Word: giamatti
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Oooooh...Mmmmh, ooh, that's a very hard question. If I knew the answer, I would tell you." A. Bartlett Giamatti can't say why he accepted the offer to become president of Yale University last winter. He rubs his chin, shakes his head a little, pondering the question. He screws up his soft face, where a little bit of a goatee outlines his chin--but it's really in his eyes. His brown eyes grow misty and far away; and the deep sighs, mixed with a sad chuckle or two reveal a man somewhat puzzled by his situation...
...Giamatti found himself a man without his profession when school started up this fall. The forty-year-old Renaissance literature scholar muses over his dilemma. He doesn't sit around feeling sorry for himself..."much," but he talks endlessly about teaching, which he misses profoundly. In his new role as a university president, Giamatti feels he has lost "the possibility for completion--the kind of purposeful wandering that teaching is like, in some sense of the word." He goes on to explain: "Classes have a rhythm, the semester has a rhythm. A piece of work has a rhythm...
...Giamatti's acceptance of the presidence last December 20 ended the Yale Corporation's nine-month search for a successor to Kingman Brewster Jr. After 14 tumultuous years in New Haven, Brewster opted for London and the United States ambassadorship to England, a position many thought suited him well. With Brewster's departure, the Yale Corporation had a chance to revamp Yale's Waspish image. Hannah E. Gray, Yale's provost and then acting president, was said to be in the running. But one week before the decision was announced, Gray forfeited, accepting an offer to become president...
Gray might have been Yale's first woman president, Rosovsky the first Jewish one. It was apparent that Giamatti was not the Corporation's first choice, but with his Italian heritage, the English professor fit the bill well. Giamatti accepted Yale's offer with a good deal of grace and humor...
...Giamatti was to assume the burdens of a financially-troubled institution in a seemingly hostile environment. In order to make up for Yale's $6 million deficit, Giamatti will have to initiate cost-cutting measures, which will inevitably alienate certain members of the university. To make matters worse, he will have to face the city of New Haven, which is less than pleased with the presence of the monolithic tax-exempt establishment, considered to be both elitist and stingy...