The Harvard president has accepted an offer to join the board of the office supplies behemoth. Her nomination will be voted on at the company’s annual meeting in early June.

This is a bad idea in any number of ways.

1) Since when is being president of Harvard a part-time job?

2) Faust’s decision further blurs the lines between American business and American higher education. It’s an unfortunate trend, and it’s regrettable that, from perhaps the most important job in higher education in the world, Faust is contributing to it. All for a little extra lucre.

(Well, not that little, actually; the Crimson reports that Staples board members received $300k for their service last year. Nice work if you can get it…and if you’re willing to leverage the institution that pays your full-time salary, you can!)

Who would have thought that Drew Faust would diminish her credibility—perhaps her greatest strength—and the Harvard presidency for 300 grand?

(Actually, I might have.)

In the interest of balance, I should add that Faust does not say that she’s doing it for the money, but to “gain additional insight that might be beneficial to my role at Harvard.”

3) As Sam Spektor points out below, nothing in her financial or business background qualifies her to serve as a director of a Fortune 500 corporation.

Which makes one wonder why Staples would want her on its board.

Possible answers include:

1) Drew Faust uses a lot of office supplies, therefore is an expert.
2) Staples needs a female board member.
3) Staples needs a female board member who brings the prestige of Harvard University along with her.
4) Staples needs a female board member who brings the prestige of Harvard but is too busy and too unqualified to actually critique the operation of the company.

To be fair, Staples has several women on its board already, but every other person on its board has significant business experience. So why Faust?

There is one interesting ancillary story here. Mitt Romney has been slagging Harvard in his campaign. Mitt Romney helped found Staples. Doesn’t it get a little harder for Mitt Romney to trash Harvard when its president sits on the board of his biggest business success?

Nah, probably not….