As prepared for delivery Today we celebrate graduating Harvard students who have chosen to make a commitment to the nation and its service. Three of you have trained as part of Harvard ROTC, and we recognize your dedication and achievement in meeting that program’s rigorous demands as two of you will receive your commissions as…
2013 Baccalaureate Service: “Running Toward”
As prepared for delivery. Greetings, Class of 2013. What a privilege it is to be with you this afternoon, together one last time for that ancient and curious custom known as the Baccalaureate. The ritual may lack something of the exuberance of that other ancient and curious year-end custom, the Primal Scream. But at least…
The Harvard Campaign
Dear Colleagues, As the academic year approaches its Commencement finale, we are already anticipating the public launch of the University campaign soon after the students return in September. The process of preparing for a campaign is one that focuses us on defining our future. For the past several years, we have been engaged within each…
Message to the Community
Dear Members of the Harvard Community: We are deeply grateful to law enforcement officials from Boston, Cambridge, and Watertown and from across the state and nation for their apprehension last evening of the surviving suspect in the marathon bombing. Yesterday was a harrowing day in a week of tragedy, suffering, and uncertainty—as well as courage…
Welcome, Class of 2017
Dear Members (I Hope) of the Harvard Class of 2017: I had hoped to spend a part of my Saturday with many of you, deploying all the wit and charm I could muster to persuade you to make Harvard your home for the next four years. I had hoped to regale you with a few…
A Message from the President: Monday’s Events in Boston
Dear Members of the Harvard Community: Yesterday was a day of unspeakable sadness for all of us in and around Boston, and for everyone gathered to celebrate what has been for so many years a great day on the calendar of a great city. As is by now well known, at approximately 2:50 p.m., two…
Remarks by President Faust: W50 Summit — Celebrating the 50th anniversary of women being admitted to the two-year M.B.A. Program
As delivered It’s so good just to be in this room — the energy in the air! Thank you so much for inviting me and making me part of this historic event, a historic event in and of its own right. And thank you, Dean Nohria, and everyone else who worked so hard to make…
“Educate Women; Change the World” at Ewha Womans University
I am deeply honored to be an Ewha Fellow. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chairperson Chang, President Kim; thank you students, faculty, friends of Ewha, distinguished guests, Mr. Ambassador and others. It is a great privilege to be here on the Ewha campus, the largest women’s university in the world. As I crossed the…
The newest revolution in higher ed
This op-ed originally appeared in The Boston Globe on March 3, 2013. By Drew Faust and L. Rafael Reif In 1837, the Massachusetts Board of Education devoted part of its first annual report to praising a recent classroom innovation called the blackboard. This “invaluable and indispensible” innovation enabled the “rapid and vivid communication of knowledge.” It…
Welcome Remarks at the Annual Meeting of the AAAS
As delivered Thank you, Dr. Fedoroff, for that very kind introduction. And many thanks to President Press for inviting me to offer brief remarks this evening. First, my warmest greetings to all of you. Since its founding in 1848, the American Association for the Advancement of Science has held its annual meeting in Cambridge or…