(Source: Harvard University)

It wasn't that long ago (1994) when Judith Rodin became the first woman to lead an Ivy League school. When Drew Faust takes over as Harvard's president in July, half of the Ivies will be headed by women.

Those women, along with Rodin, met recently at Harvard to compare notes. Here's a brief synopsis from the Harvard Gazette:

In a historic first, Harvard on Wednesday (May 2) hosted "Women at the Top: The Changing Face of the Ivies," a summit of the five women who lead, have led, or will soon lead America's most prestigious universities.

The panel spent 90 minutes in public conversation at a crowded Loeb Drama Center on Brattle Street. Rare in any theater setting, the standing ovation came first, before a word was said. A largely female audience greeted the five groundbreaking women with hoots and cheers and prolonged applause.

Judith Rodin, the first woman named president of an Ivy, was on the panel, which was billed as a Voices of Public Intellectuals Lecture. Rodin, a research psychologist, broke a centuries-old barrier in 1994 when she stepped into office at the University of Pennsylvania. Under her tenure, Penn doubled its research budget and tripled the size of its endowment. She is now president of the Rockefeller Foundation.

"Of course, it's been a glorious surprise," said Rodin, a former provost of Yale University. "These things are never planned."

The meeting itself was planned two years ago, "in circumstances quite different" from today, said moderator Drew G. Faust, who was named president of Harvard just over two months ago. She is currently Lincoln Professor of History and dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, which sponsors the lecture series.

Joked Faust, "I arranged a tutorial for myself."

Filling out the panel were the three women who currently head Ivy League institutions.

Read the rest here. Times do change, don't they?