Cynthia Barnhart reflects upon her role as provost
Barnhart: “Being in a leadership role under those conditions is empowering, and you feel like you’re doing something that matters”
Photo courtesy of Gretchen Ertl
On Feb. 19, President Sally Kornbluth announced that Provost Cynthia Barnhart SM ’86, PhD ’88 will step down effective July 1 after serving as provost for three years, starting in 2022. After stepping down, Barnhart will be on sabbatical and then return to the faculty; she is a faculty member of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Sloan School of Management. Before serving as provost, Barnhart was chancellor from 2014 to 2021.
The Tech spoke with Barnhart to reflect on her role as provost. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Tech: What are you most proud of accomplishing as provost?
Cynthia Barnhart: One is the team that we have built and reinforced. The second is that I brought a systems optimization mentality to the job, and I think that it has permeated into the minds of the team. When working with the team on what we should do or how to solve a problem, I try to always bring us to a level of questioning: “How does this impact the Institute?”
So many people come with problems. They might be a dean, they might be a department head, they might oversee some unit, and so they naturally have a mindset of, “How do I help my unit?” That is, of course, an important question, but I think that it is critical for the Institute that we think about these questions of how to solve problems at a local level. How can you create a solution that would not only help to address the problem at that local level, but also be optimal for MIT?
There are a couple reasons why I think it’s important. One, it means that as we make decisions, we are always trying to keep in mind the impact on the whole; it also changes how people interact with each other. So, for example, we meet very frequently with all the deans of the schools and the [College of Computing], and one thing I’m proud of is that that group interacts really well with each other. They learn from each other, they help each other, and they elevate their problem solving to the level of the Institute.
So one of the things that I’ve done as provost is really work to have people connect with each other so they can understand one another’s perspectives.
TT: What are some particular challenges you faced as provost?
Barnhart: Well, there are certainly lots of challenges, but I can start by saying that to be provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is an incredible privilege. We have such talent, resources, and community here. While there certainly are challenges, I can’t imagine a place that could be more interesting and fun than here.
In the last few years, there have been challenges associated with the protests and since January, the challenges associated with what’s coming out of Washington. Two different kinds of challenges that have different impacts, I would say, on the community. The protest challenges were very hard because our community was torn apart by them as opposed to coming together.
When I was chancellor, I was very involved in responding to COVID. Our community came together as problem solvers, and working to problem solve in that environment when the community is coming together was actually very rewarding.
Working with the community through the protests was so difficult because members of the community were pulling in very different directions and had expectations of the administration to go in the same direction that they were going. But of course, they’re all going in different directions, which meant that the administration was just pulled in ways that were impossible to resolve the problem to the satisfaction of our broader community; that was really tough.
The problems we’re now facing with Washington are, in a sense, more like what we experienced with COVID. Our community is coming together to try to envision solutions in this environment that’s incredibly uncertain, and I would even say scary.
Maybe it’s my personality, but being in a provost role when you’re facing these problems is something I like for the following reasons: There are things that need to be done, and there is agreement among community members that we need to come together and solve the problem. Being in a leadership role under those conditions is empowering, and you feel like you’re doing something that matters.
TT: What similarities or differences did you find between the provost and chancellor role? Did the chancellor role help you as a provost, or was there still a learning gap?
Barnhart: In both roles, you have oversight or responsibility for a large group within the MIT community. The chancellor helps students, and the provost is the chief academic officer and academic budget officer, which is related to faculty.
A common goal in both of those jobs is to attract talent and to retain that talent. It is trying to create the conditions where these talented students or faculty can do their best work.
As chancellor, you’re part of the senior team, which includes the president, provost, vice president for research, et cetera. I got to know these people, and you get to see a very broad view of the Institute, which is really important. In that way, it was very helpful.
Having said that, when I stepped into the provost role, I thought I knew the job better than I did. Part of the provost role, in addition to being chief academic officer, is to be the chief budget officer. There are lots of people who are interested in getting money from the provost, and so that was part of the job that I hadn’t been exposed to as chancellor.
TT: Do you have any advice for the next provost?
Barnhart: As provost, it’s really important that you tap into the faculty, student, and staff as you are thinking about strategic directions and problem solving. It is through the multiple perspectives of your community members that you can be informed and formulate a broader vision of where to go and how to solve problems. Also, make sure you engage, connect, and work with people; I really believe in the power of teams.
The other thing is that the next provost will be in an environment that is extremely challenging. We’re in it now. At MIT, we have to figure out how, in this challenging time, we can advance our mission, stay true to our values, and do it in a way that is financially sustainable.
The provost has to play a very active role together with the executive vice president and treasurer, the vice president for finance, the deans of the schools, and the vice president for research. They have to really work hard to think about how we can deploy our many resources that include our faculty, our grants, et cetera, to create the maximum impact that can benefit MIT and the world, because that’s what MIT is about.