Jeffrey Wolcowitz: Administrator knows Harvard inside and out

Tucked inside The Art and Craft of Teaching, a collection of essays for college and university professors published in 1982, are a few pearls of pedagogical wisdom from now-Associate Dean of the College Jeffrey Wolcowitz.

Written with the clipped diction of a trained economist, Wolcowitz’s essay, “The First Day of Class,” addresses common problems encountered by new lecturers—and is clearly informed by his experiences as an assistant professor and lecturer in economics at Harvard.

It is precisely the kind of writing one might expect from the man who penned this year’s curricular review report. It is pedagogy systematized, catalogued and explained curtly.

And given Wolcowitz’s exhaustive knowledge of the Harvard curriculum—he once knew nearly every single item in the course catalog by name and number—it is unsurprising that many find him indispensable to University Hall.

Since January, he has been the College’s chief planning officer, responsible for managing the curricular review, overseeing the existing curriculum and representing the College in the development of plans for Allston.

But despite his role as a behind-the-scenes actor in many of University Hall’s endeavors, Wolcowitz’s exact position is still not quite clear.

He has worked in University Hall since 1988, when he left his position as Senior Tutor of Dunster House and signed on as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education under then-Dean for Undergraduate Education David Pilbeam.

Wolcowitz has been a fixture through years of turnover in University Hall.

“He is really one of the only people around who sees the whole picture,” former Dean of Undergraduate Education William Mills Todd III says.

Until last spring, the Office of Undergraduate Education was charged with oversight of all matters of undergraduate academic life, from the Core Curriculum to the Office of International Programs.

When undergraduate education was subsumed by the office of newly minted Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71, Wolcowitz came along for the ride.

But University Hall’s reorganization came in tandem with the launching of the curricular review, and soon more administrative burdens were heaped on Wolcowitz’s shoulders.

THE GO-TO GUY

While Gross and Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby were the figureheads of the review, Wolcowitz had oversight of the practical, day-to-day aspects of the curricular review.

“[Wolcowitz] is the administrator in charge and that is a very important task,” Gross says. “He has been doing this for 20 years. He has many interests and many skills.”

But soon it became clear that the administrative end of the review was a full-time job, and Wolcowitz—whom Gross called the “logical choice” for the position—would need somebody to free up more time for him to manage the day-to-day aspects of the review.

“We realized we hadn’t prepared for the amount of work the review required,” Wolcowitz says.

In January, former freshman seminar director Elizabeth Doherty took over managing the administrative end of undergraduate education.

And after months of pouring over information and suggestions, Wolcowitz did what he does best.

He distilled his experience and knowledge to churn out the 67-page “Report on the Harvard College Curriculum.”

“It was very much a collective process—but in terms of who put the pen to the paper—or, rather, the fingers to the keyboard—that was largely me,” Wolcowitz says.

MR. MANAGER

Wolcowitz calls himself a “permanent bureaucrat” or a “manager”—with reservations. (The former descriptor has “bad connotations”; the latter sounds too “managerial.”) But his seat on the Allston planning committee ensures that his job extends well beyond resource allocation and course planning.

Even his former colleagues rush to qualify any terms used to describe Wolcowitz.

“If he is a bureaucrat,” Todd says, “he is also the only bureaucrat who thought it was his job to make people’s jobs easier.”

Wolcowitz says he expects to stay at the forefront of the curricular review next year and sit on one of the committees that will further scrutinize the report’s recommendations.

“I’m not exactly sure what will happen to me, but I’m not particularly concerned,” Wolcowitz says.

One thing that is for sure is that Wolcowitz, who relocated in January to Gross’ former office, will move downstairs with his two-person staff to the basement level of University Hall this summer to make room for more reconfigurations in administrators’ office space.

—Staff writer Rebecca D. O’Brien can be reached at robrien@fas.harvard.edu.