The Other Miracle on the Hudson
The stunning resurgence of Stevens Institute of Technology
2009 was a notable year along the Hudson. A commercial airliner safely splashed into the river, and one of the key educational engines that powered the research and produced the talent that drove America’s manufacturing and commercial prowess in the 19th and 20th centuries almost came to a grinding halt along its western shore.
From where I sit, Stevens Institute of Technology president and electrical engineer Nariman Farvardin’s most miraculous accomplishment is not that he has led what’s maybe the most impressive turnaround in the history of American higher education. Rather, it’s that he only just managed to leave Iran before its 1978 Revolution went full tilt and rocked the world.
“Everywhere I’d applied…,” he told me, “Stanford, Cal-Berkley, UCLA and RPI, had accepted me, but first I needed a U.S. Visa to get out, and the lines at the American Embassy in Tehran stretched for miles. Great throngs of people were waiting in line for days, sometimes barely moving. People slept in line. Meanwhile, the situation in the country was getting worse day by day. Buildings would burst into flames without warning, there were violent street clashes, protests, and swarming military vehicles, the riot police rounding people up. Millions wanted to leave before the Ayatollah’s version of The Iron Curtain came crashing down. I was very lucky: a relative knew the U.S. consul in Tabriz [a city in the northwestern part of the country], and he felt I could get a Visa quickly, so I jumped on a train, at age 22, and headed out of the capital city. I had no clue as to the extent of the uprising and chaos in the provincial towns and countryside. The view from my train window was unbelievable. Every village and town I passed was on fire, the smoke rising as the warring factions ran around shooting, dodging bullets, and scurrying for cover. It was terrifying, and surreal.”
“Wow. But you made it to Tabriz, and got a Visa?”
“Yes!”
Fast-forward 32 years… Stevens Institute of Technology is searching for a new president, its 7th since its founding in 1870. While MIT (1861) and Cal-Tech (1891) are far better known today, in the last quarter of the 19th century, Stevens probably had a better reputation. Its mechanical engineering program was second to none (at least in the U.S.). And, by virtue of his insightful time-and-motion studies, Stevens grad Frederick Taylor pioneered “scientific management,” which is the undisputed cornerstone of all management consulting. In 2001, Fellows of the Academy of Management voted Taylor’s The Principles of Scientific Management the most influential book of the 20th century. (McKinsey, etc. should be paying Stevens royalties!)
However, less than 10 years into the 21st century, Stevens’ performance was lagging vis-à-vis its technologically geared peers. The school was in severe financial straits, high school seniors and guidance counselors steered clear, and the State of New Jersey filed a lawsuit. The outlook was bleak.
Fortunately, a few level-headed trustees and creative State officials crafted an arbitrated solution: New Jersey would drop its lawsuit if Stevens agreed to strip its governance to the studs under the supervision of former state chief justice James Zazzali.
The rescue plan worked. The final—and critical—component involved recruiting Nariman from the University of Maryland, where he’d been dean of the prestigious A. James Clark School of Engineering and was university provost.
Fast-forwarding 12 years… here’s a summary of Stevens’ accomplishments under Nariman’s leadership:
Overall enrollment is up 71%
Graduate applications are up 382%
Undergraduate applications are up 294%
The median SAT score of enrolled undergraduates is up 156 points
Two elite programs—Clark Scholars & Pinnacle Scholars—attract some of the country’s top STEM students
The unique iSTEM program caters to a special class of students that “learn differently,” whom Stevens then mentors in an entrepreneurial way, so as to yield highly practical and monetizing applications in AI, FinTech, robotics, drone recognition, brain and biomedical research, quantum technologies, and ecologically optimal sustainability, attracting some of the world’s savviest investors (e.g., Sequoia)
The institute-wide graduation rate is up from 73% in 2010 to 90% in 2023, a particularly impressive statistic given (i) the national average of under 50% and (ii) Stevens’ very rigorous curriculum
The student loan default rate is less than one-twentieth the national average: 0.4% versus 10%+, a testament to the fact that Stevens students get well-paying jobs and pay off their loans
The percentage of students securing their desired outcomes is up to 97%
The average starting salary has leapt to $85k, 30% above the U.S. average
Externally sponsored faculty research awards (in $ amounts) are up 196%
Positive media mentions of Stevens have skyrocketed 434% in the last 6 years
However, my favorite metrics relate to Stevens’ role as a public servant, and Nariman’s personal commitment to “paying it forward.” Recalling the vital aid Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute gave him in the fall of 1979, which continued in the ’80s, he’s greatly increased the provision of financial aid. Stevens annually provides more than $99 million in financial assistance to its students. Out of every 20 Stevens students, 19+ receive some form of financial aid.
