The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLIX, No. 86: EXTRA

THE HARVARD CRIMSON EXTRA

IT’S GAY

Claudine Gay Named Harvard’s 30th President

BY CRIMSON NEWS STAFF

Claudine Gay will become Harvard University’s 30th president, the school announced Thursday, ending a swift five-month search process that will elevate a person of color to lead America’s oldest academic institution for the first time in its history.

Gay, the current dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, will succeed Lawrence S. Bacow, who announced plans to step down in June. She will begin her term in Massachusetts Hall on July 1, 2023.

“When I imagine Harvard in the years ahead, I see a university that is even more connected to the world through our scholarship,” Gay said at an event announcing her selection Thursday. “The idea of the ivory tower — that is the past, not the future, of academia. We don’t exist outside of society, but as part of it.”

Gay, 52, will take over atop the University just as the Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision on a high-stakes affirmative action lawsuit against Harvard that could reshape admissions processes across American higher education.

She will also be tasked with steering the University’s finances through global economic uncertainty caused by a post-pandemic inflation spike, which precipitated a $2.3 billion drop in Harvard’s endowment value this year. Her tenure is likely to include a capital campaign as the University approaches its 400th anniversary.

At a press conference after her announcement on Thursday, Gay declined to elaborate about how Harvard might navigate a post-affirmative action reality, saying only that the University “will continue to champion the value of diversity.”

Gay will oversee Harvard’s continued expansion into Allston, as the school has moved ahead with ambitious development plans despite intense headwinds from local residents.

“With the strength of this extraordinary institution behind us, we enter a moment of possibility,” she said Thursday. “One that calls for deeper collaboration across the University, across all of our remarkable schools.”

Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81, who chaired the presidential search committee, announced Gay’s election in an email to Harvard affiliates Thursday afternoon, hours after the Harvard Board

SWIFT SEARCH. The search committee, led by Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81, considered more than 600 nominations over the span of just five months, making it the shortest Harvard presidential search in almost 70 years.

HISTORIC PICK. Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay will become the second woman to preside over the University and the second Black woman to lead an Ivy League school when she succeeds Lawrence S. Bacow in July 2023.

DEAN CLAUDINE. Before Claudine Gay was tapped as Harvard’s first president of color on Thursday, she had already made her mark as a political science scholar and the leader of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

AROUND THE IVIES

IN THE REAL WORLD

Yale University admitted 10 percent of its early applicants to the Class of 2027 on Thursday, marking the lowest early action acceptance rate in the university’s history. The school offered admission to 776 of its second-largest early applicant pool of 7,744. This year’s early acceptance rate saw a nearly one percentage point decline from that of the Class of 2026. In recent years, Yale has been denying a larger portion of its early action applicants rather than deferring them. This year’s early action program deferred 21 percent of applicants and denied admission to 67 percent, the largest percentage of denials in at least the last five years.

YALE DAILY NEWS

Columbia College and Columbia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science saw a nine percent drop in early decision applications between the Class of 2027 and the Class of 2026. The two schools received a combined 5,738 early applications this year, compared to last year’s 6,305 applicants. The drop in early decision applicants follows a scandal that revealed Columbia misreported data to U.S. News and World Report’s Best Colleges ranking, causing the school’s ranking to plummet from No. 2 to No. 18. Barnard, on the other hand, saw a record-breaking 1,671 early decision applications for the Class of 2027.

COLUMBIA SPECTATOR

Brown University declined to recognize an undergraduate teaching assistant organization as a union, according to a letter from Brown’s Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey sent to organizers Tuesday evening. The Teaching Assistant Labor Organization, a group of computer science teaching assistants, announced their plans to unionize on Dec. 5. Three days later, TALO held a rally and delivered a letter to Brown President Christina H. Paxson to call for voluntary recognition. In Carey’s response to TALO, he recommended the group file a formal petition with the National Labor Relations Board to conduct a union election. TALO will file for an election with the NLRB within the next few weeks, according to organizer Colton Rusch.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

The University of Pennsylvania released early decision admission results Thursday evening for the Class of 2027, the first undergraduate cohort to not pay the $400 enrollment deposit in the university’s history. The school received more than 8,000 early decision applications, the largest number in its history. The University of Pennsylvania did not disclose its early decision acceptance rate. For the Class of 2026 last year, the university admitted 15.6 percent of early decision applicants.

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

POLICE OFFICER AARON DEAN FACES UP TO 20 YEARS FOR ATATIANA JEFFERSON’S DEATH

Aaron Dean, the former police officer who shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson through a window of her home in 2019, was found guilty of manslaughter Thursday, according to NBC. Dean now faces between two and 20 years in prison and awaits sentencing on Friday morning. The jurors took more than 13 hours over two days to debate the case, finally delivering the manslaughter conviction Thursday afternoon. Immediately prior to the shooting in October 2019, Jefferson heard a noise, took her gun, and peered outside her window, according to The New York Times. Responding to a neighbor’s report about open doors in Jefferson’s house, Dean called on Jefferson to raise her hands and fired a bullet through her window. Jefferson’s death sparked protests over race and policing in Fort Worth, Texas.

TWELVE DEAD, 22 MISSING IN MALAYSIA LANDSLIDE

At least 12 people died in a landslide 20 miles north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, as of Friday midday local time, according to The New York Times. The country’s fire and rescue agency reported 22 missing and 94 people who were caught in the landslide. Rescue officials are still searching for survivors under debris, mud, and trees. The first calls came from Father’s Organic Farm campsite around 2 a.m. local time.

TWITTER SUSPENDS THE ACCOUNTS OF EIGHT JOURNALISTS

Twitter suspended the accounts of eight prominent journalists, some of whom cover owner Elon Musk, The New York Times reported Thursday. The move comes one day after the social media company suspended more than 25 accounts tracking planes belonging to billionaires, government agencies, and prominent individuals. The suspensions mark the latest controversy faced by Twitter under owner Elon Musk, who acquired the service for $44 billion in October 2022. The journalists whose accounts were suspended include New York Times technology reporter Ryan Mac; Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell; CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan, independent journalist Aaron Rupar; Mashable reporter Matt Binder; First Look Media’s director of information security Micah Lee; and political reporter Keith Olbermann.

SENATE APPROVES DEFENSE BILL TO END VACCINE MANDATE FOR TROOPS

The Senate approved a $858 billion defense policy bill that would end the Pentagon’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate

military personnel, sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk, according to The Washington Post. Passed by a vote of 83 to 11, the bill includes an expansion of funds for Ukraine’s military efforts against the Russian invasion, a new security aid program for Taiwan, and a 4.6 percent pay raise for service members. According to The New York Times, the bill also includes reforms to the military’s sexual assault policies.

BROWN UPENN

for

Gay Makes History as First Black President

BY NIA L. ORAKWUE AND ERIC YAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay made her second historic first on Thursday when Harvard announced her selection as the University’s 30th president — the first person of color to hold the role.

