Senior Tutor Reform Proposed

A group convened by Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 to review the role of the Allston Burr Senior Tutor has recommended changes to Senior Tutor qualifications, term lengths, and titles.

Gross presented the group’s report to the Faculty Council—the 18-member governing body of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS)—at their meeting yesterday.

The report recommends that Senior Tutors “have significant experience in student affairs or teaching in an academic institution.”

“Some of the more important issues that keep coming up in the houses—issues of wellness, issues of race, and so forth—might be able to be dealt with by people who already bring with them some sort of qualification,” said Weary Professor of German and Comparative Literature Judith L. Ryan, a member of the Council.

The Committee that authored the report suggested that Senior Tutors work in other areas of the University in addition to their positions within the Houses, noting that “it was helpful to develop perspective, to learn more about the larger arena, and to be seen as having experience and connections beyond the House,” the report reads.

Senior Tutors will be encouraged to teach part time in the College, Ryan said, but she noted that some Senior Tutors have had trouble getting part-time teaching appointments.

To facilitate this, Gross requested that academic departments more seriously consider offering such teaching appointments, Ryan said.

Under the new recommendations, Senior Tutors will still be hired by the Dean of the College in consultation with House Masters. But instead of the current system in which Senior Tutors serve three-year terms that can be renewed for two or more years, the report recommends that Senior Tutors begin with two-year terms, with the possibility of a three-year renewal.

The report recommends that Allston Burr Senior Tutors be renamed Allston Burr Resident Deans to avoid confusion between the role of a Senior Tutor and a Head Tutor.

Senior Tutors will continue to “play an absolutely critical role in College life,” Gross wrote in an e-mail.

“They are my representatives in the Houses, and have a profound influence on the lives of students. I want to be able to select the best people, from a wide range of backgrounds,” Gross wrote.

The Council also discussed taking on a more active role as the elected leaders of the Faculty.

Professor of the History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn recommended that the Council establish a subcommittee to advise Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby on searching for the new Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Mendelsohn also advised that the Council establish a subcommittee to discuss Allston planning and other issues of University space. He urged the Council to report on its work more regularly at Faculty meetings.

A subset of the Faculty Council is scheduled to meet with members of the Harvard Corporation within the next two weeks, Mendelsohn said.

—Staff writer Sara E. Polsky can be reached at polsky@fas.harvard.edu.