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Mike Fitts has instituted his first policy as the new president of Tulane: He walks rather than rides.

He prefers to walk from place to place on the uptown campus because, he says, that way he can learn his way around.

And, he admits, he has lots to learn. “It’s a long process of being educated,” he said. “Think about me

as a kindergartener.”So he turns down rides in the dignitary’s golf cart, the customary

mode of transportation for a president going from meeting to meet-ing on the expansive, green Tulane uptown campus. (Although he does take cars to the downtown campus.)

Fitts’ first walk across campus was on Feb. 4, 2014, to the Lavin- Bernick Center for the Board of Tulane announcement that he had been named the next president of Tulane University.

The February event included hugs, standing ovations and accolades bestowed on Fitts and the man he succeeds, President Scott Cowen.

Then Fitts returned to Philadelphia where he continues as dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylva-nia—a position he’s held since 2000—until he moves to New Orleans at the end of June.

Throughout the spring, though, Fitts made several short trips to Tulane, getting to know as many people as possible and as much as he can about the university that he will lead, starting July 1.

HEART OF THE MATTERWhen Tulane Board chairman Darryl Berger (L ’72) announced Fitts’ selection as president, he said that members of the search committee tried to look into Fitts’ heart. And they were pleased with what they saw.

“We’re certain that he will be a leader who will bring people together, infuse them with a common vision, communicate beautifully with them and inspire everyone to achieve their highest aspirations,” Berger said.

Fitts said that he does, indeed, already care deeply about Tulane. “If you’re leading an institution of this

size and complexity and obviously focus-ing on all the challenges in higher educa-tion that every institution faces, you need at the end of the day to care about the place,” he said.

“You need to be emotionally, not only

by Mary Ann Travis

Mike FittsFinds

His Place

Ready to LeadPresident-elect Michael A. Fitts steps into the top job at Tulane on July 1, 2014.

THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF TULANE IS THRILLED TO TAKE ON THE

CHALLENGE OF LEADING THE UNIVERSITY THAT HE’S ADMIRED

FOR SO LONG.

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attached, but you have to care about it and its future. I think that you can only be successful if you have that relationship with an institu-tion you’re leading.”

In his early rounds of meeting students, alumni, faculty, staff and administrators, Fitts has discovered, not surprisingly to him, an unparalleled enthusiasm at Tulane. It’s in the DNA of the institution.

“From everyone I speak with, there’s a passion here and an ambition at Tulane that’s infectious,” Fitts said. “You can see it across the schools in an institution that faced one of the most diffi-cult challenges any institution could—and then came back stronger as a result of it.”

LEGAL TRAININGFitts earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University (1975) and a law degree from Yale University (1979).

His early hero was Atticus Finch, the small-town Southern lawyer in the novel and film To Kill a Mockingbird. Finch’s intelligence

and “deep moral compass” inspired Fitts to become a lawyer, he said, although he did not become a trial lawyer and has never stood up in court in his life.

Of Finch, Fitts said, “He could understand and engage with everybody around him. He could think through issues. For me, he was the ideal.”

Fitts forged his career in legal academic circles, writing exten-sively on administrative law, presidential power, the separation of powers, improving the structure of political parties and executive branch decision-making. He began teaching at Penn Law in 1985 after serving as a clerk for civil rights advocate Judge Leon Higgin-botham and as an attorney in the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

Legal training is valuable for being a president or academic administrator because it develops abilities in decision-making and leadership, said Fitts.

“In law you’re taught about how to think through problems

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systematically. I think legal training equips you to work through multiple problems, inductively and deductively. It allows you to understand a variety of different disciplines. Law intersects with every-thing in the world.”

Lawyers engage with everybody, said Fitts. “And I like that.”

FAMILY TIESThere’s been another Mi-chael Fitts associated with Tulane, and that’s Fitts’ uncle who studied engi-neering at Tulane in the 1950s and then went on to earn a degree in architec-ture from the University of Tennessee and serve as state architect of the state of Tennessee for 30 years.

Leadership runs in the family. Fitts’ father was head of surgery at the U Penn medical school, and his grandfather was dean of the Wharton School of Business at U Penn.

