Harvard University plans to name first female president  

Harvard University is planning to name the first woman president in its 371-year history -- Drew Gilpin Faust, a historian who runs a research institute at the university, local media reported on Friday.

Dr. Faust's ascension would come a year after Lawrence H. Summers, a former Treasury secretary, resigned from the post amid fierce faculty discontent. The opposition erupted in part over Dr. Summers suggestion that intrinsic aptitude could help explain why fewer women than men reach the highest ranks of science and math in universities.

Harvard's 30-member Board of Overseers will meet on Sunday to give Dr. Faust final approval, according to university officials.

Dr. Faust is currently dean of the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, by far the smallest of Harvard's schools. Dr. Faust has run the Radcliffe Institute since 2001. Before that, she taught American history for more than two decades at the University of Pennsylvania.