In Sit-Down, Faust Looks Back at 2014

As Wednesday, Dec. 10 wore on, University President Drew G. Faust was worried about how Harvard’s infamous Primal Scream tradition, a pre-exam naked lap around Harvard Yard scheduled for that night, would unfold.

“I was anxious about [Primal Scream] in advance, because we heard that there was going to be this merging of two very separate agendas, and I was afraid that people were going to end up in some kind of confrontation,” Faust said in her final sit-down interview of the year with The Crimson on Tuesday.

Dean of College Rakesh Khurana speaks on behalf of protesters during Primal Scream early Thursday in Harvard Yard. Dean of Student Life Stephen Lassonde stands at his side. By Mac G Schumer

A group of about 30 students protesting the non-indictments of two white police officers who killed unarmed black men in Staten Island, NY. and Ferguson, Mo. tried to hold a moment of silence prior to the run, but most of the runners did not comply. Many left the event questioning the actions of the protesters, runners, and two dozen college administrators who kept the peace.

Harvard’s president, who did not attend Primal Scream, credited Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana for ensuring that serious conflict did not materialize.

“I think Rakesh did a great job of deflecting people in an absolutely physical way, having people go different directions and not crash into each other,” Faust said on Tuesday.

The campus protests that have unfolded during the last month have stopped traffic and inspired heated discussions. And yet those demonstrations are just the latest chapter in a year of campus conversations about sexual assault, faculty dissent over changes to health benefits plans, significant turnover at the top rungs of Harvard’s leadership, and a University-wide fundraising drive.

WEIGHING IN

In the past, Faust has said that it is not within the president’s role to comment on public issues unrelated to Harvard’s mission. But as demonstrations on campus and around the country continued to increase in scale in recent weeks, the Harvard president and Civil War historian said she decided to make an exception.

“Black lives matter. It has taken far too long to make that fundamental truth a living, essential part of the fabric of our society, our government, and our lives,” Faust said in a statement on Dec. 9. “Martin Luther King, Jr. made clear a half century ago why we can’t wait. What was urgent then is imperative now.”

Speaking with The Crimson this week, Faust recalled, as she has before, her own freshman year at Bryn Mawr College in 1965, when she skipped her spring term midterms and drove to Selma, Ala. to join voting rights demonstrations. That experience, she said, has come back to her again in the last month.

University President Drew G. Faust discussed her role in several hot-button campus issues in her final sit-down interview of 2014 with The Crimson. By Robert F Worley

“I felt tremendous admiration for those who said ‘we must do something’ and ‘we must affirm that we care about justice and equality and opportunity, and we oppose racism and inequality and injustice,’” Faust said, referencing a speech by Pusey Minister in Memorial Church Jonathan L. Walton. “And so I said something.”

Her four-sentence statement received some backlash from students, who expressed frustration at what they considered its short length compared to a more than 300-word statement on a planned “Black Mass” on campus last spring.

“I meant it to be a very powerful statement,” Faust said. “I think less can sometimes be more, something that is succinct and makes your point. If you go on and on, you sometimes weaken the force of it.”

‘RISE IN CONSCIOUSNESS’

In a year marked by increased campus and national attention on the issue of sexual assault, Faust established a task force focused on sexual assault prevention in April and oversaw the roll-out of a new University-wide policy that took effect this semester. Thus far, the Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Assault has increased support for the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response and modified orientation materials. It is also set to conduct a survey to gauge the campus “climate,” the results of which will be compared to other higher education institutions this spring.

Those actions have not been made without criticism. In addition to undergraduate discontent that only two College students are members of the new task force and that the policy lacks an “affirmative consent” clause, 28 Law School professors condemned the policy in an open letter to the Boston Globe in October.

University President Drew G. Faust discussed her role in several hot-button campus issues in her final sit-down interview of 2014 with The Crimson. By Robert F Worley

Despite these controversies, Faust remained optimistic about the steps the University has taken in the past year.

“As I think back on the calendar year, it seems that we made a lot of progress in this, partly because of the huge rise in consciousness and awareness about it,” Faust said. “We’ve made progress on both how to adjudicate issues and in how to try to work for prevention. There’s still lots more work to be done, obviously, but I feel that thanks to the hard work of an awful lot of people, we’ve made some good progress.”

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Faust has also faced an unusually high rate of staff turnover this year, especially among Harvard’s top brass.

In June, Harvard Management Company CEO Jane L. Mendillo announced that she would depart by the end of the year. Though Mendillo had led HMC to double-digit investment returns in recent years, the endowment’s performance also lagged behind many of Harvard’s peers. Nevertheless, Faust said Mendillo’s exit caught her by surprise.

“I was very sad when Jane said she was going. She came in last spring and said, you know, she really felt that she had put the company in a new place and that she had done this long enough in her own view and wanted to move on,” Faust said on Tuesday. “I would have been very happy for her to stay on.”

In September, a search committee selected Stephen Blyth, a managing director and head of public markets at HMC as well as a professor of statistics, to succeed Mendillo.

Stephen Blyth, pictured at the Phi Beta Kappa Literary Exercises in 2013, was named the next president and CEO of Harvard Management Company on Wednesday. By Muhammad H Tahir

“Stephen is a very competitive and ambitious guy,” Faust said. “He’s a cricket player. He likes to win, and I think he’s going to do a lot to really advance the best interests of the endowment and of Harvard.”

About a month after Blyth’s appointment, Faust lost another top official when Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Cherry A. Murray announced that she would leave her post by the end of the year. Earlier this month, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith announced that Computer Science professor Harry R. Lewis ’68 would succeed Murray on an interim basis.

Lewis came across, to some in University circles, as a surprising pick. The former dean of Harvard College from 1995-2003, Lewis has for years maintained a blog on which he has not been shy about criticizing University policies.

“It was really Dean Smith’s decision, and I think he regarded as Harry Lewis as someone who had dedicated his life to Harvard and had served the institution and SEAS very well,” Faust said this week.

“I don’t read the blog,” she added, when asked.

Faust has also been finding replacements for Kennedy School Dean David T. Ellwood ’75, Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications Christine M. Heenan, University Chief Financial Officer Dan S. Shore, and Vice Provost for International Affairs Jorge I. Dominguez.

ON TO 2015

Even amid responding with these issues, Faust has seen her travel schedule grow considerably, with major alumni events in New York, Dallas, London, and Mexico as well as a host of other duties associated with Harvard’s capital campaign.

The travel has been tiring, Faust said, but worth it.

“The outreach is there, the continuing engagement that Harvard matters to people throughout their lifetime...all of that has been really thrilling for me to see,” she said. “The campaign has evoked it. The campaign has been the occasion for the expression of that kind of feeling.”

It has helped that the money has poured in. Since launching the public phase of the fundraising drive with $2.8 billion raised last fall, Harvard has brought in an additional $2 billion in gifts and pledges, including a $150 million gift and a $350 million gift, bringing the campaign’s total to $4.8 billion.

Faust said she approaches the holiday break without a firm New Year’s resolution, though she said she hopes to “stop catching so many colds.” She is, however, ready for some rare time off.

“This has been a very busy fall,” she said.

—Staff writer Matthew Q. Clarida can be reached at matthew.clarida@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattClarida.

—Staff writer Amna H. Hashmi can be reached at amna.hashmi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter@amna_hashmi.