Bruce Evans and Vice Admiral Nora Tyson

00:00 My name is Nora Tyson. I'm 64 years old today. Today is Wednesday, November 3rd 2021. I am currently in Oro Valley, Arizona, and my partner in this discussion is Bruce Evans and we are both members of the Vanderbilt Board of trust.

00:27 Hi, I'm I'm Bruce Evans. My age is 62 years old. Today's date is Wednesday, November 3rd 2021. I'm currently in. In Boston, Massachusetts. My partner for this discussions, name is Nora. Tyson. Nora is the vice chair of the Vanderbilt Board of trust. And I am the chairman of the board of trust and we work together quite extensively during during the covid crisis.

00:56 So so Bruce to start this off. When did you first realize that the covid pandemic was was going to be a huge of a problem that it was going to be and that it was going to have a big effect on Vanderbilt.

01:19 Yeah, that's that's always there for me that if there's one there's one particular moment that, you know, we had a we had a board meeting in early February and we got a we got a brief thing about events in China and I think there was some events on the other West Coast party organizer. Call related to covid, but it all seemed pretty far away. And I had been on campus in late February 4th for a fundraising event and then and then headed to New York thereafter, and I remember, I woke up on the morning of March 6th.

01:59 And I got an email from a Vanderbilt parent who happened to be on the, on the, the board of MIT. And this particular parent wrote me and said, hey Bruce, I just saw Susan Wente who was that are in her Chancellor's message and I just want to let you know that I think you're a you're at least a week behind best practice for response to what's happening with with with Coban. And and then he said, see the Stanford announcement of yesterday and see the MIT announcement of later today. And an end when I say is that sort of Jarred me in a way.

02:41 But I felt like, okay, I better actually pay attention to this thing cuz it could have it could have an effect on on on on campus and that that from me was the was stuck with. It was the seminal moment. You do. You have a similar experience that that maybe maybe being a win in relation to Vanderbilt or anything else that made you feel that way.

03:06 The news and watching what was going on, specifically in China and then seeing what what happened when the first case appeared in the United States? And kind of is, you know, in my training in the Navy. One of the things that we said is, what's the Worst That Could Happen. Well, I think we, we got close to what the worst that could happen. But when when you called me and I don't know what the time span was between when you had the Revelation and you called, and we talked about setting up the ad-hoc committee.

03:52 Yeah, I think that was about I think it was about a week later because we had if I recall the way of the way things rolled out was that we had this, you know, I had this kind of worried that began with the lives of the email from the parent on the MIT board. I spent a lot of time that weekend the weekend of March, 7th and 8th 2020, with Susan 20 on the phone. Trying to figure out. Okay, what are our next steps? We had an executive committee meeting early in that week to just discuss what to do because our all of her students had just gotten back from from spring break. They literally just come back from all parts of the US, some from overseas. And we began to get reports on that Monday, which I think was the, the 10th of March in 2020 and about possible cases.

04:47 With some of the returning students. And that's that sort of mushrooms and snowballs and and and and by the end of the week, I just go to G's, we're going to need some help that we have to stay out of the way of of Susan and of the team of vice-chancellors, but what while with while they make all these emergency decisions that related to shutting down, shutting down the university but the hard part was okay. Now, once we shut the university down, how do we get open again? And that's that's what I said use. I need some help with this and that formed the committee and ask you to chair it. Yeah, and, you know, again and you said we didn't want to get in a way of Susan and her team working through this, but I think to bring all of our

05:46 Minds together and just kind of think through with it and brainstorm because nobody had been in this situation before and I think putting the the people that that you did on that committee. I think it was it was a, a good group because you had a a broad spectrum of people that had different experiences different business since. And and when we came together, it was kind of like, well, you know, what about this? And we've been through this before, but I think it was

06:33 It was possibly even though I hadn't I hadn't heard it from them. I think it was possibly reassuring to Susan and her group. The, the Vanderbilt leadership that that she and the team had us kind of in their back pocket and kind of talking through everything with him.

