Harvard University announced on Friday that it’s giving its interim president the full-time gig — at least for the next three years. The decision makes Alan Garber Harvard’s 31st president.
In an email to the campus community, Garber said Harvard should rededicate itself 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,” Garber wrote. “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.”
In his seven months as interim, Garber has tried to get Harvard back on track following a tumultuous academic year that saw former President Claudine Gay resign abruptly.
In her resignation letter, Gay, who was the first Black person to lead the country’s oldest higher education institution, cited public pressure and racial animus following her widely criticized testimony before Congress on how the university was handling incidents of antisemitism during campus protests.
In his seven months as interim, Garber, who is Jewish, has already made notable changes at the university.
He convinced Harvard’s leaders to adopt a form of institutional neutrality, meaning the university will no longer make official statements on issues outside of its core academic mission. Working mostly behind closed doors, he defused campus anti-war protests by threatening student activists with suspension after they refused to leave Harvard Yard. In June, Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences eliminated mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion statements in faculty hiring and promotion. And, on Thursday, Harvard’s admissions office began requiring applicants to respond to a short writing prompt about how they approach different viewpoints, signaling the college’s desire for students who are able to engage in constructive disagreement.
In a statement, Penny Pritzker, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, Harvard’s top governing body, said Garber has done “an outstanding job leading Harvard through extraordinary challenges.”
“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,” Pritzker said.
Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, told The Harvard Gazette that Garber is “an exceptional academic leader of intellectual breadth and depth who has demonstrated a tireless commitment to the pursuit of Veritas and the teaching and research mission of Harvard University.”
Garber was the longest-serving provost in Harvard’s history, holding that role from 2011 to his appointment as interim president. He previously held faculty appointments in Harvard Medical School, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, and the Economics Department in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
The Harvard Corporation says a full-scale search for Garber’s successor will begin during the spring or summer of 2026.
Sam Lessin, founder of the 1636 Forum, a recently formed group of Harvard alumni focused on academic excellence and free speech in the classroom, told GBH News he welcomes the decision to name Garber as president. He said considering the plagiarism allegations against Gay, Garber’s record stands out.
“He’s intellectually in the right place,” Lessin said. “He has the right principles. His academic credentials are impeccable, which is critical post–Claudine Gay. Harvard will not be fixed by 2026-2027. But I think he’ll be able to make a lot of progress.”
