Lawrence Bacow

Bacow was born on August 24, 1951, in Detroit, Michigan, to Jewish parents. His mother emigrated from Europe at age 19 after World War II and was the only member of her family to survive Auschwitz. His father was brought to the United States from Belarus as a child to escape pogroms.[2] Bacow grew up in Pontiac, Michigan, and was a part of the Boy Scouts of America; he became an Eagle Scout. The organization gave him the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award later in life.[3][4]

Bacow attended Andover High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.[5] He then received his S.B. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a member of the Jewish fraternity Zeta Beta Tau. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, his M.P.P. from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his Ph.D. in public policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.[6][7]

Bacow began his academic career at MIT. He served as a professor there for 24 years, ultimately being appointed department chair and chancellor. Upon completion of graduate school in 1977, he returned to M.I.T. to teach in the department of urban studies and planning, becoming the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies. He was the co-founder and first director of MIT's Center for Real Estate. As chancellor, he oversaw undergraduate and graduate education, student life, admissions, financial aid, athletics, campus planning, and MIT's large-scale industrial and international partnerships.[8] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003.[9]

On September 1, 2001, Bacow was elected the 12th president of Tufts University.[10]

While president of Tufts, Bacow opposed the unionization efforts of graduate students as well as those of the university's technical and clerical employees.[11][12] On February 8, 2010, in an email to the student body, he announced that he would be stepping down as president in June 2011. On March 1, 2010, President Barack Obama announced Bacow's appointment to the board of advisors for the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.[13] Bacow received $2,182,717 in compensation in 2011.[14]

On May 25, 2011, Bacow was named a member of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, one of the boards tasked with guiding Harvard University's endeavors and initiatives.[15] Thus, for about a month, until his resignation from Tufts, he had governance responsibilities at both Tufts and Harvard.

After Bacow was mentioned in The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2006 as a possible candidate to succeed Lawrence Summers as president of Harvard University, Tufts's public relations director issued a statement asserting that Bacow was "happy" at Tufts and came there with the expectation that the Tufts presidency "would be his last position and that's still his expectation.”[16]

On February 11, 2018, it was announced that Bacow was to become the 29th president of Harvard University on July 1, 2018, succeeding Drew Gilpin Faust.[17][18] Chosen out of 700 candidates, he was considered a "safe" successor to Faust.[10]

Bacow was inaugurated during a ceremony in Harvard Yard on October 5, 2018, three months after officially taking on presidential duties on July 1.[19] The ceremony included Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President L. Rafael Rief. In his inaugural address, Bacow focused on the importance of higher education, saying:

"Throughout our history, higher education has enabled the most ambitious among us to rise economically and socially. And every step the nation has taken to print more such tickets into the middle class, and beyond, has powered our economic growth and leadership in innovation. We have to ensure that higher education remains the same economic stepping-stone for those from modest backgrounds that it was for my generation and my parents' generation. While a college education still helps to level the playing field for those who manage to graduate, the cost of entry, and of staying the course until graduation, has become daunting for many families."[20]

Bacow began his tenure with a trip to his birthplace of Detroit and hometown of Pontiac, Michigan, where he met with students, educators, Harvard affiliates, and local leaders to emphasize the "transformative power of higher education".[21] In his presidency's early days, Bacow went on a listening tour across the university to learn more about its people and affairs.[22]

In 2019, Bacow traveled to China, Japan, and Hong Kong, and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. During the trip, he made a controversial speech at Peking University in which he defended academic freedom and the role of universities in their pursuit of “truth, excellence, and opportunity.” Bacow referenced and gave support to the anti-government group the May Fourth movement, and read a poem by a Uighur poet, a member of the Western Chinese minority group being persecuted by the Chinese government. Chinese state media did not reference his comments in subsequent articles about the event.[23]

Bacow is a staunch defender of immigrants and international students. In 2019 he wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan emphasizing the importance of international scholars to the higher education community and encouraging the extension of temporary protected status to DACA recipients.[24] He praised the Supreme Court of the United States's decision to reinstate DACA in Department of Homeland Security, et al. v. Regents of the University of California, et al.,[25] and, alongside MIT President L. Rafael Reif, led Harvard's successful legal challenge to Immigration and Customs Enforcement guidance issued in July 2020 that would have forbidden international students from staying in the country if they were taking online courses.[26]

During his tenure, Bacow has also worked to address Harvard’s racial history and prioritized inclusion and belonging. In late 2019, he established the Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery with the goals of better understanding the institution’s ties to slavery, how the institution benefited from the Atlantic slave trade, and establishing events and activities to help others at Harvard understand slavery's impact.[27] In June 2020, he announced the appointment of the university's first Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Sherri Charleston.[28]

Bacow has also stewarded the university through taking a fresh look at its impact on climate change, something he has called "the most consequential threat facing humanity".[29] In April 2020, he announced that Harvard's endowment would go greenhouse gas-neutral by 2050, and in September 2021, he announced that the endowment would no longer make new direct investments in the fossil fuel industry, and that its legacy indirect investments were in "runoff mode".[30] The university has also pledged to make all campus activities fossil fuel-neutral by 2026 and eliminate fossil fuel usage by 2050. In September 2021, Bacow announced the appointment of the first Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability, James Stock.[31]

Bacow has been a staunch advocate for a diverse student body. He has led Harvard as it defends the college's ability to consider race in admissions in Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard, which the Supreme Court agreed to hear in January 2022.[32] In a statement about the high court taking the case, Bacow said:

"The Supreme Court decision to review the unanimous decisions of the lower federal courts puts at risk 40 years of legal precedent granting colleges and universities the freedom and flexibility to create diverse campus communities. Considering race as one factor among many in admissions decisions produces a more diverse student body which strengthens the learning environment for all. The US Solicitor General rightfully recognized that neither the district court’s factual findings, nor the court of appeals' application of the Supreme Court’s precedents to those findings, warrants further review. Harvard will continue to defend vigorously its admissions practices and to reiterate the unequivocal decisions of those two federal courts: Harvard does not discriminate; our practices are consistent with Supreme Court precedent; there is no persuasive, credible evidence warranting a different outcome. The University remains committed to academic excellence, expanded opportunity, and diverse educational experiences—and to the perennial work of preparing students for fruitful careers and meaningful lives."[33]

Bacow is an avid runner, with five marathons under his belt.[47][48] He and his wife, Adele Fleet Bacow, president of Community Partners Consultants, an urban planning firm, have two sons, Jay (b. 1980)[49] and Ken.[50]

• List of Harvard University people
• List of Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
• List of Tufts University people

• Harvard profile
• Lawrence S. Bacow biography - Tufts University
• The President's Marathon Challenge
• Larry Bacow Playlist Appearance on WMBR's Dinnertime Sampler radio show April 27, 2005