Pulling together for a better Harvard
The Gazette recently sat down with Robert Reischauer, the senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, and Leila Fawaz, president of the Board of Overseers, to talk about Harvard’s governance, the implementation of recent governance reforms, and the interplay between the two boards. In the question-and-answer session, Reischauer, the president emeritus of the Urban Institute and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, and Fawaz, the Issam M. Fares Professor of Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean Studies and founding director of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Tufts University, reflected on their Harvard experience. Gazette [to Reischauer]: Harvard has two governing boards, the Corporation and the Board of Overseers, while most universities just have a single board of trustees. How did this come about? Reischauer: It goes all the way back to Harvard’s original charter, from 1650. I think the interplay between the two boards has served the University well over a very...