For many colleges and universities across the country, today begins that semester-end rush into final exams. It’s a frenzied part of the academic calendar that Morton Schapiro knows well. He’s in his first semester as president of Northwestern University, but Schapiro’s arrival in Evanston has come after professorial and presidential tenures from coast to coast. Alison Cuddy recently visited Schapiro at his office to chat about his move to Northwestern from tiny Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., and how he plans to apply his expertise in the economics of higher education to his new academic home.

Music Button: Shark Quest, “Armadillotron”, from the CD Battle of the Loons, (Merge records)