emily: so what do you think of your successor, larry backow, and what do you hope that he will accomplishew: i am delighted by his appointment. i first got to know larry when i was just becoming president and he was president of tufts university. and he invited me to dinner at the president's house at tufts the very first day i was president, july 1, 2007. and he cooked dinner and talked about being president and offered to help. we became good friends and spent a good bit of time together. i would come to him with problems, and when the financial crisis happened, we consulted one another. he joined the harvard corporation, which is the governing body. and so i have been the beneficiary of his wisdom on that group ever since. i am delighted that his experience and wisdom will be carried forward into harvard's next chapter. emily: what do you think will be the biggest challenges for your successor and for harvard in the political atmosphere that we are in today? drew: the cost of higher education and how to make it accessible and affordable. that is something that any president is going to