# President of Harvard University

The president of Harvard University is the chief administrator of Harvard University and the ex officio president of the Harvard Corporation. 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 August 2024, the Harvard Corporation announced he would be in the position until mid- 2027.

## 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.
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.

## 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

| No. | Presidents | Term of office | Length | Notes |
| – | Nathaniel Eaton | 1637–1639 | 2 years | Referred to as "schoolmaster" of Harvard College Fired for "embezzlement and beating students" |
| 1 | Henry Dunster | 1640–1654 | 14 years, 1 month and 27 days | Forced to resign for speaking out against and interrupting infant baptisms |
| 2 | Charles Chauncy | 1654–1672 | 17 years, 3 months and 17 days | Died in office |
| 3 | Leonard Hoar | 1672–1675 | 2 years, 3 months and 5 days | Forced to resign |
| 4 | Urian Oakes | 1675–1680 (acting); 1680–1681 | 6 years, 3 months and 18 days (total); 4 years, 9 months and 26 days (acting); 1 year, 5 months and 23 days | Died in office |
| 5 | John Rogers | 1682–1684 | 2 years, 3 months and 2 days | Died in office |
| 6 | Increase Mather | 1685–1686 (acting); 1686–1692 (rector); 1692–1701 | 16 years and 18 days (total); 1 year and 12 days (acting); 6 years and 4 days (rector); 9 years and 2 days | Forced to resign |
| – | Samuel Willard | 1701–1707 (acting) | 6 years and 6 days | Resigned due to illness |
| 7 | John Leverett | 1708–1724 | 16 years, 3 months and 19 days | First lawyer to serve as president. Died in office. |
| 8 | Benjamin Wadsworth | 1725–1737 | 11 years, 8 months and 9 days | Died in office |
| 9 | Edward Holyoke | 1737–1769 | 32 years | At 79, the oldest president; died in office. |
| – | John Winthrop | 1769 (acting) | | Declined presidency on a permanent basis on grounds of old age |
| 10 | Samuel Locke | 1770–1773 | 3 years, 6 months and 10 days | Resigned after fathering a child out of wedlock |
| – | John Winthrop | 1773–1774 (acting) | | Declined presidency again on a permanent basis on grounds of old age |
| 11 | Samuel Langdon | 1774–1780 | 6 years, 1 month and 12 days | Students petitioned the Corporation to dismiss him and he resigned. |
| – | Edward Wigglesworth | 1780–1781 (acting) | | |
| 12 | Joseph Willard | 1781–1804 | 23 years and 20 days | Died in office |
| – | Eliphalet Pearson | 1804–1806 (acting) | | Acting president after death of Willard |
| 13 | Samuel Webber | 1806–1810 | 4 years, 2 months and 11 days | Died in office |
| – | Henry Ware | 1810 (acting) | | Served as acting president after Webber's death. |
| 14 | John Thornton Kirkland | 1810–1828 | 17 years, 4 months and 19 days | Suffered a stroke, was accused of financial mismanagement by the Harvard Corporation, and resigned |
| – | Henry Ware | 1828-1829 (acting) | | Served as acting president after the resignation of Kirkland |
| 15 | Josiah Quincy III | 1829–1845 | 16 years, 6 months and 29 days | Retired |
| 16 | Edward Everett | 1846–1848 | 2 years, 11 months and 27 days | Resigned due to dissatisfaction with the job. Later became United States Secretary of State and United States Senator. |
| 17 | Jared Sparks | 1849–1853 | 4 years and 9 days | Resigned due to dissatisfaction with the job |
| 18 | James Walker | 1853–1860 | 6 years, 11 months and 16 days | Resigned due to arthritis |
| 19 | Cornelius Conway Felton | 1860–1862 | 2 years and 10 days | Died from a disease of the heart en route to Washington, D.C. for a meeting at the Smithsonian Institution |
| – | Andrew Preston Peabody | 1862 (acting) | | Served as acting president after the death of Felton |
| 20 | Thomas Hill | 1862–1868 | 5 years, 11 months and 24 days | Resigned due to poor health |
| – | Andrew Preston Peabody | 1868-1869 (acting) | | Served as acting president after the resignation of Hill due to illness |
| 21 | Charles William Eliot | 1869–1909 | 40 years, 2 months and 7 days | At 35, the youngest president. Longest term of office. For a portion of 1900-1901 and 1905, Henry Pickering Walcott served as acting president while Eliot was on vacation. |
| 22 | A. Lawrence Lowell | 1909–1933 | 24 years, 1 month and 2 days | Retired |
| 23 | James B. Conant | 1933–1953 | 19 years, 6 months and 22 days | Retired to become Allied High Commissioner for Occupied Germany and later U.S. ambassador to Germany |
| 24 | Nathan Pusey | 1953–1971 | 18 years and 29 days | "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". |
| 25 | Derek Bok | 1971–1991 | 19 years, 11 months and 29 days | Henry Rosovsky served as acting president in 1984 and 1987 when Bok traveled and took brief sabbaticals. |
| 26 | Neil Rudenstine | 1991–2001 | 9 years, 11 months and 29 days | Provost Albert Carnesale served as acting president for three months, from November 1994 to February 1995, during Rudenstine's medical leave of absence. |
| 27 | Lawrence Summers | 2001–2006 | 4 years, 11 months and 29 days | First Jewish president Shortest tenure since Civil War. Resigned following several clashes with faculty resulting in a no-confidence vote. |
| – | Derek Bok | 2006–2007 (interim) | 11 months and 29 days | Served as acting president after the resignation of Summers |
| 28 | Drew Gilpin Faust | 2007–2018 | 10 years, 11 months and 29 days | First female president |
| 29 | Lawrence Bacow | 2018–2023 | 4 years, 11 months and 29 days | Retired |
| 30 | Claudine Gay | 2023–2024 | 6 months and 1 day | First black president. Shortest serving president; resigned following congressional hearings into antisemitism on campus and multiple allegations of plagiarism. |
| 31 | Alan Garber | 2024–Present | 1 year and 18 days | Appointed as interim president after Gay's resignation Appointed permanently in August 2024 as 31st president until 2027, when Harvard will appoint a successor. |

## Timeline of Harvard University presidential terms

* Presidents of Harvard Universityvte