All of the above transpired while Nariman was (i) running a big, complex organization, and (ii) leading a sweeping capital improvements campaign that included building or overhauling eight major buildings, plus 300 smaller projects; connecting everything via some of the world’s most sophisticated information technology infrastructure.
Such accomplishments would be remarkable had they been amassed over the course of a 50-year career. I’m particularly astonished because as a university “insider” for 20+ years (on George Washington’s board of trustees, Georgetown’s faculty, and/or Chicago’s staff), I’ve seen how, often, nothing moves more slowly or grindingly than higher education’s cogs and gears. (I recall how just trying to make a tiny change pertaining to faculty tenure took a decade.) That Nariman knocked out the above in just 12 years is truly miraculous.
Oh, yes, and Nariman developed and holds seven U.S. patents (all awarded jointly). My favorite? “SEAMA: A Source Encoding Assisted Multiple Access Protocol for Wireless Communication.” (But please don’t expect me to understand what it is or ask me to explain it!)
And, finally, he’s managed all of the above while cranking out loads of meticulously researched and cogently written journal articles and STEM book chapters, as well as delivering many masterful presentations at conferences from Japan and Norway to Switzerland and Canada.
It’s not that his leadership has gone unnoticed, just that the kudos have mostly come from his peers. They’ve been noticing and recognizing him almost from the day he arrived in the States, starting with an IBM Fellowship in 1981. He’s won prestigious awards from the National Science Foundation, the American Council on Education, the University of Maryland, and New York’s Carnegie Corporation; New Jersey hailed him as “CEO of the Year;” The Washington Post called him one of “Five to Watch;” and, just a few weeks ago, the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources honored him with its “Chief Executive HR Champion Award.”
I asked him: “Do you think much about the formative principles you learned growing up, and how they have helped you during your tenure at Stevens?”
“Yes, Eric, because you gave me a head’s up.”
“Okay, then. Thank you. Well…?”
“I think six principles have been most influential, and helpful.”
“Great. Can you please elaborate?”
He did…
1. Always strive for excellence, in all you do
Nariman explained how Iranian schools graded on a 20-point scale. “I was a strong student, but if I didn’t get a twenty in every course, on every single quiz and exam, my father would inquire as to why. He never got angry with me, never admonished me or tried to make me feel bad. He simply wanted to know, so as to help me excel. ‘So, son,’ he would say, ‘why do you think you only got a nineteen-point-five on your algebra quiz? What can we’—my dad was always being collaborative—‘do to make sure that, next time, you get a twenty, as we both know you’re quite capable of, hmm?’
“It wasn’t about perfection, which is a very different concept from excellence. Even a ‘perfect’ SAT score allows for ‘mistakes,’ for a variety of reasons. I think my father knew that striving for ‘perfection’ makes people neurotic. But he implanted in me the passion to excel, at everything. Why else do anything if you’re not going to try and do the absolute best you can? I’ll confess it’s hard for me to process how people can strive for anything other than excellence. Not at all costs! Not in a dog-eat-dog way. Quite the opposite, in fact. A high EQ and excellent interpersonal skills are perhaps the least appreciated educational outcomes; perhaps especially at STEM-oriented schools. But not at Stevens!”
2. Know which hat you should wear, and when
“My father always treated me like a peer, a friend, a fellow traveler on the road of life. He was never paternalistic, never did he ‘talk down to me,’ or ‘pull rank.’