06:58 Yeah, I felt the same way to where I mean, I know, you know what I what I also remember about situation was was that that Susan was our interim Chancellor dialed up now, the president of of Wake Forest University, but the time she was the interim Chancellor and and, and, and Provost at Vanderbilt, and we had a new chance or starting who wasn't supposed to start for another three months. Daniel diermeier. Who was, who was, who was then the Provost at the University of Chicago. But, and an n, and we had to assemble a team that included, both Susan and Daniel, but we had the benefit of a medical center on campus and Jeff belzers. Involvement was, was, was critical. He's the CEO, of course, of the of the medical center and that is you say we had a we had a great mix of of other trustees on that on that committee. I mean, you know you as a as a as a as a retired Admiral know about crisis management. We had we had

07:58 We had Doug Parker who was the CEO of American Airlines which was right in the middle of the of the of the pandemic. And and we had you know, many other capable people. Who do I think helped us develop some good good thoughts on what on what to recommend and be I think helped with the issues of of Crisis and and and decision and in an 80-game navigation, strength to the decisions that our team was making the byproducts of having those discussions in bringing Daniel diermeier in early on right at the beginning. Even though is you said he wasn't supposed to step up to the plate as Chancellor until July, but he really got to know the team.

08:58 In to know us and I really think that it made his transition as to, to become the chancellor. It much easier because he had gotten to know all of them leadership. Team, really threw those coded discussions and knew how people work together the relationships, the kind of, really how people think so. I think that was a very fortunate byproduct of the, of the whole covid scenario if you will and then, as you mentioned, bringing Jeff balzer from the star that that was, I think critical because he could give us the climate, not on Aaliyah.

09:58 You all but of Tennessee and then really of the whole country and what it look like and what the projections were. And then when we started talking about the vaccines and how that was going to do to roll out and how we wanted to do it at Vanderbilt. And then we had the communications team, the legal to eat the Athletics team, which was a huge piece of it. What the SEC, the NCAA was going to lie. I think they were very valuable, and, and critical conversations to have as as Vanderbilt worked. Its way through through the crisis.

10:49 Yeah. You know, I know I feel like we got organized early in the fact that we got organized, early, help us help. Help us manage our way through it. And in a way that I that I hope and you know, history judges as as as as as a job. Well done. But let me ask you, when you think about your personal experience through those, you know, those early days or even through the the early months of the pandemic. Is there, did you have any experiences that you would describe as Peak pandemic?

11:24 I wouldn't have to say when when everything shut down because that was just it. It's something that you and I had never experienced in our lifetimes, never thought we would experience in our lifetime. You not anxious going out of the house and wearing a mask. I think the first time I went to the grocery store, I almost started crying because, you know, it was just so profound that we're doing this in in our country and our neighborhood that we, we have this disease. That is so prevalent and it has people scared to death.

12:15 And it ended and it's so polarized people because you had the Masters in the Annie maskers and then it was just one of those kind of surreal moments that you just go really this should be a science fiction movie.

12:35 Yeah. Yeah, I in awhile. I'll save it that for me, the kind of a, the peak was towards the beginning and that, you know, that same week is as, as you and I were working together to form though, the the, the covid committee at Vanderbilt. I flew out to from, from from the East Coast, I flew out to, Telluride, Colorado.

13:02 Because my wife and I were trying to buy a hotel there.

13:06 And we flew out on the 12th of of March planning to be there for a week. And and I remember going to the grocery store and I've been briefed by Vanderbuilt. I knew would shut down the school. I knew the covid-19 and there were still skiers there walking around in their ski clothes and I'm thinking, okay, how am I going to get food? I'm going into hoarding mode and they're all walking around in their ski clothes might have a couple days later than my daughter shows up from New York. A couple days after that, and I was only going to be there a week.

13:47 And I say, geez, you know, you you just showed up from New York. It's a hotspot for covid. You need to, you need to quarantine. And, and so she said, okay, I'll go stay in our guest house. And and so she didn't and two days later. She had covid.

14:05 And we just didn't know, we didn't know what like what to do first. And then secondly, we didn't know what how long she needed to stay quarantined. Sell my poor daughter stayed, quarantine for 25 days and we felt okay, our daughters and quarantine and it's covid. And so we can't go back to Boston. So, we end up staying. You were supposed to stay for a weekend in Telluride. And, and you know where my daughter came down with covid. Right? At the beginning, we we didn't leave for four months. So that's for me was, was, was the peak use where you sliding food through the door or what? I mean, I was we were we were making food and leaving it at the front door, banging on the door, and then she would that she would come get it. And at one point, she got pretty sick and and I called my doctor.

14:56 And and suggest, you know, I'm going to go take her to the hospital. The whole closest hospital was 60 miles away. And and and he says no don't do it. Go get her to get a chance to get her to a lower altitude if you can but but don't have a ride in the car with him. So there was all these. These got a funny choice is hard choices to me. I recall any I'd that was happening all over all over and I know it was 90. It was happening on.

