Countdown Continues For Faculty Dean

Twenty-eight days.

When visited in his office recently, the number was 37. Interim Dean of the Faculty David R. Pilbeam is counting down the days until he vacates the University Hall corner office of the dean of the Faculty.

Since the Chinese aphorisms of William C. Kirby gave way to the English expressions of Jeremy R. Knowles and finally once more to the anthropologist’s analogies of Pilbeam, the second-story office of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ (FAS) chief has been without a permanent occupant.

Now, with the days dwindling until Commencement, professors are anxiously awaiting Drew G. Faust’s decanal decision—one that should prove momentous in setting the tone for her coming presidency and seek to resuscitate an office now lacking long-term direction.

“The whole of the deaning office has been weakened,” Professor of the History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn, who has seen eight different deans in his time at Harvard, said recently. “I think parts of it run quite well. Other parts need a new leader to come along and provide a philosophy of what a deanship will be in 2007 and 2008.”

Even in the early spring, Harvard’s power players wondered who the outgoing Radcliffe dean would select to lead Harvard’s flagship school.

Knowles himself claimed in March to be in the dark.

“You think man or woman?” Knowles asked. “What about boy or girl? Or dog? Some people have called me that.”

This is the second time in two years that faculty members anticipate the appointment of a permanent dean. In the wake of Kirby’s January 2006 forced resignation—an event that contributed to Summers’s fall weeks later—professors assisting in the search for Kirby’s replacement wanted a long-lasting leader who could bring a renewed vision to the office.

But Bok was not ready to make that decision, instead selecting Knowles—who was approaching his 71st birthday—to fill in for one year.

“There was nobody that was that obvious who we could get to do the job,” Bok said in an interview last week about finding a permanent replacement for Kirby.

Today, Faust must select her future companion from the same field of candidates, and her time is running out.

Pilbeam, who took office after Knowles’ prostate cancer worsened, says he would be willing to add a month of two to his countdown, but hopes his tenure will not continue into the fall semester.

“I think that would be a very unfortunate situation to be in, because we’ve had so much turmoil and so much interim-ness that it would not be good for FAS or for the University,” he said.

“Nor do I think that that’s at all a likely outcome,” he added.

A University spokesman declined to comment on the ongoing search.

CALLING THE ‘LOWLY JERK’

Adding to the unfortunate situation was the revelation that Faust offered the position to the British geophysicist Jeremy Bloxham—divisional dean for the physical sciences—who rejected her offer in May.

This has only increased the time pressure on Faust, as the process of selecting a dean requires a long courtship, University leaders past and present say.

“You don’t do this in a week, unless it’s an arranged marriage,” Pilbeam said.

And the spurned Faust may now have additional difficulties in locating a partner, if the candidate believes himself or herself to be second-choice.

Pilbeam stressed the importance of Faust being absolutely comfortable with her choice.

“President-designate Faust and whomever is the next dean are going to have to be able to quarrel with each other for the next 10 years. They are going to have to trust each other and like each other to make it work,” Pilbeam said.

In a recent interview, former University President Neil L. Rudenstine recalled his courtship of Knowles in 1991.

“The four of us—my wife, his wife included—got together a couple of times,” Rudenstine said, “and we really just let it take a natural course, rather than trying to force it...We went out together one evening, and at the end of the evening, he said, ‘Okay, let’s go. We want to do it.’ And we had a very celebratory end to the dinner. We were launched.”

Knowles was appointed the week of Commencement 16 years ago—less than a month before he took office—and said in March that he hoped his successor would “have a somewhat more gentle run-up to University Hall.”

“I hope that there will be a couple of months of overlap and familiarization. I would certainly have loved it in 1991.”

Pilbeam saw an even less gentle run-up this spring. At noon on Sunday, April 22, Bok called the senior advisor to the College dean at home.

“I knew the minute I heard his voice. Why else would he call some lowly jerk on a Sunday?” Pilbeam said.

By the time he had hung up, Pilbeam had agreed to become the interim Interim Dean of the Faculty.

Pilbeam now arrives at work at 7:15 a.m.—an hour before the rest of University Hall fills up—and forgoes his Sunday afternoon nap.

“This is the closest thing I have had to having a real job for 50 years. It’s hard work,” Pilbeam said.

With June 30 in sight, tenure letters need to be signed. Checks need to be written. The Faculty waits for the next person to skip his or her Sunday afternoon nap.

—Staff writer Samuel P. Jacobs at jacobs@fas.harvard.edu.