Re: What inspires you?

Description: A woman president faces all the challenges a man would.

Transcript: When I went to South Africa to give a lecture right after Nelson Mandela had spoken, I was beyond inspired. And let me just give you one example of . . . Everyone knows why Nelson Mandela is inspiring. You know, having spent so many years in jail, and then having gone on to heal a country that many people thought was beyond healing. But in the audience at Mandela’s speech were many people who were supporters of the government that jailed him, and perhaps even some of his actual . . . some of the people who were actually running the government who had jailed him. And one person who asked a question to Mandela said, “How can you speak with so little bitterness to the people who are responsible for your oppression?” He said, “I would not wish what happened to me and my people on any single human being.” That’s an inspiration, and it tells me that the things that I write and teach about; the way in which I dedicated my own life to helping other people and the cause of social justice is not idealistic. It’s practical. If somebody like Mandela can do it, surely I – who had grown up with far less oppression than he has – have a responsibility to do it.

Question: What is the balance you’ve struck between business and education?

Trancsript: As a president? Education is not a business. It’s a profession. It’s a calling. But I have to be very savvy as a businesswoman in running an institution who’s budget is 4.4 billion dollars a year, and whose endowment is now over six billion dollars a year. It’s the means to which the end of great education is directed. So I spend a good deal of my time and some of my concern making sure our health system is doing well financially. And I’m happy to say it’s doing fabulously well financially. And I don’t see it as a tradeoff between business and education. To put it very simply, business is a means to pursuing great ends.

Question: Are there unique challenges a woman faces in this position?

Transcript: Oh I don’t think there is anything that I as a woman face as a university president that a man wouldn’t face, except the following. (Laughter) I am – whether I like it or not, and I like it – a role model to lots of young women. I hope not to too many because I don’t think this is a job that too many people should aspire to do. But being a role model is a wonderful thing. And I think because I’m a woman, and because I’m – as a woman – not very common to see as a CEO or as a president, I stand out. And I think that’s the main . . . the main difference. I mean I’m an optimist, so I see the positive. I’m sure there are people who look at me and say, “How could she be the President of the University of Pennsylvania?” But I take that as a compliment.

Recorded on: 7/5/07