Across Campus, Profs Praise Faust

Drew Gilpin Faust’s selection as Harvard’s 28th president was heralded across the University yesterday, with colleagues—particularly some of her fellow deans—applauding Faust’s academic and administrative talents as well as her personal qualities.

“I think Drew will be a simply superb president,” Elena Kagan, the dean of Harvard Law School and a finalist in the presidential search, wrote in an e-mail yesterday.

“She has everything one could wish for in terms of academic values, administrative skills, and knowledge of the university. She’s also a wonderful person, and I’m looking forward to working with her,” Kagan added.

“I couldn’t be more enthusiastic,” Kennedy School of Government Dean David T. Ellwood ’75 said in a statement released yesterday.

“I am confident Drew will bring the same bold vision, energy, leadership and insight to the University that she brought to Radcliffe.”

University Distinguished Service Professor and former Kennedy School Dean Joseph S. Nye, who served on Harvard’s Council of Deans with Faust from 2001 to 2004, wrote in an e-mail yesterday that Faust will make “an excellent president.”

“I think she will have a broad perspective on the University that will be good for the Kennedy School, as well as other schools,” he wrote.

Professors at the Law School were equally complimentary when contacted yesterday. But Faust’s selection was bittersweet in the North Yard, since it meant that the search committee had passed on Kagan.

“I’ve known Elena Kagan for a long time, and I admire her enormously,” said Richard H. Fallon, the Tyler professor of constitutional law and a member of the faculty group that advised the presidential search committee.

“Had I been able to choose the president, I would have chosen Elena, but that comment does not reflect negatively in any way on Drew Faust, whom I genuinely expect to be excellent,” said Fallon, who said he does not know Faust personally.

Others at the Law School, such as Loeb University Professor Laurence H. Tribe ’62, viewed the outcome as the best of both worlds.

“The law school will be spared the impossible task of finding a replacement for its extraordinary dean,” Tribe said, “And the rest of the University...will have the benefit of a towering talent who has already proven to be an able bridge-builder and a first-rate manager.”

Emotions at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, where Faust will continue to serve as dean until July 1, were mixed.

“We will of course miss her tremendously, but we rest easy in the knowledge that Faust will select the next dean of the Radcliffe Institute. We cannot imagine that decision resting in better hands,” members of the institute said in a collective statement released yesterday.

And across the river at Harvard Business School, Faust drew comparisons with a different kind of presidential contender.

Kirstein Professor of Human Relations Jay W. Lorsch likened Faust to Barack H. Obama, a Law School graduate whose intelligence and charisma have earned him popularity as a Democratic candidate despite his having served only four years in the U.S. Senate.

“She doesn’t have a lot of experience running large institution,” Lorsch said of Faust, “So you just have to wish her well.”

—Claire M. Guehenno and Kevin Zhou contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Laurence H. M. Holland can be reached at lholland@fas.harvard.edu.