…and She’s Gone
Posted on December 5th, 2011 in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »
Clayton Spencer, perhaps the most powerful woman at Harvard, is leaving the university to become president of Bates College.
Harvard magazine reports:
In her current role as vice president for policy, Spencer is responsible for developing strategic priorities for Harvard on behalf of the president, directs policy analysis, oversees the office of institutional research, oversees the management of the offices of the president and provost, manages numerous searches for deans and senior administrators, and serves as presidential liaison to the Council of Deans. (She is also a presidentially nominated member of the Harvard Magazine Inc. board of directors.)
Quite a portfolio.
Spencer was hugely influential but extremely secretive, the paradigm of the modern university bureaucrat, who shaped policy behind the scenes, whose influence was present in everything but fingerprints found on nothing. Spencer, who was trained in Washington, was a master of internal politics, smoothly making the transition from Larry Summers to Drew Faust by making herself indispensable.
She is credited with work on any number of issues, but I think the real Clayton Spencer story is the issues and events for which she’ll never get credited…
8 Responses
12/5/2024 9:32 am
I notice that neither article provides any information at all regarding her personal life (partner, children, where she likes to vacation, anything-not one tidbit) and I guess I should be pleased by that-I think that women’s personal lives are more frequently commented on than their male counterparts….however, it does add to the impression of secrecy
12/5/2024 9:53 am
I am surprised you did not requote the Globe, which has Spencer saying, “Bates has got a great product to sell.” Of course colleges are in the marketing business, but what an odd lede to the presidency of a venerable liberal arts college.
It is no secret that Spencer is divorced from Ashton Carter, formerly of HKS and deputy Sec’y of Defense. I wish her well.
12/5/2024 10:44 am
We all wish her well. A really nice person.
Very odd that Bates chose someone with very little operating experience. It has been mostly policy in her positions both in Washington and Cambridge.
12/5/2024 3:15 pm
I agree she’s nice, and incredibly smart, but the policy/marketing/HR angles are odd - so we officially are no longer interested in academics as university presidents?
12/5/2024 6:00 pm
Harvard basketball in the AP top 25
12/6/2024 12:12 am
And she knows Maine well-she is a summer neighbor on Swan’s Island
12/8/2024 8:01 am
finally… no more cyberspying of faculty…
12/8/2024 9:58 am
I’d love to know what you’re referring to, Anon.