The Washington Post - USA (2022-06-09)

A18 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, JUNE 9 , 2022

groceries.”

Back in South Texas, Alaniz

said fuel prices have forced

changes in his commute and col-

lege plans. He used to make the

roughly 60-mile drive from his

family’s ranch near Alice to Cor-

pus Christi, where he attends

college, in his Chevy Silverado

2500 , a large pickup that he

estimates squeaks out 14 mpg on

the highway

Even with a part-time job, the

charges have become unbear-

able. “You’re talking about $

gives me half a tank,” he said.

So he’s trading in his Chevy for

a smaller truck that gets better

mileage. He’s also switching to

online classes for the upcoming

semester.

Such wholesale lifestyle

changes illustrate a tipping

point: Studies have shown that

consumers don’t adjust their fuel

spending much in response to

short-term price changes, at least

not in comparison with other

Empty wallets, empty tanks: More drivers are running dry

The escalating expense, com-
bined with the rising costs of
food, housing and other essen-
tials, has consumers playing in-
flationary whack-a-mole, making
tougher choices on how much
they can spend and when. Some
drivers may do a partial fill-up if
they’re pressed for cash at the end
of a pay cycle, says Patrick De
Haan, head of petroleum analysis
at GasBuddy.
“If you only have five or 10
bucks left before your next pay-
check, that’s what you’re going
on,” De Haan said. “This tells us
people are really hurting from
high gas prices.”
A Washington Post-Schar
School poll bears that out: 44 per-
cent of drivers randomly contact-
ed between April 21 and May 12
said they have only partially filled
their car’s gas tank, a figure that
rises to 61 percent for drivers
with incomes below $50,000.
And more than 6 in 10 drivers
have made the decision to drive
less — making fewer trips to the
grocery store, for example —
while more than 3 in 10 said they
are driving at reduced speeds,
which can improve gas mileage.
Gasoline demand, measured
as a four-week moving average,
dropped to 8.8 million barrels a
day for the week ended May 20,
according to the U.S. Energy In-
formation Administration. If you
exclude 2020, that’s the lowest
level for that time of year since
2013.
Alina Hille, 35, is used to cut-
ting it close between fill-ups but
had never actually run out until a
recent Monday afternoon, side-
lined on a St. Louis street with
her son, 4, and daughter, 7, in tow.
The three trudged to the nearest
fuel station, where the loaner gas
can was out with another cus-
tomer. So Hille, who works as a
therapist for a nonprofit, pur-
chased a one-gallon canister for
$1.50, filled it up and managed to
get home in time to jump on a
Zoom call.
She has found ways to pare
back — she works from home
more often and is more likely to
walk her kids to school — but the
financial challenge is profound:
As of Wednesday, a full tank of
gas would run her $67 — $
more than a month ago.
“I find myself not doing things
I used to with the kids because of
the gas prices,” Hille said. “We
used to go for drives when they
are restless or try to drive to
playgrounds, or destinations
they haven’t been to before.”
Now, she says, “I’d rather buy

GAS PRICES FROM A

PHOTOS BY WHITNEY CURTIS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Alina Hille fills up this week at a QuikTrip in St. Louis. Hille is

used to cutting it close between fill-ups but had never run out of gas

until a recent outing with her young son and daughter that left

them trudging to the nearest station. She works from home more

often and is more likely to walk the kids to school to save on fuel

costs; a full tank now costs her $67, $9 more than a month ago.

storm, and collectively we have

made Harvard better and stron-

ger in countless ways.”

Bacow’s announcement comes

at a time of transition for several

prominent universities and after

an exceptionally challenging two-

plus years of fallout from the

public health crisis. In recent

months the presidents of Colum-

bia University, Dartmouth Col-

lege, Howard University and the

Massachusetts Institute of Tech-

nology, among others, have de-

clared plans to step down.

In early March 2020, as the

coronavirus was spreading rapid-

ly across the United States, Har-

vard was one of the first univer-

sities to send students home. The

pivot to online classes and seem-

ingly endless questions about vi-

rus testing, infection levels, mask-

ing policies, remote instruction,

hybrid learning, student gap

years, mental health care, vacci-

nation requirements, faculty safe-

ty, financial troubles and more

BY NICK ANDERSON

Lawrence S. Bacow, who has
led Harvard University as presi-
dent through the tumult of the
coronavirus pandemic and an in-
tensive reckoning with its historic
role in slavery and racial discrimi-
nation, announced Wednesday
that he will step down after the
next academic year.
Bacow, 70, will have served five
years as Harvard’s 29th president
by the time he leaves one of the
world’s most influential educa-
tion leadership positions on June
30, 2023. That is less than half the
tenure of his predecessor, Drew
Gilpin Faust, who was president
for 11 years.
“There is never a good time to
leave a job like this one, but now
seems right to me,” Bacow said in
a statement to the Harvard com-
munity. “Through our collective
efforts, we have found our way
through the pandemic. We have
worked together to sustain Har-
vard through change and through

created a chaotic and unprec-

edented situation for colleges and

universities everywhere. Har-

vard, the nation’s oldest institu-

tion of higher education, was no

exception.

Bacow and his wife, Adele,

were infected in March 2020. Af-

ter they recovered from covid-19,

Bacow told the Harvard Gazette

that he had gotten tested at that

early moment because of an auto-

immune condition that made him

vulnerable to infection. “And

when we tested positive I thought,

‘This is going to be interesting,’ ”

Bacow said.

In one of the key decisions

Bacow made that year, Harvard

joined with MIT in a lawsuit

challenging a Trump administra-

tion order that would have re-

quired international students to

take classes in person despite the

prevalence of remote instruction

in fall 2020. There were fears that

some students could be deported

or that schools could be pressured

to reopen in person prematurely.

But the administration backed

down in the face of the legal

challenge.

Leaders of the Harvard Corpo-

ration, the university’s principal

governing board, praised Bacow’s

handling of the health crisis. Wil-

liam F. Lee, the outgoing senior

fellow on the board, and Penny

Pritzker, who will take over from

Lee on July 1, said in a statement

that Bacow had worked “relent-

lessly to keep Harvard’s core activ-

ities of education, research, and

service moving forward under

conditions that none of us would

have envisioned.”

Bacow served several years on

the board before he became presi-

dent in July 2018. He was previ-

ously president of Tufts Univer-

sity and spent much of his career

at MIT, holding positions as a

professor of environmental stud-

ies, chair of the faculty and chan-

cellor.

In September 2019, Bacow

caused an uproar with a remark

that compared a fundraising pol-

icy, in which wealthy alumni

would not be “owned” by individ-

ual Harvard schools, to the 13th

Amendment, which banned slav-

ery. The remark drew instant crit-

icism as an inappropriate com-

parison, and Bacow said after-

ward that he regretted causing

offense.

Under Bacow, Harvard under-

took a major review of its ties to

slavery and racial discrimination.

The university released a land-

mark report in April that found

Harvard leaders, faculty and staff

had enslaved more than 70 indi-

Harvard’s president reflects on his tenure as he prepares to step down

BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS

Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow speaks during

commencement exercises in Cambridge, Mass., on May 26.

Led university through

the tumult of racial

reckoning and pandemic

everyday purchases. Rather, it

usually takes sustained increases

to affect behavior, said Roger

Ware, an economist with Queen’s

University in Ontario.

“People will maintain their

driving habits in the short term

because they do not see an alter-

native to meeting their goals,

whether for commuting or recre-

ational driving. Over a period of

months or years, however, many

things will change if prices stay

high,” Ware said.

If prices remain elevated, he

said, more commuters will

switch to public transit or car-

pooling. Consumers also will be

more prone to rethink their vehi-

cles and trade them in for more

fuel-efficient options. And some

people will move closer to work

to lighten commutes, or do more

of their work remotely.

Price hikes, coupled with more

Americans resuming their pre-

pandemic driving habits, could

be contributing to the spike in

out-of-gas calls, according to

AAA repair systems manager Da-

vid Bennett.

Only about 2 percent of AAA’s

total roadside assistance calls

each month are fuel-related, a

proportion that is roughly equiv-

alent to before the pandemic. In

March 2019, when fuel was cheap

and more vehicles were on the

road, there were 53,800 fuel-re-

lated assistance calls.

“People have been stuck at

home for the past couple years,”

Bennett said. “They’re looking for

opportunities to go and explore.”

For Danielle Socha, who makes

food deliveries for three apps in

the San Diego area, a tank of gas

runs about $83. She’s run out so

many times it’s become a running

joke with her friends and family.

“My gas gauge is broken,” she

said. “I don’t get a read on my car

and this keeps happening.”

She keeps an empty container

in her car so she can walk to a gas

station if necessary. Socha says

she occasionally gets dirty looks

from passersby, but she’s also

benefited from acts of kindness.

In the most recent incident, a

young man helped push her 2013

Volkswagen Jetta off the road

when he saw her waving a white

rain jacket in the air.

