‘The Best Hanukkah or Christmas Present’: Faculty Applaud Garber’s Extended Presidency

Harvard faculty broadly applauded the decision to extend the tenure of University President Alan M. Garber ’76 beyond 2027, praising his steady leadership through a period of political and institutional upheaval — even as some criticized the opaque process behind the decision.

Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 announced Monday that Garber’s presidency would be extended indefinitely, postponing a formal presidential search that had been expected to begin in 2026.

While the move again suspended Harvard’s traditional search process, many faculty members said the outcome itself came as little surprise. In interviews with and statements to The Crimson, dozens of professors lauded Garber’s leadership following former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s resignation and amid sustained political and financial attacks on the University by the Trump administration.

“The current conditions of exchange with the federal government make it absolutely essential to have somebody who is stable, smart, gets the moment, and Alan is the ideal person for the moment,” said Jerold S. Kayden ’75, a professor at the Graduate School of Design.

Former Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana, who stepped down from his post in June, praised Garber’s emphasis on core academic values.

“President Garber emphasizes the role of free inquiry and academic excellence, and that consistent voice has been invaluable,” he said. “I think it has provided a steadiness that many of us appreciate at this moment.”

Garber became interim president in January 2024 amid allegations from the federal government that top Harvard leadership had mishandled the University’s response to campus antisemitism. In August 2024, he was named president until the end of the 2026-27 academic year. His role became more fraught in January, when the Trump administration intensified its pressure on Harvard.

Since then, Garber has led Harvard’s response to the White House — rejecting federal demands for academic and administrative overhauls in April, authorizing two lawsuits against the administration, and attempting to woo back donors embittered by Harvard’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Garber’s handling of the crises drew widespread praise from faculty, including from some who still expressed reservations about decisions made under his leadership.

Government professor Steven Levitsky described the extension as a strategic choice to stabilize Harvard’s leadership during a moment of sustained external pressure.

“Some of the moves to ensure the continued support of people on the center and center right, I have personally disagreed with, but that’s been the strategy,” he said. “It’s been a consistent strategy of positioning Harvard’s administration more in the center of the political spectrum in an effort to defend itself from Trump.”

In the face of White House demands to gut diversity programming, Garber steered Harvard toward a rollback of diversity programming. In the spring, the University renamed offices and advanced new administrative language that removed explicit references to race, gender, and equity.

During that period, Harvard also dismissed the heads of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, severed ties with Birzeit University in the West Bank, and suspended the Harvard Divinity School’s Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative — moves that some faculty have described as concessions to federal scrutiny.

Still, faculty support for Garber came alongside sharp criticism of the process by which his appointment was made.

Across all three of Garber’s appointments — first as interim president, then as permanent president, and now through an indefinite extension — there has been no formal mechanism for faculty input. Each decision was made largely independently by Harvard’s two highest governing bodies, the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers.

In the aftermath of Gay’s resignation, faculty members pushed for greater transparency in the next presidential search and launched a campaign for a faculty senate to play a role in University-wide decision-making.

The Corporation later promised reforms to the search process, but with Garber’s tenure now extended indefinitely, it remains unclear when those changes will materialize.

History professor Sidney Chalhoub wrote in a statement that the extension reflects a broader pattern of insular governance at Harvard.

“The process of choosing presidents at Harvard is very alienating,” he wrote. “There should be a formal process of consulting with the community in making a decision like this.”

Germanic Languages and Literatures Department Chair Alison Frank Johnson said she was not consulted at any point during the decision-making process and called the exclusion of faculty “disrespectful, in addition to being unwise.”

“It does seem to me like talking to the faculty about the leadership of the University is not only sensible, but basically respectful,” she said.

Members of the bargaining committee of Harvard’s non-tenure-track faculty union echoed those concerns, calling the decision to retain Garber — who has long had a strained relationship with campus unions — “emblematic of the top-down approach to governance from Garber and the Corporation that continue to erode trust in leadership.”

A University spokesperson did not respond to a Thursday evening request for comment on whether faculty members were consulted in the decision.

Despite concerns about governance, many professors said Garber’s extension was reassuring given the circumstances.

Economics professor Edward L. Glaeser said he was surprised by the timing of the decision, but grateful for Garber’s willingness to continue.

“I think Alan has proven to be an extraordinary leader in very difficult times. I am enormously grateful to his willingness to do this,” he said.

“I feel this is the best Hanukkah or Christmas present that Harvard or I could have gotten,” Glaeser added.

—Staff writer Abigail S. Gerstein can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @abbysgerstein.

—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.