CAMBRIDGE, Mass.
Harvard University has unrivaled wealth and prestige, but the downside of its storied history is a patchwork of schools that make running the place one of the hardest jobs in 21st century higher education.
Incoming Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust knows that first hand from watching her predecessor, Lawrence Summers, who was pressured out after five contentious years.
Now, she is preparing to try her hand at the delicate balance of inspiration, ego-boosting and cocktail-party cajoling it takes to get Harvard’s 11 colleges and institutes and its 24,000 employees on the same page.
“You have to do it in somewhat indirect ways because you have to bring everyone along with you,” Faust said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “That challenge of movement and collaboration and to keep those things together is, I think, at the heart of every university presidency.”
With trees blossoming in Harvard Yard and commencement less than a month away, Faust’s crash course in governing the world’s wealthiest school (the endowment stands at nearly $30 billion) is waning. The outgoing head of Harvard’s smallest unit, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will take over July 1.
Faust says she has both “symbolic and substantive” plans for her first 100 days. She hopes to fill four vacant deanships, and she says she plans to start a major program to improve theater and visual arts on campus.
