Universities Weblog

According to news sources, Harvard University will name Drew Gilpin Faust as its new president. Faust is dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and a female (not that you'd know by the name, but you might assume a female would head Radcliffe).

Faust would follow in the footsteps of Judith Rodin and Amy Gutmann of Penn, Ruth Simmons of Brown and Shirley Tilghman of Princeton as a female president of an Ivy school. Faust would break the mold even more, however, given that she's not a Harvard graduate. She earned her bachelor's degree from Bryn Mawr and her master's and doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, where she taught history for 25 years.

In fact, Faust was a professor of mine at Penn (I majored in history).

Nothing's official yet, but sources close to the decision leaked the news yesterday. Read this bit from the Boston Globe:

Harvard University's main governing board has settled on its choice for the next president, two sources close to the search process said yesterday.

The Corporation, as the board is known, will present its recommendation Sunday to an elected group of about 30 alumni, the Overseers, who must approve it, according to one of the people.

Drew Gilpin Faust, the dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, has been the front-runner over the past week, and several people close to the search said they were unaware of any other candidates being considered in the final stages of deliberation. Longtime Harvard insiders said yesterday that all the chatter on campus was that the 59-year-old Faust was the Corporation's choice.

Board members expect to make the decision public Sunday, according to one of the two sources familiar with the search process. The Overseers, who wield far less power than the Corporation, are considered all but certain to approve the recommendation, as they have done in the past.

The candidate will be present at the meeting, according to one of the sources, although it was unclear whether the nominee would field questions or just greet the group after the vote.

The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is intended to be confidential.

You can find the full Globe article here. And stay tuned for further updates.

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