By Demetrius Dillard
The nation’s oldest university has officially made history in a move that was met with widespread approval of many distinguished figures in academia.
Harvard University recently named Claudine Gay will serve as the university’s 30th president. Not only will she be Harvard’s first Black president, but Gay is the second woman at the helm in the university’s 386-year history.
Drew Gilpin Faust was the school’s first female president, serving from 2007 to 2018. Lawrence Bacow, Harvard’s current president, took over the reins after Faust’s departure and recently announced he will be stepping down from his role in June 2023.
Thus, Gay’s first official day as the Harvard president will be on July 1, 2023.
While the announcement is esteemed as a major victory for Black people, women and minorities as a whole in higher education, Gay will take office with a number of challenges that she will be faced with, including legal battles over affirmative action, student protests regarding divestment, diversity issues and more.
According to a report by the Harvard Crimson, the school’s student newspaper, Gay will take the helm as the Supreme Court is expected to “issue a decision on a high-stakes affirmative action lawsuit against Harvard that could reshape admissions processes across American higher education.”
She will carry the arduous task of directing Harvard’s finances amid a historic inflation that gave rise to a reported $2.3 billion drop in the university’s endowment value this year.
Notwithstanding, she has the support of her colleagues and numerous individuals within the campus community, including Bacow and Henry Louis Gates Jr., a fellow Harvard professor and researcher. Bacow was quoted admiring Gay as a woman of “bedrock integrity.”
“Over the last five years, Claudine and I have worked very closely together,” Bacow said.
“She is a terrific academic leader with a keen mind, great leadership and communication skills, excellent judgment, and a basic decency and kindness that will serve Harvard well. Perhaps most importantly, she commands the respect of all who know her and have worked with her.
“She will provide Harvard with the strong moral compass necessary to lead this great university. The search committee has made an inspired choice for our 30th president. Under Claudine Gay’s leadership, Harvard’s future is very bright.”
The 52-year-old is the daughter of Haitian immigrants and received her bachelor’s degree in from Stanford as an economics major before going to receive a master’s and Ph.D. in government from Harvard 1998, where she won the Toppan Prize for best dissertation in political science.
Regarded as a “quantitative social scientist with expertise in political behavior,” Gay was an assistant professor and then tenured associate professor at Stanford prior to joining Harvard as a professor of government 2006.
A year later, Gay was also appointed a professor of African and African American Studies, later being named the Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government in 2015, which is when she also became dean of social science at Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).
The Bay State Banner, a Black newspaper based in Boston, reported that students’ reaction to Gay’s appointment was favorable for the most part, with some waiting to pass judgment until she addresses notable issues prevalent on campus.
“To have Dean Gay serve as the next Harvard president is a massive success that is cause for celebration,” said 20-year-old Laeticia Allache, according to a Bay State Banner report. “At the same time, I also hope that Dean Gay’s appointment is more than a symbolic gesture of inclusion and progress. The enduring issues that perpetuate systemic inequality at Harvard must be addressed.”
Gay, the founding chair of Harvard’s Inequality in America Initiative, appears to be beyond elated to take on her new role. She delivered remarks at a Dec. 15 ceremony where officials introduced her as Harvard’s president-elect.
“I love this place. Harvard is where I found my intellectual home. It has nurtured and inspired me since I first set foot in the Yard. I am deeply invested, not only in what Harvard is today, but also in what Harvard’s leadership means for the future,” Gay said.
“With the strength of this extraordinary institution behind us, we enter a moment of possibility; one that calls for deeper collaboration across the university, across all of our remarkable schools. An urgency for Harvard to be engaged with the world. And a need to bring bold, brave, pioneering thinking to our greatest challenges.”
Gay’s appointment could shape the future of diversity in the professional world, possibly opening the door for substantial opportunities for Black women at Ivy League institutions and other establishments of higher learning – not only in the classrooms and the research labs, but at the administrative level.
