Faust Faces Undergrads at UC Meeting

A certificate applauding the University’s new financial aid initiative could be the newest addition to the walls of the president’s office.

University President Drew G. Faust received the gift at an open meeting of the Undergraduate Council last night, where she fielded questions for over an hour as part of an ongoing effort to be visible to undergraduates.

Students at last night’s meeting said they were pleased with their president’s straightforwardness and concern.

“I just have a lot of respect for her,” Lillian Yu ’11 said. “She really cared about student issues and she really listened.”

The crowd of approximately 50 students questioned Faust about the new financial aid initiative and calendar reform—two major changes which her administration will have to shepherd through in their first years.

The financial aid plan will significantly decrease the expected contributions from middle- and upper-class families and eliminate loans for all undergraduates. Faust said it has been gratifying to hear how the initiative will change student lives.

“I also hope that it has introduced a conversation in higher education that can extend beyond Harvard,” she said.

Faust fielded questions about the endowment (large, and poorly understood), how being female informs her presidency (she has a “secret bond” with women on campus), and whether she will attend the ROTC commissioning ceremony, which she missed last year to speak at a Radcliffe reunion event, (unclear).

“I was somewhat disappointed that she didn’t give an outright commitment to attend the ROTC commission ceremony,” Arvind H. Vaz ’08, a Mather UC representative said.

When asked for her thoughts on alcohol policies, Faust said that Harvard’s rules have been “much more liberal” than those at peer institutions.

Still, “There are laws, there are obligations that we have to uphold,” she said, adding later that at least one university president—John McCardell, president emeritus of Middlebury College—has called for the drinking age to be lowered to 18.

Responding to the common refrain that students feel pushed into careers in consulting and banking, she proposed ways to make information about alternative career paths more available and said she hoped the financial aid initiative would reduce the pressures of educational debt.

“So many of you are making this choice, but so many of you are telling me you don’t want to,” Faust said.

Natalie J. Wong ’11 said she enjoyed the opportunity to hear Faust speak in a small venue. “I was surprised how direct she was,” Wong said.

“I’m leaving the meeting feeling pretty good,” Vaz said.

—Staff writer Chelsea L. Shover can be reached at clshover@fas.harvard.edu.