More about Bryn Mawr alumna Drew Gilpin Faust as president of Harvard:

First Woman Takes Reins at Harvard	top ^

	CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 12 — Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard University’s first female president, was inaugurated Friday and offered a spirited defense of American higher education against demands that it quantify what it is teaching and focus primarily on training a global work force.
“The essence of a university is that it is uniquely accountable to the past and to the future — not simply or even primarily to the present,” said Dr. Faust, 60, a Civil War historian and the former head of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at the university. MORE »

Faust Questions Assessment Focus	top ^

	In her inaugural address as president of Harvard University Friday, Drew Faust questioned the emphasis of many in Washington on assessment — at least as currently being practiced.
“We are asked to report graduation rates, graduate school admission statistics, scores on standardized tests intended to assess the ‘value added’ of years in college, research dollars, numbers of faculty publications. But such measures cannot themselves capture the achievements, let alone the aspirations of universities." MORE »

Faust's Inaugural Address	top ^

"Inaugural speeches are a peculiar genre. They are by definition pronouncements by individuals who don’t yet know what they are talking about. Or, we might more charitably dub them expressions of hope unchastened by the rod of experience." MORE »