In a historic first, Harvard University inaugurated new president Claudine Gay on Friday, the first Black person and second woman to lead the university.
“I stand before you on this stage with the weight and the honor of being a first,” Gay told an audience huddled under umbrellas and windbreakers, as rain poured down on the inauguration ceremony in Cambridge.
Gay is the 30th president since Harvard University’s founding in 1640. In her inaugural speech, she spoke of her vision for the Ivy League school.
“I stand before you today humbled by the prospect of leading Harvard, emboldened by the trust you have placed in me, and energized by your own commitment to this singular institution and to the common cause of higher education,” she said.
“The courage of this University — our resolve, against all odds — to question the world as it is and imagine and make a better one: It is what Harvard was made to do,” Gay said.
In an address on Friday afternoon, Massachusetts Governor and Harvard graduate Maura Healey noted the significance of Gay’s presidency
“President Gay, your presidency is truly historic,” Healy said. “You have my admiration and support.”
The Harvard Corporation, the University’s principal governing board, elected Gay after an intensive search.
“Claudine is a person of bedrock integrity,” outgoing president Lawrence Bacow said in the Harvard Gazette. “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.”
Gay received her Ph.D. in government from Harvard in 1998 and joined the Harvard faculty in 2006.
She received the Toppan Prize for best dissertation in political science, according to the Harvard Gazette.
Gay previously served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She’s also a leading scholar of political behavior and is the founding chair of the Inequality in America Initiative, a multidisciplinary effort launched in 2017 to research social and economic inequality.
wubbalubbazubzub on October 1st, 2023 at 21:03 UTC »
Youngworker160 on October 1st, 2023 at 17:22 UTC »
so besides the representation, what are her goals for the university? will she lower tuition or make it free for students, considering the incredible endowment harvard has, nearly 50 billion, will she be increasing the salary of those that work for the university?
I ask b/c i am cynical, people and institutions adopt identity politics as a bulwark against critique while upholding the status quo. which typically means the elites get a free pass so they can get their bonafides and they can network to get those cushy BS jobs in the future. those that actually merit it get straddled with student loan debt but are held up as the face of meritocracy at work and all those VPs and executive on the board of harvard get some fat checks.
Vphoenix007 on October 1st, 2023 at 16:58 UTC »
She's a Gay and black??? Well done Harvard! Inb4 obvious joke is obvious!