2025 Harvard Elections
Voting for the Harvard Board of Overseers and the Harvard Alumni Association’s Elected Directors is now open and will continue until 5 pm EDT on May 20, 2025. Click here for the official 2025 Harvard Board Elections website.
On Tuesday, April 1, Harvard alumni eligible to vote should have received an email from “Harvard 2025 Elections” from harvard@electionservicescorp.com. This message contained a link to the online ballot and the information you will need to vote. Voters will also have been mailed a paper ballot. Voters will have the choice to vote either online or by paper ballot. Any voter who has previously opted out of paper ballots will only be invited to vote online.
The Board of Overseers is one of Harvard’s two governing boards, the other being the President and Fellows, also known as the Corporation.
The Harvard Alumni Association Board of Directors is an advisory board responsible for nominating candidates for the Board of Overseers, as well as its own Elected Directors. The HAA Board of Directors consists of about 170 members in all, including Directors for Clubs and SIGS, Directors for Harvard College and the Graduate Schools, Past President Directors, Ex Officio Members, and Elected Directors. Elected Directors, the group for which the current candidates are running, hold 18 seats on the HAA Board.
There are seven candidates on the ballot for the Board of Overseers and nine candidates on the ballot for HAA Elected Directors. You can find them all here.
HAFFS, in association with FAIR Harvard Alumni+, sent questionnaires to each of the Board of Overseer candidates and asked for follow-up interviews, to learn about their views on free speech, academic freedom and viewpoint diversity. HAFFS and FAIR also asked each of the HAA Elected Director candidates to participate in an interview with us to discuss these same issues, but did not send questionnaires to the Elected Director candidates.
We received completed questionnaires from only two of the seven Overseer candidates, Lanhee Chen and Michael Rosenblatt. Links to the responses they provided are set forth below. We spoke to these two candidates as well as one additional Overseer candidate, Nathaniel Keohane, who did not provide us a completed questionnaire. One other Overseer candidate, Mary Louise Kelly, informed us that she would not complete our questionnaire or participate in an interview because that is not permitted under the code of conduct of her employer, National Public Radio. None of the remaining candidates responded to us.
Five of the nine HAA Elected Director candidates spoke with us: Daniel Ahn, Allison Choi, Colin Kegler, Victoria “Vicky” Leung and Pavlos Photiades. One other candidate, Theresa Chung, informed us that she could not participate in an interview because of her position as an Administrative Judge with the US Merit Systems Protection Board. None of the remaining candidates responded to us.
From the conversations we had with the candidates who spoke with us, we felt that (1) there was general agreement on protecting free speech and academic freedom on campus, with exceptions for harassment, speech that was meant to incite violence, and speech that disrupted campus; (2) general support for Harvard’s policy on neutral institutional voice that was adopted this past year; and (3) general support for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences decision this past year to eliminate the submission of diversity, equity and inclusion statements from applicants seeking employment. Across the board, all of the candidates we spoke with wanted Harvard to remain a place where students and faculty could share their views freely and openly, albeit in respectful way, even on controversial subjects that made people uncomfortable.
Based on the input received, as described above, and public statements of the candidates, HAFFS reviewed the candidates that participated in the process described above and is pleased to share its views below on which candidates would be the best advocates for free speech and academic freedom within the Harvard community. We are very grateful to the three Board of Overseer candidates and the five Elected Director candidates committed their time and made an effort to share their views with us on these very important issues.
ELECTION FOR BOARD OF OVERSEERS: ON FREE SPEECH ISSUES, HAFFS RECOMMENDS LANHEE CHEN AND ENCOURAGES YOU TO CONSIDER CAREFULLY NATHANIEL KEOHANE
We believe that Lanhee Chen’s views most closely align with furthering HAFFS’s mission to advance free speech, academic freedom and viewpoint diversity at Harvard and are therefore recommending him to you. Although Nathaniel Keohane did not provide us with a completed questionnaire, we were very encouraged by the conversation we had with him and believe that he would be aligned with HAFFS’s mission if elected to the Board of Overseers. We encourage you to consider him as well on free speech and related issues.
ELECTION FOR HAA ELECTED DIRECTORS: ON FREE SPEECH ISSUES, HAFFS RECOMMENDS ALLLISON CHOI AND PAVLOS PHOTIADES, AND ENCOURAGES YOU TO CONSIDER CAREFULLY COLIN KEGLER AND VICKY LEUNG
We believe that Allison Choi’s and Pavlos Photiades’s views most closely align with furthering HAFFS’s mission and are therefore recommending them to you. We were encouraged by our conversations with Colin Kegler and Vicky Leung, and believe that they would also support free speech and academic freedom if elected. We encourage you to consider the two of them as well.
During the course of its review, HAFFS consulted with Fair Harvard Alumni+, the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance and The 1636 Forum, three other alumni groups that share HAFFS’s mission to advance free speech and academic freedom at Harvard. We note, however, that the mission of these other alumni groups is broader than HAFFS’s more narrow focus on free speech and academic freedom.
Fair Harvard Alumni+, the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance and The 1636 Forum are conducting their own separate reviews, in accordance with their respective missions. If you are interested in their views on the nominees, please visit their websites, Fair Harvard Alumni+, The 1636 Forum and Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance.
Harvard Alumni For Free Speech urges you to take the time to exercise your right to vote in the elections for the Board of Overseers and for HAA Elected Directors this year and in future years. Electing candidates who will advance issues important to you is one of the few avenues concerned alumni have to influence what happens at Harvard. Therefore, we urge alumni concerned about free speech issues to be active in these and future elections.
Very best regards,
George Kurzon
President
Harvard Alumni for Free Speech
Contact@HarvardAlumniforFreeSpeech.com