Educator

Everyone wrote our obituary but us and the coaches and the kids who stayed with us. The obit was, 'Vanderbilt will have to leave the Southeastern Conference. All the coaches are leaving, and all the students are transferring.'

I have a passion for academic life, a passion for students and for the ability and the narrative of a university to make a difference in the world in which they reside.

Let me just be very clear: I'm just hopeful the coach doesn't dismiss me.

The arts, quite simply, nourish the soul. They sustain, comfort, inspire. There is nothing like that exquisite moment when you first discover the beauty of connecting with others in celebration of larger ideals and shared wisdom.

I did not want to go anywhere where I would be interim.

The Ohio State University has a rich - if quiet - heritage of the arts.

I love this university, and although I might be retiring from the presidency, my work with Ohio State will continue.

Being president of a major public university is the most political nonpolitical office around.

Intellectual curiosity drove Einstein to some of the world's most important discoveries.

The strength of the American higher education system is that it is a multifaceted, multi-layered system, and that is what makes us very strong.

I believe being president of a private institution is a remarkable experience, but at Ohio State, it's a calling.

I joke that being a university president is akin to being a pinata. But there are also notions of redemption.

I got all sorts of great Nebraska jokes.

I believe everything learned in college is an answer to a question that someone has posed. Questions get posed differently and the answers that come back transport us to places we never knew existed.

Every time I get a lot of money, I cry, and I got a lot of tears left.

The notion of the large, massive public university that can exist in isolated splendor is dead.