President and Fellows of Harvard College
{{Short description|Governing board of Harvard University}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2018}}
File:Harvard College Seal.png seal]]
The President and Fellows of Harvard College, also called the Harvard Corporation or just the Corporation, is the smaller and more powerful of Harvard University's two governing boards. It refers to itself as the oldest corporation in the Western Hemisphere.{{cite web |title=Harvard Corporation |url=https://www.harvard.edu/about/leadership-and-governance/harvard-corporation/ |access-date=2022-11-08 |website=www.harvard.edu |publisher=Harvard University}} At full capacity, as of 2024, the corporation consists of twelve fellows as well as the president of Harvard University, for a total of thirteen members.{{Cite news |title=Amid Crisis, Harvard Corporation Seat Goes 6 Months Unfilled |newspaper=The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/1/26/corporation-vacancy-leadership-crisis/ |access-date=2024-01-26}}
The Corporation and the Board of Overseers exercise institutional roles that, at most other colleges and universities, are more commonly consolidated into a single board of trustees.{{cite web |url=https://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/leadership-and-governance/ |title = Leadership and Governance | publisher = Harvard University | access-date=April 29, 2021}}
Although the institution it governs has grown into a university of which Harvard College is one component, the corporation's name remains "The President and Fellows of Harvard College".{{cite news |last1=Chait |first1=Richard P. |last2=Daniel |first2=D. Ronald |last3=Lorsch |first3=Jay W. |last4=Rosovsky |first4=Henry |author-link2=Ron Daniel |author-link3=Jay Lorsch |author-link4=Henry Rosovsky |title=Governing Harvard: A Harvard Magazine Roundtable |url=https://harvardmagazine.com/2006/05/governing-harvard.html |work=Harvard Magazine |date=May–June 2006}}
Structure
The Harvard Corporation is a 501(c)(3) and the owner of all of Harvard University's assets and real property.{{Cite news |author=Andrea Suozzo |author2=Alec Glassford |author3=Ash Ngu |author4=Brandon Roberts |date=2013-05-09 |title=President And Fellows Of Harvard College - Nonprofit Explorer |url=https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/42103580 |access-date=2024-01-03 |work=ProPublica |language=en}}
As a governing board, the Corporation traditionally functioned as an outside body whose members were not involved in the institution's daily life, meeting instead periodically to consult with the day-to-day head, the president of Harvard University, whom it appoints, and who also serves as a member. The Corporation is self-perpetuating, appointing new members to fill its own vacancies as they arise.
For most of its history, the Corporation consisted of six fellows in addition to the president. But after the presidency of Lawrence Summers from 2001 to 2006, and a large endowment decline after the Great Recession in 2008–2009, a year-long governance review was conducted. In December 2010, it announced that the Corporation's "composition, structure, and practices" would be altered: the number of fellows would increase from six to twelve, with prescribed terms of service, and several new committees would endeavor to improve the group's integration with the activities of the University as a whole, especially its long-term planning.
History
File:FiveHarvardPresidents.jpg, Edward Everett, Jared Sparks, James Walker, and Cornelius Conway Felton each served as members of the Harvard Corporation at various times.]]
= 17th century =
Starting in 1636, the affairs and funds of Harvard College were managed by a committee of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts. In 1650, at the request of Harvard's first president Henry Dunster, the Great and General Court of Massachusetts issued the body a charter.{{cite thesis |last1=Whitehead |first1=John S. |date=1971 |title=The Separation of College and State: The Transformation of Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale from Quasi-Public to Private Institutions, 1776–1876 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/8ee24894ac9b440a81985124193136e0/1 }}{{pn|date=January 2024}}
The Charter of 1650 established the Harvard Corporation board which consisted of seven members: a President, five Fellows, and a Treasurer. The Corporation had the authority to manage the College's finances, real estate, and donations, act as a legal entity in courts of law, select officers and servants, and create orders and bylaws for the College, with the approval of the Board of Overseers.{{Cite web |title=Collection: Charters and legislative acts relating to the governance of Harvard | HOLLIS for |url=https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/4/resources/4113}}
The founding members of the Harvard Corporation were respectively: Henry Dunster as President, Samuel Mather, Samuel Danforth, Jonathan Mitchell, Comfort Starr and Samuel Eaton as the five Fellows and Thomas Danforth as the Treasurer.{{Cite web |title=Research Guides: Harvard Presidential Insignia: Harvard Charter of 1650 |url=https://guides.library.harvard.edu/c.php?g=880222&p=6323072}} These men had, in perpetual succession, the duties of managing the College.
