Harvard University announced on Monday that alumnus and outspoken diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) advocate Vivian Hunt has been tapped to lead the school’s Board of Overseers, giving her a key role in appointing a replacement for ousted University President Claudine Gay.
As reported by campus newspaper The Harvard Crimson, Hunt, who graduated from the university in 1989, has held a seat on the Board of Overseers, the school’s second-highest governing body, since 2019. In her new role as Board President for the 2024-2025 academic year, Hunt will head the Harvard presidential search committee alongside two other overseers and the 12 members of the Harvard Corporation, the highest governing body.
However, as The Crimson indicates, the University seems to be in no rush to fill the vacated presidency, and the Board has not discussed the issue in quite some time.
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As Valuetainment previously reported, former Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned in January after months of controversy over her permissive stance on antisemitic speech on campus, which also exposed more than 50 instances of plagiarism in her past academic works. Following her exit from the presidency—which marked the shortest tenure in the university’s history—Gay was allowed to return to a faculty position in Harvard’s Department of Political Science, where she will reportedly continue making $900,000 annually.
University Provost Alan M. Garber (class of 1976) has been serving as interim president since her resignation.
After Gay’s public fall from grace, many criticized Harvard’s commitment to DEI principles for allowing a serial plagiarist to take up such a prominent position within the esteemed institution. While the school accepted Gay’s resignation, members of the Corporation refused to impugn her academic record and denied that DEI goals had anything to do with her appointment.
Even so, Hunt, who will now spearhead the eventual effort to replace Gay, has often criticized ideas of “meritocracy” and pushed for DEI standards in hiring. In 2015, while working for corporate consulting giant McKinsey & Company, she co-authored a paper called “Why Diversity Matters,” arguing (via questionable methodology) that more racially diverse organizations are more productive. A report published in Econ Journal Watch last month questioning the consulting group’s findings also cited Hunt as saying that meritocratic systems are “just not good enough” to overcome biases and promote antiracism.
“A neutral position that is meritocratic, that is good at treating people evenly, isn’t good enough. It allows the bias that is in our systems … it allows it to perpetuate,” Hunt said. “You have to proactively stand for an antiracism environment.”
Meritocracy "isn't good enough."
"You have to proactively stand for an antiracism environment."
2020 interview of Dame Vivian Hunt who co-authored several influential pro-DEI studies for top consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Econ Journal Watch recently debunked the studies. pic.twitter.com/Gjewf572Nv
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 3, 2024
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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