BC Picks Leader with Compassion, Leadership

As the Nexus building transforms the face of Barnard’s campus, Debora Spar will join the ranks of Millicent McIntosh, Ellen Futter, and Judith Shapiro to transform the face of the Barnard woman.

Barnard announced the appointment of Spar, a professor and associate dean at Harvard Business School, as its next president during a moment of institutional soul-searching. Some Barnard affiliates were surprised by the appointment of a business school professor to a leadership position in a prestigious liberal arts women’s college. At the same time, present and future colleagues heralded her administrative skills, teaching record, family life, and accomplishments—among them, business and fundraising savvy—as signs that she would succeed in a new venue.

But what caused the search committee to especially scrutinize Spar’s viability was her lack of experience in women’s education, Barnard Provost Elizabeth Boylan noted when she announced the appointment to the faculty.

Despite the fact that she has never worked in a women’s college, Harvard colleagues have called Spar’s transition to Barnard an extension of her current work. Harvard Business School Associate Professor Rawi Abdelal, who has considered Spar his mentor since he came to the school nine years ago, noted that Spar makes a point of mentoring female junior faculty members. Abdelal also said he was particularly impressed that Spar managed to balance work life with family life. Spar has three children, one of whom she adopted. “She understands the complexities because she has lived them.”

Spar believes that Barnard, as a women’s college, is particularly well suited to research solutions to problems that plague women—including balancing work and family.

“We need to look at data. ... We need to interview women who have made it, who haven’t made it,” she said.

Colleagues at Harvard noted that her work with women makes her the perfect role model for Barnard students. So much so, in fact, that while Harvard Business School Senior Associate Dean Janice Hammond lauded Spar’s qualities, she put a Spectator reporter on hold several times and picked up the phone saying, “Sorry about the wait. I’ve been getting a disproportionate number of junior faculty women coming in today, saying upsettedly, ‘Great for her but tough for us.’”

Spar was awarded for her teaching skills throughout her time at Harvard, which Hammond said points to her potential to increase communications between Barnard administrators and students.

Lane LaMure, a past student of Spar, said that her former teacher puts people at ease upon meeting them. LaMure cited research they conducted in Myanmar that required attaining a level of comfort with diverse entities such as rebels, non-governmental organization leaders, and military men.

The academic world has recognized Spar for her scholarship and pioneering exploration of fertility as an economic market. In addition, her colleagues say that another of Spar’s strengths is breaking down barriers between administrators, faculty, and students—a quality which may strike a chord with Barnard students at a moment fraught with complaints regarding insufficient administrative communications.

Barnard touts itself as an intellectual yet intimate environment for women. Yet, as of late, many students and faculty members have voiced concerns about a lack of community within the cloistered campus. Spar will be sensitive to such qualms, LaMure said. LaMure raised his own interactions with her as an example; he had been working on his Ph.D. dissertation in government—Spar’s chosen field—when he applied for his MBA. LaMure felt tempted to give up his on his dissertation, but Spar made sure he completed his work. She sat him down in her kitchen and lectured him about why he should continue.

At Barnard, however, Spar will face tangible as well as emotional challenges. Barnard has the smallest endowment of the Seven Sisters despite fiscal boons during Shapiro’s tenure. Spar’s background as a professor of business made her an attractive candidate as a manager and fundraiser, Barnard Associate Professor of French Caroline Weber noted.

Spar’s promise as a heavy fundraiser does not lie in her ability to crunch numbers, Hammond said. Rather, it is the way she will present Barnard’s message and mission to potential donors. As a means of convincing donors to seal the deal, Hammond said, “She walks into the room and she inspires you.”

The same colleagues who mourned losing Spar from their ranks acknowledged her desire to work more closely with undergraduates in a liberal arts environment.

“If I were on the prowl for a university president, she’s got it all: she’s a scholar, she wants to be close to women undergraduates,” Lane said.

Barnard may also stand to benefit from Spar’s interdisciplinary approach. “I really like the fact that she works on international affairs, economics, and ethical issues,” Barnard Dean of Studies Karen Blank said. “This will move Barnard more in the direction of becoming more interdisciplinary and blurring departmental lines. That’s the way of the world.”

For Spar’s Harvard colleagues, her selection is bittersweet. “It’s a total disaster for us—for the business school and for the department,” Abdelal said. “But it’s what she wanted and it’s great for her. She just can’t be replaced. Congratulations to Barnard.”