Some students are more conventional learners ... [while] some are more practical learners. I'd like to work with faculty and students in order to enhance the teaching and learning experience.

Our goal is to get better students and send a message that these things really matter. The great students will get in, anyway. This is about the middle.

[After graduation, he encourages students to pursue their interests, despite external temptations.] Find what you really love, ... Don't go just for the social prestige or the money. Not that money isn't important, but the people who are doing things they really love are much happier.

[The new dean urges students not to sacrifice friends for studies.] There's a tendency for students to say, 'Right now I need to pay attention to my work,' and so they blow off building personal relationships, ... Don't do that - finding the time will never get any easier, and that is a really important part of life.

If Tufts doesn't work out, my safety is to go back to Yale, where I used to teach.

I've taught statistics, math courses and what I've found is that often if you teach them algebraically the formulas, you'll have one group of kids doing well.