On Southeast Trip, Faust Talks Harvard’s Role

UPDATED: November 10, 2015, at 2:15 p.m.

University President Drew G. Faust made a series of appearances in the southeastern United States last week as part of her ongoing “Your Harvard” fundraising tour, emphasizing the impact of higher education and Harvard’s role in combating societal issues like housing and racial inequality.

In addition to at least two policy-oriented speeches, Faust addressed a gathering of more than 350 Harvard alumni and affiliates in Atlanta on the topic of “Education as a Civil Right.” During her speech, Faust recalled skipping exams to travel to Selma, Ala., to join Civil Rights protesters in 1965, an experience she drew upon multiple times during her trip.

University President Drew G. Faust, pictured here during an interview in December 2014. By Robert F Worley

The event, entitled “Your Harvard: Atlanta,” is the latest in a string of large alumni-centric fundraising events tied to Harvard’s record-seeking capital campaign. Faust has also traveled internationally to Mexico City and London, and spoken with Chinese President Xi Jingping in Beijing. She has also taken trips to Chicago, Dallas, New York City, and Los Angeles, all to raise money.

These efforts have helped Harvard raise $6.1 billion, more than 90 percent of the campaign’s $6.5 billion goal, which would be a higher education fundraising record if reached.

Two Harvard professors, Meira Levinson and Roland G. Fryer, Jr., joined Faust in Atlanta for a panel discussion on the future and goals of the American education system. Mary Louise Kelly ’93, a journalist for National Public Radio and a former Crimson editor, moderated the panel.

Levinson said her interest in education policy and her background in Atlanta probably earned her an invitation to the event.

“President Faust sent me a note and asked me if I would do it. I used to teach in the Atlanta Public Schools,” Levinson, a Graduate School of Education professor, said in an interview. She added attendees seemed excited about the event.

Faust made two other public appearances during her trip. At Duke in North Carolina, Faust—a Civil War historian—discussed the legacy of pioneering African-American history scholar John Hope Franklin as part of a series of speakers marking the 100th anniversary of his birth.

She described the importance of the study of history in affecting social change.

“For John Hope Franklin, history was a calling and a weapon, a passion and a project,” Faust said in a statement. “Fundamental to the task at hand would be to revise the ‘hallowed’ falsehoods, to illustrate how the abuse and misuse of history served to legitimate systems of oppression not just in the past but in the present as well.”

Faust also connected Franklin’s work to the current nationwide debate about race relations, and said Americans must remember their “shameful legacy.”

Along with her speech in North Carolina, Faust spoke in Atlanta with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro for the 50th anniversary of Castro’s department. Castro is a Harvard Law School alumnus.

“Universities are building the framework of opportunity that HUD sees as a goal,” Faust said.

—Staff writer Andrew M. Duehren can be reached at andy.duehren@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @aduehren.