting events as an example of his dedication.

"I think Northwestern is always on his mind," Pearson said. "He'll e-mail me with ideas of things he's thinking about alumni, parents and friends late into the evening."

Bienen's term was not entirely free of controversy. In April 1995, a few months after Bienen took office, students staged a 23-day hunger strike at The Rock in support of an Asian American studies program. Two professors were hired for the program in 1999.

A 27 percent tuition increase in 1998 provoked an outcry from students and faculty. When Bienen was named as president, he had called NU's traditionally low tuition increases "a very desirable thing to be maintained if it can be maintained, and I have no reason to believe it can't." Tuition has more than doubled during Bienen's tenure, accompanied by increases in financial aid.

NU's relations with Evanston remained occasionally strained. But Evanston Mayor Lorraine Morton praised Bienen on Monday, saying his willingness to listen to students helped to give them the best possible learning environment.

"I can remember when he brought in the department of Asian Studies," Morton said. "He was listening to the students, that it should happen, and it happened. He brought the department."

Bienen said the nature of the job required a great deal of quick decision making, and a capacity to balance multiple obligations at once.

As for the immediate future, NU spokesman Al Cubbage said a search committee headed by William Osborn, chairman of the Board of Trustees' budget committee, would begin work immediately. The committee will include faculty and students, but he said he did not know the date by which they would reach a decision.

Wisconsin's Wiley, who announced his own resignation in December, said replacing a long-serving president can be a challenge.

"Especially with someone who's been a president as long as Henry has, there are concerns about continuity, programs he started, making sure you find someone who's capable of filling really big shoes," he said.

Bienen said his own plans at NU are up in the air. He said that he may return to teaching, albeit part time.

"I miss teaching," Bienen said. "I've done it here, but I haven't done it the last year or two, so it's something I could envision."

Bienen said that while he still took a great deal of satisfaction in his job and knew that he could still carry out his duties, he chose to step down because the time had come for change.

"I'm not tired, I'm not worn out, I'm not burnt out - I like my job," Bienen said. "It's a great job, it's infinitely interesting and I believe it's time to have someone else take a crack at it."



m-gsovski@northwestern.edu



daily File Photo
University President Henry Bienen announces a new $90 million music building in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall on Feb. 19.

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