New Provost Defines Agenda On First Day

New Provost Steven E. Hyman’s arrival yesterday brought with it signs that the central administration’s organization may be up for serious discussion later this academic year.

In an interview yesterday, Hyman said that in several months, he and University President Lawrence H. Summers plan to “take a thoughtful look at how the provost’s office is structured.”

“Things are not broken,” he said. “They seem to have grown organically and historically rather than by planning.”

The provost’s office, revived under Summers’ predecessor, Neil L. Rudenstine, currently has one associate provost and four assistant provosts who oversee different areas.

The office has already seen some change this fall, as Summers began with his installation to put forth his agenda. Assistant Provost Sean T. Buffington ’90 is now in charge of what he called “the international agenda,” which includes study abroad, one of Summers’ pet projects.

Buffington is also the assistant provost in charge of interfaculty initiatives, a hallmark of the provost’s office.

Hyman said “reviewing and getting a handle on interfaculty initiatives” will also be one of the first items on his agenda.

“The main thing for me is that it’s not clear that these interfaculty initiatives are thriving,” he said.

And in an echo of what Summers has explicitly presented as his agenda, Hyman also cited working with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to think about science education, and exploring expansion into Allston as top priorities.

“If you think about Allston, the issue should really be driven by academic programs,” he said.

The selection of Hyman as provost in late October marked Summers’ first major administrative appointment, and the provost will play a key role in shaping Mass. Hall policy. But all this planning will have to wait for Hyman to find his footing.

The former director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) officially began his tenure as the University’s fifth provost with a series of high-level administrative meetings in Mass. Hall, Loeb House and Holyoke Center.

“Today and the coming days are about meeting people and getting briefed,” Hyman said in an interview last night. “It’s not the sort of thing you learn about in a minute,” he said.

Hyman was upbeat after his intense day of meetings with Harvard adminstrators, including Summers, the acting deans of the Graduate School of Education, members of his office, administrative deans and FAS officials.

Programmatic issues at GSE and information echnology across the University were focal points of the day, Hyman said.

Today, Hyman will meet with the University’s vice presidents and with additional staff from the Office of the Provost, he said.

In coming weeks, he plans to visit each of Harvard’s schools, meet with the deans, and “get to know the environment.”

Though he just began rearranging the furniture and placing photos of his children in his Mass. Hall office yesterday, Hyman has regularly visited Harvard, read “reams and reams” of briefing documents and communicated regularly with administrators since his selection.

“In the last few weeks, I felt almost like I’ve been doing two jobs,” he said.

Currently, he and Summers are striving for a “one-stop shopping” relationship between the president and the provost, Hyman said.

“No one should have to convince him of something, and then try to convince me,” he said.

Returning Home

Hyman entered his new Mass. Hall office yesterday to find a dozen roses on his desk.

The flowers were from DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., a longtime friend from their days as students in Cambridge, England.

“Part of the joy of coming back to Harvard is getting to work with people like that again,” Hyman said.

Hyman returns to Harvard after serving as director of NIMH for nearly six years.

He described his time at NIMH as a “golden age” in terms of congressional support and potential for accomplishment, but when the Harvard job offer came, Hyman said, he was ready to leave the “hierarchical” NIMH.

“Here, there will be more of an opportunity for give-and-take, for learning and for self-renewal,” he said.

And, he added, it was “unusual” for people to “talk back to you” at NIMH.

“I don’t think that will be a problem at Harvard,” he said.

Hyman said he will regularly commute to Cambridge from his home in Maryland as he continues to look for a home in the Cambridge area.

His wife, Barbara Bierer, will transfer her lab, currently at the National Institutes of Health, to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and begin working there July 1, he said.

—Staff writer Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at shoichet@fas.harvard.edu.