Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust is the first woman, and Southerner, to hold that post. Michael Dwyer/ASSOCIATED PRESS Visit the Photo Place

Virginian handling Harvard 'firsts' fine

New Harvard president is not just first woman to hold that post, the Virginia native is the first Southerner to lead the Ivy League school

Date published: 4/16/2008

By Ed Jones

LEAVE IT TO Virginia's first Republican governor since Reconstruction to note the nuance of the moment.

At a luncheon of Harvard alumni last week at Richmond's stately Jefferson Hotel, A. Linwood Holton rose to pay tribute to his alma mater for the choice of its 28th and first female president.

But it was another "first" that was on the 84-year-old former governor's mind. Virginia-bred Drew Gilpin Faust, a noted Civil War scholar, is also the first Southerner to serve as Harvard's president.

Judging by her flawless performance last week, Faust is handling the "firsts" just fine.

She was selected for the job after controversial President Lawrence Summers lost the confidence of the Harvard faculty. And you can understand why Faust got the nod.

She has a way of mixing the funny with the weighty. And she's a good listener, a description that didn't fit her predecessor.

Asked if her gender helps shape her presidency, Faust noted with a smile that some have said that her strengths match those often associated with female leaders. But then she suggested that her brother in the audience might want to comment on whether she really is "kinder and gentler."

The challenges facing Harvard's new president, from a vast new financial aid program to developing a new campus across the Charles River from the main campus in Cambridge, Mass., are dizzying. But there's a calmness to Faust as she travels the world for Harvard, including a recent stop in Shanghai.

Quizzed about the university's environmental initiatives, Faust related how "green" students had recently made some polite demands.

For Valentine's Day, they sent her a big heart-shaped box of chocolates, with a note saying they wanted "a date"--for when Harvard will reach the goal of becoming carbon neutral.

That gentle approach is a far cry from my days at Harvard, as I mentioned to the 60-year-old Faust. In the late 1960s, we would have been more likely to occupy her office than send her a box of candy.

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Date published: 4/16/2008