Lewis Taps Avery To Help Train, Oversee Race Relations Tutors

Assistant Dean of the College Karen E. Avery ’87 will coordinate the efforts of Harvard’s race relations tutors starting this fall, as part of the College’s response to a report on diversity issued last spring by the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations.

Avery will address shortcomings pointed out by the foundation, which said race relations tutors often feel they do not understand their job description and receive “little or no diversity-specific training.”

“I want to make [the tutors] more visible in Houses and make sure people know that they exist,” Avery said. “In the past, sometimes they were named but didn’t have a clear purpose.”

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 announced Avery’s appointment to the new position in his annual welcome letter to students.

“It’s a great move on Dean Lewis’ part because Dean Avery has been very supportive of diversity at Harvard,” said Ethan Y. Yeh ’03, who served as secretary of the Foundation’s Student Advisory Committee when that group helped to draft the report.

“She’s really been a face that students have gotten to know and who they can work with.”

Several student leaders said they appreciated College administrators taking initiative to foster diversity at Harvard but hoped more will be done to address other concerns in the foundation’s report.

In particular, the report also suggested the College expand campus meeting space for minority groups, display more artwork reflecting diversity at Harvard and create more academic courses on issues of race and ethnicity.

“It’s great that they’re addressing this, but this doesn’t address other issues of faculty diversity and curriculum diversity, which might concern students more and be more important for race relations on campus,” said Sophia Lai ’04, co-president of the Asian American Association.

“It’s hard to tell if this will make much of a difference.”

Catie A. Honeyman ’04, co-chair of the MultiCultural Issues Forum, called Avery’s appointment “a very important step” but said administrators should work to encourage “consistent communication between students and tutors within the houses.”

“This seems like a step in the right direction, but there’s more that needs to be done,” said Charles M. Moore ’04, president of the Black Students Association.

“There’s a lot of excellent suggestions from the foundation. It’s important for the University to take the recommendations to heart and implement them.”

The student leaders also said that, although Harvard has not experienced severe racial problems, University officials can do more to improve racial understanding.

“When people talk about race relations, you think of things like conflict,” Lai said. “I don’t think we have conflict on campus, but we have limited understanding of other groups.”

Avery said she agreed.

“I think it’s not so much fostering diversity—we’ve already created a diverse community here at Harvard,” she said. “It’s trying to work within it and make sure everyone is respectful of that diversity and comfortable as part of a diverse community.”

Avery had previously overseen the College’s bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgendered supporters advisers. That post is now filled by Maria Trumpler, the Quincy House senior tutor.