The Presidency, Pending

Feverish speculation notwithstanding, the Corporation did not use its regularly scheduled meeting with the Board of Overseers during the first weekend in February to present the search committee’s selection for Harvard’s twenty-eighth president. Gossip had increased on January 31, when Nobel laureate Thomas R. Cech, president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, called the Crimson to announce that he had “withdrawn my name from consideration” for the post. On Saturday night, February 3, the Lampoon broadcast an e-mail announcing “the reinstatement of Lawrence H. Summers as Harvard’s once and future president,” and then a follow-up, nominally from College dean Benedict H. Gross, declaring the first message a hoax and saying that Law School dean Elena Kagan had been chosen instead.

Whenever the appointment is made—before this issue of the magazine reaches you or after—complete coverage will appear at www.harvardmagazine.com.