Brenda Tindal named executive director of Harvard Museums of Science and Culture
By Diti Kohli Globe Correspondent,Updated May 10, 2021, 3:52 p.m.
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Brenda Tindal brings an impressive resume in museum curation and research, plus experience helping institutions grapple with historic ties to slavery.Harvard Museums of Science and Culture
The Harvard Museums of Science and Culture announced Monday that it had appointed Brenda Tindal as executive director, charging her with guiding four public-facing museums into a more inclusive era.
Tindal will be responsible for leading the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, and the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. Her tenure begins May 17.
University President Lawrence S. Bacow said in a Wednesday interview Harvard has been âputting processes in placeâ to improve its procedures for vetting University leadership candidates after an external review found a Government professor was repeatedly promoted despite a record of sexual harassment.
The report, released in February, detailed how a âpermissive cultureâ toward gender-based harassment at Harvard allowed former Government Professor Jorge I. DomÃnguez to sexually harass women over three decades at the University, while being promoted to several high-profile posts. DomÃnguez was barred from Harvardâs Faculty of Arts and Sciences campus and stripped of his emeritus status in 2019 following his retirement.
Harvard administrators outlined responses the University has taken regarding the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epsteinâs ties to Harvard during a monthly meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Tuesday.
After University President Lawrence S. Bacow initiated a review into Epsteinâs ties to Harvard in 2019, the committee recommended in 2020 that Harvard revise its policies concerning external gifts as well as those regarding appointments of visiting fellows.
Bacow said Tuesday one of the changes the University made after the report was increasing vetting of external gifts prior to acceptance. University Provost Alan M. Garber â76 additionally reminded faculty of the Universityâs gift policy guide released in May 2020.
UPDATED: May 6, 2021 at 12:30 a.m.
Harvard will require that all students receive a Covid-19 vaccine to live on campus during the fall 2021 term, the school announced Wednesday.
The announcement comes as vaccination appointments are becoming more readily available across the United States, and it follows similar declarations from other universities, including several in the Boston area.
In an email to Harvard affiliates, University President Lawrence S. Bacow wrote that students should plan to receive a vaccine authorized by either the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the World Health Organization at least two weeks prior to returning to campus.
Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer Thomas J. Hollister offered a bleak projection of the Universityâs finances in a Tuesday interview with The Crimson, forecasting that Harvard will experience its second consecutive year of declining revenues for the first time since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Ever since Covid-19 upended the Universityâs operations, Harvard has struggled to balance its checkbook as it racks up pandemic-related expenses. The Universityâs revenue also dropped by $138 million in fiscal year 2020, for a net loss of $10 million, compared to a surplus of $308 million in 2019.
Hollister said he expects revenues to decline once more in 2021, although he declined to offer a specific estimate, citing uncertainty over revenues and expenses for the remainder of the fiscal year.