College Appoints Diversity Leader

Evelynn M. Hammonds, a professor of the history of science and of African and African American studies, has been appointed Harvard’s first senior vice provost for faculty development and diversity, University Provost Steven E. Hyman announced Wednesday.

Hammonds will advise on both tenure and non-tenure faculty appointments across the University to ensure that efforts are made to recruit women and minority candidates.

Two task forces on women, formed in the wake of faculty criticism over University President Lawrence H. Summers’ January remarks on women in science, recommended the creation of the post. The work of those task forces, one of which was chaired by Hammonds, also led to a $50 million initiative to address a dearth of women faculty and students in the sciences.

Hyman said Hammonds’ post will place her at the center of the University’s faculty-appointment process.

“She’ll be in position actually before appointments are approved to scrutinize the search processes and assure that they have been appropriately broad,” Hyman said.

In addition to chairing the Task Force on Women Faculty, Hammonds has served on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women and has done research on the presence of women and minorities in the sciences.

Hammonds, whose academic expertise spans both electrical engineering and African American history, said she is currently in the midst of forming two University-wide advisory committees that will help her communicate with individual schools and departments.

She said that this year she will also conduct a survey of junior faculty, asking for feedback on University policies about issues including childcare support and sabbatical allowances. The survey, developed by researchers at the Graduate School of Education, has already been used at a number of other institutions.

Hammonds said the data from the survey will help her to identify policies that serve as barriers to faculty diversity.

“A year from now I think that one measure of success will be that we will have a much more robust set of information or data about how faculty feel about being here at Harvard,” Hammonds said. “We’ll know a lot more about where we need to revamp our policies and what to do to make our policies more effective.”

Hammonds’ other responsibilities will include working to implement the recommendations of the two task forces on women, filing an annual report on the status of diversity and development efforts and overseeing the distribution of funds earmarked for appointing women and minority professors.

Hyman said he approached Hammonds about the position earlier this summer, following Commencement, after listening to suggestions from an advisory committee he formed from the May recommendations of the task forces on women.

Hammonds’ appointment made her the third woman to assume a prominent post in the University in the past two months. In June, Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol was appointed dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and last week Dillon Professor of International Affairs Lisa L. Martin was appointed a senior advisor on diversity for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Hyman denied that the appointments were attempts to placate Summers’ critics, saying that he does not “see these things in a political context.”

“I see two remarkably talented people who are going to do really excellent jobs for Harvard,” he said of Hammonds and Skocpol.

In a press release Wednesday, Summers described Hammonds as a leader of “vision and pragmatism.”

“Our goal is to make Harvard more welcoming and diverse, and in so doing to create a stronger and more excellent university overall,” Summers said. “I have every confidence that Evelynn Hammonds will take us a long way toward achieving that goal.”

Not all professors saw a need for the post. Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 said that Hammonds was charged with searching only for a particular brand of diversity.

“Professor Hammonds is a fine person, but the new position she occupies is a big mistake,” he wrote in an e-mail.

“‘Diverse’ means a feminist woman. There will be constant pressure to lower our standards, and indeed such pressure is already evident. This new position is very contrary to the interests of all departments of the faculty, who will now have more trouble making the appointments they want,” he wrote.

But Hammonds said she thought her post would serve an important role in plotting a long-term path for diversity at the University.

“For the first time the University will have someone in this position to really be able to make an assessment over a long period of time and monitor our progress on [diversity] issues,” Hammonds said.

Chair of the Committee on Ethnic Studies Kay K. Shelemay praised Hammond’s personal qualifications for the job.

“She has experienced, on the ground, a lot of the issues that she herself will be addressing, so I think she will do an excellent job,” Shelemay said.

Skocpol added that she thought Hammonds’ “credibility” and prior involvement in women’s issues made for an “excellent” appointment.

—Staff writer Natalie I. Sherman can be reached at nsherman@fas.harvard.edu.