”
I get up at about 6 o’clock and say hello to everyone at home four children and my wife and have breakfast. I don’t read the newspaper or exercise in the morning. That is for later in the day or for weekends.
I walk three blocks to my office inside the university campus. Being the university president, I have a beautiful house right near campus. Once I get in, I check my e-mails and make my phone calls before the tumult of the day begins.
My day typically starts with appointments at 8:30.
As the new president, I like to see one professor for at least an hour and a half each day and ask them about their research interests and their work. I have a Ph.D. from Harvard in public policy. I see professors from departments like management, philosophy, economics and business. They give me their articles to read. Part of my job is to know about them, their passion and ideas.
After that, I meet with the finance and academic people, mostly deans, provosts, dean of student affairs and so on. These meetings run for different lengths of time, depending on the day’s schedule.
Once in two weeks I have breakfast with the graduate student council. I have a policy of seeing students so they feel I am approachable. Sometimes they come to me with their problems. For example, a student came to me to discuss a problem in the dissertation process. Other times they just want to discuss their research interests and ideas. Even professors do that sometimes and I like that.
An important part of my work is to read the research work of my new colleagues to understand what their passions are. This ranges from mathematics to literature. For example, I am currently reading a historical study of the 1950s, and last week I read an article about how virtual labs can be created using mathematical models and droplets.
I also make time to think. I need blocks of time to think through big issues.
For me, lunches are opportunities for business, except two days a week where I set aside a block of time from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to work out and have lunch with my wife. With university life come a lot of first lady issues and so my wife joins me for a lot of ceremonial functions.
We are building new student housing on campus after five years of work to get all permits and financing in order. Now that we have the approvals, I am involved in the final stages, though the day-to-day work is managed by other people.
I spend a significant amount of time outside at evening events, talks to alumni and friends of the university. Some days I spend the whole evening doing this.
I make sure that I spend time with my family. My four children are aged 7, 12, 17 and 19 and they all go to a public school nearby. I have dinner with them and we have a study table where the kids and I lay out our homework and do it together.
Over the weekends my family and I go out for walks with the dogs and I try to take each child out separately for cocoa.
My oldest just left for South Africa where she will be working with an AIDS organization for a year. I support that. Young people should definitely take time off and see what they want to do instead of blindly going to
college or taking a job.
”
as told to Aarthi Sivaraman
*
Robert Klitgaard
President
Claremont Graduate University
On the Radio:
BBC World Service
Languages:
Fluent in Spanish and speaks some French, Portuguese, Hindi and Urdu
Eagles Fan:
Plays “Hotel California” on the guitar for his wife
Family Fun:
Snowboarding at Big Bear
Travels:
Recent trips to China and to Sudan as an advisor on economics and government reform
