Aid Office Forms Two Top Positions

Two high-level openings in the College's admissions and financial aid offices have been filled with current members of the offices' staff.

James S. Miller, associate director of financial aid, will take over April 18 as the new director, a position the office has been trying to fill for the past year, L. Fred Jewett '57, dean of admissions and financial Aids, said yesterday.

Elizabeth M. Hicks, associate director of financial aid, who specializes in state and government financial and programs, will fill the newly created position of assistant dean for federal and special programs, Jewett added.

Jewett said about 50 people applied for the position of aid director during a year-long search, and about 10 people applied for the recently created position of assistant dean. He would not comment on whether Harvard offered the directorship to any outside applicants.

Seamus P. Malin '62, acting director of financial aid, said yesterday he had never intended to keep the job permanently.

"It's a terrific boost for financial aid office, he added, calling Miller and Hicks "highly compentent and deserving people."

Malin said he will return to his normal job of associate director of admissions and financial aids, adding he missed his admissions responsibilities.

Although Miller and Hicks will officially assume their new position April 18, Malin said that with the chaos surrounding the soon-to-be-accepted class of '87 and their questions concerning financial aid packages, the actual structure within the financial aid office will not really change until the middle of May.

Hicks said that she has already taken on some of her new responsibilities, which include educating all students about financial aid options and helping Jewett develop special programs to make available aid money go as far as possible.

Miller will be responsible for filling the positions he and Hicks are vacating. Hicks said Jewett said that the new people probably will not begin their jobs until the first of July.

Hicks said she had worked with Miller for the past five years.

Miller, a freshman proctor for the past four years, was not available for comment last night. Hicks added that Miller will have even more time to deal directly with students and their parents because he recently computerized the admissions and financial aid offices.

Miller has installed a computer system to speed up the admissions process and thus has the advantage of knowing the logistics of the director's position, Jewett said yesterday.

The office created Hicks's new position be- came of the growing complication of the financial aid process, Jewett said because one person could not handle all the responsibilities Hicks said that the restructuring of the office, rather than the lack of outside qualified people, caused the delay in appointments.

Hicks and Miller were "the sentimental favorites," Jewett said.

The position of director of financial aid became vacant when Martha C. Lyman moved out West with her husband last spring. Lyman said yesterday that she hired Miller five years ago, adding that both he and Hicks did "first-rate work" and "get along very well with people."

Lyman, who was herself an in-house promotion, said Harvard's financial aid office is unusual in its close affiliation with the admissions office, and that someone from outside the system might have had tourble adjusting.

Hicks has worked at Harvard for 13 years, five in Radcliffe's financial aid office and seven after that office merged with Harvard's. After leaving for a year to direct the financial aid office at Tufts Medical School, she returned to Harvard in 1977 as an aid officer.

Hicks, who has had special responsibility for freshman aid packages, said she will have considerably less day-to-day contact with students and their parents from now on. The new job "will make me sit back and actively plan and help develop new programs," she added