“Except once. In October, 1978, when he realized the situation in Iran had become untenable, he called me over and in a completely different tone, one I’d never heard, with a firm countenance that told me ‘This is not open for debate or discussion’—he said, ‘Nariman, you must leave Iran. At once.’
“I didn’t question him. I acted!”
I asked: “Could you elaborate a bit more as to how this principle has guided you over the years?”
“Sure. I’m an administrator, a fundraiser, a researcher, a teacher, and a community servant and leader. Not to mention husband, father, et cetera. Just speaking professionally, I wear a lot of ‘hats.’ Hats on top of hats. I ‘administer’ the finances, the faculty, et cetera. You get the picture.”
I nod.
“While all of these hats are on the same hat rack, if you will, that sits in the corner of my office at Stevens, one size does not fit all occasions. Rarely are they worn for the same function. I don’t and shouldn’t talk with a robotics professor the way I talk with Hoboken’s head zoning commissioner. The way I interact with students and major donors should be very different.”
“Got it,” I say. “I know I’ve seen a lot of instances when a superlative professor who wants to wear an administrative hat—should never be given one, or vice-versa.”
“Exactly, Eric! And it’s well-known that the best teachers are often not the best at research. I’m not the best at too many things, if any. Maybe I’m a bit like Mickey Mantle in this way. I’m not sure he ever led the league in hits, steals, homers, or fielding. But he excelled in every key area.”
3. It’s often true that the three most important criteria are location, location, and location
“In my opinion, Stevens’ location is at or near the top of university locations, worldwide. It’s got easy access to New York City, one of the world’s most important and vibrant cities; easy access up and down the eastern seaboard and to points west, from Boston to Amish Country; it has a breathtaking water view from a promontory like Pepperdine in Malibu; and yet it also has the ‘small college town’ feel of Hoboken—home to Frank Sinatra! Our location is our unfair advantage. That’s one of the things that attracted me.”
“But,” I asked, “did you learn the importance of location growing up?”
“Absolutely I learned it. You and I wouldn’t be talking if my mother, father, relatives, and friends hadn’t inculcated it!”
“How so?”
“A multitude of ways, but I’ll cite two that were pivotal. First, by the age of seventeen my parents realized that for me to reach my full potential and be able to pass the national college entrance exam, I had to leave my small town of Kermanshah, in Iran. [Located 325 miles west of Tehran, Kermanshah is home to Iran’s largest Kurdish population.] Eric, you wouldn’t believe how backwards the schooling was. I am not being elitist. They just had no money, training, books, facilities, etc. It was very rudimentary. Only basic schooling for an agrarian peasantry, more or less. So they up and moved us to Tehran, the big city. It was like night and day. At that time, Iran wasn’t just a ‘developing country,’ it was in certain ways a First Nation country. Vast oil revenues funded great teachers and good facilities.”
“And the second way?”
“Well, sometimes it’s a lot better to be ‘backwards,’ to be a small fish. Had I stayed in line at the Embassy in Tehran, I may still be in Iran! But my mother’s cousin told me to come to Tabriz, and I got my Visa effortlessly in two hours!”
4. There’s nothing as fulfilling as helping others overcome problems, so they reach their full potential
When Nariman was in 3rd grade, his teacher pulled him aside and told him she wanted to see him. “I was so scared! I thought I’d done something wrong, that I was in trouble.”
“I guess not…?”
“My teacher wanted to see me because she wanted me to help a young girl in my class, who was struggling in math. My teacher explained how my classmate came from a very poor family, that her parents were hardly educated at all, so they were unable to help her. My teacher wondered if I might be willing to tutor her. Eric, I remember asking my teacher: ‘What is a tutor? What does it do?’
“Long story short, I worked with this girl for several months, after school and on weekends… two, sometimes three times a week. She worked so hard and made incredible progress! After a milestone exam, I can still remember when the principal convened a little gathering… with the girl, her mother, me, our teacher. The girl, her mother, the principal and my teacher all wanted to thank me. It was a most gratifying experience and I felt so good. I knew then and there that I wanted to be a teacher.”
“Wow. Do you recall the girl’s name?”
