Does Harvard Need an Inside Man?

Since 1846, Harvard’s 12 presidents have been split—six were promoted from inside the University’s ranks, and six came from beyond Harvard’s gates.

Now, after two consecutive “outsider” presidencies that produced mixed results, presidential search watchers are asking: Does Harvard need an inside man (or woman)?

Just three of the prominent candidates for the job—Radcliffe Institute Dean Drew Gilpin Faust, Provost Steven E. Hyman, and Law School Dean Elena Kagan—currently hold positions at Harvard.

Their insider status could be a key factor in Harvard’s decision—but experts and sources close to the search aren’t sure that it will weigh in their favor.

Professor and librarian Sidney Verba ’53, who chairs the 13-member faculty advisory group to the presidential search committee, says there are merits to both an inside and outside candidate.

“I’ll give you two different views that I’ve heard recently,” he says. “One was, ‘You really got to get someone with a Harvard connection because they really got to have some understanding of this very crazy institution.’ And someone else who said, ‘Well, what we really need is someone who doesn’t have a Harvard connection because maybe they will notice how crazy the institution is and change it.’”

‘A NICE PLUS’

Sources close to the search say that an insider might receive a marginal preferential treatment.

“My belief is that a Harvard connection is a nice plus, a tip perhaps between two equally qualified candidates, but not a necessity,” according to Harvard Alumni Association President Paul J. Finnegan ’75.

Several experts in leadership and higher education said that an inside candidate is particularly attractive at an institution with as archaic and complex a governing structure as Harvard.

“I think if Harvard’s own history is any guide, it has had better luck with presidents recruited from the inside,” says Peter D. Hall, a lecturer on nonprofit organizations at the Kennedy School of Government. “A lot has to do with the unique institutional cultures of Harvard. You really have to know the ropes.”

Hall points to the presidencies of former government professor A. Lawrence Lowell, Class of 1877, former organic chemistry professor James B. Conant ’13, and former Law School Dean Derek C. Bok as particularly “successful presidencies,” contrasting them to the Nathan M. Pusey and Neil L. Rudenstine administrations.

Pusey, Class of 1928, left Harvard after earning his history doctorate and served as president of Lawrence College in Wisconsin. He was tapped to lead his alma mater in 1953, and his 18 years at the helm of Harvard were a turbulent time in the school’s history, punctuated by the 1969 strike that ended in a police raid on student-occupied University Hall.

Rudenstine, a former Princeton provost, led Harvard in a quieter era, but he likewise encountered pitfalls as president. He took a leave of absence for “fatigue” at the end of 1994, and his last semester in office in the spring of 2001 was rocked by a 21-day sit-in by student labor activists who occupied Mass. Hall.

Byron R. Wien ’54, who has served as a member of the executive committee of the Committee on University Resources, an advisory group of major alumni donors, also said that a major advantage of an inside candidate is knowing the ins and outs of the University.

“The pro of an insider is they know where the body is buried,” he says.

But John M. Isaacson, a Law School alum and managing director of Boston-based executive search firm Isaacson, Miller, says that inside candidates can also be hurt by already being entrenched in local politics.

“They do complicate the politics of searches because people have such intense feelings pro and con,” he writes in an e-mail. “I also believe that they are frequently unfairly burdened by local knowledge. It’s easier for an outsider to have a halo.”

And Weary Professor of German and Comparative Literature Judith L. Ryan—although she said she didn’t discount the possibility that an insider could be effective—warned that a candidate from within Harvard might have too narrow a perspective on the institution.

“They will know certain aspects of how things work at Harvard but not necessarily everything,” she says.

OUTSIDE THE BOKS

Among the names being vetted by the search committee are Tufts President Lawrence S. Bacow, Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger, Stanford Provost John W. Etchemendy, Institute of Medicine President Harvey V. Fineberg ’67, Penn President Amy Gutmann ’71, University of Cambridge head Alison F. Richard, Brown President Ruth J. Simmons, and Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman.

While some of these candidates do have Harvard ties—Fineberg, for example, served as provost—all of them were outside Cambridge during the Summers era and never had to stake out a position on that presidency.

Judith B. McLaughlin, the director of the Higher Education Program at the Graduate School of Education (GSE), says that external candidates can often appear more desirable.

“There are more romantic notions about who this person might be, because this person is unknown, as opposed to the familiar person on campus about whom much is known.”

Jerome T. Murphy, the Howe professor of education at the GSE, says that in addition to their attractiveness as candidates, outsiders can also make better leaders.

“The advantage of an outsider is bringing in an entirely new perspective, asking questions about the culture that people on the inside might not see,” he says.

Ryan says that “it is often thought to be good to have someone quite new to it who can bring a fresh perspective.” But, she adds, “on the other hand, you don’t want somebody who is going to seriously misjudge the institution.”

NOT ‘NEAR THE TOP OF THE LIST’

Still, some experts and prominent donors said that the degree to which a candidate is an insider should not take priority over the person’s other qualifications.

Morton Keller, co-author of a book on the history of Harvard, said that over the past 70 years, “the person seems to be more important than the degree of their ‘insidership’ or ‘outsidership.’”

And Kenneth G. Bartels ’73, a real estate investor and donor, said that “whether she or he is an insider is interesting, but I wouldn’t put it anywhere near the top of the list for the job.”

Indeed, as history has shown, leaders of Harvard have always had some tie to the University. Even Lawrence H. Summers and Rudenstine held doctorates from the University.

“Harvard has never really had a true external candidate,” the GSE’s McLaughlin said.

—Staff writer Claire M. Guehenno can be reached at guehenno@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Reed B. Rayman can be reached at rrayman@fas.harvard.edu.