Harvard Board of Overseers
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The Harvard Board of Overseers (more formally The Honorable and Reverend The Board of Overseers) is the second of Harvard University's two governing boards. Although its function is more consultative and less hands-on than the President and Fellows of Harvard College, the Board of Overseers is sometimes referred to as the "senior" governing board because its formation predates the fellows' 1650 incorporation.
Today there are 30 overseers, all directly elected by alumni; at one point the board was self-perpetuating. Originally the overseers included, ex officio, the public officials and puritan clergy of Cambridge and the neighboring towns (hence the "honorable and reverend" of the title).