15:25 Vanderbilt campus, you have any, any experiences over the course of the, of the pandemic that were involved in Vanderbilt or not. Not involving Vanderbilt that, that, that were interesting or Worse were seeking to letting people that have

15:48 So I am thinking I am continue to say this since you know, really since we we got into the meat of it and had a few meetings of the ad hoc committee. And then I have the entire board. What really impressed me was how the team work together and it was

16:18 Bringing in the nursing school to work the contact tracing working with Jeff and his team the whole medical center team how they were at the Forefront of developing the antibodies, the vaccines. How does the dean's of the schools work together? The Faculty that Stan the students and then the robust communication plan that Steve hartell and his team really weren't continually, to make sure the students the alumni, the parents that everybody was a part of the conversation.

17:07 And when a decision was made by the school that that was promulgated, the reasoning behind whether it was shutting down the school, whether it was going to online classes, some classes online, opening up the research Labs, you know, did there was a very very robust communication plan that that people could ask questions could make comments to whoever they want me to be at Susan B, Daniel you and really to have that entire team worked together. So well to solve a common problem and it was to me, it was just kind of a thing of beauty to see.

18:07 All of these disparate, I am else a client in this. But, you know, the Food Services people did, he plan operations, people, the housing, folks, the athletic, folks, how we use the athletic facilities as the testing facilities in people, just really having conversations to figure out the best way to do this. And then the whole thing, we hadn't even address was the financial side of it. And the impact that covid would have on Vanderbilt finances, if you will, I don't know if you have any thoughts about that. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think that's an important thing. I mean wheat, there was a worry.

19:03 That that the covid-19 dramatically negative for the University. And in fact, I remember I remember that our endowment at it. I think it was on in March on March 1st or late February of 2020 before covid. Really hit hard. Our endowment was in the range of 77.2 billion dollars and on March 23rd, which was the low point of of the stock market during the covid. Crisis are our dominant Fall by 1.2 billion, dollars to six billion and there was great concern, as a function of the of the drop. In the value of the endowment, the day was going to continue to drop and be that we were we were going to be able to distribute fewer, you know, lower amounts of funds to to the university to to support its it to support its, you know,

20:03 Activities. And then further more when you have all your students and home, you can't, you can't charge for for room and board and when you can and you know, and then you got questions about about other but you don't, you don't sell to be there. There's no, there's nobody that eats on campus. There's lots of things that impacted the the revenues of the university in a negative way. And it was remarkable how our team was able to adjust the way that we, we operated our business and to do that in a way that would bet that maintained our staff employment levels at as as high as we possibly could. And that end that continue to provide our students even in the even in the spring of 2020. With, with everybody off campus, and everything remote with with, and with an educational experience, that led to graduations and led to progressions academically. And so I, I, I have to say that, that, that year, that seemed as though it was going to start off as a fan.

21:03 Disaster because of the actions of Susan with Daniel's help. And with the certainly with the with the efforts of the vice-chancellor's, ended up sounding a resounding success and and it was you that was difficult. It was it was it was not, it was not the kind of year that that you don't want to repeat every year from a financial point of view, but it was not a disaster. It was it was anything anything but a disaster in. In in the context of the situation, I would declare it a success and and Daniel specifically talking about

21:45 What was happening in some of the other institutions of Higher Learning and layoffs. And and there were some colleges that just had to close their doors because they just Financial at he couldn't exist anymore. And in Daniel said we need to figure out how we can leverage what what's happening. Now, it is what it is. We are where we are, but we need to look at where we are financially and how we might be able to take advantage of this and us when we talked about the hiring campaign. And and really got some quality new faculty members during

22:41 Did the covid Arizona if you would all? Because Vanderbilt was weathering the storm. Well, if you will and I think, and just for my perspective, I think there were a lot of other institutions that were looking at Ed Vander Bill and in kind of using it as a model and we were fortunate to have Jeff and the medical center right there that we could leverage in many women, but I really looking back on and I think Vanderbilt weather did about as well as anybody could have. Yeah, you know, so so we feel like we we did, we kind of did the best we could take to get to the the academic year that ended in, in, in June of 2022 to?

