The Harvard Crimson announced this week that Harvard junoir Kristine Guillaume will be the next president of the newspaper, making her the first black woman to helm the student paper in its 145 year history.
Guillaume will lead the 146th guard, the term for the paper’s board of executives. The Harvard Crimson was founded in 1873 and is a daily paper run entirely by Harvrd College undergrads.
As president, Guillaume, class of 2020, will be the bridge between the Crimson’s editorial and financial sides. She’ll begin her role as Harvard Crimson president on Jan. 1, 2019, taking over the seat from current Crimson President Derek G. Xiao, class of 2019.
Kristine Guillaume, new Harvard Crimson president
Kristin Guillaume is currently a Central Administration reporter with the Harvard Crimson, during which she’s interviewed university Presidents Drew Faust and Lawrence Bacow. She was part of the team that covered the school’s search for a new president.
She is also one of three Chairs of the Crimson’s Diversity and Inclusivity committee, according to the paper, which is responsible for finding ways to make the newspaper more diverse and “welcoming to students from all backgrounds.”
“It’s an incredible honor to have been elected President of the 146,” Guillaume said in an email. “I’m excited to take on my new role. The news that I will be the first black woman to lead the Crimson means a lot to me — if my election has validated anyone’s experience or validated anyone’s belonging in Crimson, then my hard work will be worth it and will continue to be worth it.”
Guillaume said she’s looking forward to helping the Crimson “push forward into a digital-first era by improving our website so that it can showcase the innovative content that our writers, photographers, and designers produce every day.”
“I also look forward to working with our new Managing Editor Angela Fu and Business Manager to fostering a more inclusive culture at the organization,” she added, “where everyone at our organization feels ownership in their work.”
More history-making at Harvard University
As Kristine Guillaume steps into a new, history-making position for the Crimson, she’ll be following other recent strides made in terms of breaking down barriers and celebrating diversity at the university.
In Jan. 2018, Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals announced that it would allow women to audition begginning in 2019, after nearly 175 years of all-male casts within the world’s third-oldest theater organization. In Sept. 2019, Hasty Pudding added six women performers.
This week, the Crimson reported that the undergraduate members of the Harvard Institute of Politics have elected the first all-female execuive board in more than a decade.
These changes are reflected in Havard faculty, as well. In May, Bridget Terry Long became Harvard Graudate School of Education’s first black woman dean — which Kristine Guillaume reported for the Crimson — and in July, Claudine Gay became the first black woman appointed as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Four Harvard University schools are now led by black women, a first in the university’s 382-year history.
