Well, it wouldn’t exactly be news, considering all the speculation that’s been going on in the last couple of months over who will be the school’s next president. The Globe reports today that Drew Gilpin Faust is the front runner and the final approval needed is expected to come this weekend.

If Dr. Faust is indeed crowned president, she will join the growing ranks of powerful women in Boston academia:

• Susan Hockfield, MIT’s president
• Karen Antman, dean of Boston University’s School of Medicine and provost of the BU Medical Campus
• Elaine Ullian, president and CEO of Boston Medical Center (BU’s teaching hospital)
• Theda Skocpol, dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
• Tufts has 3 women deans: Linda Abriola (School of Engineering), Eileen Kennedy (Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy), Naomi Rosenberg (Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences)
• and other deans, chief operating officers, presidents, and center directors I haven’t listed.

While the total number of women in faculty positions in Boston universities remains small, having women in more leadership positions is a strong signal to the community that will hopefully trigger the long-term cultural and institutional changes needed grow the ranks of women faculty.