Catherine G. (Drew) Faust, a Civil War historian whose tenure as Harvard University’s first female president coincided with a market collapse, campus growth, and a challenge to some of the institution’s hidebound, good-old-boy networks, plans to step down next June, the university announced on Wednesday.
Ms. Faust took the helm of Harvard in 2007, assured of her place in the history of the university and of higher education, while dismissive of the pioneering label that would forever be affixed to her.
“I am not the woman president of Harvard,” she told a reporter. “I’m the president of Harvard.”
Ms. Faust’s tenure began a little more than a year before an economic crisis would grip the globe and bring heightened scrutiny to Harvard, which was criticized both for losing too much money on risky investments and for failing to spend enough from an endowment that was valued at nearly $37 billion before the Great Recession. The nest egg is today worth $35.7 billion.
Drew Faust, Harvard University’s first female president, announced on Wednesday that she would step down. Here’s a look at the top stories of her tenure.
In a written statement on Wednesday, Ms. Faust declared her intention to stay on as president through the completion of a capital campaign, which has already surpassed a public goal of $6.5 billion.
Proceeds of the campaign will support many objectives, including the completion of a science-and-engineering complex in Boston’s Allston neighborhood, a project years in the making that was stalled amid the economic crisis.
Over the past year, Ms. Faust has tangled with Harvard’s single-gender clubs, which are some of its oldest and most influential social networks.
In 2016 she endorsed a policy to ban members of the groups from leadership positions in official campus organizations or on sports teams. The groups affected include fraternities, sororities, and Harvard’s final clubs, which have been criticized as aristocratic networks of privilege that are out of step with the university’s diversity efforts.
“Culture change is not easy, and members of our community will inevitably disagree about how to move forward,” Ms. Faust wrote at the time. "… But we have as our touchstone an educational experience in which students of all backgrounds come together, learn from each other, and enjoy the transformational possibilities presented by sustained exposure to difference. By reinforcing core principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion, the recommendations of the college represent an important next step in our ongoing progress toward that goal.”
Under the weight of scrutiny, some of Harvard’s single-gender groups have gone coeducational.
In a letter on Wednesday announcing her intention to step down, Ms. Faust quoted lyrics from “Fair Harvard,” the university’s alma mater, acknowledging that she had led the university “through change and through storm.”
Jack Stripling covers college leadership, particularly presidents and governing boards. Follow him on Twitter @jackstripling, or email him at jack.stripling@chronicle.com.
