改写校史 哈佛大学迎来首位女校长

2月11日，哈佛大学任命著名历史学家吉尔平·福斯特为第28任校长，福斯特也成为哈佛自1636年建校以来首位女校长。自去年夏天哈佛大学前校长萨默斯被迫辞职以来，哈佛校长人选一直悬而未决。此前，有包括华裔科学家在内的多名候选人成为竞选热门。如今，福斯特终于可以从临时校长德里克·伯克手中正式接过这座美国历史最悠久的高等学府的权杖了。巧合的是，福斯特的当选使美国八所“常青藤学院”男女校长比例各占一半。

　　Harvard University on Sunday named historian Drew Gilpin Faustasits first female president, ending a lengthy and secretivesearchto find a successor to Lawrence Summers and histumultuousfive-year tenure.The seven-mr Harvard Corporation electedFaust, anoted scholar of the American South and dean of HarvardsRadcliffeInstitute for Advanced Study, as the universitys 28thpresident.The board of overseers recommended her for the post.

　　Faust, 59, recognized the significance of her appointment.

　　I hope my appointment can be one symbol of an opportunitythatwould have been inconceivable even a generation ago, she saidat anews conference. But, she added, Im not the woman presidentofHarvard, Im the president of Harvard.

　　With Fausts appointment, half of the eight Ivy Leagueschoolswill have a woman as president. Her selection is noteworthygiventhe uproar over Summers comments that genetic differencesbetweenthe sexes might help explain the dearth of women in topsciencejobs, comments which sparked debates about equality atHarvard andnationwide.

　　Faust oversaw the creation of two faculty task forces, formedinthe aftermath of Summers remarks, to examine gender diversityatHarvard. She has been dean of Radcliffe since 2001, two yearsafterthe former womens college was merged into the university asaresearch center with a mission to study gender issues.

　　This is a great day, and a historic day, for Harvard, saidJamesR. Houghton, chairman of the presidential searchcommittee.

　　Faust is the first Harvard president who did not receiveanundergraduate or graduate degree from the university sinceCharlesChauncy, an alumnus of Cambridge University in England, whodied inoffice in 1672. She attended Bryn Mawr College and theUniversityof Pennsylvania, where she was also a professor ofhistory.

　　Faust pivots from managing Radcliffe, a think-tank with87employees and a $17 million budget, to presiding over Harvards11schools and colleges, 24,000 employees and a budget of $3billion.The Harvard presidency is perhaps the most prestigious jobinhigher education, offering a pulpit where remarksresonatethroughout academic circles and unlleled resources,including auniversity endowment valued at nearly $30 billion.

　　Faculty turned to her constantly as someone whose opinion istobe trusted, said Sheldon Hackney, a former president ofTheUniversity of Pennsylvania and southern historian whoworkedclosely with Faust. Shes very clear, well-organized. Shehas asense of humor, but shes very even-keeled. You come to trustinher because shes so solid.

　　In Faust, Harvard not only has its first female leader, butapresident who has candidly discussed her feminist ideals inamemoir, Shapers of Southern History:AutobiographicalReflections.

　　Born Catherine Gilpin in the Jim Crow era, to a privilegedfamilyin Virginias Shenandoah Valley, Faust wrote that aconversation atage 9 with the familys black handyman and driverinspired her tosend a letter to President Eisenhower pleadingfordesegregation.

　　She then began to question the rigid Southern conventionswheregirls wore scratchy organdy dresses and white childrenaddressedblack adults by their first names.

　　I was the rebel who did not just march for civil centersandagainst the Vietnam War but who fought endlessly with mymother,refusing to accept her insistence that this is a mansworld,sweetie, and the sooner you learn that, the better off youllbe,she writes.