23:41 And successfully. And I, again, as you and I discussed it, it, it felt, it felt great to do that. And then, and then Susan went to your interim. Chancellor went went back to her role as, as our Provost and Daniel diermeier. Came to us, full-time from the University of Chicago to become our to become our our, our Chancellor and returned with Daniel's arrival. Quite, you know, we've been we've been working on a plan, but we turned quite forcefully to the idea. Let's get it. Let's get the University open again in the fall of 2020. And let's come back to campus in person and let's figure out what we need to do in the protocols. And we need to put in place to manage the risk of of of that of that objective and I envy you and I you know, I'll just say that they said that we were also helped by the fact that the Daniel dear Myers, one of his main academic

24:41 Discipline management. And so, we had Jeff balzer the CEO of the medical center on her committee. And we had we had Daniel diermeier as our chancellor who was a crisis management expert. In those two things were we're quite useful as the summer of 2020. I wore on, I do remember, you know, I have some memories of this but do you remember?

25:05 You know, the the some of the key meetings are some of the key events that occurred that the lettuce to the decision to reopen campus and to have comfort that we could that that we can succeed. If we did that.

25:22 Yeah, so we we looked at again. What's the worst that could happen and talked about thresholds? And if we might have to shut the school down again, which was really the last thing we wanted to do but it was how we going to facilitate the testing. Who are we going to test how often the contact tracing again? The the nursing schools stepped up to the plate there and then talk in a bit.

26:00 The quarantining and isolation and how we would handle that. And then the decision to delay taking Leon one of the towers because we might need that extra living space to put people in for isolation or warranty in their course, you had to think about the, the student health piece of it is. And if we're going to open back up, Kendall Campus Student Health Organization, support the student body and thinking through the, the mental issues because, you know, Young Folks away from home, the first time, in the middle of covid-19 are having to isolate their having a boy.

27:00 May I ask if they're going to let you know they got to sit in these little circles here. So it was it was really thinking through and talking through all of those things that needed to be in place before everybody felt comfortable, open the door, opening the doors again, but backing up a little bit. One of the things that I thought was pretty incredible was the Vanderbilt it organization just wrapping their arms around it and figure it out how how the University was going to continue giving the students the quality education that it's a known for and making the faculty comfortable with doing this distance learning and all of this Zoom world that work.

28:00 Also accustomed to it. But it's, you know, what are all those things that didn't need to be in place and thought through before, we actually opened the door to bring students back again. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I I I agree with you. I know you think about how how, some of these things were were locking somewhere. Good planning, one piece of luck. Was we bought the Holiday Inn right next to campus in January 2020. And we haven't, we haven't have an extra holidays that we own and we could, we could we could put people into in the other piece of luck. Was that was, that was the timing on the implosion of, of of, one of the towers going to be able to delay and, and, and, and maintain their capacity, as you know, as you've already pointed out. That there was a there was there was like, but then they were. So there was all those things that we're good planning. The thing that I remember that made me, you know, how I will miss the fact that we done that planning and the fact that

29:00 We had a, we had a a way to go for it. Operationally gave me, great comfort. But what I remember in particular was it was August of 2020 and we were at the final decision of the final meeting for a decision about whether we reopen or not in person and Jeff balzer tells a story about the fact that that that that in conjunction with some Vanderbilt faculty members, they had developed a model of of covid and of covid infections and that model told them and they could predict six to eight weeks forward.

29:40 And when you look from that point in August, you could predict all the way till late October, and you could conclude that we were going to be okay. That the, that the, that the rate of covid infection was was going to, I was going to fall and that it would not speak again until sometime after Thanksgiving. And that, you know, the fact that we had this model. The fact that Jeff bought pfalzer was confident it the fact that you and I and everybody else in the committee, could look at the the operational part of the strategy and it felt like it was so well done. Getting made me feel like we would succeed if we reopened and and whatnot and not bring the students back after Thanksgiving, right? And that's the other thing that we decided to do. Which was I think operationally a good, a good move. But but it was you know, it was an it was scary and we have remember we I got a call from one of the members of our committee who said she's you know, I'm I will worry about the decision. We just

30:40 I said to him too. Well, so am I.

