Harvard University named historian Drew Gilpin Faust as its first female president on Sunday, ending a lengthy and secretive search to find a successor to Lawrence Summers.
The seven-member Harvard Corporation elected Faust, a noted scholar on History of the American South and dean of Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, as the university’s 28th president.
“This is a great day, and a historic day, for Harvard,” James R. Houghton, chairman of the presidential search committee, said in a statement. “Drew Faust is an inspiring and accomplished leader, a superb scholar, a dedicated teacher, and a wonderful human being.”
Her selection is noteworthy given the heated debates over Summers’ comments that genetic differences between the sexes might help explain the lack of women in top science jobs.
Faust has been dean of Radcliffe since 2001, two years after the former women’s college was combined into the university as a research center with a mission to study gender issues.
Some professors have quietly groused that the 371-year-old university is appointing a fifth president who is not a scientist. No scientist has had the top job since James Bryant Conant retired in 1953; its last four have come from the fields of classics, law, literature and economics.
Faust is the first Harvard president who did not receive a degree from the university since Charles Chauncy, a graduate of Cambridge University, who died in office in 1762. She attended the University of Pennsylvania.
“Teaching staff turned to her constantly,” said Sheldon Hackney, a former president of the University of Pennsylvania and historian who worked closely with Faust. “She’s very clear. She has a sense of humor, but she’s very strong-minded. You come to trust in her because she’s so solid.”
小题1:Which might be the best title for the passage?
A．Harvard named its first female president.
B．History of Harvard University changed.
C．Debates on female equality ended.
D．Drew Gilpin Faust, a famous woman historian.小题2:Which is NOT true about Drew Gilpin Faust?
A．She is the 28th president of Harvard University.
B．She is a famous scholar from the American South.
C．She isn’t a graduate from Harvard University.
D．She was head of Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.小题3:The underlined word “groused” in the 6th paragraph means____ .
A．approved
B．commented
C．complained
D．indicated小题4:This passage probably appears in a____ .
A．biography
B．personal letter
C．research paper
D．newspaper report
