Five Elected as New Members of Harvard Board of Overseers

The president of the Harvard Alumni Association on Thursday announced the results of the annual election of new members of the Harvard Board of Overseers. The results were released at the annual meeting of the association following the University's 345th Commencement. The five newly elected Overseers, in order of their finish, were:

Candidate Number of Votes

1. Doris Kearns Goodwin 25,026

2. Robert D. Reischauer 20,754

3. J. Michael Bishop 17,619

4. Richard E. Oldenburg 17,535

5. Woodrow A. Myers Jr. 17,173

6. Candidate who received the 16,657

sixth highest number of votes

In 1996 there were eight candidates, and 34,674 alumni/ae cast ballots in the election for an 18.9 percent rate of participation.

The primary function of the Board of Overseers is to encourage the University to maintain the highest attainable standards as a place of learning. Overseers carry out this mission by visiting faculties, departments, and other important programs throughout the University so that they can inform themselves about the quality of teaching, research, and administration and then identify problems and offer advice to faculties and University officials.