The price hikes also have given

rise to bizarre instances of fuel

theft. A San Diego couple called

police after they found a hole

drilled in the bottom of a car,

emitting a steady stream of gas,

according a March 21 report from

CBS8. Similar incidents have

been reported in Memphis, Las

Vegas and other cities.

Three Florida men were ar-

rested and face racketeering

charges on accusations of steal-

ing thousands of gallons of diesel

directly from gas stations, trans-

porting it in 300-gallon “gasoline

bladders” and reselling it, ac-

cording to Newsweek.

viduals during the 17th and 18th

centuries when slavery was legal

in Massachusetts. The report also

explored Harvard’s extensive ties

to wealth generated from slave

labor in the South and Caribbean,

and the connections between

some of its presidents and faculty

to the eugenics movement and

other theories used to promote

white supremacy.

“Harvard benefited from and in

some ways perpetuated practices

that were profoundly immoral,”

Bacow said at the time. “Conse-

quently, I believe we bear a moral

responsibility to do what we can

to address the persistent corro-

sive effects of those historical

practices on individuals, on Har-

vard, and on our society.”

In his final year, Bacow and

Harvard will be in the spotlight

again as the Supreme Court con-

siders a lawsuit that challenges

the university’s use of race as a

factor in admissions. Oral argu-

ments in that case are expected in

the fall. Bacow has been a fierce

proponent of keeping the race-

conscious admissions policy. In

January, he said the court’s deci-

sion to take up the case “puts at

risk 40 years of legal precedent

granting colleges and universities

the freedom and flexibility to cre-

ate diverse campus communities.”

BY LORI ARATANI

Spirit Airlines announced
Wednesday it has postponed a
Friday meeting in which share-
holders were slated to vote on a
plan to merge with Frontier Air-
lines. The meeting was moved to
June 30.
The announcement comes two
days after JetBlue Airways,
which has its own plan to acquire
Spirit, sweetened its offer for the
carrier by $150 million, saying it
would pay Spirit $350 million in
the “unlikely” event that a merg-
er between the two carriers

Spirit Airlines delays shareholder meeting on merger with Frontier

failed to win regulatory approv-

al. A portion of that reverse

breakup fee would include a cash

payment to shareholders.

That revised proposal came

after Frontier said last week that

it would offer a $250 million

reverse breakup fee if its pro-

posed deal with Spirit wasn’t

approved by regulators.

Spirit said the delay will give

its board of directors time to

continue discussions with Spirit

shareholders, as well as with

Frontier and JetBlue.

“I know this delay may be

frustrating — I’m sure you were

eager to hear the results of the

shareholder vote and have a bet-

ter idea of what lies ahead,”

Spirit chief executive Ted Chris-

tie wrote in a note to employees

Wednesday. “Let me reassure

you as we go through this proc-

ess, we remain focused on the

well-being of our Spirit family.”

Christie said Spirit remains

bound by the terms of its merger

agreement with Frontier and has

not determined that JetBlue’s

unsolicited tender offer or its

updated proposal received Mon-

day “constitutes a Superior Pro-

posal as defined in the merger

agreement with Frontier.”

In a news release, Spirit said it

continues to recommend that

shareholders adopt the merger

agreement with Frontier. Even

so, JetBlue chief executive Robin

Hayes said he took the delay as a

positive sign.

“We welcome this develop-

ment as a necessary first step

toward genuine negotiations be-

tween the Spirit Board and Jet-

Blue,” he said in a statement.

“Spirit shareholders are clearly

urging the Spirit Board to engage

with us constructively and pro-

vide us with the same informa-

tion previously made available to

Frontier so that we can reach a

consensual transaction.”

Representatives for Frontier

said the carrier had no com-

ment.

The reverse breakup fees offer

Spirit investors an insurance

policy if regulators block either

deal. While JetBlue is offering

more money, Spirit’s board has

rejected the proposal because of

concerns that it can’t pass regu-

latory scrutiny — particularly as

the Biden administration’s Jus-

tice Department is taking a more

aggressive look at consolidation

in several industries.

A Frontier-Spirit merger also

would face scrutiny, but Spirit’s

board has indicated it believes

that deal has a better chance of

being approved.

American Airlines, Delta Air

Lines, United Airlines and

Southwest Airlines dominate the

domestic industry, and many

consumer advocates are con-

cerned that the loss of another

carrier could reduce competition

and could lead to higher fares. A

Spirit merger with either JetBlue

or Frontier would create the na-

tion’s fifth-largest airline.