Gomes, Pomey May Face Dismissal

In a rare move, the Faculty Council voted last week to support the Administrative Board’s recommendation that the two students convicted of embezzling almost $100,000 from the Hasty Pudding Theatricals be dismissed from the College.

It will now be up to a vote of the full Faculty to dismiss Randy J. Gomes and Suzanne M. Pomey, originally members of the Class of 2002, who were sentenced in October to five and two years of probation, respectively.

The College chose in June not to award diplomas to Gomes and Pomey—who had completed their studies by Commencement—because of pending legal proceedings.

Following the proceedings, the Ad Board began its own investigation to determine the University’s course of disciplinary action. Last Wednesday, having completed its investigation, the board presented its findings to the Faculty Council, a group of faculty advisors who approve measures before they go before the full Faculty.

The Faculty vote will take place in February.

According to Council members, who said the Council supported the recommendation without dissent, a dismissal would mean that neither Gomes nor Pomey would receive a Harvard degree, despite having completed their studies.

Dismissal requires that a student separate from the College for usually more than five years with the option to petition for readmission, but readmission requires a vote of the full Faculty.

Council member Robert P. Kirshner, Clowes professor of science, said the Council characteristically accepts the Ad Board’s recommendations because it is the Ad Board, not the Council, that investigates the issue in question.

“It’s a way of saying we have confidence in the way the Ad Board handles things, since they gather the evidence,” Kirshner said.

Linguistics department chair Jay H. Jasanoff, another Council member, said the nature of the incident lent support to the rare dismissal recommendation.

“They committed serious crimes and serious crimes, by custom, are the sort of reason people are dismissed from Harvard,” Jasanoff said.

Pomey and Gomes’ attorneys could not be reached for comment, and attempts to reach Pomey and Gomes directly were unsuccessful.

Only 23 students were dismissed from the College between 1936 and 1999, and nine have since been readmitted.

The last time a student was dismissed from the College was in 1999, when the full Faculty voted dismiss D. Drew Douglas and Joshua M. Elster, Class of 2000, who were charged in separate incidents of rape.

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.