Gay previously made history when she was appointed as the first person of color and first woman to serve in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ top post. Gay, who will succeed President Lawrence S. Bacow in July, will also be only the second woman to preside over the University and the second Black woman to lead an Ivy League school, after former Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons.

The daughter of Haitian im-

migrants, Gay said during her Thursday speech in Smith Campus Center that her parents taught her the importance of education from a young age.

“My parents believed that education opens every door, but, of course, they gave me three options: I could become an engineer, a doctor, or a lawyer, which I’m sure that other kids of immigrant parents could relate to,” she said. “So let’s just say becoming an academic was not what my parents had in mind.”

“My decision to pursue a liberal arts and sciences education was a leap of faith, really, for all of us,” she added.

Students, alumni, and local politicians alike praised the historic nature of Gay’s appointment. As a scholar, Gay herself is an expert on minority representation and political participation.

Gay has worked to diversify

Harvard’s faculty, appointing an inaugural associate dean of diversity, inclusion, and belonging and initiating a cluster hire of three ethnic studies faculty members following more than four decades of lobbying by Harvard affiliates for an ethnic studies department.

“It’s often really difficult to be what you can’t see,” said Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, who is also Haitian American. “That young Black women — that young Haitian women — will be able to dream of one day or know that one day they can be the president of Harvard and reach these high echelons of influence and power and have such an impact. It’s incredible.”

Jeannie Park ’83 —co-founder and board member of the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, an alumni group that promotes diversity within the University’s

ranks — lauded Gay’s selection in an emailed statement, calling the president-elect an “ideal leader” to prioritize issues of diversity and racial justice.

“The Coalition for a Diverse Harvard congratulates Dean Gay on her historic appointment as President of Harvard,” Park wrote. “We believe that a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and racial justice must be at the fore of Harvard’s goals, and this appointment is an important strategic and symbolic step.”

Harvard Black Student Association President Rothsaida Sylvaince ’24 said she finds Gay’s appointment particularly meaningful in light of the affirmative action lawsuit filed by Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard. The case, argued before the Supreme Court in October, threatens to upend the decades of judicial precedent allowing col-

leges to consider race in admissions.

“This definitely helps to give really good news, I think, in a time where we’ve all been wondering what the future of a Black Harvard looks like,” Sylvaince said.

Kiersten B. Hash ’25, political action chair of the Harvard Generational African American Students Association, said Gay’s Haitian heritage is especially significant in light of the University’s Legacy of Slavery report released in April. The report detailed how slavery “powerfully shaped Harvard” and acknowledged the profits Harvard reaped from the slave trade and plantation labor in the Caribbean and American South.

“To see that someone that is descended from what Harvard profited off of is now leading the University speaks volumes, but I also think that it shows that Har-

vard has a legacy that it has to reckon with,” she said. “I think this is a good sign that progress can continue to happen.”

Hash added she hopes Gay will work to build relationships with Black student organizations.

“I would hope that we can get more time to interact with her and learn about her and find ways that we can collaborate to just make campus a better place,” she said.

Sylvaince said she hopes to see strides in diversity on other fronts following Gay’s selection.

“I hope that with her appointment, it helps to inspire the rest of us and the rest of Harvard as an institution to continue taking more steps towards creating more diversity and inclusion,” she said.

BY NIA L. ORAKWUE AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Before Claudine Gay was tapped as Harvard’s first president of color, she had already left her mark on the University’s nearly 400year history.

Penny S. Pritzker ’81, the senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, announced Thursday that Gay — who has served as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences since 2018 — would succeed President Lawrence S. Bacow in July.

Gay will be Harvard’s second female president after former President Drew G. Faust, who led the University from 2007 to 2018.

But Gay is no stranger to breaking barriers. Her appointment as FAS dean by Bacow, less than a month into his tenure as president, made her the first woman and person of color to lead Harvard’s flagship faculty.

Gay, who received a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard in 1998, first joined the faculty as a Government professor in 2006 and rose to the role of dean of the Social Sciences division in 2015.

During remarks at a Thursday reception in the Smith Campus Center, Gay — the daughter of two Haitian immigrants — credited her parents with instilling in her an appreciation for education.

“They came to the U.S. with very little and put themselves through college while raising our

family,” Gay said. “College was always the expectation for me. My parents believed that education opens every door.”

Gay’s mother was a nurse, and her father was an engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His work brought Gay to Saudi Arabia, where she spent a portion of her childhood. She now lives in Cambridge with her husband and son.

After graduating in 1988 from Phillips Exeter Academy, a private New Hampshire boarding school where she still serves as a trustee, Gay matriculated at Stanford and received a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1992, winning a prize for her senior thesis.

Gay then returned to the East Coast as a graduate student in Harvard’s Government department, “full of excitement.”

“I can’t help but think of a much younger version of myself, a first-year graduate student moving into Haskins Hall, lugging the things that seemed most essential to my success at the time: a futon, a Mac Classic II, and a cast iron skillet for frying plantains,” Gay said Thursday.

“That Claudine could not possibly have imagined that her path would lead here, but I carry forward both her excitement and her belief in the infinite possibility of Harvard,” Gay added.

Once Gay completed her Ph.D. at Harvard — earning the Toppan Prize for best dissertation in political science — she returned to

Stanford as a political science professor from 2000 to 2006 before rejoining Harvard’s Government department, now as a professor.

On Thursday, she said Harvard was “where I found my intellectual home.”

“With each leadership role I’ve taken on at Harvard — from dean of Social Science to dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences — I’ve been connected to a wider world, to new questions and new possibilities for how through research, through teaching, the world can be better than it is today,” Gay said.

Gay, whose own academic work centers on political participation and the politics of race, established the Inequality in America Initiative in 2017 — a flagship program from her time as dean of Social Sciences. The initiative, with over 70 affiliated professors, funds and conducts multidisciplinary research into social and economic inequality and includes a postdoctoral program.

As FAS dean, Gay has made strides in the search for ethnic studies scholars at Harvard. In 2022, she hired three ethnic studies professors following decades of calls for the development of an ethnic studies department. Earlier this year, she also announced an expansion of the Inequality in America postdoctoral fellowship from two to four scholars.

Increased scrutiny of the University’s tenure system has also been a feature of her time as FAS

dean.

that

dean.

Months later, she placed Economics professor Roland G. Fryer Jr. on administrative leave after Harvard found he violated its sexual harassment policies, and in 2020, accusations arose against Anthropology professors Gary Urton and John L. Comaroff.

During Gay’s tenure, Harvard was roiled by public accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct

high-profile professors. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported in early 2018

Gay stripped Urton of his emeritus status and banned him from the FAS campus and she placed Comaroff on unpaid administrative leave after separate

Comaroff

On Thursday, Gay said she was “grateful beyond words” to have been selected as president.

“As I start my tenure, there’s so much more for me to discover about the institution that I love, and I look forward to doing all of that with our whole community,” she said.

-

After the denial of tenure for former Romance Languages and Literature professor Lorgia García Peña fueled backlash among students, faculty, and scholars, Gay launched a review of the tenure promotion process, which concluded last year. Controversy surrounding the tenure process resurfaced in early 2021 when former professor Cornel R. West ’74 departed Harvard after claiming the University rejected his request to be considered for a tenured position.

against

former Government professor Jorge I. Dominguez faced sexual harassment allegations from at least 18 women over nearly four decades while rising through the University’s ranks. Gay stripped Dominguez of his emeritus status during her first year as

internal investigations found the two men breached Harvard sexual harassment policies. This year, three graduate students sued Harvard for allegedly ignoring and mishandling reports of Co

maroff’s behavior.

and Fryer have since returned to the classroom.

FAS Dean Claudine Gay addresses Harvard affiliates in Smith Campus Center following the presidential announcement. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

TOBY R. MA — CRIMSON DESIGNER

How Harvard Landed On Claudine Gay

BY CARA J. CHANG AND MILES J. HERSZENHORN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Snow had covered the ground in Harvard Yard for months when the search committees that selected University Presidents Lawrence S. Bacow, Drew G. Faust, Lawrence H. Summers, and Neil L. Rudenstine finished their work.

On Thursday, Cambridge’s first winter flurry was only a few days old. But the 15-member group that searched for Harvard’s 30th leader had already whittled its shortlist down to one name: Claudine Gay.

The search committee, led by Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81, considered more than 600 nominations over the span of just five months, making it the shortest Harvard presidential search in almost 70 years. Gay became the group’s final pick about two to three weeks ago, according to Shirley M. Tilghman, a search committee member who sits on the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing board.

Gay, the dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, will take over as University president on July 1, 2023, when she will become the first person of color and the second woman to serve in American higher education’s most prestigious job.

The committee — made up of 15 members of the University’s two governing boards — met formally about 20 times “in addition to many, many informal engagements,” Pritzker said in public remarks Thursday. The group consisted of all 12 Harvard Corporation fellows and three members of the Board of Overseers, the University’s second-highest governing body.

The Board of Overseers formally approved the selection of Gay on Thursday, Pritzker said

The

“credible” candidates, said Tilghman, a former president of

Princeton University who joined the Corporation in 2015.

“Then it was very difficult to go from a list of about 50 down to a number where the committee could actually meet the individuals and get a sense of their viability as a candidate,” Tilghman said in an interview Thursday evening.

The list then shortened to around 12, according to Tilghman. The committee interviewed contenders over “at least” the past two to three months, she said, including candidates who had no connection to Harvard.

Search committee members declined to identify other candidates they considered Thursday. Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on the committee’s process.

The Corporation met with the Board of Overseers on Dec. 5 in Loeb House, but search com-

mittee members did not present Gay’s name to the lower governing board until Thursday, when Pritzker invited its members to weigh in on the final selection, according to Tilghman.

Gay then met with the Overseers herself, Tilghman said. Under Harvard’s charter, the lower governing board must approve the selection of the University president, but the vote has long been considered a formality.

The 15-member search committee was stocked with legal, academic, and corporate talent, including two billionaires, two former Obama administration officials, and two former university presidents.

The group held more than 200 informal conversations throughout its process, according to Diana L. Nelson ’84, a search committee member who sits on the

Harvard Corporation.

Searchers focused on two key questions in their conversations with Harvard affiliates and industry experts, according to Tilghman: what qualities the 30th president should possess and what challenges Bacow’s successor will face.

The committee valued candidates’ scholarly reputation, according to Tilghman, who said the University “needed someone who had the ability to command the respect of the faculty.”

“We also felt, given the complexity of Harvard — and it truly is a complex institution — that it had to be someone with considerable, I would say, administrative ability,” she said. “It is just too complicated a job for someone who has never had to deal with something as complicated as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, so that eliminated some of the candidates who may have been extraordinary scholars, but really did not have the kind of depth of experience.”

Gay will be the third consecutive president plucked from within Harvard’s ranks, but Tilghman insisted Thursday that the group seriously considered individuals from outside the University, too: “We did not ever — either at the beginning, the middle, or even toward the end — ever assume that it was going to be a Harvard insider,” she said.

On Thursday, when the search committee announced Gay was its final pick, the Board of Overseers reacted with “overwhelming excitement and joy,” Tilghman said.

“Throughout the whole meeting, it was a sense that this was a group who felt they had made a really important, momentous decision — and they had made the right decision,” Tilghman said. “It was thrilling to be a part of it.”

cara.chang@thecrimson.com miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com

Students Celebrate Gay’s Selection as University President Many Faculty Confident in Gay’s Appointment to Top University Post

Harvard students reacted with joy and optimism to Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay’s selection as the next University president Thursday.

Gay will be the first person of color and only the second woman to assume the University’s top post. She will succeed University President Lawrence S. Bacow on July 1.

Some students said they hoped for a strong relationship between students and Harvard’s administration under Gay’s leadership.

Harvard Undergraduate Association Co-President Travis Allen Johnson ’24 said he was “overjoyed” by the news and “can’t wait to see the great things she’s going to do for the University.”

She is a role model for me and a role model for other people at the University and outside of the University who will look up to the Harvard president.

“Dean Gay has been a tremendous thought partner and supporter of the HUA and other student-led initiatives,” he said.

“I also think it’s really beneficial that she’s a known face around campus,” he added. “I think it’ll lessen her learning curve, but also provide her with the ability to leverage those relationships she currently has with faculty members, students, and other College and University stakeholders.”

Amen H. Gashaw ’24, student president of Harvard’s Institute of Politics, said she was optimistic about Gay’s willingness to collaborate with students.

“I know that a lot of students

do have issues with administration,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity for continued collaboration and interfacing with students when you have someone who’s at the highest position in the University whose previous work was really student-facing.”

Some students also said they hope Gay’s experience as FAS dean will be beneficial for her tenure as Harvard’s president.

“Her administrative experience, notable heart for students, and clear knowledge of the current political and social climate make her the perfect president to lead Harvard in its next era,” Eunice S. “Euny” Chon ’25 wrote.

Kody Christiansen, Harvard Extension Student Association president and special student to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said he was “rooting” for Gay and is “very optimistic” about her appointment.

“I think because she has been so ingrained in FAS and in Harvard for so long, that she really knows what we need as a school,” he added.

Still, he hopes that Gay will spread attention her attention across all of Harvard’s schools.

“As the president of Harvard, she needs to make sure she connects with all the schools at Harvard, especially ones like Harvard Extension, who might not get as much attention as some of the other schools,” he said.

Fernando A. Bizzarro Neto, a seventh-year Ph.D. student in the Government department, called Gay an “extraordinary scholar” and “outstanding person.”

“She is a role model for me and a role model for other people at the University and outside of the University who will look up to the Harvard president,” he added.

Alexis G. Williams ’26 said she celebrated Gay’s appointment for promoting greater diversity in Harvard’s leadership.

“It seems like she’s a really good representation of the groups on campus that haven’t

been represented in administration before — at least that high up,” she said.“I think she’ll be really well-connected with those students, as well as other students, with her being so involved already on campus and her being a social scientist.”

“

I want to look at President Gay’s performance as a president — not as a Black president, not as a Black female president. I think that’s the respect that she deserves.

LyLena D. Estabine ’24 HUA Co-President

HUA Co-President LyLena D. Estabine ’24 said she is looking forward to the role the new president will have in implementing the findings from Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery report, which Gay helped produce. Still, Estabine noted “some unknowns” to Gay’s appointment.

“I think that myself as well as other students on campus are looking for someone who’s willing to take a stronger stance in defense of free speech on campus,” she said. “We need a leader who’s committed to giving students the breathing room necessary to encounter views that they might disagree with, or that they might not have encountered in the past.”

Estabine added Gay should not be held to a “different standard because of what she looks like or how she identifies.”

“While I am happy to see more diversity in this position, I want to look at President Gay’s performance as a president — not as a Black president, not as a Black female president,” she said. “I think that’s the respect that she deserves, and I think that’s the capabilities that she has.”

BY CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

BY RAHEM D. HAMID AND ARIEL H. KIM CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay stepped up to the plate, working to ease the transition to remote instruction for students and faculty.

After students were sent home in March 2020 due to growing public health concerns, Gay implemented universal pass-fail grading for the remainder of the term.

She also piloted a remote work system, led planning for the school’s gradual reopening, and carried out budget cuts to offset the pandemic’s financial impact.

Nearly three years later, after Gay was announced as Harvard’s 30th president Thursday afternoon, faculty members pointed to her leadership through the pandemic as evidence of her readiness for the role.

“When I read the news, I was elated,” said Suzanne P. Blier, a professor of African and African American Studies who previously endorsed Gay for the role. “She’s been a force of calm in a sea of Covid difficulty.”

Harvard Divinity School professor Jacob K. Olupona, also a professor of AAAS, said Gay’s leadership transformed the FAS into a “pace setter during the difficult period.”

Drew G. Faust lauded the presidential search committee’s decision to appoint Gay, writing in an email to The Crimson that she was “thrilled” with the choice, adding that it was “a great day for Harvard.”

Dean of Harvard College Rakesh Khurana also called Gay’s appointment “a great moment for Harvard” in an interview Thursday.

“I’m inspired knowing that a person of her academic background, where she’s come from, what she represents in terms of possibilities, is making so many young people around the world see what might be possible for them,” he said.

Lawrence D. Bobo — who succeeded Gay as dean of Social Sciences in 2018 — called Gay’s appointment as Harvard’s next president the “right and arguably obvious choice.”

“She has already proven to be a skilled, effective, and indeed visionary leader,” he wrote in an email.

Many faculty members matched Faust and Bobo’s optimism for the future of Harvard under Gay’s leadership, citing her compassion and professionalism.

“Most important to me as a faculty member is that she obviously cares deeply about this institution and has assumed the role out of dedication to Harvard rather than from self-advancement or self-promotion,” Har-

History professor Maya R. Jasanoff ’96, who said she worked alongside Gay before her promotion to dean, said she has been impressed by Gay’s “tremendous integrity” and “clarity of purpose.”

Faculty members also praised Gay’s attentiveness during her tenure as Dean.

“She’s very steady and makes thoughtful attempts to listen to people very carefully and hear different constituencies really well,” said Benjamin L. de Bivort, a professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.

Professors said that even though they disagreed with some of Gay’s decisions as FAS dean, they appreciated her attitude in the face of discord.

“Even when she made decisions that made me unhappy, I always admired her clarity, directness, and decisiveness,” Sociology professor Jason Beckfield wrote in an email.

“I’ve seen her demonstrate great generosity and collegiality even in the face of controversy and disagreement,” wrote Caroline E. Light, the director of undergraduate studies for Studies in Women, Gender, and Sexuality.

rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com ariel.kim@thecrimson.com

From Weeks to Weld.

in an interview following Harvard’s public announcement.

The Corporation also voted to approve Gay on Thursday, Pritzker said, though every member of the board except Bacow sat on the

search committee.

search committee started with a list of 600 nominations that narrowed to approximately 50

Former University President

vard Kennedy School professor Archon Fung, who chaired the faculty advisory committee for the presidential search, wrote in an email.

Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker ’81, who led the presidential search team, introduced Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay as Harvard’s 30th president in the Smith Campus Center. J. SELLERS HILL — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Fernando A. Bizzarro Neto Ph.D. candidate in Government

Tracy Palandjian ’93 (right) filled the Harvard Corporation seat William F. Lee ’72 (left) vacated in July. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Gay Named 30th Harvard President Following Four Years as FAS Dean

of Overseers voted to confirm the pick.

“We are confident Claudine will be a thoughtful, principled, and inspiring president for all of Harvard, dedicated to helping each of our individual schools thrive, as well as fostering creative connections among them,” Pritzker wrote.

The 15-member committee landed on Gay after just five months, making it the shortest Harvard presidential hunt in almost 70 years.

The group met formally about 20 times, Pritzker said in public remarks Thursday, whittling down an initial list of more than 600 nominations.

The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Gay grew up in New York and attended high school at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. She attended college at Stanford University before receiving a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1998.

Gay joined Harvard’s faculty from Stanford in 2006 as an expert on democracy and political representation in the Government Department. She became dean of the FAS’s Social Sciences Division in 2015 before ascending to her current post in 2018, overseeing management of the school’s greater than $1.5 billion budget and approximately 40 percent of the University’s faculty.

“She’s one of the Academy’s most creative and rigorous thinkers about vital aspects of democracy and political participation,” Pritzker said.

“She is a political scientist, who is deeply engaged with practical issues and concerns

— someone who is strongly focused on how the ideas and inventions born in our universities can make a positive difference in the world.”

As dean, Gay has steered the FAS through the Covid-19 pandemic and a stream of controversies related to sexual harassment and faculty diversity.

As academia writ large has grappled with a reckoning on sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination in the wake of the #MeToo movement, Gay levied sanctions against several well-known professors. In the early summer of 2019, she stripped the emeritus status of Government professor Jorge I. Dominguez, who faced allegations of nearly four decades of sexual misconduct, and suspended a high-profile Economics professor, Ronald G. Fryer Jr., who was accused of sexually harassing co-workers.

Harvard became engulfed in controversy in early 2022 after Gay sanctioned Anthropology and African and African American Studies professor John L. Comaroff following University investigations that found he violated the school’s sexual harassment and professional conduct policies.

Dozens of high-profile professors rallied to support Comaroff, questioning Gay’s sanctions in an open letter before reversing course just days later after a federal lawsuit against Harvard outlined years of misconduct allegations against anthropology scholar.

Gay also launched a review of Harvard’s tenure process after ethnic studies scholar Lorgia

García Peña was denied tenure in November 2019, prompting backlash from students and faculty.

The FAS review, released in October 2021, largely upheld Harvard’s tenure process but recommended some adjustments to add more transparency around associate professor reviews and the use of ad hoc committees.

Gay has supported the creation of an ethnic studies department at Harvard, a longtime demand of student and alumni activists.

She initiated a cluster hire of ethnic studies scholars that brought in three scholars in the field this year. She has also worked to diversify the faculty by appointing an inaugural associate dean of diversity, inclusion, and belonging in the FAS and founding Harvard’s Inequality in America Initiative, which supports research on social and economic inequality.

As Gay walked into the Harvard Commons in the Smith Campus Center on Thursday for the University’s public broadcast, the room erupted into applause. When the president-elect took to the podium, she joked that she was surprised to see so many people at the reception — “I thought I was the only person still on campus” — before turning to her vision for the school.

“Harvard is where I found my intellectual home,” Gay said Thursday.

“It has nurtured and inspired me since I first set foot in the Yard. I’m deeply invested not only in what Harvard is today, but also in what Harvard’s leadership means for the future.”

Gay to Name Four New Dean Replacements

BY BRANDON L. KINGDOLLAR CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Lawrence S. Bacow had been Harvard’s leader for less than a month in 2018 when he made what would prove to be the most consequential appointment of his presidency: elevating Claudine Gay to become dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Now, as Gay prepares to take over as Bacow’s successor in Massachusetts Hall in July 2023, she is set to face the same challenge of filling a leadership role that oversees a key domain of the University.

Gay will select her successor as dean of the FAS, and she is likely to have the final say on dean selections for Harvard’s School of Public Health, Divinity School, and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

All four deans are set to depart from their roles at the end of the current academic year.

“It’s going to be a busy spring,” Gay told reporters following her announcement on Thursday. “I feel fortunate because I know that not only am I moving into the spring with a great team in the FAS, but also with great partners in President Bacow and Provost Garber.”

The departure of SEAS Dean Francis J. Doyle III was announced just hours before Gay was named Harvard’s 30th president. David N. Hempton announced plans in October to depart his role atop the Divinity School and HSPH Dean Michelle A. Williams said in November she, too, would leave her position.

Departing President Lawrence S. Bacow told The Crimson in an interview on Tuesday — prior to the announcement of Gay’s selection — that he expected his successor to appoint the next School of Public Health and Divinity School deans.

“I’d be surprised if they’re completed by the time the new

president is named, just given where we started, how long it takes to fill one of these jobs,” Bacow said at the time.

Bacow selected three Harvard deans — including Gay — around the start of his tenure, though two of the searches had neared their completion when he was announced as the incoming president.

Gay’s predecessor, Michael D. Smith, announced his departure just a month after Bacow was selected as president.

The new appointments will join a sea of fresh faces joining Harvard’s top ranks. New Executive Vice President Meredith L. Weenick ’90 and Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 both assumed their

posts this summer. Sarah C. Karmon was announced as executive director of Harvard’s Alumni Association earlier this month. Harvard’s chief financial officer announced plans to step down in November, though the search for his successor continues.

Gay said her priority in the coming months will be to speak with colleagues to better understand facets of the University outside the FAS.

“My focus is very much on getting to a better understanding of the many parts of the Harvard community that have been out of scope for me,” Gay said. “And what happens after I step into the role? We’ll see.”

SEAS Dean Doyle to Depart, Join Brown University as Provost

BY CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Francis J. Doyle III, dean of Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, will step down from his post at the end of the academic year to serve as Provost of Brown University, the school announced in a press release Thursday morning.

Doyle, who has served as SEAS dean since 2015, will begin his tenure as Brown’s chief academic officer in July 2023, leading the school’s efforts to expand its research presence and promote diversity and inclusion.

“They’ve done a lot of thoughtful work about growing their program, in particular growing research, expanding the campus,” Doyle said in a Thursday interview with The Crimson. “I want to jump in and participate in that.”

Brown President Christina H. Paxson said Doyle is the “right leader at the right time for the University” in Thursday’s press release. “Frank has an exceptional record of leading a complex academic enterprise through extensive development

of new programs, capital planning, faculty recruitment, and cultivation of philanthropic investment, all while building and strengthening community,” she said in the release.

Doyle’s predecessor, Richard M. Locke, will complete his tenure as Provost this month and assume a position as dean and vice president of Apple University.

Doyle said he finds his current post “incredibly rewarding” but hopes to “try to take my skills to a university scale.”

The departure continues a major reshuffling of Harvard’s top administrators. Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay will succeed University President Lawrence S. Bacow to become Harvard’s 30th president in July, the school announced Thursday. Two other academic deans are set to depart at the end of the academic year, as well as the school’s Chief Financial Officer. Harvard Alumni Association Executive Director Philip W. Lovejoy is also retiring at the end of the calendar year.

As SEAS Dean, Doyle oversaw an expansion of the school’s master’s and Ph.D. programs. The number of undergraduates

pursuing degrees in engineering and applied sciences disciplines also rose from 18 to 23 percent under his tenure, according to Harvard’s press release announcing his departure.

“SEAS has flourished and grown in innovative ways under Frank Doyle’s leadership,” Bacow said in the release. “Since 2015, the School has advanced Harvard’s teaching and research mission, attracted more students into engineering and the applied sciences, and forged new and creative partnerships across the University.

Gay praised Doyle for expanding research collaborations between SEAS and other schools.

“Frank is an eager connector and collaborator, who has enthusiastically formed partnerships both within and beyond Harvard to advance the mission and open up new and promising opportunities for research and teaching at SEAS,” she said in the release. “I’m deeply grateful for his leadership, service, and most importantly to have been one of those partners.”

Michelle A. Williams. COURTESY OF BEN GEBO

TURNOVER

David N. Hempton. COURTESY OF JUSTIN KNIGHT

Francis J. Doyle III. KATHERINE S. KU-

MAR — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Claudine Gay. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

FAS Dean Gay addresses Harvard Corporation members and other administrators in Smith Campus Center following her selection as Harvard’s 30th president. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Gay spoke fondly of her family and journey into academia. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Gay hugged Pritzker before addressing the crowd. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Harvard’s Haitian President

BY MARISSA J. JOSEPH

In true Haitian American fashion, the first thing I did when I heard the news about Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay being selected to be the next president of Harvard University was forward the announcement to every one of my extended family members on WhatsApp.

