Cambridge Council Has Say in Presidential Search

As Harvard picks its next president, top City of Cambridge officials are calling for a leader attuned to local concerns.

The Presidential Search Committee, the nine-member panel tasked with picking Harvard’s next chief, has only personally solicited the views of Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves ’72 on what characteristics Harvard’s incoming leader should possess, council members said at yesterday’s meeting.

According to Reeves, the mayor’s office received an invitation to a one-on-one meeting with a University official at the Harvard Faculty Club. At the brief meeting, Reeves said he expressed his “own wish list” for the selection process, including that Harvard’s new leader be “city-friendly.”

Councillor Anthony D. Galluccio said he hopes Harvard’s next chief shares the diplomatic skills of Neil L. Rudenstine, who served as president from 1991 to 2001.

“Neil was just fantastic,” Galluccio said, although the councillor added that Rudenstine was often busy wooing donors. But, he added, “when given the chance to interact, Neil was great. I just don’t think he was given the chance.”

Two other councillors said they have received requests for e-mail feedback. Councillor Marjorie C. Decker said she received an e-mail from Harvard due to her status as a currently-enrolled Kennedy School of Government student, “not as a city councillor.” Councillor Henrietta J. Davis, who graduated from the Kennedy School in 1997, said she also received an e-mail asking for input.

When asked in an interview whether he thought the University should seek more input from the council, Councillor Craig E. Kelley said, “I don’t think so.”

“To be honest, I hadn’t even thought about it,” Kelley said.

Davis said she is similarly content with the council’s involvement. “I think we’ve weighed in as we were asked to weigh in, and I think that’s appropriate,” she said in an interview.

But other councillors expressed strong views on the right qualities for Harvard’s next head.

“Whoever the leader is, an important component will be town-gown relations, and I’m sure the [Harvard] Corporation will take that as a factor in their decision-making, because they recognize it’s in the long-term interest of both Harvard and Cambridge,” said Councillor Brian P. Murphy ’86-’87 in an interview.

Decker said that the next president should establish a “deep commitment into seeing that the Cambridge Public Schools are the best in the country,” proposing that the University both increase its funding to the schools, and establish a committee to organize and fund faculty projects in Cambridge.

“We’re now really relying on faculty to pursue projects in the community out of their existing salary,” Decker said. “Part of it’s an issue of incentive, [and] part of it’s an issue of time...Even Harvard can’t create a 36 hour work day.”

Galluccio—though he hasn’t been contacted by the current search committee—was invited to a “breakfast meeting” with Harvard officials to discuss the previous presidential search in 2001, when he was mayor of Cambridge.

“I actually cut to the chase very quickly and said, anyone you have is going to have some amazing academic credentials and the ability to manage a large institution,” Galluccio said. “I was looking for unique interpersonal skills, the type of person who would call up the mayor on a Friday afternoon and say, ‘I want to take a bus and take 100 Cambridge high schoolers to the Harvard football game and get to know them.’”

—Staff writer Nicholas K. Tabor can be reached at ntabor@fas.harvard.edu.