Council Meets Associate Dean Illingworth

It wasn't your typical meeting between concerned students and a high-ranking dean.

A group of 20 delegates from the Undergraduate Council sat in the comfortable chairs of Ticknor Lounge last night as they fired questions at Associate Dean of Harvard College David P. Illingworth '71. The mood was casual, the questions were informal. Illingworth wore a sweater vest.

And there was no set agenda. Instead, the discussion flitted from students' concerns about improving the facilities at the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) to the future of undergraduate programs formerly administered by Radcliffe College.

The meeting began when Illingworth emphasized how seriously he takes student opinions, saying, "I hope you'll teach me how to do this job."

Students had some suggestions ready. Raising questions about why Harvard chooses to spend its money on buildings and structural improvements, they said undergraduates should reap more benefits from Harvard's hefty endowment.

Illingworth assured them that he wants to get more student input on spending choices.

"I want to get myself on to some of the committees that are talking about buildings. If I can get myself on, then maybe I can get some students on [those committees] too," he said.

Students also said they want to see more undergraduate delegates at faculty committee meetings, so students can have a voice in the decisions that affect their academic and residential lives.

For now, students said, they feel excluded from many of those decisions. Illingworth assured them that some of that distance was not intentional but a product of the University's bureaucracy.

Illingworth is one of three deans who work directly for Harry R. Lewis '68, Dean of Harvard College, the man Illingworth termed "the Big Guy."

With the formation of the Radcliffe Institute for the Advanced Study, many of the programs that once were administered through Radcliffe will now fall under Harvard College and those deans.

Students asked Illingworth about the future of some Radcliffe offerings, such as the spring externship program.

He said he expects many of them to be administered by the Office of Career Services, and hopes many new initiatives will also receive funding from the Ann Radcliffe Trust.

The trust will be directed by Assistant Dean of the College Karen E. Avery '87, he said, and will fund student groups as part of the Harvard College Women's Initiative.

Illingworth said he doesn't know how large the trust will be, but said the board reviewing funding applications will include students, alumnae and faculty members.

Apart from the subject of money, students asked Illingworth about quality-of-life issues. Kamil E. Redmond '00, the UC vice-president, asked Illingworth to place questions about sexual assault on surveys of the first-year and senior classes.

That could provide a more accurate picture of how many about students have experienced sexual assault, she said, and might lead the University to pay more attention to that kind of violence.

Illingworth also addressed students' requests for improvements to the MAC, and the possibility of making athletic trainers available to non-varsity athletes.

"The MAC in not adequate to meet everyone's needs," Illingworth said.

As for that most pressing part of student life--food--Illingworth said rumors about a fourth dining hall meal at Harvard, possibly late in the evening, "is being worked on" by Harvard Dining Services.

He said he thinks the extra meal would be a "very good thing."