Harvard poised to name first female president

updated 6:33 p.m. ET Feb. 9, 2007

In its 371-year history, Harvard University has been led by Puritans and patriots, by clergymen and congressmen.

But so far, the country’s oldest and wealthiest university has never been led by a woman.

That seems likely to change, in what would be a landmark for women in academia. Harvard’s board of overseers will meet Sunday to formally choose the university’s 28th president.

The university won’t say who it will be, but a source familiar with the decision, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement has not been made public, confirmed historian Drew Gilpin Faust has been told her name will be put forward.

Harvard behind the curve
Harvard is hardly on the cutting edge. Already, three of its fellow Ivy League schools have female presidents. MIT, the University of Michigan and England’s University of Cambridge also are led by women.

But Harvard remains the ultimate establishment bastion — a launching pad for leading jobs in government, business and entertainment — and it has historically been dominated by men.

It’s also been the scene of well-publicized debates lately about women in higher education, prompted by comments by Lawrence Summers, the previous president, that natural ability may partly explain why fewer women reach top-tier science jobs.

Those factors make Harvard more than just another school to name its first woman president. And Faust’s appointment, if confirmed by Harvard’s overseers, will inevitably prompt reflection across higher education about the state of the glass ceiling.

“It’s a little like having a woman president of the United States,” said Carol Christ, president of Smith College, a prominent women’s college in western Massachusetts. “It’s a very public symbol of the progress women have made in being seen as equal candidates for the highest leadership positions.”

Faust, the dean of Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, was Summers’ point person overseeing two committees on gender issues formed in response to the uproar of his remarks. In the end, those comments may have helped paved the way for Harvard’s first woman president.

From a $17 million budget to $3 billion
Faust repeatedly said “no comment” in response to reporters’ shouted questions as she left a board meeting Friday at her alma mater, Bryn Mawr College.

Moving to the top post at Harvard represents a substantial jump from her current day job. At Radcliffe, she has overseen what is essentially a think tank with 87 employees and a budget of about $17 million. As president of Harvard, she would oversee 11 schools and colleges with 24,000 employees and a budget of $3 billion — not to mention an endowment worth 10 times that much.

“She will need to scale up, and she’s shown all the qualities that suggest she’ll do that superbly,” said Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, where Faust was previously a history professor. “I think she’s an absolutely outstanding choice. It’s a challenging job that needs a leader with a vision who can also get people to follow her, and I think she’s that kind of leader.”

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