Harvard University has set a major milestone with the recent appointment of its first Black president. According to REVOLT, Claudine Gay, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, will officially assume the role on July 1, 2023. Gay will be the 30th president of Harvard, and its second woman to lead.
The university announced the decision on December 15 during an on-campus press conference. Gay shared her reaction to the decision.
I am humbled by the confidence that the governing boards have placed in me and by the prospect of succeeding President Bacow in leading this remarkable institution. It has been a privilege to work with Larry over the last five years. He has shown me that leadership isn’t about one person. It’s about all of us, moving forward together, and that’s a lesson I take with me into this next journey.
Gay will succeed Lawrence Bacow. Bacow is set to step down at the end of the 2022-23 academic year, as reported by BET.
Over the last five years, Claudine and I have worked very closely together. 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.
Penny Pritzker, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation and chair of the school’s presidential search committee, also shared remarks about Gay.
Claudine is a remarkable leader who is profoundly devoted to sustaining and enhancing Harvard’s academic excellence, to championing both the value and the values of higher education and research, to expanding opportunity, and to strengthening Harvard as a fount of ideas and a force for good in the world. Claudine has brought to her roles a rare blend of incisiveness and inclusiveness, intellectual range and strategic savvy, institutional ambition and personal humility, a respect for enduring ideals, and a talent for catalyzing change.
As I start my tenure, there’s so much more for me to discover about this institution that I love, and I’m looking forward to doing just that, with our whole community.
Roommates, are you happy to hear of Gay’s election?
