Morton Owen Schapiro (born July 13, 1953) is an American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

and the former president of

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, ...

. Before assuming the Northwestern presidency in 2009, he served as president of

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...

for nine years. Earlier, Schapiro was Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

. In March 2021, Schapiro announced that he would step down as president of

in the following year.

Early life

After a childhood spent in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, Schapiro received a B.S. ''magna cum laude'' in economics from Hofstra University, where he studied with Herman A. Berliner, in 1975 and a Ph.D. in economics from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1979. At Penn, he was research assistant to

Richard Easterlin Richard Ainley Easterlin (born 12 January 1926) is a professor of economics at the University of Southern California. He is best known for the economic theory named after him, the Easterlin paradox. Another of his contributions is the Easterl ...

Career

After teaching at Penn for a year, where he received a Distinguished Teaching Award in 1978, Schapiro joined the economics faculty at

in 1980, where he additionally served as assistant provost from 1986 to 1989. He left Williams to become the chair of the economics department at the

in 1991, rising to become the dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences in 1994, and the vice president for planning in 1998. He was appointed as the 16th president of Williams College in 2000, a post he held until becoming president of Northwestern University in 2009. During Schapiro's tenure as Williams president, the college eliminated student loans in favor of grants for low-income students, tripled its number of tutorial courses offered, and increased diversity, with numbers of students of color rising by about eight percentage points, from about 25 to 33 percent of the total student body. He began his term as the 16th president of Northwestern on September 1, 2009. He is also a professor of economics in Northwestern's Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and holds appointments in the J.L. Kellogg School of Management and the School of Education and Social Policy. Schapiro is scheduled to end his tenure as Northwestern's president on August 31, 2022. Schapiro has thanked the "illustrious" faculty, students, staff , trustees and alumni and cited his accomplishments, including the university's rise in college rankings. Schapiro has served as a trustee of

Hillel International Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, also known as Hillel International or Hillel, is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, working with thousands of college students globally. Hillel is represented at more than 550 coll ...

, and also a director of

Marsh & McLennan Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., doing business as Marsh McLennan, is a global professional services firm, headquartered in New York City with businesses in insurance brokerage, risk management, reinsurance services, talent management, investme ...

Research

Schapiro is among the nation's leading authorities on the economics of higher education, with particular expertise in the area of college financing and affordability and on trends in educational costs and student aid. He has testified before the U. S. Senate and House committees on economic and educational issues and is widely quoted in national media on those issues. Schapiro has authored more than 100 articles, and written or edited nine books including ''Cents and Sensibility: What Economics Can Learn from the Humanities" (with Gary Saul Morson, Princeton University Press 2017); ''The Student Aid Game: Meeting Need and Rewarding Talent in American Higher Education'' (with Michael McPherson, Princeton University Press 1998); ''Paying the Piper: Productivity, Incentives and Financing in Higher Education'' (with Michael McPherson and Gordon Winston, University of Michigan Press 1993); ''Keeping College Affordable: Government and Educational Opportunity'' (with Michael McPherson, The Brookings Institution 1991); and an edited volume, "The Fabulous Future? American and the World in 2040" (with Gary Saul Morson, Northwestern University Press 2015). Schapiro has received research grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the World Bank, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the College Board, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and other groups to study the economics of higher education and related topics. In 2010 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2017 he was elected to the National Academy of Education.

Awards

A fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

, Schapiro has received honorary degrees from Amherst College (2001, where he delivered the Class Day address), Hofstra (2006),

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

(LLD, 2008),

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

(2013), and

Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary (G-ETS) is a private seminary and graduate school of theology related to the United Methodist Church. It is located in Evanston, Illinois, on the campus of Northwestern University. The seminary offers ...

(2013, where he delivered the commencement oration). He is additionally an honorary fellow of

Exeter College, Oxford (Let Exeter Flourish) , old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall'' , named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter , established = , sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge , rector = Sir Richard Trainor ...

Books

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schapiro, Morton O. Presidents of Northwestern University Presidents of Williams College Hofstra University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Williams College faculty University of Southern California faculty Living people 1953 births American economists Educational administrators Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences