General
Alan Garber Will Stay On as Harvard’s President
The appointment of Dr. Garber, who took over as interim president after Claudine Gay resigned, follows months of harsh public scrutiny and immense private turmoil at the university.
Harvard University named Alan M. Garber as its president on Friday, a bid for stability after months of harsh public scrutiny and immense private turmoil.
Dr. Garber, who had been the university’s interim president since Claudine Gay’s resignation in January, is expected to lead Harvard through at least the 2026-27 academic year.
The university promised that a “full-scale search” for a successor would begin in about two years. But for now, the selection of Dr. Garber, a 69-year-old fixture of Harvard’s administration, kept the university aligned with its typical practice of looking within itself for a president.
“After serving with distinction as Harvard’s provost for more than 12 years, Alan has done an outstanding job leading Harvard through extraordinary challenges since taking on his interim presidential duties seven months ago,” Penny Pritzker, the senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, the university’s highest governing body, said in a message to the campus.
Ms. Pritzker added that “interim” would be dropped from Dr. Garber’s title “to recognize his distinguished service to the university and to underscore our belief that this is a time not merely for steady stewardship but for active, engaged leadership.”
Harvard has spent more than a year thoroughly besieged. Last summer, the Supreme Court struck down the university’s race-conscious admissions program. In the fall, Harvard’s hesitating response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel led to a campus uproar.