By Ricky Thompson and Derek Hawkins
“I feel that in many ways, the strength of what we have – and in many ways, it is also a privilege – that we live in an open society,” Northeastern President Joseph Aoun said Thursday in a wide-ranging interview with The News. “And if you go all over the world, it is not something that you see everywhere, that we have an open city, an open society and an open community.”
This concept of a campus without barriers, which balances individual and community rights, was introduced by President Aoun at the start of the hour-long meeting with The News as “a fundamental aspect of ultimately who we are, and whatever we do, and whatever issue we are facing.”
Aoun spoke for about 10 minutes on the issue, without being asked any question, which, while well-delivered, amounted to little more than a filibuster for the more concrete topics that followed.
The interview with the president, generally held each semester with News executive board members in order to touch base on issues surrounding Northeastern, moved from the importance of international co-op to off-campus relations, the Institutional Master Plan and the announcement that four members of the board of trustees will be receiving honorary degrees at Commencement in May.
Addressing the affordability of international co-op, Aoun, who has spent much of the year stressing a global approach to education in his public speeches and online postings, said: “International co-op is the best approach for our students to take advantage of something we do in a unique way.”
But the fact remains that among most students, international co-op is an expensive task, and in response to a question of whether the university was prepared to offer financial support for students interested in participating, Aoun remained vague and responded that cultural divisions were also a point to consider.
A News reporter raised the question four times in the interview – as the transcript below shows. After the second time, Aoun said Northeastern officials are “looking at various plans.” By the third time, he said, “I cannot look only at one challenge. The beauty of our education is that it’s comprehensive, so I have to look at every possible challenge.”
Finally, after the fourth run through, he said, “It would have been much easier for us and for me not to stress international educations until everything has been worked out and to be very conservative. … I am not going to play it safe. I am not going to come to you with things that are all figured out and say, ‘Take it or leave it.'”
The problem is, by putting so much pressure on the importance of a global education, and stressing time and again that “the world is not flat,” the president is creating a culture of the haves and the have-nots among less-affluent student body, who are forced to settle for a Northeastern Lite approach instead of the full experience.
Keeping with the theme of an “open society,” the president spoke of the coming renewal of Northeastern’s Institutional Master Plan, a 10-year development plan the city of Boston requires universities to file with the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Northeastern’s current Master Plan is in its final year and the university must draft a new set of 10-year goals before it can begin any new construction projects.
Despite the narrow timeframe Northeastern has to submit its new proposals, Aoun denied having even brought the Master Plan to the drawing board.
“At this point, we haven’t started any discussion of the Master Plan,” he said.
It’s difficult to believe that the president of an urban university with hopes to continue rocketing into the nation’s top-100 schools hasn’t brought the goals of the next decade before his administration.
Then again, the Master Plan relies heavily on community input, too – which is in order, given Northeastern’s repeated clashes with locals about the placement of new residence halls and other infrastructural changes.
Northeastern is nearly out of undeveloped land, and unless the university intends to build in the middle of Centennial Quad, the options for development are limited: Demolish existing property or acquire land off campus. Aoun leaned toward the former.
“I’m not interested in expansion,” he said. “I’m just interested in the quality of education that we’re providing to our students and fulfilling those strategic themes that are in the strategic plan. And I don’t want to be lusting after a piece of land.”
Aoun similarly whitewashed the idea of building a new multi-purpose athletic facility near campus.
“If you’re asking me, do we have a site identified for that,” he said, “the answer is no. Let’s be honest. No. If anybody told you otherwise, it’s not true. At least not as far as I’m concerned.”
