New Members Elected to Board of Overseers

The President of the Harvard Alumni Association has 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 347th Commencement. The five newly elected Overseers, in order of their finish, are:

Jamie S. Gorelick, 20,732 votes; David D. Ho, 20,381; Deval L. Patrick, 17,611; John Rockwell, 17,360; C. Dixon Spangler, 16,708; Candidate who received the sixth highest number of votes, 14,854.

In 1998 there were 10 candidates, 8 nominated by the Harvard Alumni Association and 2 nominated by certificates from Harvard degree-holders. A total of 36,851 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.

In addition, the six newly elected HAA Elected Directors are:

Pamela Thomas-Graham, 22,534 votes; James Johnson, 19,929; Douglass Carver, 19,833; Karen Green, 19,600; Mercedes Laing, 17,859; and Bennett Tarleton, 17,556. The seventh candidate received 17,525 votes. A total of 35,299 votes were cast.

There are 18 Elected Director members of the HAA Board of Directors, six per year for terms of three years. Elected Directors provide leadership for the HAA and its various committees, a capacity often demonstrated by a record of service to Harvard and an ability to communicate widely and effectively with other alumni.