Two years ago, when Amy Gutmann was announced as the new Penn President, Street had some unsavory words for J-Ro's successor -- including an acronym starting with an "M" and ending with an "I.L.F." After Street's "overenthusiastic" welcome, the President secluded herself in the West Wing of Eisenlohr (her Walnut abode), shriveling at the prospect of meeting, face-to-face, with Street.
Two years later, armed with a flexible elephant metaphor (see next page), "her eminence" has forgiven Street's past transgressions and has finally put all of her cards on the table. Her slew of one-word answers reveal the Gutmann we've all be waiting for. Whether it's her radical aesthetics (should art be beautiful? HELLS NO) or her self-identification with the gazelle, Amy Gutmann is more than just Penn's hot mom.
Street: We were wondering, since we've never talked to you on behalf of the magazine before, what your impressions of Street were. Do you think it's funny, informative, tasteless or some combination?
Amy Gutmann: All of the above. You once called me hot.
Street: Really?
AG: Yes.
Street: Me personally?
AG: No, not that I know. I don't know that it was you personally.
Street: No, I don't recall that. It was informative, though, not tasteless.
AG: Right ... tasteless.
Street: OK, so here's the question that we think everyone wants to know. What's your preferred nickname: the "Gut," "Gut Gut," "Gutmann," "Guteraminus," "El Presidente," or nothing?
AG: How about "her eminence?"
Street: "Her eminence?" OK. So could you say that all those other ones can go to the gutter, maybe?
AG: You could say that, you could say that.
Street: I can say that, no one else though. If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
AG: Oh, that's easy, a gazelle.
Street: A gazelle? Amazing!
AG: Sleek, graceful, quick.
Street: OK --
AG: Smart.
Street: This is important. Did you think that the "snozberries tasted like snozberries?" Your Halloween party was the BEST EVER. How will you follow up next year?
AG: Oh, thank you. I appreciate that, but it's classified information.
Street: Aww, we figured, but thought we'd give it a try. How about this: who would play you in a made-for-TV movie on Lifetime?
AG: [pause] one of the Desperate Housewives.
ISSUES
Street: Should we move onto the actual issues?
AG: [hysterical laughter] Ooo, now we're getting really serious! Really serious.
Street: OK, here we go. What is your take on "Plateau2005" by Andrea Blum?
AG: [laughs] I'm glad it's complete, and I think it will work just fine.
Street: And as a follow-up, do you think that art has to beautiful?
AG: No.
Street: OK, neither do we...
Street: Can you tell us about your role on the National Security Higher Education Board, because that's something people don't really know much about.
AG: So, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
Street: ...
AG: ...
Street: Um, ok ... I guess that's that then.
Street: To what do you attribute Penn's surge in applications? Is it, by any chance, because of you?
AG: Well, it's flattering to think that, but actually it's because Penn's the best.
Street: Yeah ... obviously.
AG: Obviously!!!
Street: ...
Life of a President
Street: Can you describe a day in the life of President Gutmann?
AG: A day in the life of President Gutmann is time with faculty, students, staff, alumni, trustees, community leaders, Philadelphia leaders, often press. She's a busy woman. It's a busy life.
Street: Do you ever have any free time for like an hour to kind of just chill out on that couch maybe?
AG: Does that couch look like ... [cuts off thought with laughter]
Street: Yeah, that's a good point, it's a little sterile.
AG: I chill out at basketball games and football games. I go to all the home games -- all the basketball and football home games -- unless I have to be out of town.
Street: Do you think the Quakers are going to make it to the NCAA again?
AG: No doubt about it!
Street: Yeah, they're good.
AG: They're not good, they're great!
Street: They're amazing.
AG: They're amazing, they're awesome!
Street: Now that you're in the most public, executive position at the University, do you miss the life of being an academic and a professor mostly?
AG: I get the best of both worlds. I get to be an academic and professor -- I don't have to give that up.
Street: Right, but I guess --
AG: You can do both!
Street: You can do both? Well, we're impressed then.
AG: Not full-time, but I get to do some of both.
