by Eugenia Brotons
Dame, Baroness, all grandiose titles held by our colony’s beloved (ex)head: Minouche Shafik. Despite her eminence — or perhaps because of it — Minouche could not escape the scrutiny and scorn of all us voracious beavers during her time at the LSE, the beaver dam.
Any problem, any nuisance, mountain or molehill, it was oh-so-easy to blame it on Minouche. Teachers striking again? Ugh, Minouche. Are exams are too hard? Ugh, Minouche. Is teaching isn’t good enough? Ugh, Minouche. Is the library is too crowded? Ugh, Minouche. Has the Marshall building loo run out of toilet paper? Ugh, Minouche!
Any and all of LSE’s evils cascaded onto her. Of course, that is to be expected as the figurehead of the institution. She was the perfect scapegoat — our overlord, watching us from the heights of the executive office in the CBG, made synonymous with all that is reprehensible, gone wrong, and decaying at the LSE.
However, this only scrapes the surface of our feelings about Minouche. Deep down, we know she was worthy of some appreciation, and the valiant beavers will admit that, in reality, we (sort of) liked Minouche.
If you hung around the 11th floor of the CBG often enough, you’re likely to have crossed paths with her. Petite, unintimidating, Minouche radiated a certain closeness when you encountered her in person. Always impeccably dressed, well-accessorised, with pearls on her earlobes and around her neck and frames matching her outfit – meticulously colour-coordinated. These were tokens of her attention to detail, which she brought to her management of our university’s affairs from her termly Q&As with students to her crafting of LSE 2030, the school’s strategic vision.
In hindsight, it is endearing that we called her not Baroness, not Dame, not even Professor or Doctor; to us, she was just Minouche. A former beaver herself, she was not an alien to the institution; despite any quarrels and contempt, she was still part of the dam.
Minouche was also a do-gooder, an international development aid-monger, working to help those worse off by serving at impressive institutions like the World Bank, IMF, and the UK’s DFID. She led and oversaw the passing of legislation committing 0.7% of UK GDP to development aid — about £20 billion — for poverty alleviation. The extent to which these institutions are really helpful and effective remains an unresolved question. More recently, Boris Johnson managed to undo Minouche’s great contribution almost as easily as he managed to host COVID parties in Downing Street — but at least she tried. Minouche’s efforts, her ambitions, are worthy of praise; she is what many of us would aspire to be if we resisted the pull of those fiendishly high corporate salaries and their incomprehensible prestige that suck us into that dark hole with the rest of the sellouts.
Bright, quick, and with her wits about her, Minouche made sure never to embarrass herself. I remember watching her seamlessly navigate a conversation on Web3 with Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web); impressive for someone with no background in computer science. She dabbled in all sorts of topics as chair or panellist at LSE’s public events, with good questions: always relevant, poignant, and to the point. She did relatively well in representing the institution, and for that, we respect and perhaps even admire you, Minouche.
All in all, she was a good director and one we could be proud of. It’s too bad half a million pounds did not suffice to keep her around. She has sailed off to new lands in search of gold and riches to become the highest-paid university president in the world – in characteristic LSE money-making style.
What does the newly appointed leader, Larry Kramer, hold in store? For starters, his CV isn’t as impressive – problematic for a place like the LSE, where we care (excessively) about CVs. He’s an American, White, male, a lawyer, a bit boring, conformist, and not subversive enough for many of our tastes. Second, he’s neither an alumnus nor affiliated with LSE or any other British institution. Born and bred on the other side of the pond, let’s hope he doesn’t bring back too much American guff. To top it all off, he’s engaged in some questionable activity: putting up $500,000 for Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail (aka FTX, a crypto guy in jail for all sorts of fraud). So, Larry, I’ll be honest, you’ve got a lot to prove and a worthy predecessor to match. What should we expect of you? Make it known to us!
Readers, do you want to air your thoughts on Minouche or Larry? Write us a letter by scanning the QR code below or email us at letters.beaver@lsesu.org
