Harvard names first female president

Anita Varma Contributing Editor

While the nation muses over whether Hillary Clinton will be the first female president of the United States, Harvard University has appointed its first female president. Harvard University President-elect Drew Gilpin Faust was selected on Sunday, Feb. 11.

Faust will assume leadership of an institution that makes daily headlines for innovations in research and admissions policies, but also one that sparked national debate following former President Larry Summers’ remarks about women in 2005, in which he stated that women, relative to men, had an inferior “intrinsic aptitude” in the fields of math and science. Summers resigned amidst accusations of chauvinism in February 2006.

The Harvard Crimson staff issued an analytical editorial in light of the news of Faust’s appointment. “If we, as observers of Harvard University, learned anything from the rapid downfall of former University President Summers, it is that no man—now, no person—can push Harvard in his or her own direction as its leader,” they wrote.

According to The Daily Princetonian, there has been talk that Faust was appointed because the selection committee, comprised of members of the Harvard Corporation, expressly wanted a female president: “Reports, however, have indicated out that while some Harvard Corporation members—including Princeton professor Nan Keohane—were set on awarding a woman the job, other corporation members had no set preferences for a woman or a scientist.”

Vassar President Emerita Frances D. Fergusson was on the nine-person search committee that chose Faust. Fergusson received her Ph.D. from Harvard in Art History in 1973 and has since become one of 30 members on the University’s Board of Overseers, Harvard’s senior governing board.

Faust has been the dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study since 2001. Her small-scale experience has prompted some concerns about her qualifications for the new post. At Radcliffe, Faust worked with a staff of 81, while her new office will be in charge of 25,000 Harvard University employees. The budget at Radcliffe is less than $15 million, while the University budget is more than $3 billion.

As a Civil War historian, Faust’s areas of research overlap with those of Vassar History Department Chair Rebecca Edwards, who called her a “fine scholar, who has contributed greatly to our understanding of Confederate nationalism and of the roles of both elite and working-class white women in the wartime South.” According to Edwards, Faust was among the first historians to study the “patriotic fiction writers,” who played significant roles in building support for the war effort.

Vassar President Catharine Bond Hill was pleased about the gender implications of the appointment. “About one in four college presidents is female, up from about one in 10 in 1986,” she wrote in an e-mailed statement. “Other formerly all-male institutions have already elected women as presidents, but it is still a milestone for Harvard to do so.”

Dean of the College Judy Jackson was similarly optimistic about the news. “Some people will say that it is an attempt on the part of Harvard to live down the scars of Larry Summers’ comments. But others, I think, will recognize that her background, her social acumen and having worked at Harvard played a role in her being chosen.” Jackson was equally optimistic about the generally increasing number of women in positions of leadership: “More and more institutions of higher education are recognizing that there is strong leadership among women.”
Additional reporting by Brian Farkas, News Editor, and Shahreen Saifi, Assistant News Editor.