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2月11日，哈佛大學(xué)任命著名歷史學(xué)家吉爾平·福斯特為第28任校長，福斯特也成為哈佛自1636年建校以來首位女校長。自去年夏天哈佛大學(xué)前校長薩默斯被迫辭職以來，哈佛校長人選一直懸而未決。此前，有包括華裔科學(xué)家在內(nèi)的多名候選人成為競選熱門。如今，福斯特終于可以從臨時校長德里克·伯克手中正式接過這座美國歷史最悠久的高等學(xué)府的權(quán)杖了。巧合的是，福斯特的當(dāng)選使美國八所“常青藤學(xué)院”男女校長比例各占一半。
Faust, 59, recognized the significance of her appointment. I hope my appointment can be one symbol of an opportunitythatwould have been inconceivable even a generation ago, she saidat anews conference. But, she added, Im not the woman presidentofHarvard, Im the president of Harvard. With Fausts appointment, half of the eight Ivy Leagueschoolswill have a woman as president. Her selection is noteworthygiventhe uproar over Summers comments that genetic differencesbetweenthe sexes might help explain the dearth of women in topsciencejobs, comments which sparked debates about equality atHarvard andnationwide. Faust oversaw the creation of two faculty task forces, formedinthe aftermath of Summers remarks, to examine gender diversityatHarvard. She has been dean of Radcliffe since 2001, two yearsafterthe former womens college was merged into the university asaresearch center with a mission to study gender issues. This is a great day, and a historic day, for Harvard, saidJamesR. Houghton, chairman of the presidential searchcommittee. Faust is the first Harvard president who did not receiveanundergraduate or graduate degree from the university sinceCharlesChauncy, an alumnus of Cambridge University in England, whodied inoffice in 1672. She attended Bryn Mawr College and theUniversityof Pennsylvania, where she was also a professor ofhistory. Faust pivots from managing Radcliffe, a think-tank with87employees and a $17 million budget, to presiding over Harvards11schools and colleges, 24,000 employees and a budget of $3billion.The Harvard presidency is perhaps the most prestigious jobinhigher education, offering a pulpit where remarksresonatethroughout academic circles and unlleled resources,including auniversity endowment valued at nearly $30 billion. Faculty turned to her constantly as someone whose opinion istobe trusted, said Sheldon Hackney, a former president ofTheUniversity of Pennsylvania and southern historian whoworkedclosely with Faust. Shes very clear, well-organized. Shehas asense of humor, but shes very even-keeled. You come to trustinher because shes so solid. In Faust, Harvard not only has its first female leader, butapresident who has candidly discussed her feminist ideals inamemoir, Shapers of Southern History:AutobiographicalReflections. Born Catherine Gilpin in the Jim Crow era, to a privilegedfamilyin Virginias Shenandoah Valley, Faust wrote that aconversation atage 9 with the familys black handyman and driverinspired her tosend a letter to President Eisenhower pleadingfordesegregation. She then began to question the rigid Southern conventionswheregirls wore scratchy organdy dresses and white childrenaddressedblack adults by their first names. I was the rebel who did not just march for civil centersandagainst the Vietnam War but who fought endlessly with mymother,refusing to accept her insistence that this is a mansworld,sweetie, and the sooner you learn that, the better off youllbe,she writes. |
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