Brody reflects on his years at Hopkins, decision to retire
N-L: What are you most proud of achieving at Hopkins?
WB: What I'm most proud of are the people that we've been able to recruit and attract. I think we have the best group of deans and the best group of administrative staff anywhere in the country. An organization only as good as the people you have and I think we created a world class team of people … The world doesn't see that. The world sees the impact. They see all the buildings, the transformation of Peabody and the Homewood campus, and now we'll be building the hospital in East Baltimore. Those things are only possible if you have good people.
People talk about how much money we've raised. It's not the money we raised; it's how well you spend the money, how well you invest the money you've raised and how well you put that money to good use. To do that you have to have good people. So in a way I'm most proud of the people. And the students. We have phenomenal students … Students have just done many things and its just incredible to see.
N-L: What was frustrating about the position?
WB: When you're president, everybody goes right to the top with their complaints, so you always hear the complaints. Whenever somebody has an issue, they think their issue is the most important thing to the University … I had some very unsavory e-mails from parents about mice in the dorm room. You have to deal with a lot of people who have issues.
The thing that was probably the most difficult for me was the death of the students, two students who were killed. You really take that personally because the students in many ways are like your children, even though we don't get to know a lot of individual students - we can't possibly know 4,000 undergraduate students …Whenever there is a tragedy, you really feel that personally. There's always a lot of backlash from parents who think you should have handled things differently. There was a lot of criticism. That was tough.
N-L: What helped you through it?
WB: I had a tremendous amount of support. A lot of students wrote wonderful letters and e-mails in support. My wife, my family and the people who work in my office and at Nichols House were extremely supportive and encouraging. They told me to keep going ... When things go wrong, you always doubt yourself … It's human nature and of course in our society the public wants to be critical too. If you look at [the shooting at] Virginia Tech, people were second guessing, saying the university president should have done this or that. The fact is that in a tragedy you take that all very personally.
WB: What I'm most proud of are the people that we've been able to recruit and attract. I think we have the best group of deans and the best group of administrative staff anywhere in the country. An organization only as good as the people you have and I think we created a world class team of people … The world doesn't see that. The world sees the impact. They see all the buildings, the transformation of Peabody and the Homewood campus, and now we'll be building the hospital in East Baltimore. Those things are only possible if you have good people.
People talk about how much money we've raised. It's not the money we raised; it's how well you spend the money, how well you invest the money you've raised and how well you put that money to good use. To do that you have to have good people. So in a way I'm most proud of the people. And the students. We have phenomenal students … Students have just done many things and its just incredible to see.
N-L: What was frustrating about the position?
WB: When you're president, everybody goes right to the top with their complaints, so you always hear the complaints. Whenever somebody has an issue, they think their issue is the most important thing to the University … I had some very unsavory e-mails from parents about mice in the dorm room. You have to deal with a lot of people who have issues.
The thing that was probably the most difficult for me was the death of the students, two students who were killed. You really take that personally because the students in many ways are like your children, even though we don't get to know a lot of individual students - we can't possibly know 4,000 undergraduate students …Whenever there is a tragedy, you really feel that personally. There's always a lot of backlash from parents who think you should have handled things differently. There was a lot of criticism. That was tough.
N-L: What helped you through it?
WB: I had a tremendous amount of support. A lot of students wrote wonderful letters and e-mails in support. My wife, my family and the people who work in my office and at Nichols House were extremely supportive and encouraging. They told me to keep going ... When things go wrong, you always doubt yourself … It's human nature and of course in our society the public wants to be critical too. If you look at [the shooting at] Virginia Tech, people were second guessing, saying the university president should have done this or that. The fact is that in a tragedy you take that all very personally.
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Aaron Martel
posted 3/31/08 @ 9:03 PM EST
(1) JHU refuses to review indirect holdings (e.g. mutual funds) and therefore may still invest in offending companies (e.g. PetroChina, Sinopec, ONGC). (Continued…)
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