As I spread the news to my loved ones, the Haitian community across the diaspora joined together in celebration of one of our own. Within hours, Le Nouvelliste d’Haiti, the oldest Haitian daily newspaper, produced an article highlighting Dean Gay’s appointment and her parents’ Haitian roots; the Haitian Ladies Network applauded her leadership on their widely followed Facebook page, broadcasting her success to their thousands of members.

“

Marie, it seemed, knew Claudine, even if the two had never met, perhaps more so than if they ever had.

While I read the countless articles featuring Dean Gay’s appointment, each time my eyes graze the page to find the line continuously used to de -

scribe Gay that continues to bring tears to my eyes: “A child of Haitian immigrants.”

For the first time, the next president of Harvard University does not descend from generations of whiteness, but from the revolutionaries of Haiti

with a slight Kreyol accent, sweetening them to ‘Hah-varde’ and ‘Ca-nah-day,’ lacing their names with Haitian phonemes. But there was one name in all the welcome emails that seemed to roll perfectly, seamlessly off her tongue: Claudine.

“The descendants of the world’s most succesful slave revolt were cast to the shadows. Gay’s appointment to Harvard’s top post affirms that we belong in the light.

who successfully won their freedom and stood as the largest challenge to the global colonial order.

The next president of Harvard University is the child of a rich culture molded by resistance but deemed inferior by a world not yet ready for its power, the child of the same nation that once ousted its colonizers only to be saddled by some $21 billion in so-called ‘reparations’ for the disgraced enslavers.

The next president of Harvard University is a child of Haitian migrants who, while cut from the tree of Haiti, have sprung roots numerous and deep in the United States. The next president of Harvard University is a child of Haitian immigrants, and I hope she never lets us forget it.

When I received my acceptance to Harvard, my mother knew very little about the institution. She pronounced words like Harvard and Canaday

When Black Women Win

BY KYLA N. GOLDING

I want to say that 2022 has been a year for Black women. The truth is, though, every year is a year for Black women.

From January to December, Black women fight in the latest battles of long-standing campaigns — for equal pay, reproductive justice, the continued survival of democracy — relentlessly pursuing avenues for change. But this year we also dominated the Emmys, Meghan Markle reclaimed her narrative from the British press, the nation rallied to bring Brittney Griner home, Minnesota watched as Black women were elected to its state senate for the first time in its 164 years of statehood, and the nation watched as the first Black female justice was confirmed to the highest court in the land.

And to top the year off, right here at Harvard, Claudine Gay was named the University’s 30th President — the first person of color and the first Black woman to hold the premier position at the world’s premier institution.

So today, we celebrate because when Black women win, moments become movements.

Seeing a Black woman elevated to one of the highest positions in our institution — uplifting and affirming both her Blackness and her womanhood in a way that combats Harvard’s historical mistreatment and rejection of both identities — is certainly cause for celebration.

Black Harvard rejoices. Black Harvard women — especially those who share in her Caribbean descent — sit filled with pride, our emotions running high.

Over the last dozen hours, I have watched as we each rush to repost the snippets of her joyous giggles at her raucous reception, proudly showing the world that the next face of Harvard, for the first time ever, looks like us.

We raise our flags and spread word to family group chats that not only the fairest of them all but also the highest-ranked is Black.

We celebrate Dean (and, now, President-elect) Gay the way we celebrated Princess Tiana, Duchess Meghan, Vice President Kamala, and Justice Ketanji. And we champion this moment as a shining pillar of possibility for the realization of liberatory pursuits for people of underrepresented identities on Harvard’s campus and beyond.

Because when Black women win, we memorialize them.

But we should never forget that progress depends on love, something the world often doesn’t give Black women enough of.

Claudine Gay is an exceptional woman. She is a scholar who believes in imaginative, interdisciplinary pedagogy, and a much-admired administrator whose mission has been to foster a creative, intellectually vibrant, and socially responsible Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Colleagues say that Gay’s commitment to inspire and inquire while amplifying diverse voices and views makes her the perfect fit for the celebrated gig.

As our community enters this new chapter, it does not yet know just how lucky — and wildly undeserving — it is to have this friend, wife, mother, and trailblazing daughter of Caribbean immigrants at the helm.

As FAS Dean, Claudine Gay has steered the University through tempestuous times. When our campus and the world beyond it was turbulent, her hand was steady.

Over the course of that time, the decisions that came across her desk demanded the same tricky navigational skills needed to maneuver the multilayered texture of the Black woman’s life — the grace and pure competence required to constantly find the best way to achieve a common good against all odds and at times against powerful opposition.

In contentious conversations, of which there were surely many, she was expected to move seamlessly, each time with unwavering poise. No longer simply herself, Dean Gay — friend, wife, mother, daughter, educator — became, like so many Black women, an allegory for responsibility, called to be visible and loud or behind-thescenes and quiet as the moment demanded.

But when Black women win, their great power comes with great responsibility.

Like superheroes, Black women are supposed to be reliable and resilient. When buildings are burning and people need to save the day – or, too often, save face – we are often called on to put the fire out. But to be the first responder is no easy feat, and we run into each crisis with the weight of the world on our shoulders. We must fit through closed doors while breaking them down, sift through the soot while making way for the next generation of firefighters, all while ensuring that nobody gets burned or sick from the smoke.

Claudine Gay will become the first University President tasked with carrying the heavy legacies of both Harvard and Black women simultaneously at an institution where, at one time, neither were permitted.

And, whether we are criticizing her missteps or praising her accomplishments, we must remember that to be the first Black woman selected for such a high role tends to raise the stakes — that the vitriol she will be subjected to, even if well-warranted, will often echo with the sordid truth that the institution she will lead wasn’t built with women like her in mind.

There will undoubtedly be days that we are prouder to have Claudine Gay represent us as University President than others. Every day, we must remember that while our feelings are valid, they must also be nuanced, compassionate, and sensitive. I’m sure that the Harvard community will continue to rally, organize, and demand that our institution finally realizes the promises of its mission, as they should.

And this inherently requires holding even our first Black female University President to the highest standards of anti-racism, anti-imperialism, and anti-inequity standards. But we should never forget that progress depends on love, something the world often doesn’t give Black women enough of.

To love Black women means to listen to, protect, and see us, to make it a point to fight for us as we fight for everybody else, and to trust us. Without question, I can say that the people I trust the most in this world are Black women. And so, in return for Gay’s vow to pour into us, we must also vow to pour into her.

We should want more for her, the way we want more for us. We should want her to enter rooms where she is valued, to feel fulfilled by her work, to be able to celebrate her wins without the trauma that too often comes with winning as a Black woman at Harvard and in America.

So, congratulations Claudine Gay. I hope you stand firm in your dreams for the University, that you will show us all your version, self-defined and self-determined, of what it means for Black women to win, especially here at Harvard. I’ll be rooting and praying for you all the way through.

Because when Black women win, we’re all better for it.

