Day of Kisses and Champagne

Nearing Loeb House, where the Board of Overseers had gathered to dub her Harvard’s president-elect, Drew Gilpin Faust paused and said, “I’d better kiss my husband.” The object of her affection, science historian Charles Rosenberg, told her, “Knock ’em dead.” She walked to the door alone.

While the board members listened to the Radcliffe dean make her case yesterday, a gaggle of reporters and Town Car chauffeurs congregated on Quincy Street in anxious and somewhat less anxious anticipation, respectively.

Cuisine Chez Vous delivered sustenance to the board members through a side door, but an employee fended off questions about the meeting inside.

“I can’t talk to anyone,” the caterer told a reporter while ferrying trays into Loeb. She confirmed only that she had been forbidden to speak to the press before disappearing into the house.

The reporters and chauffeurs were soon joined on the increasingly crowded street by a Harvard police officer, who patrolled the crosswalk leading to the Barker Center. Inside the humanities building, a bust of John Harvard looked down on a few technicians setting up for the afternoon press conference.

After over an hour without any movement from Loeb, a lone overseer, Ann M. Fudge, finally emerged at 2:20 p.m., smiling broadly.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” she replied to a question about the board’s final decision. Pausing, she added, “It’s exciting!” before hurrying away down the street.

A couple more overseers trickled out, carefully side-stepping questions about whether a vote had taken place. Finally, at 2:45 p.m., two overseers enthusiastically confirmed that Drew Gilpin Faust would become Harvard’s 28th president.

Board members continued to exit the building. Overseer Richard I. Melvoin ’73 signalled his support for the president-elect by donning a crimson tie emblazoned with golden trees, the symbol of the Radcliffe Institute that Faust currently leads.

Frances D. Fergusson, one of the three overseer members of the nine-person presidential search committee that recommended Faust for the post, emerged a little after three o’clock and described how Faust was informed of her official selection.

“When she came back in, everybody stood up and applauded and shared some champagne and raised a glass in her honor,” she said. “It was really wonderful.”

At 3:59 p.m., Faust walked out of Loeb House. She had her arms around James R. Houghton ’58, the chair of the search committee, and was also accompanied by Susan L. Graham ’64, the president of the Board of Overseers and a member of the group that picked Faust. As photographers scrambled to keep pace with the column of Harvard officials trailing Faust down Quincy Street on their way to the news conference, church bells began to ring.

On the short walk to Barker, Faust emphasized her roots as a professor and an academic, telling reporters that she’d spent the morning preparing questions for her Civil War class because she knew the afternoon would be too hectic.

“You can tell [my students] I’ll be prepared,” she said.

As members of the press hurried into the ornate Thompson Room, a few students and professors hesitantly followed, hoping to witness the first public remarks of the president-to-be.

After the conference, the once tight-lipped search committee members and overseers enthusiastically talked to the press about their choice.

“It’s good to be able to talk,” said Corporation Fellow Nannerl O. Keohane.

Meanwhile, Faust faced questions that ran the gamut from plans for the University to, well, her height.

“I’m 5-11,” she told curious Crimson reporters. “Just don’t ask me how much I weigh.”

Given that Faust is poised to take over the most high-profile job in higher education, she should probably be ready for anything.

—Lois E. Beckett, Paras D. Bhayani, Claire M. Guehenno, Brittany L. Moraski, and Anton S. Troianovski contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Clifford M. Marks can be reached at cmarks@fas.harvard.edu.