High-level changes: Three senior
administrators to step down

Northeastern will see significant changes in its senior ranks as three top administrators—the provost, the law school dean, and the vice president for business—leave their posts over the upcoming months.

Provost David Hall, law dean Roger Abrams, and business vice president John Martin each announced this past fall that they would step down. Hall and Abrams will return to the law school faculty, and Martin will retire.

Hall, one of the university’s three senior vice presidents and its first African-American at that level, has served three-plus years in the provost position. He will vacate the post in June to get back to teaching and spend more time with his family.

In a memo to the university, President Freeland praised Hall’s “leadership, his diligence, his knowledge, and his heart,” and credited Hall with being a driving force in Northeastern’s quest to achieve status as one of the nation’s top 100 universities by the end of the decade. Freeland also cited Hall’s “unflagging support and energy” for several important university initiatives, including a revamping of cooperative education, the first practice-oriented education conference, a university-wide effort to guide the planning process of individual units, and the semester-conversion project. And the president praised Hall for his “strong and passionate” advocacy for excellence in both teaching and research, and for his commitment to a diverse faculty and student body.

Law school dean from 1993 to 1998 and the school’s associate dean of academic affairs from 1988 to 1992, Hall joined the Northeastern law faculty in 1985. As dean, he was widely credited with strengthening the school’s traditional commitment to public interest by working to imbue students with a strong sense of ethics, justice, and a lawyer’s obligation to society. In 1985, he founded the Urban Law and Public Policy Institute with a million-dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Abrams, who also held his post for three years, is resigning it to spend more time with his wife, Frances, who is ill. He joined Northeastern in 1998 from Rutgers University, where he was law school dean for five years. He is a prolific author and a leading authority on sports and labor law and legal education.

At Northeastern’s law school, Abrams helped bring fiscal discipline, breathed new life into fund-raising activities, oversaw a complete revision of the curriculum, and advocated for new or improved facilities. Freeland praised Abrams for his “enthusiasm and energetic spirit.”

Abrams, who will step down as soon as a successor is chosen, will teach in the areas of sports law, labor arbitration, and torts, and will continue to serve as a salary arbitrator for Major League Baseball.

Martin, sixty, who has spent thirty-four years with the university and helped transform its landscape, said he is retiring in June to devote more time to personal pursuits. Diagnosed with colon cancer two years ago, Martin said his health today is good and did not play a major role in his decision to step down.

Named vice president of business in 1980, Martin, BA’65, led the university through the development of a master plan and several large construction projects, including the Egan Research Center, the Marino Recreation Center, Shillman Hall, the West Village residence halls, the Renaissance Park garage, and the Behrakis Health Sciences complex. He also helped oversee the renovations of Dodge Hall and the Curry Student Center.


Civil rights activist Edley calls for
race relations consortium

Asserting that institutions of higher education bear a special responsibility for helping eradicate social ills, noted civil rights advocate Christopher Edley, speaking at Northeastern in November, called on the region’s colleges and universities to form a consortium to study and create policies aimed at improving race relations in America.

“A consortium between universities could make an important contribution to the country as a whole in the area of race relations,” Edley said in his keynote address at a two-day conference titled “Race Relations on New England Campuses: Meeting the Challenge,” sponsored by Northeastern and the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education.

“Campus communities are the best place to build strong communities and develop social change,” he said. “With a research consortium, we could study what works, and what doesn’t. We could experiment. We could identify strategies.”

While finding solutions won’t be easy, said Edley—a Harvard law professor who served as special counsel to former president Bill Clinton—the country and, indeed, the world will be a better place if the issue of race is addressed head-on.

Citing challenges to affirmative action policies at the University of Michigan and the University of Georgia, Edley predicted America will be “torn asunder” if it does not put race at the top of the national agenda. He credited Northeastern for sponsoring and hosting the conference, which drew approximately 300 scholars and administrators to campus from colleges and universities throughout New England.

In opening the conference, President Freeland said that achieving a “truly multicultural culture” is one of the most important—and difficult—challenges facing the country.

“Universities are the place where societies get invented,” Freeland said. “And yet, [creating racial harmony] is a very tall order.”
Noting the racial polarization that occurred on campus last spring over his decision to tear down the existing African-American Institute and build a new institute on the same parcel as part of a larger complex, Freeland said it is important to pay attention to feelings and emotions that sometimes run deep beneath the surface.

The campus should be a welcoming place for all, he said, adding that his wish, like Edley’s, is that last month’s conference will spark a greater push toward diversity.

“This is not altruism; this is not the right thing to do,” Freeland said. “This is necessary.”


Boston Magazine: NU a top workplace

Employees always knew it—now, so does the rest of Boston. Boston Magazine has ranked Northeastern as one of the best places to work in the region, on the basis of its strong benefits package and flexible summer work schedule.

This is the first time Northeastern has appeared on the magazine’s annual list, which includes such heavy hitters as Fidelity Investments, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Scientific, and Monster.com. Of the 111 employers appearing on the “best places to work” list, Boston Magazine wrote they provide such good benefits that “employees never need to go home.”

The rankings weighed employers’ health and wellness offerings, training programs, and quality-of-life benefits such as vacation, personal and sick time, and on-site childcare.

Already, Northeastern’s placement on the November issue’s list has sharpened the interest of prospective employees. “I was on the phone with a candidate for a very prominent position, and she had read the list in Boston Magazine and had questions for me,” says Katherine Pendergast, human resources management vice president. “It puts us in a very good position.”

