Since former Harvard President Claudine Gay stepped down from her post, the debate on whether or not she should resign has shifted to one concerning her successor. Harvard Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 has stepped in to fill the interim role until the search committee decides on a long-term replacement. While no sportsbook currently allows you to bet on this event, we at the Indy Sportsbook have created fictitious lines for who we predict to be the current favorites.
First, we have current Interim President Garber at +270 odds. Garber’s 13-year tenure as provost of Harvard—26 times longer than Claudine Gay’s presidency—as well as his professorship at Stanford make him an obvious choice for the job. However, he will have to overcome his reputation as a union buster to win the presidency. In 2016, the Office of the Provost sent an email following Columbia’s decision to give teaching and research assistants union rights. The email read “unionization will disrupt academic programs and freedoms, mentoring, and research at Harvard.” Earlier this year, Brandon J. Mancilla, the first president of the Harvard Graduate Students Union, said that Garber “[led] the most vicious anti-union campaign that we’ve seen in grad worker unionization” in an interview with The Crimson. Despite this, some reports suggest he will become Harvard’s permanent president for years to come, and that is why he is the favorite right now.
Next, at +550 odds is Tomiko Brown-Nagin. After being considered in the last presidential search, Brown-Nagin is once again a favorite for the presidency. Both dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute and an HLS professor, Brown-Nagin is the author of two multi-award winning books: Civil Rights Queen and Courage to Dissent. She was also appointed the chair of the Presidential Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery, where she led the initiative to catalog the University’s ties to slavery. She seems like a great candidate to replace Interim President Garber, and we at the Indy Sportsbook have her as the second-favorite candidate.
At +800 odds, we have Harvard Government Professor Danielle S. Allen, the director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics. She was considered during the interview process in 2018 before President Bacow was ultimately elected. In 2020, Allen won the Library of Congress’s Kluge Prize, which recognizes scholarly achievement in areas the Nobel Prize does not. Allen has political ambitions that extend the realm of Harvard; she ran for Governor of Massachusetts in 2022 and is currently running for Democratic State Committeewoman for Middlesex and Suffolk. She brings both a young perspective and impressive accolades in academia to the table, making her an attractive candidate for the job.
At +1200 odds, we have the Dean of Harvard Law School, John F. Manning ’82. As a conservative, Manning brings political diversity to the table. In a 2022 faculty survey conducted by The Crimson, only 1.46% of respondents identified themselves as conservative or very conservative, compared to 82.46% of respondents who self-identified as liberal or very liberal. Manning would provide political diversity and a new perspective to the University. However, we do not think that the University will go with a conservative. Instead, we foresee a liberal ideology to be a prerequisite for the presidency for the foreseeable future. But you never know, maybe we could see a conservative president in the next 100 years (but we doubt it).
Coming in as the fifth favorite to become Harvard’s newest president, we select Bill Ackman ’88 (+2500 odds). While he is not known for his presence on campus, his contributions on X (formerly Twitter) have landed him as the fifth favorite. He is known to have the fastest fingers on the internet, and we guarantee he would break the record for most tweets as a Harvard president. While he may not have the most common ideals among the faculty and student body, never count someone out who can throw bands in your face. If you want to get a job at Sweetgreen, betting on Bill Ackman could help. Just make sure to tag him on X—he will see it within minutes.
Next, we have Barack Obama at +3500. This one might be a long shot, but his daughter did attend this University, and for some reason, we think he might know a thing or two about leadership.
Lastly, at +5000 odds, we have a Kanye West campaign announcement. Kanye was a write-in candidate in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, and despite a valiant campaign, did not come close to securing the presidency. His concession tweet read “WELP KANYE 2024.” Although Kanye has since confirmed that he will not run for the presidency in the 2024 election cycle, do not be surprised if he seeks office elsewhere. With his longtime friend Travis Scott intent on studying architecture at the University, Kanye West may look to join him. We place him seventh in the odds only because he has not implicitly stated he is running for Harvard President—had he done that, he might be number one.
These are just the frontrunners. As time goes on, there will surely be more potential candidates that light up the scene on X, TikTok, or Instagram. As of right now, these are our odds, but they may update and change over time as the University does extensive background checks on candidates, carefully checking for incidents of inadequate citation and whatever other euphemisms they use for plagiarism.
Luke Wagner ’26 (lukewagner@college.harvard.edu) believes that Kanye West will come and save this University.Jonah Karafiol ’26 (jonahkarafiol@college.harvard.edu) is looking for a Snowy plus one.