Harvard to name first female president

Harvard to name first female president

The appointment of a new president will be announced on Sunday after a special meeting of the university’s board of overseers, the alumni governing body that must approve the selection, according to a university official with knowledge of the selection process.
Ms Faust, a historian who specialises in the civil war and the US south, arrived at Harvard six years ago. Before that, Ms Faust, a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, taught at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received her doctorate, for 25 years. She has never run a big institution.
Howard Gardner, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said he was “very pleased”. “She is not afraid to say what she thinks and to follow through on it,” he said.
The expected announcement comes nearly a year after Lawrence Summers, former US Treasury secretary, resigned as Harvard president, amid increasing tension with faculty after he suggested that “intrinsic aptitude” might explain why fewer women reached top academic positions in maths and science.
Prof Gardner said the appointment of Ms Faust “puts the kibosh on the notion that people at Harvard do not have a high opinion of women”.

Source: MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17073809/