Atop President Ronald Daniels's conference table in his new Garland Hall office sit various flower bouquets adorned with ribbons and notes from well-wishers. For now, Daniels moves them aside.
On Tuesday, his second day of office, he is scheduled straight from morning until evening at 15 minute intervals. Daniels had just returned from consecutive meetings at the Schools of Education and Nursing in an attempt to get acquainted with Hopkins's 10 divisions.
"Everyone wants to see you, and Ron could spend all day of the next month meeting with people," former President William Brody, who also began a new position this week as president of the Salk Institute, said.
He has been spending one day a week meeting with those important to Hopkins and getting acquainted with the University, its leaders and the Hopkins community, since his Nov. 11 appointment as president.
"I am clearly, unequivocally in transition," he said. "Although I have clear responsibilities now in making decisions, I still see myself as having my primary responsibility now, which is to become much better acquainted with the institution. So that's task number one."
In this transitional period, Daniels does not yet have specific plans for the University.
"Right now I think it would be imprudent for me to run an agenda until I talk to lots of students, to have opportunities to meet with student leadership, to get a sense of what you [students] believe the priorities should be for enhancing the undergraduate experience," Daniels said.
Although Daniels is reluctant to lay out a list of priorities for his presidency or discuss any specific plans at this early stage in his term, he pointed to financial aid and the accessibility of a Hopkins education as priorities for his presidency and issues that are at the forefront of all discussions.
"My job will be to work with the University community and with University supporters to galvanize support for the preservation and enhancement of programs for financial aid," he said.
While Daniels is not ready to take Hopkins down a specific path just yet, his predecessor will no longer be in the position to make decisions for the University.
"I'm history. I'm not the president. I'm just there to help," Brody said. "I'm not going to intercede or second-guess anything he does. It's nice that I'm not in Baltimore so people wont run to me and say, 'Why did he do something like that?'"
Brody expects his assistance to be needed sparingly, mostly to tell Daniels which individuals are important to the University.
"Obviously he'd love to see everybody, but he needs to prioritize, so I can tell him who he really needs to speak with," he said.
Brody explained that there are certain benefactors he has met with that Daniels may not know about.
Many of these relationships are not documented and as such Daniels will need to ask Brody which individuals are important to the University. Over the last several months, Daniels asked Brody for lots of advice. Brody even fielded Daniels's question while he was vacationing in New Zealand a few weeks ago, according to Daniels.
"He's been the perfect source of support he's only sought to provide advice where its been invited," Daniels said.
In his transition, Daniels also looks to his cabinet, which was passed down from Brody, including Provost Kristina Johnson, Executive Assistant to the President Jerry Schnydman, as well as a number of vice presidents in the administration.
Daniels, who was previously dean of University of Toronto Law school and provost at University of Pennsylvania, feels that those professional experiences will only help him in his position as president of Hopkins, an institution most famous for its medical school.
"The higher up that you go in university leadership," Daniels said, "the less important your actual scholarly interests and teaching activities will be."
Many, including Brody think Daniels's background makes him more attuned to undergraduates. Brody expects Daniels to make a tremendous impact on the undergraduate experience at Hopkins.
Daniels has already been making inroads with undergrads. On Monday he had lunch with a group of seniors to get their opinions on Hopkins and where it needs improvement.
Every morning Daniels has been spending time with the "early bird" undergraduates on the treadmills at the Ralph S. O'Conner recreational center, "one of the great perks of this job," according to Daniels.
"I hope in time that the University community will see me as having been a strong and effective advocate for the undergraduate experience at Hopkins. It's so important," he said.
