President of Harvard University

President of Harvard University
Incumbent
Alan Garber
since January 2, 2024 (2024-01-02)
AppointerHarvard Corporation
Formation1640 (1640)
First holderHenry Dunster
Websiteharvard.edu/president/

The president of Harvard University is the chief administrator of Harvard University and the ex officio president of the Harvard Corporation.[1] Each is appointed by and is responsible to the other members of that body, who delegate to the president the day-to-day running of the university.

Harvard's current president is Alan Garber, who took office on January 2, 2024, following the resignation of Claudine Gay. In December 2025, the Harvard Corporation announced his term would be extended indefinitely.[2]

Role

The president plays an important part in university-wide planning and strategy. Each names a faculty's dean (and, since the foundation of the office in 1994, the university's provost), and grants tenure to recommended professors. However, the president is expected to make such decisions after extensive consultation with faculty members.

Recently, however, the job has become increasingly administrative, especially as fund-raising campaigns have taken on central importance in large institutions such as Harvard. Some have criticized this trend to the extent it has prevented the president from focusing on substantive issues in higher education.[3]

Each president is professor in some department of the university and teaches from time to time.

The university maintains an official residence for the president's use, which from 1912 until 1971, was President's House, and since then has been Elmwood.[4]

Influence

Harvard presidents have traditionally influenced educational practices nationwide. Charles W. Eliot, for example, originated America's familiar system of a smorgasbord of elective courses available to each student; James B. Conant worked to introduce standardized testing; Derek Bok and Neil L. Rudenstine argued for the continued importance of diversity in higher education.

History

At Harvard's founding it was headed by a "schoolmaster", Nathaniel Eaton. In 1640, when Henry Dunster was brought in, he adopted the title of president. Since Harvard was founded for the training of Puritan clergy, and even though its mission was soon broadened, nearly all presidents through the end of the 18th century were in holy orders.

All presidents from Leonard Hoar in 1672 through Nathan Pusey in 1971 were graduates of Harvard College. Of the presidents since Pusey, nearly all earned a graduate degree at Harvard. The only exception has been Drew Gilpin Faust, who was the first president since the seventeenth century with no earned Harvard degree.

Presidents of Harvard

The following persons have served as president of Harvard University:[5]

No. Image Presidents Term start Term end Length Ref.
Headmaster of the New College (1637–1639)
– Nathaniel Eaton[a] 1637 1639 2 years [6]
Presidents of Harvard College (1639–1780)
1 Henry Dunster[b] August 27, 1640 October 24, 1654 14 years, 1 month and 27 days [7]
2 Charles Chauncy November 2, 1654 February 19, 1672[c] 17 years, 3 months and 17 days [8]
3 Leonard Hoar[d] December 10, 1672 March 15, 1675 2 years, 3 months and 5 days [9]
acting Urian Oakes April 7, 1675 February 2, 1680 4 years, 9 months and 26 days
4 February 2, 1680 July 25, 1681[c] 1 year, 5 months and 23 days [10][8]
5 John Rogers April 10, 1682 July 12, 1684[c] 2 years, 3 months and 2 days [11][12][8]
acting Increase Mather[e] June 11, 1685 June 23, 1686 1 year and 12 days
rector June 23, 1686 June 27, 1692 6 years and 4 days
6 June 27, 1692 June 29, 1701 9 years and 2 days [13][8]
acting Samuel Willard[f] September 6, 1701 September 12, 1707 6 years and 6 days [14]
7 John Leverett[g] January 14, 1708 May 3, 1724[c] 16 years, 3 months and 19 days [8][15]
8 Benjamin Wadsworth July 7, 1725 March 16, 1737[c] 11 years, 8 months and 9 days [12][8]
9 Edward Holyoke[h] 1737 1769[c] 32 years [12][8]
acting John Winthrop[i] 1769 1769 [16]
10 Samuel Locke[j] May 21, 1770 December 1, 1773 3 years, 6 months and 10 days [17][18]
acting John Winthrop[k] 1773 1774 [19]
11 Samuel Langdon[l] July 18, 1774 August 30, 1780 6 years, 1 month and 12 days [8][20]
Presidents of Harvard University (1780–present)
acting Edward Wigglesworth 1780 1781 [21]
12 Joseph Willard September 5, 1781 September 25, 1804[c] 23 years and 20 days [22]
acting Eliphalet Pearson 1804 1806
13 Samuel Webber May 6, 1806 July 17, 1810[c] 4 years, 2 months and 11 days [23]
acting Henry Ware 1810 1810 [24]
14 John Thornton Kirkland[m] November 14, 1810 April 2, 1828 17 years, 4 months and 19 days [25]
acting Henry Ware 1828 1829
15 Josiah Quincy III January 29, 1829 August 27, 1845 16 years, 6 months and 29 days [26]
16 Edward Everett[n] February 5, 1846 February 1, 1848 2 years, 11 months and 27 days [27]
17 Jared Sparks February 1, 1849 February 10, 1853 4 years and 9 days [28]
18 James Walker February 10, 1853 January 26, 1860 6 years, 11 months and 16 days [29]
19 Cornelius Conway Felton February 16, 1860 February 26, 1862[c] 2 years and 10 days [30]
acting Andrew Preston Peabody 1862 1862
20 Thomas Hill October 6, 1862 September 30, 1868 5 years, 11 months and 24 days [31]
acting Andrew Preston Peabody 1868 1869 [32]
21 Charles William Eliot[o] March 12, 1869 May 19, 1909 40 years, 2 months and 7 days [33][34][35][36]
acting Henry Pickering Walcott[p] 1900 1901 [37]
1905 1905
22 A. Lawrence Lowell May 19, 1909 June 21, 1933 24 years, 1 month and 2 days [38][39]
23 James B. Conant[q] 1933 1953 19 years, 6 months and 22 days [40]
24 Nathan Pusey[r] June 1, 1953 June 30, 1971 18 years and 29 days [41][42]
25 Derek Bok July 1, 1971 June 30, 1991 19 years, 11 months and 29 days [43]
acting Henry Rosovsky[s] 1984 1984 [44]
1987 1987 [45][46]
26 Neil Rudenstine July 1, 1991 June 30, 2001 9 years, 11 months and 29 days [47][48]
acting Albert Carnesale[t] November 29, 1994 February 1995 [49][50][51][52]
27 Lawrence Summers[u] July 1, 2001 June 30, 2006 4 years, 11 months and 29 days [53][54][55][56][57]
interim Derek Bok July 1, 2006 June 30, 2007 11 months and 29 days [58][8]
28 Drew Gilpin Faust[v] July 1, 2007 June 30, 2018 10 years, 11 months and 29 days [8][59][60]
29 Lawrence Bacow July 1, 2018 June 30, 2023 4 years, 11 months and 29 days [8][61][62]
30 Claudine Gay[w] July 1, 2023 January 2, 2024 6 months and 1 day [63][64]
interim Alan Garber January 2, 2024 August 2, 2024 7 months [65][66]
31 August 2, 2024 present 1 year, 7 months and 21 days [67]

Table notes:

  1. ^ Referred to as "schoolmaster" of Harvard College
    Fired for "embezzlement and beating students"
  2. ^ Forced to resign for speaking out against and interrupting infant baptisms
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Died in office
  4. ^ Forced to resign
  5. ^ Forced to resign for refusing to reside in Cambridge.
  6. ^ Resigned due to illness
  7. ^ First lawyer to serve as president.
  8. ^ At 79, the oldest president.
  9. ^ Declined presidency on a permanent basis on grounds of old age.
  10. ^ Resigned after fathering a child out of wedlock.
  11. ^ Declined presidency again on a permanent basis on grounds of old age
  12. ^ Students petitioned the Corporation to dismiss him and he resigned.
  13. ^ Suffered a stroke, was accused of financial mismanagement by the Harvard Corporation, and resigned
  14. ^ Later became United States Secretary of State and United States Senator.
  15. ^ At 35, the youngest president. Longest term of office.
  16. ^ For a portion of 1900-1901 and 1905, Henry Pickering Walcott served as acting president while Eliot was on vacation.
  17. ^ Retired to become Allied High Commissioner for Occupied Germany and later U.S. ambassador to Germany
  18. ^ "Pusey called in the Cambridge police to end a student sit-in" in 1969. "Sharply criticized for his handling of the situation, he announced in 1970 that he would retire the following year"
  19. ^ served as acting president in 1984 and 1987 when Bok traveled and took brief sabbaticals.
  20. ^ Provost Albert Carnesale served as acting president during Rudenstine's medical leave of absence.
  21. ^ First Jewish president. Resigned following several clashes with faculty resulting in a no-confidence vote.
  22. ^ First female president
  23. ^ First black president. Shortest serving president; resigned following congressional hearings into antisemitism on campus and multiple allegations of plagiarism.

Timeline of Harvard University presidential terms

Presidents of Harvard University

References

  1. ^ Central Administration Archived November 23, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Governance of the University, from Office of the Provost
  2. ^ "Garber Granted An 'Open-Ended Runway' With Term Extension". thecrimson.com. December 16, 2025. Retrieved August 9, 2024.
  3. ^ Lee, Richard S. (March 10, 2001). "An Empty Chair at Harvard (Op-Ed)". The New York Times. Retrieved October 17, 2007.
  4. ^ Graff, Garrett M.; Miller, Andrew J. (October 14, 2001). "33 Elmwood". The Harvard Crimson. ISSN 1932-4219. Archived from the original on June 21, 2013. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  5. ^ "History of the Presidency". Harvard University.
  6. ^ Graff, Garrett M. (September–October 2002). "John Harvard's Journal: Of Religious Education and Rotten Cabbage". The Harvard Magazine. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
  7. ^ "Harvard's First President – Et Seq: The Harvard Law School Library Blog". etseq.law.harvard.edu. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k President, Harvard University. "History of the Presidency". Harvard University President. Retrieved January 9, 2024.
  9. ^ Mather, Cotton (1702). Magnalia Christi Americana: or, The ecclesiastical history of New-England, from its first planting in the year 1620. unto the year of Our Lord, 1698. In seven books ... John Adams Library at the Boston Public Library. London: Printed for Thomas Parkhurst, at the Bible and three crowns in Cheapside.
  10. ^ "Papers of Urian Oakes". Harvard Library. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  11. ^ "Harvard College Records Volume 15 Part 1". Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Archived from the original on September 7, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  12. ^ a b c "Harvard Presidents Throughout History". The Harvard Gazette. Harvard University. March 15, 2001. ISSN 0364-7692. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  13. ^ "Biographical Notes on Increase Mather". Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Archived from the original on September 24, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  14. ^ "Resolution Relating to Samuel Willard and the College". Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Archived from the original on July 5, 2022. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  15. ^ "Papers of John Leverett, 1652-1730". Harvard Library. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  16. ^ "Papers of John and Hannah Winthrop". HOLLIS for Archival Discovery. 1728–1779. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  17. ^ Chase, Theodore (March 1980). "Harvard Student Disorders in 1770". The New England Quarterly. 61 (1): 30. doi:10.2307/365219. JSTOR 365219.
  18. ^ "Papers of Samuel Locke". HOLLIS for Archival Discovery. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  19. ^ "Papers of John and Hannah Winthrop". Harvard University.
  20. ^ Proctor, Donald J. (December 1977). "John Hancock: New Soundings on an Old Barrel". The Journal of American History. 64 (3): 663–664. doi:10.2307/1887235. ISSN 0021-8723. JSTOR 1887235.
  21. ^ "Wigglesworth, Edward". HOLLIS for Archival Discovery. 2020. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  22. ^ Harvard Corporation. "Corporation records volume 3, May 5, 1778-August 31, 1795". Harvard Library. p. 137. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  23. ^ "Papers of Samuel Webber". Harvard Library. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  24. ^ "Papers of Henry Ware, Sr". HOLLIS for Archival Discovery. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  25. ^ "Papers of John Thornton Kirkland". HOLLIS for Archival Discovery. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  26. ^ "Papers of Josiah Quincy, 1811-1874". Harvard Library. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  27. ^ "Papers of Edward Everett". Harvard Library. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  28. ^ "Papers of Jared Sparks, 1820-1861, 1866". Harvard Library. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  29. ^ "Papers of James Walker". Harvard Library. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  30. ^ "Papers of Cornelius Conway Felton, 1841-1877". Harvard Library. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  31. ^ "Papers of Thomas Hill". Harvard Library. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  32. ^ "Rev. Thomas Hill Dead". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  33. ^ "Papers of Charles William Eliot, 1807-1945". Harvard Library. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  34. ^ "Charles W Eliot". National Park Service. February 11, 2022. Archived from the original on September 21, 2023. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  35. ^ "Charles William Eliot: A Paradoxical Racial Legacy". Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  36. ^ "Charles W. Eliot". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  37. ^ "Dr. Walcott Acting President". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  38. ^ "Lowell Harvard's Head.; New President of University Takes His Place at Dr. Eliot's Desk". The New York Times. May 20, 1909. p. 6. ISSN 0362-4331.
  39. ^ "Lowell's Passing Marks End of Era; Retirement of President of Harvard Comes After Twenty-four Years. His Incumbency Weighed Doubled the Enrolment, Increased Endowment and Expanded Buildings". The New York Times. June 25, 1933. pp. 1, 8. ISSN 0362-4331.
  40. ^ "James B. Conant Is Dead at 84; Harvard President for 20 Years". The New York Times. Associated Press. February 12, 1978. p. 1. ISSN 0362-4331.
  41. ^ "Nathan Pusey | Harvard President, Philanthropist, Educator". Encyclopædia Britannica. November 10, 2023. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  42. ^ Fenton, John H. (June 2, 1953). "Harvard Elects Dr. N. M. Pusey, Midwest Educator, as President; Lawrence College Head, 46, Has 3 Degrees From University – Favors Humanities Study Harvard Appoints Iowan President". The New York Times. p. 1. ISSN 0362-4331.
  43. ^ Howe, Peter J. (November 10, 1984). "Bok's Past--and Future". The Harvard Crimson. ISSN 1932-4219. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  44. ^ Abramowitz, Michael J. (September 13, 1984). "While You Were Out". The Harvard Crimson.
  45. ^ "Henry Rosovsky, former acting University president, FAS dean, dead at 95". Harvard Gazette. November 16, 2022. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  46. ^ "Henry Rosovsky, Former Harvard FAS Dean, Remembered for Contributions to Undergrad Education and African American Studies". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  47. ^ Tucker, Maggie S. (September 11, 1991). "Appointments to Make, Appointments to Keep". The Harvard Crimson.
  48. ^ "Rudenstine leaving presidency in 2001". The Harvard Gazette. May 25, 2000. ISSN 0364-7692. Archived from the original on August 28, 2020. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  49. ^ Butterfield, Fox (March 7, 1997). "Dismay at Harvard as Provost Decides to Move". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  50. ^ "Rudenstine Takes Leave". The Harvard Crimson. November 29, 1994.
  51. ^ Bangs, Elizabeth T.; Gammill, Marion B. (November 29, 1994). "Acting President Carnesale Known for Administrative Skill". The Harvard Crimson.
  52. ^ Rimer, Sara (February 19, 1995). "President Of Harvard Is Ready To Return". The New York Times.
  53. ^ YUNews Director of the National Economic Council, Dr. Lawrence H. Summers, is Keynote Speaker at Yeshiva University's Annual Hanukkah Dinner and Convocation on December 13, November 18, 2009
  54. ^ The Harvard Crimson Harvard's First Jewish President, March 8, 2006
  55. ^ The Harvard Crimson Did Summers' Faith Affect His Fall?, March 3, 2006
  56. ^ Finder, Alan; Healy, Patrick D.; Zernike, Kate (February 22, 2006). "President of Harvard Resigns, Ending Stormy 5-Year Tenure". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  57. ^ Fogg, Piper (February 17, 2006). "Harvard President to Face Second Vote of No Confidence Amid Renewed Calls for His Resignation". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  58. ^ "Derek Bok". ethics.harvard.edu. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  59. ^ "First Female Harvard President Discusses Priorities and Goals". PBS. February 12, 2007. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
  60. ^ Bhayani, Paras D.; Guehenno, Claire M. (February 11, 2007). "Faust Confirmed as 28th President". The Harvard Gazette.
  61. ^ Hartocollis, Anemona (February 11, 2018). "Harvard Chooses Lawrence Bacow as Its Next President". The New York Times. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  62. ^ "Harvard names Lawrence S. Bacow as 29th president". The Harvard Gazette. Harvard University. February 11, 2018.
  63. ^ "Harvard names Claudine Gay 30th president". The Harvard Gazette. Harvard University. December 15, 2022. ISSN 0364-7692. Archived from the original on December 15, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
  64. ^ "Harvard President resigns after antisemitism hearing and plagiarism probe". Axios.com. Axios. January 2, 2024.
  65. ^ Mangan, Dan (January 2, 2024). "Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigns amid plagiarism claims". CNBC. Archived from the original on January 2, 2024. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  66. ^ "Harvard President Claudine Gay steps down". The Harvard Gazette. Harvard University. ISSN 0364-7692. Archived from the original on January 2, 2024. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  67. ^ "Alan Garber '76 to Serve as Harvard's 31st President Until June 2027". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
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