Hammonds Greets Parents in Address

From a podium atop the stage of Sanders Theatre, Dean of the College, Evelynn M. Hammonds jokingly greeted her audience as a class—yet the seats were filled not with students but with parents visiting for Freshman Parents’ Weekend.

In her welcome remarks on Friday, Hammonds paralleled her first year as dean with the novel experiences of being a freshman.

A primary focus of her address was increasing faculty-student involvement. “Working with an esteemed scholar is the type of learning we ought to be facilitating,” Hammonds said.

Within this goal, she also discussed the range of research opportunities and jobs at Harvard that facilitate this kind of interaction.

She acknowledged that, although it may be “daunting to locate these laboratory openings,” establishing a centralized database may ease this difficulty.

Hammonds also praised Harvard’s Program for Research in Science and Engineering—the 10-week summer residential program for students doing on-campus science research—as a “model for student-faculty interactions” and stressed the need to establish a similar opportunity for the social sciences.

In addition, she spoke of the potential for more research openings once the University’s Allston science complex opens in 2011.

Shifting her focus from the sciences to study abroad, Hammonds underscored the importance of challenging undergraduates to “leave the confines of Harvard Yard and Cambridge in order to explore new cultures.”

“As higher education becomes more internationalized, there is an increasing need for global competency,” Hammonds said. She characterized study abroad as an “integral part of college education” and lauded longtime Harvard benefactor David Rockefeller ’36 for his $100 million donation to support international programs and the expansion of arts education.

Hammonds also emphasized the need to link classroom learning with extracurricular activities in order to apply liberal learning to students’ daily lives.

In the next four years, Hammonds said, the College will try to prepare the Class of 2012 to enter the real world. “Harvard will have achieved its goal if students can discover truths of their own.”

Hammonds expressed her surprise at how quickly the first eight weeks of school have passed. “It seemed like only yesterday when we were unpacking trunks and carrying things upstairs,” Hammonds said.

Lawrence D. Arbuthnott ’10—who, in his capacity as special programs coordinator of the Crimson Key Society, introduced Hammonds to the audience before she spoke—said he agreed with this point and clearly remembered the dean’s address at his own Freshman Parents’ Weekend, already two years ago.

Despite the multitude of things that freshmen brought with them when they arrived in September, in three years, Hammonds said, students will leave with more than they had when they came.