What happens when you become president of the world’s most prestigious university? Suddenly everyone has advice for you. Lawrence S. Bacow, the former president of Tufts University, was named Harvard University’s next leader last week, and already the lobbying has begun. Here’s a taste of what students, alumni, professors, and others say they want him to focus on when he takes over from president Drew Faust after her retirement in June.

Let students have some fun outside the classroom . . .

“Focus on the quality of undergraduate life. Harvard has a history of educating students inside and outside the classroom. Some of the greatest lessons at Harvard take place on the playing fields and in the dining halls. I look forward to seeing President Bacow’s work in this area; I know he’s done extraordinary things at Tufts and hope for the same at Harvard.’’

Andrew Freed, chairman of the Harvard Varsity Club

. . . and actually, inside the classroom, too

“Harvard needs to constantly innovate to improve the undergraduate experience. I would urge him to raise money so that any faculty member can hire any undergraduate as a research assistant anytime. Faculty-student research collaborations can be among the most rewarding and exciting events of an undergraduate life, and awfully fun for the faculty member as well. I would urge him to focus less on restricting undergraduate extracurricular options and more on ensuring that there are more positive options that can provide better alternatives to final clubs. Finally, I would urge him to never miss a chance to extol the joy of teaching and learning — Harvard must always be a place of hope, and hopefully also, a place of fun.’’

Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp professor of economics

Keep Harvard from being a PC laughing stock

“The president of Harvard University is not just the steward of our institution but, because of Harvard’s fame, a voice for the integrity of academia as a forum for free inquiry. Yet universities are becoming laughingstocks of intolerance, with non-leftist speakers drowned out by jeering mobs, professors subjected to Stalinesque investigations for unorthodox opinions, risible guidelines on ‘microaggressions’ (such as saying ‘I believe the most qualified person should get the job’), students mobbing and cursing a professor who invited them to discuss Halloween costumes, and much else. These incidents have drawn worldwide ridicule, and damage the credibility of university scientists and scholars when they weigh in on critical matters, such as climate change. Many of these illiberal antics come from a radical fringe of students, egged on by an autonomous student-life bureaucracy. It’s up to the president of a university to stanch this credibility drain by imposing adult supervision on both: publicly affirming the sanctity of free inquiry and civil disagreement, and reining in the factions that are assaulting them.’’

Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family professor of psychology

Give students independence

“Bacow will have to clarify the student-administrator relationship. Administrators have taken on more ‘parental’ roles in recent years. The attempt to shut down the final clubs is perhaps the most publicized example. There are endless examples of overbearing efforts to create a ‘home’ out of a campus. With each, it feels clearer. . . that the administrative bureaucracy serves the loudest students in the room over the sentiment of the general population, who seem to want to be left alone. Bacow must ask himself: Are administrators too involved? Are they involved in the wrong ways? Whatever happens, I sincerely hope our new president will consider amending the administrative role such that it emphasizes independence over indulgence.’’

Conor Healy, president of the Harvard College Open Campus Initiative

Help us solve the world’s problems

“We would like to speak about Harvard’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity, especially at the graduate and professional level. We believe that it’s important for tomorrow’s leaders in all fields — medicine, law, business, etc. — to be aware of disparities and actively seek to eliminate them, both in our own country and around the world. We hope Harvard’s president shares this same sentiment.’’

Derek Soled and Shivangi Goel, co-presidents of the Harvard Medical School Student Council

Support assault victims

“I would like to see the new president focus on centralizing the school’s diversity work so that all Harvard schools are equally committed to the effort. Additionally, I would like him to make this a campus where sexual assault victims believe the school is on their side and not working against them in favor of preserving the school’s image.’’

Shaniqua McClendon, president of the Harvard Kennedy School Black Student Union

Push us to discovery

“I hope President Bacow will focus on strengthening traditions of free speech, academic freedom, and respect for intellectual diversity that make possible the uncomfortable exploration of ideas that push us to discovery.’’

Jeannie Suk Gersen, John H. Watson Jr. professor of law

Be nice to labor

“I would urge the president to negotiate in good faith with all campus unions, as well as to be impartial in facilitating the election for graduate worker unionization this April.’’

Justin Bloesch, second-year economics graduate student helping to organize the unionization effort

Try a radical new investment plan

“According to press reports, the university now faces a fiscal crisis thanks to the new tax law, which will require it to pay annual taxes estimated at $43 million on endowment returns starting next year. That threatens further cutbacks in budgets throughout the university reminiscent of those incurred 10 years ago as a result of the financial crisis. We propose a radical new endowment strategy to enable the university to avoid such cuts, while putting the whole management of the endowment on a new basis that would better reflect the values of a great university.

“Harvard reportedly faces a tax bill for 2018 of $43 million. In 2015, still the last year for which data are available, compensation at Harvard Management totaled $137.6 million. That was clearly not, of course, the total amount paid to endowment managers, since much of the endowment — we still don’t know how much — was managed by private firms. But if half the endowment (including half the funds handled by Harvard Management) had been in the S&P 500 index, where it would have cost literally nothing to manage, then Harvard would have saved half the payments to Harvard Management, amounting to $68.8 million — enough to pay a $43 million tax bill with a good deal more to spare. Those savings presumably are readily available to Harvard right now, should Harvard decide to take advantage of them.’’

Letter from 11 members of the class of 1969 to Bacow on endowment investment strategy

Stand up for the little guy

“I would ask that the president focus on protecting marginalized members of the Harvard community: graduate student workers, immigrant and undocumented students/workers, and other disadvantaged folks. Beyond that, I would want President Bacow to expand Harvard’s ethnic studies program and to divest Harvard’s endowment from Baupost, who holds much of Puerto Rico’s debt.’’

Anselm Kizza-Besigye, undergraduate first year, member of Harvard Student Labor Action Movement

More profs for popular majors, and keep up the financial aid

“Some departments are overstaffed, some are understaffed. It’s important to do something about that. . . especially with the growth of the sciences. . . . I think it’s important that things don’t get out of balance in terms of what the relative support for the different departments.

“I generally am happy with the job that Drew Faust has done, and I expect him to continue with some of the important initiatives that she introduced, like offering substantial assistance to working-class students, white and black.’’

Orlando Patterson, John Cowles professor of sociology

Dont take money from just anyone

“The Royall Must Fall campaign [when Harvard Law students in 2016 campaigned to change the school seal because it contained the coat of arms of a slave-owning family] would not have been necessary if the university never accepted money from a man who burned slaves alive. Harvard probably doesn’t accept donations from slaveholders anymore, but the university’s resistance to our campaign — ‘Where do we draw the line?’ — was really more about the funding they accept now and will continue to accept in the future. . . . There remains an icky relationship between Harvard University and its donors, and if the university is truly concerned with the free exchange of ideas, it would be in its best interest to re-evaluate that relationship and its effects.’’

Husam El-Qoulaq, Harvard Law School class of 2016, organizer of the Royall Must Fall campaign

Laura Krantz can be reached at laura.krantz@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @laurakrantz.