Street: Are you planning another book anytime soon?
AG: I am planning another book. I'm going to give some lectures on extremism, on the lure of extremism ... [to photographer] I like your red-and-blue sweater by the way. It's an original!
Street: We don't think that's an accident either. Uh ... if you could teach any class you wanted at Penn, what would it be called?
AG: The Penn Compact and what it's all about!
Street: Oh yeah, why?
AG: [laughs] And "why" and "why," "why?"
Street: ...
Street: This is not related at all to that, but do you ever work out at Pottruck?
AG: All the time. You must not go there, because I'm there all the time.
Street: We don't go enough, you caught us. We haven't been there in years.
Street: Do you ever have to flee from the Penn student paparazzi, or if you're walking down Locust Walk...
AG: Do I have to leave right now? [stands up and walks towards the door]
Street: Yeah ... but do you ever, when you're walking down Locust Walk, get people looking at you?
AG: Well, you saw that the DP took a photo of me last year that I didn't know. They were just stationed there.
Street: You had no idea?
AG: I went out to look at my pumpkins in front of my house this fall, I swear to you, and there was a DP reporter flashing. He had the good sense not to put it on the front page.
Street: [points to photographer] Was it this guy?
AG: [laughs] Kudos to the DP for being everywhere.
Street: Well, for that reason we have to know, any bodyguards in your life?
AG: Why do you think Leah's here? [refers to her assistant, Leah Popowich]
Street: Very threatening presence. Sub-question: do you like the Whitney Houston movie?
AG: I do, I do. You didn't know I was actually her singing coach for that movie...
Street: We actually did know that.
AG: I won't make you hear my singing voice, but I do like that movie.
Street: What's your favorite campus eatery?
AG: Oh, there are so many, although I am a big Stephen Starr fan.
Street: What's your favorite?
AG: I really do like Pod. Pod because it's here, but I like every one of them.
Street: Have you ever met Stephen Starr?
AG: I have! I had dinner with Stephen Starr in one of his restaurants a few weeks ago.
Street: What do you think about his opening a few restaurants in New York?
AG: Well, I think New York needs the extra boost of Stephen Starr, of Buddakan and Morimoto. But he's absolutely devoted to Philly... and every time a new restaurant opens you think "how can he do it again?"And he does!
Street: Yeah.
Street: Tell us a little bit about your trip to India, why you were there, what you did, and we hear rumors of an elephant...
AG: Ah, yes, there was an elephant. The elephant and I bonded, because the elephant reminded me a lot of Penn: big, a little unruly, but loveable -- very loveable.
Street: How often do you commute between here and New York where your husband is a professor at Columbia? How often do you make the trip?
AG: He does all the commuting.
Street: He does all of it?
AG: All of it. Philadelphia is our home, the President's house is our home, not just my home. He does all of the commuting. He's a hero.
Street: Then the real question is, is he a member of the Amtrack Guest Rewards Club?
AG: Well, he definitely is.
Street: That's a pretty snazzy club. They have their own waiting room and everything.
AG: ...
Street: How has your family adjusted to your move into the Presidency? Has it been difficult?
AG: They're very supportive. I couldn't have a more supportive family -- they're great.
Street: Is there any family rivalry since your husband's at Columbia, your daughter's a student at Harvard and you own Penn?
AG: No, clearly Penn's the best. How could there be any rivalry?
Street: Do they challenge that claim?
AG: No, they wouldn't dare. But it is true that you will not see my husband at the Penn/Columbia basketball game or football game. He takes a pass.
Street: Does he avoid conflicts of interest?
AG: He avoids those, and I'm very gracious for that when we beat Columbia.
Street: It's pretty clear who's going to be the winner in those contests.
AG: Well, you never know, you never know.
Street: Last question -- although we think you may have answered this already -- is there anything about Penn that's better than Princeton?
AG: That's the wrong question! Is there anything about Princeton that's better than Penn?!
Street: So do you think Penn's image among the Ivies has grown in the last decade or so?
AG: Yes, I'm proud of being Penn's president.
