Dr. Claudine Gay was inaugurated as the 30th President of Harvard University on Friday afternoon.
Hosted in Harvard Yard’s famed Tercentenary Theatre, the rain-soaked inauguration concluded weeks of celebrations after Gay officially took office on July 1, 2023.
Gay was inaugurated in front of hundreds of Harvard students, faculty and alumni, as well as delegates from other educational institutions.
Speakers included former Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker (A.B. ’81), who currently leads Harvard’s Board of Overseers and chaired the presidential search committee, and Governor of Massachusetts Maura Healey (A.B. ’91), who, like Gay, began her tenure this year. Pritzker, Healey and other speakers hailed the historic nature of Gay’s appointment as the first Black president of Harvard.
Gay, accepting “the weight and honor of being a ‘first,’” noted Harvard’s “long history of exclusion and the long journey of resistance and resilience to overcome it.” Her over-3,000-word address, titled “Courage to be Harvard,” called on the Harvard community to cultivate change by always asking “why?”
Adding to the novelty of her new administration, Gay already appointed her successor as head of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and she is currently leading searches to select the deans of three other Harvard schools. Lawrence S. Bacow, her predecessor as president, appointed Gay to the Arts and Sciences deanship, emphasizing the importance of the upcoming appointments for Harvard’s future.
Gay’s inauguration has little immediate impact on the Law School, but she could shape the school’s direction in the coming years. Law School Dean John F. Manning (A.B. ’82, J.D. ’85) was present Friday afternoon to witness the ascension of his former fellow dean, who is now his direct supervisor.
Manning, now in his seventh year leading the Law School, was appointed by former Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust. Given that Manning has already served longer than nearly eighty percent of America’s law school deans, and that fewer than five percent of current law school deans have served more than a dozen years, his successor could very well be chosen by Gay.