Harvard’s New President Seeks to Strengthen Connections ‘to the World’

Harvard’s incoming president, Claudine Gay, on Thursday described her vision for the university as more connected to the broader world at a time of political, technological and environmental upheaval.

She said she hopes to lead the institution in rising to meet new challenges as it has over its nearly four-century history.

At a reception at Harvard’s Smith Campus Center, Gay spoke about her broad ideas and missions, as well as telling her personal story as the daughter of Haitian immigrants who found her calling in academia.

“When I imagine Harvard in the years ahead, I see a university that is even more connected to the world,” Gay said at a reception held a few hours after her appointment was announced. She then listed the many kinds of connections she hoped to forge at Harvard: “Through our scholarship, the questions we pursue, the partnerships that we build to advance and share knowledge, through our educational programs, who's in our classrooms, whether that classroom is here on campus or online, and what we're teaching them and through our public engagement — how we extend Harvard’s extraordinary teaching and research to have an impact on issues that matter.”