Penny Pritzker, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, announced today that physician and economist Alan M. Garber ’77, Ph.D. ’82, appointed interim president last January 2 following the resignation of Claudine Gay, has been made president and will serve through the academic year ending June 30, 2027. A search for his successor will begin in the late spring or summer of 2026.
The Corporation’s decision to make him president in fact and in name should not come as a surprise. Garber, who was appointed provost in 2011, was the natural interim successor under those emergency circumstances. In the months since, he has steadied the University during an especially tumultuous year, characterized by the campus upheaval in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and ensuing war, Gay’s brief and controversial presidency, and the 20-day pro-Palestinian encampment in Harvard Yard and subsequent protests at Commencement.
Shortly after his appointment, Garber made a point of reemphasizing Harvard’s statement on rights and responsibilities, and its rules for protests, and appointed task forces on antisemitism and anti-Muslim, -Arab, and -Palestinian bias (read about their preliminary reports here). Under his interim provost, former Law School dean John F. Manning, one Harvard task force has promulgated a new policy on institutional voice, and a second one is exploring issues concerning academic freedom and civil discourse. And in the meantime, acting fully as president, as Garber had indicated he would, he has appointed a new vice president and general counsel, and new and interim deans; visited with alumni and donors domestically and abroad; and, in general, coped quietly with the continuing congressional and U.S. Department of Education investigations concerning antisemitism and other forms of bias on this and other campuses, lawsuits focusing the same issue, and a generally heightened atmosphere of political and other criticism directed with special intensity at Harvard.
At the same time, questions surrounding Gay’s appointment and the abrupt end of her presidency six months after its inception meant that it would be difficult to inaugurate yet another search for a new president any time soon, pending a thorough review of the governing boards’ process for identifying and vetting candidates (see the March-April commentary, “A Look in the Mirror”). And under the current conditions, with new and unprecedented external demands on universities—from political critics to concerned (and even hostile) donors—fresh thinking about how best to define their leaders’ experiences and skills ought to underpin any search. (Other institutions in similar circumstances, including Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania, have also appointed interim leaders while contemplating how best to organize searches for successors; the phenomenon is so widespread that the Chronicle of Higher Education just published a feature on interim leaders throughout the sector.)
The Senior Fellow’s Statement
In her message to the community, Pritzker wrote:
Alan has done an outstanding job leading Harvard through extraordinary challenges since taking on his interim presidential duties seven months ago. We have asked him to hold the title of president, not just interim president, both 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.
Over the last seven months, and for years before that, Alan has led with a deep concern for all members of the Harvard community, a strong devotion to enduring university ideals, and a paramount commitment to academic excellence. At an especially demanding moment for higher education, Harvard is very fortunate to benefit from his intellectual acumen and breadth of interests, his integrity and fair-mindedness, his equanimity and empathy, his decades-long devotion to the University, his extensive knowledge of its people and parts, and his ardent belief in the power of higher education and research—and their potential to improve the lives of people and communities near and far. His time in Mass Hall has demonstrated his clear-eyed determination both to help the University chart a course through troubled waters and to affirm the primacy of the teaching, learning, and research at Harvard’s heart.
Taking special care to note “especially helpful recent consultations with each of the deans as well as an array of faculty and alumni leaders from the various schools,” Pritzker continued, the governing boards, which met earlier today,
…have consistently heard praise for Alan’s qualities and how his leadership meets the current moment. People have highlighted his thoughtful and balanced judgment, his openness to different points of view, his even temperament in turbulent times, his concern for student well-being, his commitment to academic freedom and constructive dialogue, his recognition of diversity and inclusion as integral elements of academic excellence, his appetite for innovation, and his constant focus on the best interests of Harvard as a whole. Our recent consultations have strongly underscored the high regard in which Alan is held by a broad range of people who have watched him work and come to appreciate his strengths.
Addressing practical matters, she wrote:
…Alan will carry forward as president through the 2026-27 academic year and we will launch a full and wide-ranging search for his successor in the late spring or summer of 2026. We believe this plan will give Alan and his leadership team the opportunity to sustain and build momentum on a range of priorities and initiatives. It will also provide an ample interval for those of us on the Corporation to reflect, in consultation with others, on how best to approach the future presidential search, including how to ensure robust input from across Harvard and beyond.
She concluded by acknowledging the still-difficult circumstances under which Garber has agreed to serve:
As we all know, these remain challenging times. We have experienced significant divisions and pointed questions. We have hard work still ahead to reaffirm our core academic values and our collective focus on learning and scholarship. We must continue working to restore bonds of trust, to bridge divides, to combat forms of invidious hate and bias, and to foster a secure campus climate conducive to dialogue across differences. No less, we have more work ahead to amplify higher education’s contributions to the wider world and to shine light on why they matter.
And so, on behalf of the governing boards, she asked members of the community to “offer him your concerted support.”
Read Pritzker’s complete message here.
President Garber’s Message
In a separate, briefer note, President Garber said, “I write with a simple message of gratitude for the opportunity to lead Harvard as your president for the next three years. Serving the University is a great privilege. It is an honor to work with all of you to advance our mission and to strengthen our community.”
Consistent with Pritzker’s message, he tried to point the University toward a future focused squarely on its core academic mission and service to the larger society—a necessary, and probably welcome, rededication to institutional purposes even during a period of protracted division:
We believe in the value of knowledge, the power of teaching and research, and the ways that what we do here can benefit society. Those commitments matter today more than ever. Our work now is to focus on them with renewed vigor, rededicating ourselves to academic excellence. That excellence is made possible by the free exchange of ideas, open inquiry, creativity, empathy, and constructive dialogue among people with diverse backgrounds and views. This is a challenging time, one of strong passions and strained bonds among us. But I know that we are capable of finding our way forward together because we share a devotion to learning and because we recognize our pluralism as a source of our strength.
He committed himself to this work forcefully, writing, “I will do my utmost to ensure that we continue to advance knowledge and drive discovery even as we work to mend the fabric of our community.”
Read President Garber’s statement here.
Pritzker’s message referred to a “full and wide-ranging search for his successor” in 2026. A reasonable assumption is that Garber, having by then served three and a half years, will conclude his service in 2027 and not be a candidate in that search.
An associated Harvard Gazette article appears here.
