“It was really Dean Smith’s decision, and I think he regarded as Harry Lewis as someone who had dedicated his life to Harvard and had served the institution and SEAS very well,” Faust said this week.

“I don’t read the blog,” she added, when asked.

Faust has also been finding replacements for Kennedy School Dean David T. Ellwood ’75, Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications Christine M. Heenan, University Chief Financial Officer Dan S. Shore, and Vice Provost for International Affairs Jorge I. Dominguez.

ON TO 2015

Even amid responding with these issues, Faust has seen her travel schedule grow considerably, with major alumni events in New York, Dallas, London, and Mexico as well as a host of other duties associated with Harvard’s capital campaign.

The travel has been tiring, Faust said, but worth it.

“The outreach is there, the continuing engagement that Harvard matters to people throughout their lifetime...all of that has been really thrilling for me to see,” she said. “The campaign has evoked it. The campaign has been the occasion for the expression of that kind of feeling.”

It has helped that the money has poured in. Since launching the public phase of the fundraising drive with $2.8 billion raised last fall, Harvard has brought in an additional $2 billion in gifts and pledges, including a $150 million gift and a $350 million gift, bringing the campaign’s total to $4.8 billion.

Faust said she approaches the holiday break without a firm New Year’s resolution, though she said she hopes to “stop catching so many colds.” She is, however, ready for some rare time off.

“This has been a very busy fall,” she said.

—Staff writer Matthew Q. Clarida can be reached at matthew.clarida@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattClarida.

—Staff writer Amna H. Hashmi can be reached at amna.hashmi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter@amna_hashmi.