[1/2] Claudine Gay, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, speaks during the 368th Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., May 30, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File PhotoBOSTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Harvard University on Thursday named Claudine Gay, the school's dean of Faculty Arts and Sciences, as its 30th president, the first Black person and only the second woman to hold the job. Gay, the daughter of Haitian immigrants who joined Harvard as a professor in 2006, succeeds Lawrence Bacow as president of the prestigious, nearly 400-year-old Ivy League university. Gay, 52, will step into the job in Cambridge, Massachusetts as the university faces challenges to its admissions policies. Harvard argues that eliminating race as a consideration would hamper its efforts to create a more diverse student body.

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