—Kyla N. Golding ’24, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a History of Science and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality concentrator in Adams House.

Marie, it seemed, knew Claudine, even if the two had never met, perhaps more so than if they ever had. My mother began to speak of her as though she was a distant cousin, one making our community proud through her leadership. Dean Gay reflects a growing shift in the representations of Haitian people — an overcoming of the historical project, by institutions and governments alike, to depict Haitians as inferior.

Despite being home to the third-largest Haitian

One day, I want to be president of university, tankou ti dam sa ki te nan Harvard, Claudine Gay.

community in the United States, Boston’s streets reflect very little of Haiti’s influence. Over the years, the city has tried to render its largest Black ethnic group invisbile, subjecting them both to the racial discrimination experienced by Black Americans as well as to the special brand of cruelty reserved for Caribbean immigrants.

The descendants of the world’s most succesful slave revolt were cast to the shadows. Gay’s appointment to Harvard’s top post affirms that we belong in the light.

Haitian American children are familiar with the holy trinity of professions — doctor, lawyer, engineer. The three paths that lead to embodied success, merit, financial stability even. As a History and Literature concentrator,

I still get confused stares when I tell my family what I study, when I reveal that my working hours are devoted not to math or biology, but to uncovering the rich history of people whose stories have been silenced.

I’m almost always asked, “Well what do you want to do with that after college?”

Now, I have an answer.

“One day, I want to be president of university, tankou ti dam sa ki te nan Harvard, Claudine Gay.”

One day, I want to be president of university, like that woman who was at Harvard, Claudine Gay.

OP-ED

Harvard Needs More Than Symbolic Change From Claudine Gay

BY CLYVE LAWRENCE AND PRINCE WILLIAMS

Claudine Gay’s appointment as the first person of color and the first Black woman president of Harvard University is a historic moment for representation in higher education. But Harvard needs more than symbolic change. Given the massive wealth and power that the University holds, Gay’s incoming administration must address the systemic issues that perpetuate inequality and injustice at Harvard.

We are deeply concerned about how the administration will respond to the needs of the Harvard community moving forward, given its record of inaction on sexual violence, ambiguous efforts to redress its legacy of slavery, hostility towards the labor movement, and slowness on divestment. This record has harmed our campus in real ways that must be addressed immediately.

First, under the current administration, issues of sexual violence, harassment, and discrimination abound. The Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Automobile Workers and the undergraduate advocacy group Our Harvard Can Do Better have made passionate calls for real recourse, but they have been met with resistance. In fact, Harvard professor and accused sexual harasser John L. Comaroff resumed teaching this semester despite being put on temporary unpaid leave with Gay’s approval.

Second, it is unclear how Harvard will concretely address its legacy of slavery. The University has a long history of benefiting from the exploitation and enslavement of Black and Indigenous people, as its own reports have shown.

After several years (and even more committees), it is time to put the University’s $100 million pledge to work by publicly providing reparations, such as cash payments to descendants of enslaved people and the return of Indigenous lands.

Third, despite the significant contributions of its workers, Harvard has consistently failed to acknowledge the legitimate demands of its labor force.

The Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers has called for higher wages, dining services workers have demanded balanced staffing for hot breakfast across all Houses, and, as mentioned above, HGSU’s Feminist Working Group has pushed for real recourse for survivors of harassment and discrimination. These requests can no longer be dismissed.

Gay is one of the few administrators on campus who had a hand in controversial high-pro -

file sexual misconduct cases such as Comaroff’s. Perhaps that made her a comfortable insider pick for the University’s next president. But as she enters her presidency, she cannot remain complacent. Gay’s administration must address Harvard’s existing issues and create new meaningful changes.

The new administration must acknowledge the lack of transparency surrounding its endowment investments, including its past (and potentially present) participation in a prison-industrial complex with close historical ties to slavery. The new administration must divest from industries that contribute to social inequality and environmental destruction, heeding the advice of student-led activist groups like the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign, Palestine Solidarity Committee, and Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard. The new administration must return Native American remains to their descendants as a gesture of

“

Gay is one of the few administrators on campus who had a hand in controversial highprofile sexual misconduct cases such as Comaroff’s.

respect and acknowledgment of the harm inflicted on these communities. The new administration must prioritize diversity in its hiring practices. The new administration must continue to provide support and resources to students, particularly those disproportionately impacted by Covid-19.

Finally, as the Supreme Court appears poised to end race-conscious admissions practices, Gay’s Harvard must aggressively recruit students from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.

The appointment of Gay to the presidency is a cause for celebration in many ways, but we must also recognize that this was a relatively safe choice for Harvard. Gay’s appointment marks the third consecutive time Harvard boosted a high-ranking insider to the presidency. Students will not believe that a pick approved by the administration is the best choice for them if they are asking the administration to reconsider its relationship with the Harvard community. As president, Gay’s decisions to enact reforms — including her choice of replacement for FAS dean — will signal her loyalty or lack thereof to the status quo.

Our community can only move forward by addressing the structural issues that perpetuate inequality and injustice at Harvard — a truth we academics often acknowledge but hardly put into practice.

Symbolic representation is not enough. If Claudine Gay wants to be a good president of Harvard University, she must set the tone with decisive, concrete action.

—Clyve Lawrence ’25 is a Government concentrator in Adams House. Prince Williams ’25 is a History concentrator in Adams House.

—Marissa J. Joseph ’23, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Kirkland House.

The Crimson @thecrimson

College Accepts 7.6% of Early Action Applicants

In

BY RAHEM D. HAMID AND NIA L. ORAKWUE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard College admitted 7.56 percent of early applicants to the Class of 2027, marking the second-lowest early acceptance rate in the College’s history.

The College notified 722 of 9,553 early applicants of their acceptance to the Class of 2027 on Thursday at 7 p.m. The early acceptance rate marks a 0.3 percentage point decline from the Class of 2026 and nearly a 0.2 percentage point rise from the Class of 2025, who faced the College’s most competitive early admissions cycle in history.

Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 described the applicants admitted early to Harvard’s Class of 2027 as “amazing” in a Thursday interview.

“Not just in terms of their accomplishments but in terms of their life stories and the kind of educators they’ll be of each other once they’re here,” he said.

This is Harvard College’s second biggest early applicant pool, up from 9,406 for the Class of 2026 but still shy of the 10,086 students who applied for early admission to Harvard’s Class of 2025. Of the applications received, roughly 78 percent of applicants were deferred and 9.5 percent were denied. Approximately 5 percent of applications were either withdrawn or incomplete.

“I think people realize, if you apply early anywhere, it usually is competitive, and that there’ll be some wonderful people who do not make it early who will, in fact, make it later on,” Fitzsimmons said. “So it’s a good situation.”

Students identifying as Asian American comprise 29.1 percent of admitted early applicants, a roughly 3 percentage point increase from the year before and the highest percentage of Asian American early admits in the College’s history.

