Northwestern students can fit into one of three groups: those that didn’t care to go to an Ivy League school, those that didn’t get into an Ivy and now pretends to not care about not going to an Ivy, and those still thinks they should be going to an Ivy (seriously, put away that Princeton sweatshirt).
Unless you’re in the third group, in which case you’re too busy re-reading Brothers Karamazov to find a way to dominate your next Russian Lit discussion, you generally don’t care what officials do at an Ivy League school, since it probably doesn’t apply to us normal folks. But the recent announcement that Harvard was appointing their first woman president has implications for all universities.
Drew Gilpin Faust was named president last week after being Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study since 2001. She is the first female president in Harvard’s history and one of only a few female university presidents (though an impressive half of the Ivies are led by women). Consider, for instance, that only 14 of 117 NCAA Division 1A schools have female presidents. The first female president, Hanna Holborn Gray, was appointed as recently as 1978 at University of Chicago (although Northwestern can claim her as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1972). Since then, there have been few women presidents, although they are more prevalent at community colleges.
This appointment, though, will have a ripple effect on the university system, starting with the potential appointment of more women presidents. As much as I’m sure non-Ivies don’t want to say that Harvard can influence the decisions they make (it’s like the San Francisco Giants saying the Yankees’ spending sprees didn’t inspire them to overpay for Barry Zito) the Ancient Eight do lead the pack.
Consider the current early decision fiasco. Sure, it was okay for average Joe Junior and Sally Senior (see what I did there?) to question the validity of early decision, but once Harvard decides the system is flawed, it sets off a national debate. Now a number of universities are considering doing away with the system.
There are, of course, the Oliver Stone wannabes that say Harvard only appointed Faust to mop up after their past president, Lawrence Summers, proposed theories that were a little bit sexist. But regardless of their motives, Harvard did appoint a female president and can expect other universities to follow.
According to a report published on insidehighered.com, women presidents are more entrepreneurial and prone to take risks. For example, Rita Bornstein of Rollins College undertook a huge fundraising campaign that many thought would fail, but ended up raising more than $160 million. The report also shows that women are more likely to make radical changes to the curriculum and structure of a university than their male counterparts.
So does this mean that next year Northwestern is going to have a woman president and all of a sudden Tech will become a center for gender studies? Probably not. President Henry Bienen has been serving successfully since 1995 and a replacement doesn’t seem imminent. Plus, the Harvard appointment doesn’t mean that every new university president will be a woman. However, college boards looking to appear up on the times will consider a woman more seriously than they would have before.
In today’s age of equality, it’s ridiculous to think that this would even be an issue, but it is. People are still having trouble thinking of Hillary Clinton as a possible president and only ten Fortune 500 companies are led by women. With a successful run at Harvard, though, Faust can make a statement about women leading major universities that will be heard across the country.