"Young Americans recognize that the issues that impact their day-to-day lives are on the ballot, from health care and mental health to racial and social justice," Mark Gearan, Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, said in a statement. "The unprecedented interest in this election and the significant increase in early and mail-in ballots portend historic turnout."

“More than 15 million young Americans have turned 18 since the last presidential election. The Gen-Z generation is facing a once in a lifetime experience of a global pandemic, economic instability, and racial reckoning,” said Mark Gearan, Director, Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School. “Young Americans are seeing first hand how their government impacts their day to day lives and they are ready to make their voice heard in this election.”

The letter calls on the College to extend the terms of interim faculty deans Mark D. Gearan ’78 and Mary Herlihy-Gearan by one year ...[and] cites Gearan and Herlihy-Gearan’s “unparalleled” management of the campus evacuation and coronavirus crisis in support of their continued stewardship. “Since the College sent us all home, we felt that the Gearans as deans have provided such wonderful support in this uncertain time for everyone.” 

HWS President Emeritus Mark D. Gearan L.H.D. ’17, P’21 and Mary Herlihy Gearan L.H.D. ’17, P’21 have been named interim faculty deans of Winthrop House at Harvard University.Gearan, who serves as the Director of the Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard Kennedy School, told The Harvard Gazette, “Mary and I were honored by the invitation to serve as interim faculty deans at Winthrop House.