The number of students admitted early who identify as African American reached 14.4 percent, a slight increase from last year’s 13.9 percent. Latinx students comprised 8.4 percent of

BY RYAN H. DOAN-NGUYEN AND J. SELLERS HILL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

BOSTON — The wife of former Harvard fencing coach Peter Brand told a federal jury on Thursday that the payments made by businessman Jie “Jack” Zhao to their family were personal loans that they planned to pay back with anticipated inheritance money.

Brand and Zhao are facing trial for federal bribery charges.

Prosecutors allege Brand accepted more than $1.5 million in bribes in exchange for recruiting Zhao’s sons to Harvard’s fencing program.

Brand’s wife Jacqueline Phillips testified for nearly six hours on the eighth day of trial Thursday, telling jurors that she and Brand used personal loans from Zhao to pay off their debts, facilitating their purchase of a new condo in Cambridge.

Brand’s defense sought to show that the 23 checks prosecutors had presented on the fourth day of trial documenting payments from Zhao on behalf of Brand and Phillips were actually loans that the couple later paid back.

In her testimony Thursday, Phillips told jurors she and Brand planned to reimburse Zhao with inheritance money they expected to receive when Brand’s mother died.

Brand’s mother died in 2021 —

after Brand was indicted on bribery charges by a federal grand jury — leaving $584,000 to Brand, who said he used part of the sum to repay Zhao.

Prosecutors focused their questions on the lack of documentation of the claimed personal loans and the delay in the couple’s repayment until after Brand was indicted in 2020.

“In the four or five years between the time Jack Zhao made those payments and the time that your husband was indicted, you made not one payment toward those loans?” government attorney Stephen E. Frank ’95 asked.

Phillips said yes.

Defense attorneys sought to discredit prosecutors’ allegations that the Peter Brand Foundation was intended to facilitate tax-exempt money transfers between Zhao and Brand.

Phillips said the foundation was established with the sole intention of providing charitable grants to “arts and athletic and professional development organizations.”

But prosecutors suggested last week that Brand used the foundation to receive bribes and provide kickbacks to his family, including a yearly salary for the co-founder and CEO of the organization — his wife.

Phillips testified she was unable to access foundation funds — which were managed by the Cambridge Trust Company — and added that she donated back a director’s fee she received from

the short-lived foundation.

“I took nothing from the foundation, not a dime,” she said. David G. Strachan, a trust officer at the Cambridge Trust Company for 26 years and treasurer of the now-defunct Peter Brand Foundation, said Phillips was committed to the foundation’s success and confirmed she and Brand could not directly access its funds.

“They control the foundation, but they don’t control the money,” Strachan said. “Everything has to

be run through a representative — an officer like myself.”

Phillips said she helped establish the foundation with the understanding that it would receive $7.5 million in its first year, as promised by Alexandre Ryjik, the self-proclaimed “middleman” in the alleged bribery scheme.

Phillips testified that Ryjik had repeatedly assured her he had donors “lined up” to contribute the sum to be used toward charitable means.

Ryjik, a government witness

in the case, testified on the first day of the trial that he had used his organization, the National Fencing Foundation, to transfer bribes to Brand. Still, Ryjik denied ever pledging to secure millions for the Peter Brand Foundation.

Phillips said she was “shellshocked” after learning Ryjik would not deliver the anticipated $7.5 million, which became apparent during a July 2014 meeting between representatives of the foundations that Ryjik failed

Harvard has defended its admissions practices, advocating for the value of diversity in the classroom and on campus. The percentage of Asian Americans in the College’s admitted classes has grown by more than 27 percent since 2010, per Harvard’s website.

International students represent 14.1 percent of the admitted class, up from 12.6 percent for the Class of 2026. Over 14 percent of those admitted under the early action plan are first-generation college students, an increase from approximately 12 percent last year. In addition, 10.8 percent of admitted students qualify for federal Pell Grants.

The Class of 2027 will be the third class admitted under the test-optional policy enacted by the College in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Starting with the Class of 2026, families that earn incomes under $75,000 per year will have no cost of attendance, following an increase in the threshold from $65,000 in previous years. Fitzsimmons called the expansion of Harvard’s financial aid program a tool for “attracting talent.”

“I think that is enormously encouraging,” Fitzsimmons said. Students applying for the regular decision cycle or who were deferred from the early action round will receive their decision at 7 p.m. on March 30, 2023. All admitted students are invited to the College’s admitted students weekend, known as Visitas, which returned to an in-person format for the Class of 2026.

to attend.

“It was the worst meeting of my life,” Phillips said. “Obviously, it was becoming clear I was bamboozled into doing this.”

In the end, the Peter Brand Foundation received only $100,000 from Ryjik’s foundation, which was disbursed to several charitable organizations. The Peter Brand Foundation dissolved in 2016.

ryan.nguyen@thecrimson.com

the admitted pool, down from last year’s 10.5 percent. Native American and Hawaiian students made up 1.7 percent, down

from 3.7 percent in the Class of 2026 but higher than the 1.3 percent for the Class of 2025.

“The whole idea has been,

over a long period of time, to get out there and encourage talented people from all backgrounds to consider higher education,” Fitz-

simmons said. “Harvard — and other institutions, and society in general — has succeeded in lots of respects.”

October, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments brought by anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions, which alleges Harvard discriminates against Asian American applicants in its race-conscious admissions processes.

RAHEM D. HAMID — FLOURISH

William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 Dean of Admissions

Harvard — and other institutions, and society in general — has succeeded in lots of respects.

Dean Fitzsimmons has been serving as Dean of Admissions since 1986. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

IN PHOTOS

Claudine Gay Named Harvard’s 30th President

Gay looked on as Penny Pritzker introduced her as the University’s 30th president. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Gay, the current dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, will be the first person of color and second woman to serve as Harvard University president. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

FAS Dean

Bacow has served as president since October 2018. J. SELLERS HILL — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Tracy Palandjian ’93, right, replaced William F. Lee ’72 (left) on the Harvard Corporation in July. Lee served as the Corporation’s senior fellow before Pritzker assumed the role. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

University Marshal Katherine O’Dair, left, and Chief D&I Officer Sherri A. Charleston attended the event. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean Bridget T. Long, center, was one of several University deans in attendance. J. SELLERS HILL — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

FAS Dean Claudine Gay gave a speech to a crowd of administrators, Corporation members, and other Harvard affiliates in Smith Campus Center after being announced as Harvard’s 30th president on Thursday. J. SELLERS HILL — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Immediately following the announcement of Harvard’s 30th president, Pritzker welcomed Gay to the stage for brief remarks.

J. SELLERS HILL — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Gay addressed the crowd in the Smith Campus Center briefly before answering questions from the press. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

After a five-month search, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay was named the 30th president of Harvard University at a press conference Thursday.

Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow will step down in June 2023. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER