Renew Harvard

We are seeking to join Harvard’s Board of Overseers to restore the University’s status as the world’s leading center of scholarship and education.

We are Harvard alumni seeking to protect the institution we hold dear. We bring leadership and management experience in business, law, and military service.

Harvard’s exceptionality results not from its fame, history, fortune, or influence, but rather its unwavering commitment to seeking truth.

This Veritas ethos, emblazoned on every campus seal, supersedes all other commitments. It is the key to Harvard achieving its mission of educating the members and leaders of our society.  

This mission and the commitment to truth are not self-fulfilling; they require continuous work and reflection to realize their promises. This ongoing commitment has allowed Harvard to educate the nation’s leaders for centuries. But this commitment also demands excellence—of Harvard’s students, faculty, alumni, and leadership. Unfortunately, we also believe that Harvard has lost sight of this core value.  The time has come to recommit to this core principle. 

Claudine Gay’s resignation provides a natural opportunity to correct course. But we must not think that the problems will resolve with one resignation. Harvard’s new leadership must be qualified, prepared, and committed to upholding Harvard’s policies and values for all students and faculty. A selection process that repeats the flaws of the last process will not yield change.

In petitioning to join the Board of Overseers, we bring a diversity of perspectives and opinions. Even among ourselves, we sometimes differ in our views on how the principles we are fighting for apply in different circumstances. That debate is healthy, and we think the ability to have it freely strengthens us. We want Harvard’s students and faculty to forever share and safeguard that same strength.

What we fully agree on is that the fundamental principles laid out below should guide the University and its leadership.  We share a commitment to bringing outside voices to challenge the status quo and restore Harvard’s focus on its key values and mission. While petitioning to join Harvard’s Board of Overseers is humbling and daunting, we believe this outside perspective is necessary to help restore excellence to a University that has long demanded it from us.

  • Restore leadership excellence to Harvard
  • Uphold free speech and academic standards
  • Protect all our students
  • Remedy operational and endowment mismanagement

Nominate Our Candidates

If you are a Harvard alumna or alumnus, please nominate all four of our candidates to Harvard’s Board of Overseers by clicking the button below:

Petition candidates like us must each receive 3,238 alumni nominations by January 31st. Then please vote in this spring’s election for these same candidates:

Zoe Bedell, Harvard Law School, 2016

Logan Leslie, Harvard and Radcliffe College, 2015

Alec Williams, Harvard Business School, 2017

Julia Pollak, Harvard and Radcliffe College, 2009

Petition candidates like us must each receive 3,238 alumni nominations by January 31st.

Then please vote in this spring’s election for these same candidates:

If you are a Harvard alumna or alumnus, please nominate all four of our candidates to Harvard’s Board of Overseers by clicking the button below: