Faust Given Penn Honor

The University of Pennsylvania announced yesterday that it will confer an honorary degree on Harvard University President Drew G. Faust during its Commencement exercises May 19.

“I am deeply moved by this honor from an institution with which I was associated for so long. In some ways I grew up at the Penn,” Faust said in an e-mailed statement. “I learned how to be a historian, a teacher, and a scholar at Penn.”

The degree, a doctorate in humane letters, will be Faust’s third from the University of Pennsylvania; she received her master’s degree in 1971 and her doctorate degree in 1975, both in American Civilization. This will also be her second honorary degree, with her first coming from Bowdoin College, according to an e-mailed statement from Harvard University spokesman John D. Longbrake.

“As a brilliant scholar of the South, and now the first female president of Harvard, Drew Faust has been fearless in standing up for equity and excellence in education, passionate about the search for knowledge and truth, and committed to the cause of creating a free and equal citizenry,” said University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann ’71 in an e-mailed statement. “We are delighted to be offering her an honorary degree from Penn, her academic home for so many years.”

Faust served on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania for 25 years and directed its Woman’s Studies program before becoming dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in 2001 and then University President in 2007.

“We love it when we can give an honorary degree to someone we consider one of own,” said Leslie L. Kruhly, the secretary of the University of Pennsylvania. “And even though she is your president, we do consider her one of our own.”

Faust said that while she still has “enormous affection” for the University of Pennsylvania, where her own daughter was born and is currently a graduate student, Harvard is now her home.

Kruhly said that diversity is a major consideration in creating the honorary degree class, with factors like geographic location, academic field, and gender taken into account during the selection process.

“For a number of reasons, [Faust] was a perfect-fit for this year’s class, not least of which was her being named president of Harvard,” Kruhly said.

According to Kruhly, anyone at the University of Pennsylvania is able to nominate someone for an honorary degree. A committee of faculty, students and staff reviews these nominations and the honorees are ultimately chosen by a trustee committee.

According to a University of Pennsylvania press release, Faust will be joined on the commencement stage by Paquito D’Rivera, a Cuban musician; Lila R. Gleitman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania; Bert W. O’Malley, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor College of Medicine; Cyril Ramaphosa, the former secretary general of the African National Congress; and Neil deGrasse Tyson ’80, a director at the American Museum of Natural History.

The honorary degree recipients are scheduled to have a private dinner hosted by Gutmann in their honor May 18, which Faust has said she will attend, according to Kruhly.

—Staff writer Jamison A. Hill can be reached at jahill@fas.harvard.edu.