In 1962, Harvard graduate John F. Kennedy declared in his Yale commencement speech that “I now combine the best of both worlds: a Harvard education with a Yale degree.” While a Yale degree clearly carried prestige then and now, a Yale education may also be useful in the governing process.
In today's news, Yale University has appointed Maury McInnis as a professor at just 24 years old.Number Not only is the presidential transition a historic day for the University — following in the pioneering footsteps of Hannah Gray, who served as acting president in the 1970s — but it also marks the first woman to be permanently appointed to the position — and a sign that Yale's presidential transition serves as a case study for other universities and corporations to emulate.
In contrast, as I wrote previously DirectorHarvard's failed leadership succession, culminating in the debacle over Claudine Gay's resignation, provided a bitter lesson in board governance.
The difference between how Yale University, where I am a professor, and Harvard University have approached their presidential succession challenges couldn't be clearer. Consider four key elements that distinguish Yale's approach to leadership succession from Harvard's disastrous approach:
Diligence in searching, or lack thereof
At Harvard, the hiring of Claudine Gay was perceived by many as a rushed and careless hiring process, facts notwithstanding; The Harvard Crimson called it “the shortest presidential selection in history.” It is unclear how thoroughly the Board of Trustees vetted her thin academic record; Gay has not written a single book, for example. Although the search committee, in a coronation-like process, preemptively eliminated candidates who, in their own words, were “exceptional scholars” but lacked “administrative experience,” some observers have speculated, and perhaps not without reason, that the Board of Trustees had Gay in mind from the start.
In contrast, Yale's hiring process took place over nine months, nearly twice as long as Harvard's. The board considered dozens, possibly hundreds, of qualified candidates and approached the selection process with a sincere and open mind, without any preconceived ideas, internal or external.
McInnis's academic credentials speak for themselves: she is a distinguished cultural historian with dozens of widely cited peer-reviewed articles and more than a half-dozen books published in pioneering scholarly approaches to understanding the visual representations of slavery. But this is no coronation; McInnis has distinguished herself for her own achievements, vision, and experience.
Engagement with Key Stakeholders
Despite the current outrage on college campuses, McInnis' selection was met with perhaps the rarest of things on campuses: near-universal praise from students, faculty and other key stakeholders (or, at least, near-universal praise in the academic community).
“I, and many in the Yale community, are thrilled with McInnis' selection. Her background, temperament and expertise enable her to address highly politically sensitive and emotive issues with exceptional intellectual insight, a foundation of historical fact and personal authenticity, while also pragmatically addressing the implications for how we live and learn together today.
But the praise for McInnis’ selection reflects not only her own track record, but also the foundation the board has laid in actively engaging with key stakeholders. Over the past few months, the board has listened carefully to input from all parties, from one-on-one meetings with faculty, to listening sessions with the Student Advisory Committee, to small-group feedback sessions across campus.
Meanwhile, the Harvard Board of Trustees was criticized by many for being closed in its selection process, and its closed deliberations did not display the same personal and proactive outreach to many of the key stakeholders who were rejected or upset. We heard from several prominent faculty members who expressed strong resentment at Professor Gay's over-reliance on administrative protocols and what some perceived as a lack of support for interdisciplinary faculty efforts. The fact that these faculty members did not feel substantially involved in the decision-making process, but only complained to friends, speaks volumes.
Respect each school's unique brand, culture, and organizational mission
Even among equally elite academic institutions, each has a different culture and character, and no two schools are the same. McInnis is deeply rooted in the Yale community, both as an alumna with multiple degrees from Yale and as an active board member who has been deeply involved in the community. In fact, at the board level, she recently spearheaded an effort that evolved into the Yale Slavery Project, led by renowned Civil War historian David Bright, to document Yale’s difficult history of slavery, engaging the entire community from students to faculty. Additionally, the Yale Board of Trustees has been careful to solicit input from all stakeholders, from alumni to community members on and off campus, to ensure no one feels left out.
Though both were familiar with their respective institutions, Claudine Gay as dean and McInnis as a board member, the difference in the processes run by the Yale and Harvard boards of trustees could not have been starker. The Harvard board repeatedly erred by selecting Gay, and then had to defend his selection, a choice that alienated many in the Harvard community and that many saw as a violation of the “shared governance” model that had long governed the university's operations.
When the plagiarism allegations against Claudine Gay emerged, instead of conducting a thorough investigation, Harvard University empowered an extremely aggressive, well-known law firm to intimidate journalists investigating Gay's background, and then the Board of Trustees appointed a small pro-gay subcommittee to “investigate,” which only deepened the questions.
Confidentiality of board discussions and internal trust without groupthink
Astonishingly, throughout the nine months of Yale's Board of Trustees deliberations, not a single word was leaked to the press about the candidates being considered or the Board's deliberations. The media, desperate for a scoop, some resorted to the ludicrous tactic of quoting “knowledgeable students” to repeat fact-free speculation.
Harvard's deliberations were constantly leaked to the press in real time from start to finish. Finally, news of Claudine Gay's impending resignation appeared to leak before anyone was ready to make a public announcement, creating an embarrassing stain on the board. Infighting within the board leaked, revealing that some factions had been holding their own meetings without their colleagues.
Yale University's selection of Maury McInnis as its next president, and the selection process undertaken by the Yale Board of Trustees, reflects a model of successful leadership succession and should serve as a model for universities across the nation. In this respect, at least, a “Yale education” may be worth more than John F. Kennedy joked about.
