Faust to succeed Summers

Today's Boston Globe is reporting that current Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Drew Gilpin Faust will become the next president of Harvard University.

I have to say this news is very exciting. I've long thought that Dean Faust would be an ideal candidate for the position: she is a thoughtful scholar, and good administrator, a brilliant fundraiser and program builder, and most important of all, she will be a consensus builder rather than a contentious figure in the university. Harvard is a decentralized institution, and she will be much mroe adept than Larry Summers at navigating the various interests that permeate the university.

Moreover, it's just great that the country's oldest university will finally have a woman at the helm.