30:44 But but it just feels like the right. It feels like the right thing to do and I'm glad we did. It said, no, we're not going to do it because you know, the worst that could happen could happen. And, you know, we're on national news and better Valdez just in a ground zero for covid. But but then I think because everybody really buckle down and thought through this, that we all had the Comfort level that we did that. We kind of thought through all the issues and, and felt good about that decision. And then the other decisions that were

31:36 Pretty big were, are we going to have graduation and then thinking through the timelines and when when does this decision have to be made and Daniel was always one for, you know, let's let's not make it too early. But yeah, let's figure out who's got to be a part of making this decision. And then again, promulgating and in telling people, here's one we made the decision that we did. And here, you know, put yourself and the student shoes that really bored a bra. And, you know, their senior year was just

32:29 Blown apart and saying here's what we're going to do. We're going to do everything that we can virtually. We're going to send you. And I I thought Susan and the team just thought through it beautifully, making a decision on graduation the next year. And Sam. We're going to bring the class of

32:58 20 bags and have a full

33:04 Graduation honor you folks bring your families to the extent that we could the numbers that we could support in the football stadium. And I I think that that really made people feel good about Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt caring about students and their families and you know the importance of their education. Yeah, I think about that, you know that event the graduation event then and I see no try and think about my moments of Pride over the course of that year and there they were there. Really there were a universe kind of

33:51 Three, three big ones that I can remember. One was the pride, The Pride that we, that we were able to reopen or Athletics effort. I remember I went through in the, in the, in the winter of 2020, 20:21. I don't know if it was in December or January. I went to a basketball game and, and it was, I went with with our athletic director, Candace, Lee. And we sat among the cut out. People remember how they used to put all the flat people in the yeah. They were, they just, they felt like, okay. We're we're, we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, which is to be out on the be out on the playing field. At that was one thing I'd say the second thing relates to graduation that you've talked about. What and I was proud. First of all that we held a virtual graduation. And and we we tried to make it as special as we could in the in in May of 2020, but I was even prouder it is. You've already said

34:51 That we we said we're not going to forget about the class of 2020. We are going to have an in-person graduation for the class of 2020 and if it's a year late. So so be it. And I remember I was I was, you know, I attended it. I had to, I gave up, I gave a little little, I read a resolution that the board and Pat thanking them, for their, their contribution, to our success and at at the graduation and I if I recall the numbers we had seventy percent of our students from 2020, back in May of 2021 in person and walk on the stage. And I got more than one note from a parent of a child of the class of 2020 about how happy they were with that. That was his, that was the second thing that made me made me proud. I would say, the third thing that that, that I think made us all proud was when the Hustler wrote the article.

35:47 But it said, Thank You Van Der Bilt and most of us with experience, with college students would have to think that that would be a rare occasion that a college student would actually thanked University and its, and its leaders, and we were in that wasn't another one show. It was, it was quite, it was quite the year. I agree with you. I was, I came away with it. Very proud of Vanderbilt, very proud of the leadership. And, you know, my experience again.

36:29 Being on the covid and hot committee. It it was just I watering for me to watch the team work together. And I know that that is and you know that from your experiences. That's not always the case that is not the norm and it to me it was just it was very impressive to see how the team work together. You know, there were no, he goes, there were no silos, there were no, you know, this is mine. And I'll figure it out myself. It was one team, one fight and and it was looking back. It just really, really makes me proud of the schedule. Well, you know, I just, I think about, I think back to the beginning of the

37:29 Covid in the in the march of 2020 timeframe and and I asked our board. Secretary Mary Beth Carroll. Ciotti to go see what the board had written and what its involvement had been in the pandemic of 1918 19190. I didn't know I wanted to find out what had been done. And the answer was that the only thing that I could find that the board had to say about about that particular pandemic. Was that one one, one remark by the chancellor sometime in 1919 where he said, boy am I glad that things over? So I know that, I know that we've left a kind of a wider Trail for the future to, to be able to expect and, and critique and, and, and perhaps learn from and I'm proud of that too. And I have to say,

38:29 Do you hurt your involvement was was critical and and your contribution was spectacular. And I just wanted to say thanks for all your hard work during during the crisis and congratulations to you. For for for tell all of us for for, for a good year that we had, even though it was tougher than most. You know, your leadership of the board is has been incredible since day one in your thinking about, you know, this is our role is the boarded. Try it again. Nobody had been through anything like code that didn't you just said, you know, we got to do more we got, you know, we got to step up to the plate and we've got to help be a part of the solution and I think, you know, your leadership was fabulous. So my hat's off to you, too. Thanks.

39:29 Thanks. Thanks. Will anyhow, it was great to have the opportunity to speak to the Future. Tell my grandchildren to come find us recording that we didn't know the puffy paint off. Okay?

39:47 Yeah, me too.