Fitts, who is married and the father of two adult children, said he’s ready to lead Tulane and move to New Orleans.

“There are aspects in terms of culture, music and food in New Orleans

that are not replicated anywhere in the United States,” he said. “That is clearly very attractive and very different from Philadelphia.”

Much will be new and different in New Orleans, and there will be the temptation of beignets. But everything he’s learned so far about the city has been “fascinating,” said Fitts.

One thing he knows for sure—the weather will be a lot nicer than in the Northeast.

SHOES TO FILLFitts said that he doesn’t expect to fill the shoes of Tulane President Scott Cowen, who steps down from the position of president after 16 years on June 30.

“Nobody can fill his shoes,” said Fitts. “Scott is a legend. He is not just one of the most significant university presidents of the last 25 years but one of the most significant leaders in America over the last 25 years.”

Cowen “not only confronted but overwhelmed a series of issues,”

said Fitts. “There are so many people at Tulane who were with him as part of the process, who were part of his success.”

Meeting and working with the resilient people who contributed to Tulane’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina adds to the appeal of the position of president of Tulane for Fitts.

“The story of Tulane is a wondrous story of an institution with a distinguished history,” said Fitts. The relationship of Tulane with New Orleans and the university’s ability to face trials and tribulations and come through them better than before contribute to its character, its grit.

“It’s wonderful for anybody from the outside to see,” said Fitts.As Fitts prepares to take over from the inside of the university’s

main administrative office in Gibson Hall, he sees Tulane as “special and important” in the higher education pantheon.

Tulane has performed extremely well, said Fitts, and it has a huge number of opportunities ahead.

“Tulane is perfectly structured in the sense of having a rich breadth of schools, including arts and sciences and professional schools proximate to each other.”

Research at the boundaries between fields is where some of the most important discoveries are occurring, said Fitts, who as law school dean at Penn reached out to other schools and departments to create several interdisciplinary collaborations and programs.

The interdisciplinary work at Tulane exhilarates him. “Education that brings people across fields and challenges them in

different ways is important for the next generation,” he said.Another component of a Tulane education that Fitts sees as

bringing enormous educational and professional benefits is students going out in the field and into the community. These experiences teach “skills about life, working with other people and being commit-ted to your community.”

Fitts points out that while Tulane Law School was the first in the nation in 1987 to require pro bono work as a condition of graduation, Penn Law was the second.

The public service ethos of Tulane is a signature of the university—and a well-recognized model for the rest of higher education, said Fitts. He wants to deepen that commitment to community, while “working through all the different ways it can be part of the whole learning and educational experience of the students while they are here.”

Taking on the set of issues that Tulane faces today excites Fitts. “Life is taking on new challenges,” he said. “We tell our students that they should not become stasis. They should try new things and move in new directions.”

For Fitts, the job as president of Tulane is “a wonderful case of taking on a set of new issues. I’m quite excited about it.”

Among the most exciting events that Fitts will be part of in the fall is the opening of Yulman Stadium, the new football stadium on the uptown campus.

“Yulman Stadium will have a positive effect on Tulane,” said Fitts. “By bringing football back to campus, Yulman Stadium will bring everyone together.”

Fitts played soccer and wrestled in high school. From sports, he learned more about getting along with people and where determina-tion can get you than from almost anything else he ever did, he said.

Sports are more than just of value to athletes themselves. “Sports are an extremely important way for people to come together and form a community,” said Fitts. “There’s no question that going to and watching a game, whether in person or on television, is an uplifting experience.”

He’s not quite prepared to shift all his allegiance to the New Orleans Saints from his hometown team, the Philadelphia Eagles. But he vows to cheer for the Saints whenever they aren’t playing the Eagles.

Most of all, he’s eager to witness the first kickoff in Yulman Stadium when the Green Wave plays Georgia Tech on Sept. 6.

He’s ready to say, along with everyone else for the first time in the new stadium, “Roll Wave!”

Campus TourMike Fitts walks from meeting to meeting to get to know the campus from the ground up.