Bacow to Step Down
Bacow Letter | William F. Lee Letter | Crimson, Gazette
Harvard President Bacow has announced that he will step down next year. According to the Crimson, “Bacow, who announced his departure Wednesday afternoon, will be one of the shortest-serving Harvard presidents of the modern era, tying Lawrence H. Summers for the shortest tenure since the Civil War.”
Bacow explained to the community, “There is never a good time to leave a job like this one, but now seems right to me.”
Among issues faced and addressed during Bacow’s tenure were the covid pandemic, the admissions lawsuit (to be heard by SCOTUS in the fall term), fossil fuel divestment, single-sex social group sanctions, and Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery self-reckoning.
William F. Lee and the Gazette outlined a long list of achievements and initiatives overseen by Bacow, including “insist[ing] on the importance of sustaining the flow of people and ideas across boundaries—both among Harvard’s schools and departments and across borders in the wider world.” Bacow recently returned from Washington where he argued against foreign contribution disclosure regulations.
The Harvard Corporation and incoming senior fellow, Penny Pritzker ’81, will lead the search for Bacow’s successor. According to the Crimson, “With Lee, the Corporation’s senior fellow, and Executive Vice President Katherine N. Lapp stepping down from their posts this summer, the announcement of Bacow’s departure coincides with a major shakeup of the University’s top leadership.”