She adds, “Higher education has not always been perceived as a place with good benefits. But we’re working very hard to change that image.”

To lure employees, Northeastern offers a competitive benefits package, including one of the best tuition benefits—full remission of costs—notes Pendergast.

“Our benefits are an excellent recruitment tool,” adds Cheryl Whitfield, associate director of human resources management. “This recognition places us in a very strong position. We’re in with the big boys.”


Freeland gets three-year contract extension

Stating that Northeastern is “qualitatively better and financially stronger” under the leadership of President Richard Freeland, the Board of Trustees in late October voted unanimously to extend Freeland’s contract for three additional years, through August 2005.

The board’s move followed a four-month review of Freeland’s performance by a special committee, chaired by Carole Uhrich.

“The university is fortunate to have Richard Freeland as its president, and I am pleased that the board endorsed his leadership again,” board chairman Neal Finnegan said in a release. “The Board of Trustees is committed to working with Dr. Freeland and believes that through this partnership, the university can achieve its goals.”

Freeland, elected Northeastern’s sixth president in 1996, said he was honored to earn the trustees’ support.

“I’m thrilled that the Board of Trustees has offered me the opportunity to continue as president for another three years,” Freeland said in an interview. “I said from the first day I arrived on campus, I have the best job in higher education, and I still feel that way.”

The board’s latest review process involved extensive interviews with members of the university community, including faculty, administrators, students, staff, graduates, and trustees. The interviews focused on four of the president’s primary areas of responsibility: administration and fiscal management, academic issues, fund-raising and resource development, and constituent and public relations.


Take a bow!

Alexander Gorlov

Northeastern engineering professor emeritus Alexander Gorlov is the recipient of the 2001 ASME Thomas A. Edison Patent Award for his invention of the Gorlov Helical Turbine. The invention was also named one of the top 100 innovations of 2001 by Popular Science magazine. The magazine’s December issue touted the turbine as a “kinder, gentler hydroelectric power.” The turbine efficiently converts the kinetic energy of river, tidal, or ocean currents into electricity.

A Northeastern history major has been named winner of the U.S. Marine Commandant’s Trophy, which honors the best student platoon leader in the country. James King, twenty-one, of Washington, D.C., bested 250 other candidates for the national award, which weighs performance in three areas: academics, physical fitness, and leadership.

King was presented the trophy during the Northeastern–Holy Cross men’s hockey game November 30 at Matthews Arena. Making the presentation were President Freeland, U.S. Marine Colonel Robert Donaghue, Captain Christopher Shaw, Captain Booz Moise, athletics director Ian McCaw, and men’s crew coach John Pojednic.


Committees to examine issues concerns
African-American students

Following through on a pledge he made last spring, President Freeland has appointed two committees to advise him separately on the development of a new African-American Institute and other issues of concern to the university’s black student population.

The move, Freeland explained, is aimed at opening new lines of communication between the administration and African-American students in the wake of their highly publicized clash last spring over the fate of the existing institute, which serves as a focal point for black cultural and academic programming on campus.

Freeland has proposed erecting a new African-American Institute as part of a larger complex to be constructed on the site of the current building on Leon Street, while students had wanted the institute to remain freestanding.

Between April and June of 2001, students held several public meetings and rallies protesting Freeland’s decision, and for a time occupied the building in a move reminiscent of the 1960s, when the institute was founded. The students agreed to end the occupation in late spring after Freeland pledged to address their concerns and grievances over the institute and other issues.

“I feel like the largest problem we had last spring was that we never found a way to establish a really good dialogue between the administration and the students,” Freeland said. “So our goal was to get into dialogue immediately with the students when they returned [to campus] this fall, so that wouldn’t happen again. I believe we’ve made a very good start on that.”

The first committee, composed of twelve faculty members, administrators, and students, is dealing solely with the issue of building a new institute. It has been charged with developing a space-allocation plan for the portion of the new complex that will house the institute. Groundbreaking is scheduled for either 2003 or 2004, depending on budget issues and the progress of other projects farther ahead in the pipeline, Freeland said.

The second committee, known as the Black Student Presidential Advisory Committee, is assisting Freeland in addressing other issues of concern to African-American students in such areas as admissions, student programming, and faculty recruiting.

On the basis of discussions in the most recent meeting, Freeland said he will consider new initiatives for recruiting a more diverse student body and expanding financial aid opportunities for students of color.


Finally—a place to hang after hours

It’s a place you can dance, do karaoke, watch Monday-night football, see a movie, laugh at a comedian, or hear music. And get some good food—very late at night.

Northeastern’s new late-night gathering spot for students, afterHOURS, opened in November to rave reviews from students and administrators alike, who praise it as an innovative, alcohol-free, and safe destination for night crawlers. Since its opening, the club, located in the basement of the Curry Student Center, has drawn between 300 and 600 guests a night, with the crowds tending to swell after midnight.

“I think this is a great alternative to heading down to Lansdowne Street,” said assistant manager Dustin Blackwell. “This is free, and it’s open to all Northeastern students and their guests.”

The club, which has a funky coffee bar and a strobe-lit dance floor, stays open good and late—from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and until 4 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. There’s a wide selection of appetizers, soups, entrées, lattes, and smoothies. And for the true night owl, there’s also an impressive breakfast menu.

The idea for the $1.3 million, 4,500-square-foot facility emerged two years ago from a desire to enhance student life as the university houses more and more undergraduates on campus. Those who helped with the planning said they sought to replicate the excitement and variety of a downtown club but in a safe, alcohol-free environment.