This is the third installment of a series studying the persona of each Ivy League president—their bank accounts, their haircuts, and the extent to which they’re known and loved. I’m covering each president one by one, in order of who gets the most green for tending to the Ivy. Here’s Yale President Richard Levin, the anti-social nerd turned cross continental titan.

He’s not a smooth talker, but Richard Levin gets the job done. As he told Charlie Rose:

“If you hiccup in China or if there’s a problem in Brussels, you feel it in the United States and vice versa.”

Levin loves China, and vice versa. He’s been there at least twelve times in the past eight years, he goes for camp every summer to play dodgeball with other resident university presidents, and he’s built ties between Yale and Chinese institutions. He may well be a bigger celebrity there than in the United States, or even on his own campus. The Yale Daily News has characterized Levin as a Chinese “rock star.” But upon his fifteen anniversary as university president in 2008—Levin is the longest-serving president in the Ivy League—the YDN also reported that:

When asked about their view of Levin in interviews this fall, undergraduates tended to offer something about his affection for China, and perhaps a reference to the bling necklace he wears at Commencement. But beyond that, the closest contact they said they have had with Levin was when they shook his hand in the receiving line at Beinecke Library after the Freshman Address. Some students said they wouldn’t even recognize him on campus.

The YDN went on to quote one student who wished “he had a more human face to the student body.” Read the rest of this entry »