= 18th century =
The 1780 Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts reaffirmed that, despite the change in government due to the American Revolution, the corporation would continue to "have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy" its property and legal privileges.{{cite web |url = https://malegislature.gov/Laws/Constitution#chapterVSectionI |work = Massachusetts Constitution |title = Chapter V }} However it further noted that "nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the legislature of this commonwealth from making such alterations in the government of the said university."{{Cite web |title=Massachusetts Constitution |url=https://malegislature.gov/Laws/Constitution#chapterVSectionI |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=malegislature.gov}}
= 19th century =
In 1805, the election of Henry Ware as Hollis Professor of Divinity placed the Corporation, then politically Federalist and religiously Unitarian, at odds with Massachusetts politics that was increasingly Democratic-Republican and still Trinitarian.{{clarify|date=May 2024}}{{Cite book |last=Whitehead |first=John S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cH3bAQAACAAJ |title=The Separation of College and State: Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale, 1776-1876 |date=1973 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-01606-2 |language=en}}
= 21st century =
In December 2023, the Corporation came under scrutiny by the United States House of Representatives, after a House Committee hearing on antisemitism.{{Cite news |last=Walker |first=Jackson |date=2023-12-20 |title=Congress expanding Harvard probe to include plagiarism allegations against president |url=https://mynbc15.com/news/nation-world/congress-expanding-harvard-probe-to-include-plagiarism-allegations-against-president-claudine-gay-university-virginia-foxx-antisemitism-israel-palestine-hamas-middle-east-conflict |access-date=2024-01-04 |work=WPMI |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Moody |first=Josh |title=Who Failed Whom at Harvard? |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2024/01/08/did-gay-fail-harvard-or-did-harvard-fail-gay |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Inside Higher Ed |language=en}} The following month, in January 2024, the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over university tax status and endowments, probed the tax status of Harvard and three other universities, over allegations of inadequate responses to antisemitism.{{Cite web |last=Lorin |first=Janet |date=January 10, 2024 |title=Harvard, MIT Tax Status Probed by Congress Over Antisemitism |website=Bloomberg News |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-10/harvard-penn-tax-status-probed-by-house-panel-over-antisemitism?embedded-checkout=true}}{{Cite web |title=House Panel Probes Harvard, UPenn, Cornell, MIT Tax Exemption |url=https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/house-panel-probes-harvard-upenn-cornell-mit-tax-exemption |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=news.bloombergtax.com |date=January 10, 2024 |language=en}}
On May 22, 2024, one day before the annual Harvard Commencement ceremony, the corporation refused to give diplomas to thirteen seniors of Harvard College involved in pro-Palestinian protests, overruling a vote of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences that included the students on the list of graduating students.{{Cite magazine |date=2024-05-22 |title=Harvard Corporation Rules Thirteen Students Cannot Graduate |magazine=Harvard Magazine |url=https://www.harvardmagazine.com/node/86588 |access-date=2024-05-23 |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=2024-05-22 |title=Harvard Corporation won't give diplomas to 13 students, despite faculty vote |url=https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/05/22/harvard-corporation-wont-give-diplomas-to-13-students-despite-faculty-vote |access-date=2024-05-23 |work=WBUR |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=2024-05-23 |title=Harvard University's governing board pulls degrees for 13 pro-Palestinian student protestors |url=https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/harvards-governing-board-rejects-motion-allow-13-pro-palestine-student-protestors-graduate/UHN72AJW5NFYZGUIH3DNLKSMFA/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |work=Boston 25 News |language=en}}{{Cite news |author=Hilary Burns |date=May 22, 2024 |title=Harvard's governing board overrules faculty, bars 13 students who participated in pro-Palestinian encampment from receiving degrees |newspaper=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/22/metro/harvard-corporation-pro-palestinian-students-degrees/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |language=en-US}} Critics called it an attempt "to kill faculty governance" from a body that is usually "publicity-shy".{{cite web | url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-harvard-corporation-tries-to-kill-faculty-governance | title=Opinion | the Harvard Corporation Tries to Kill Faculty Governance | date=June 5, 2024 }}
Current membership
As of May 2024, there are currently thirteen members of the Corporation, including the University president, who sets the agenda but does not vote.{{cite news|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/6/27/corporation-explained/|newspaper=The Harvard Crimson|title=The Harvard Corporation, Explained|date=June 27, 2017|author1-last=Dixon|author1-first=Brandon J.|author2-last=Parker|author2-first=Claire E.|access-date=April 29, 2021}}{{Cite web |title=Harvard Corporation |url=https://www.harvard.edu/about/leadership-and-governance/harvard-corporation/ |access-date=2023-07-07 |website=Harvard University |language=en-US}}
List of Senior Fellows
The Corporation's senior fellow is the lead trustee within the board.
References
External links
- [http://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/harvards-leadership/president-and-fellows-harvard-corporation Harvard Corporation website]
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