Female Supremacy Articles - Page 23

Screen 17 of 23

"It's about time, I should think," says Peter Gomes, a university preacher who teaches a course called the

History of Harvard & Its Presidents. "Harvard is a little behind the times."

Daunting Task Includes Healing

Faust's strengths, Gomes says, lie in her scholarly background. An expert in American history, in 2001 she was appointed dean of the Radcliffe Institute, a research powerhouse that focuses on women, gender, and society. In 2005, she spearheaded the initiative for diversity on campus—she was described by the Crimson as "Summers' trouble-shooter"—by helping develop task forces on the advancement of women at Harvard. "She understands how faculty think, or don't think as the case may be," Gomes says. "She will be both progressive and steady at the same time."

Managing Harvard's gargantuan endowment of $30 billion will be the new president's greatest challenge, John Isaacson, founder of Isaacson, Miller, an executive search firm that conducts large academic searches, said before Faust emerged as the school's choice. The president's task, says Isaacson, will be to "use these resources to invent something we have not seen before at this scale at Harvard."