Harvard University announced on Thursday that its new president will be Claudine Gay, dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She will be Harvard’s first Black leader and the second woman to hold the position, succeeding Lawrence S. Bacow.
Gay will take office in July 2023, just as the university faces a key Supreme Court decision that could force it to revise its longstanding admissions processes, was criticized for considering factors in favor of white and affluent applicants and for using affirmative action to increase enrollment of Black and Hispanic students.
Advocates say that as a proponent of increasing diversity in recruitment and an expert on minority representation and political participation in government, Dr Gay could be a great fit. ideal way with this task.
“Claudine is a remarkable leader who is deeply dedicated to maintaining and enhancing Harvard’s academic excellence,” said Penny Pritzker, chair of the presidential search committee.
Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of Harvard’s Center for African American and African American Studies, said Harvard has made “academic history” with the announcement.
“This is a win for diversity and excellence,” he said in an email.
Dr. Gates added: “Claudine has proven herself to be a first-rate academic leader as well as a serious scholar in her own right. “And under her leadership, Harvard will continue to be a role model in upholding the highest standards of academic excellence, advancing knowledge, and advancing inclusive strategies.”
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Dr. Gay has been a professor of government and African-American and African-American studies at Harvard since 2006. Her fellowship has explored how the election of minority officials affects perceptions. about government, cooperation among minorities and how housing relocation programs affect political participation for the poor, according to a biography on the university’s website. To a standing ovation on Thursday afternoon, Dr. Gay reintroduced herself to the Harvard community, where she began as a graduate student three decades ago, bringing a mattress and a cast iron pan to fry bananas in Haskins Hall.
“That Claudine couldn’t have imagined her path would lead here,” she said.
Hailing from New York, Dr. Gay, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, said her parents had paid for her college education with very little money. Her mother became a registered nurse and her father a civil engineer – a career, she says, made possible thanks to the City University of New York.
“My parents believed that education opened all doors, but of course they gave me three options: I could become an engineer, a doctor or a lawyer, which I am sure other kids have fathers for. An immigrant mother can also empathize,” she said. “Becoming a scholar was not what my parents had in mind.”
The President-elect grew up partly in Saudi Arabia, where her father worked for the United States Army Engineers. She graduated in 1988 from Phillips Exeter Academy, where she has served as a trustee.
Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 2006, Dr. Gay was an assistant professor and associate professor of political science at Stanford University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. She earned her doctorate from Harvard in 1998.
Her tenure as dean was not without controversy. This year, several dozen Harvard professors, including some of the university’s most famous, signed an open letter to Dr. Gay following the decision to discipline John L. Comaroff, professor of Anthropology and Research African American. He was suspended from school following allegations of sexual misconduct.
A university investigation found Dr Comaroff engaged in verbal conduct in violation of university policy, but it did not confirm the claims of unwanted sex. A lawsuit against the university saved by three women who said they were victims.
Dr. Gay was also at the center of a controversy over his decision to deny the 2019 term of office to Lorgia García Peña, a professor of Romance languages and literature. The decision prompted more than 100 faculty members to write protest letters, citing concerns that professors of color – Dr. García Peña who is both Black and Latino – were discriminated against in assignment cases. period.
A review requested by Dr. Gay upheld the decision in October 2021. Dr. García Peña pointed to appoint professor at Princeton.
Ms Pritzker said the selection of Dr Gay was the product of a large-scale search that generated more than 600 nominations and included more than 20 committee meetings. The search committee consisted of members of the university’s governing board, the Harvard Corporation, and the Board of Supervisors
The Supreme Court will rule, most likely in June, in a 2014 lawsuit brought against Harvard by the anti-assertion action organization Student for Fair Admissions.
The case challenges the school’s use of “enhanced” to increase racial diversity in its classrooms.
With many legal experts predicting that the court, with a conservative majority, will overturn decades of precedent to rule against the use of affirmative action, Dr Gay recently said Harvard crimson that the school will continue to be “unwavering in its commitment to building and nurturing a diverse and vibrant campus community.”
Exactly how the school will achieve that remains unclear, but it could require an overhaul of Harvard’s entire admissions process to remove not only the heir bias – children of alumni – but also promote sponsors and athletes to compete in the so-called sports club country.
As he assumes the leadership role of the university, Dr. Gay will face other enormous challenges. These range from local outcry to campus expansion into the Allston-Brighton neighborhood, faculty complaints about the growing workload, and criticism of the Legacy initiative. of Slavery, a $100 million fund set aside to compensate for the historical abuse of slaves by Harvard.
Critics of the plan say it’s unclear how exactly the money will be used.
