A BIGGER TABLE

With a larger group and three new committees dedicated to specific topics, the Corporation has access to a broader base of expertise, talent, and knowledge. Both Reischauer and Faust described this as the reforms’ most important contribution.

In addition to what Faust described as a “noisier conversation” in a larger room at a larger table, Corporation members said that the addition of more members has unequivocally improved the Corporation’s ability to govern.

“I always say, we learn from our differences,” said Lawrence S. Bacow, who joined the Corporation in 2011. “And having people with different perspectives and different experiences on the Corporation just enormously enriches the conversation.”

Higher education is among the areas of expertise that are now better represented.

Bacow, who served as president of Tufts University and as chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Susan L. Graham ’64, professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, join former Duke University and Wellesley College President Nannerl O. Keohane.

“What it means is that there are people who have the capacity to say, ‘Well, there are other ways of doing this, and in fact it’s done differently at other places. Maybe we can learn from them,’” Bacow said.

But a larger Corporation is not the only way that members said reforms have led to more nuanced, informed decision-making.

Three new committees that include Corporation members and other experts—finance, governance, and facilities and capital planning—began meeting in 2011. A committee on alumni affairs and development that works with the Board of Overseers, Harvard’s other, larger governing body, was also created.

“The structure, by allowing us to add non-Corporation members to the committees who’ve been specifically selected because of their subject matter expertise, has just enormously expanded the capability of the Corporation,” said Bacow, who chairs the committee on facilities and capital planning.

He cited Thomas P. Glynn’s participation on his committee as an example of useful non-member participation. As Chief Operating Officer of Partners HealthCare, Glynn oversaw the construction of laboratories for the not-for-profit health care system. Bacow said this experience put Glynn in a unique position to advise the Corporation on similar matters.

“There’s a level of sophistication in the conversation from having them at the table, which is just invaluable,” said Bacow.

BACK TO BOSTON

When University leaders touted governance reforms in 2010, they frequently cited access to a greater pool of expertise as the reforms’ most important goal. Since then, the reforms have improved the Corporation’s engagement with Harvard’s thousands of stakeholders in more ways than directly prescribed by planned reforms. With more members, the board has become increasingly Boston-based and Harvard-connected.

Among the Corporation’s new members are Boston attorney William F. Lee ’72, local businessman Joseph J. O’Donnell ’67, and Bacow, president-in-residence at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.