Oral history interview with Neil R. Grabois, 2012.

Biographical Note

Mathematician; Dean, Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School

Scope and Contents

Youth: value of education, attendance at Stuyvesant High School, acceptance to Swarthmore College; theme of aimlessness and chance; completion of Ph.D. in math at University of Pennsylvania; first experience teaching; made dean of Williams College in 1970; mistakes made as provost of Williams College; presidency of Colgate University; joining staff of Carnegie Corporation in 1999; leadership of Vartan Gregorian; involvement with Carnegie Corporation programs in Africa: writing constitution for Zimbabwe, public libraries in Africa, higher education opportunities for women; development and efficacy of Carnegie Council on Evaluation to review programs; interaction between staff and trustees; theories of grantmaking and evaluation; hiring and firing staff; influence of David A. Hamburg at Carnegie Corporation; development of Carnegie Scholars Program; Carnegie Corporation's competitive advantage and future; interdisciplinary spirit of The New School; anecdotes about working with Gregorian; role of religion in life; challenge of following intuition in grantmaking; limitations of Carnegie Corporation's international grantmaking; influence of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Carnegie Corporation's grantmaking.

Subjects

• Carnegie Corporation of New York.
• Colgate University.
• Education, Higher--Africa.
• Endowments.
• Grabois, Neil R.--Interviews.
• Interviews.
• Libraries--Africa.
• Mathematicians.
• New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y. : 2005- )
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Weiss, Thomas, interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Williams College.
• Women--Education (Higher)

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, 2012. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York hold a non-exclusive license to enable library activities.