4.29.2004
DFP Interview with BU Interim Prez Chobanian
Daily Free Press interview with Boston University President ad interim Aram Chobanian. Some of the more interesting bits:
Q: I mean, I was looking at some 990s, [non-profit tax filing forms], for 2001 now, and that said certain trustees got money for certain things. Do you think under these new rules those sort of things wouldn't be allowed if they were done now?
Chobanian: I think each rule needs to be looked at individually. Most of the 990 numbers that you allude to were not for direct conflict. They relate to the issues, that if you really looked at them carefully they did not have much to do with anything in terms of the trustees. I mean, for example, Melvin Miller's relationship with Boston Medical Center. I know that relationship very well. Mel is down for having a conflict of over $10 million where he is a trustee of both institutions. Well, we put that into the 990 because if you look at the 990s very strictly, you're supposed to put that there, but most institutions would not include that. That same goes with the Barnes & Noble relationship. Just because all of you buy books from the BU bookstore, and Barnes & Noble happens to own that, doesn't mean there is a conflict with our trustee who's a vice president of Barnes & Noble. Most of the situations in there are like that...
DFP: When you moved over from being provost of the medical campus and dean of the medical school to president of the university, what do you think was the biggest shock from moving from one post to another.
Chobanian: I don't think I could say there was one big shock. It was one large shock [laughter] of going from a job that I knew very well and had been doing for a long time to one that I understood very little and had been doing for no time [laughter] and only had two days preparation...
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