“I do! Kobra Anusha. I’ve tried to track her down, several times. With no luck.”
5. Adversity really is the key to success
“Like many immigrants—take our amazing Stevens trustee Emilio Fernandez, for instance—I faced a lot of adversity growing up. And the last thing I will ever do is play a violin and wail ‘O, woe is me.’ Every key battle, every intimidating obstacle, was the precise step I needed at that point in time—to move forward in life.”
“Can you give me an example?”
After mulling it over for a moment, Nariman said, “Yes, my first electronics kit. I had an uncle who was studying in Germany. I really liked him and looked up to him. Once upon visiting home he brought me a gift: an electronics kit. Understand, Eric, I spoke no German at all, yet the instructions were all in German, only German. I never did learn the language—but darned if I didn’t assemble all the electronics devices and components in that kit… perhaps even making up some new ones the manufacturer hadn’t even thought of!”
“That’s a great story!”
“Thank you. It also illustrates Stevens’ motto.”
“Which is…?”
“Per Aspera, Ad Astra—through adversity to the stars!”
6. Don’t get discouraged when a window slams shut—for it had to so a door could open
“To some extent, Eric, this is a corollary of the adversity principle, but it’s specific enough to warrant special note….
“I’m not too proud to say that when the president slot opened up at the University of Maryland, given my record… Clark School of Engineering’s dean, and university provost, the second highest-ranking position, and given how well I got on with my colleagues and the various Maryland constituencies, I thought I had a great shot. When I lost out, I was disappointed and deflated. But then I remembered how, so often in my life, the loss of what seemed a great opportunity was in fact only an apparition, and the only way I was able to avail myself of the best opportunity—was to ‘lose out’ on the apparition.”
“Only because you were passed over in College Park… were you able you to lead Stevens…”
“Exactly. But it’s more than that. It’s the recognition in my heart of hearts that, who knows, maybe I would have been a disaster at Maryland!”
“I doubt that! But I get your point. Stevens does seem to fit you like a glove.”
“Well put. Like the finest glove Italy’s most skilled custom glove-maker has ever made!”
When Nariman said “technology is the key driver of human progress,” I asked him if he had translated that into a Stevens statement of purpose, adding, “ideally, as Peter Drucker always urged, expressed in no more than ten words.”
He responded: “Stevens is inspired by humanity and powered by technology.”
“Excellent! And I think I’ve got a case in point…”
“Please! I’m all ears!”
“I loved the Stevens cites in Fortune and on CNBC about how, when companies appoint a Black CEO, their market cap jumps more than three per cent. If we take Apple’s market cap of two and three-quarters trillion—that translates into a heckuva lot of iPhones.”
“It does indeed, Eric.”
“But what I most like about this research is how it isn’t arguing for some top-down government mandate. A professor in law school… actually I was his research assistant… said ‘government cannot nor should it even try to legislate morality.’ What this Stevens research does is arm boards and managers with the market rationale, letting the data drive the right decisions, instead of some politician who’s probably never been a CEO of anything.”
It seems fitting that an Iranian-American who has overcome so many challenges is leading the way. No other facet of American society has been more of a melting pot than higher education. At Stevens, more than 27% are foreign-born, 25-30% first-generation Americans, still steeped in different, enlivening cultures and world views. If asked to name an “old university,” most people might say Harvard or Oxford, yet they’re still wet behind the ears as compared to the world’s two oldest universities (according to The Guinness Book of World Records). The oldest, Al Quaraouiyine, was founded in Fez, Morocco, in 859; 777 years before Harvard opened its doors. The second-oldest, Al-Azhar, was founded in Cairo, Egypt, in 970; 126 years before Oxford.
The Stevens miracle harkens back to another great institution that hugged the shore of a body of water (the Mediterranean Sea): the famous library at Alexandria, Egypt. Thousands of years ago, it was the world capital of knowledge and learning. Thanks to Nariman Farvardin’s inspired leadership, Stevens has once again taken its place amongst the world’s great institutions of learning, where the best and brightest can come to study, conduct pioneering research, and shape the future in a positive and impactful way.
Thank you! It is!
Wonderful story!