Harvard Provost's Office Fills Vacancies

Harvard's central academic office has taken advantage of summer downtime to fill two vacancies, officials from the provost's office announced last week.

Education School professor Judith D. Singer began Wednesday as senior vice provost for faculty diversity and development, succeeding Evelynn M. Hammonds, who left the post to become dean of Harvard College this month. And next month, Lori E. Gross, director of arts initiatives at MIT, will move up Mass Ave to take over as associate provost for arts and culture, a position that became open after Sean T. Buffington '91 left last summer to become president of the University of the Arts.

Both Singer and Gross will report to Provost Steven E. Hyman, who is responsible for the University's academic planning.

Singer, who is also a statistician, said she would put particular emphasis on improving the lot of junior faculty at Harvard, adding that she is familiar with the "challenging" environment from her own days as an assistant professor at Harvard.

"When I was hired, I was told, 'Assume you will not get tenure,'" Singer said. "That doesn't work in 2008."

Singer will also advise the president and provost on tenure decisions, as well as find ways to evaluate and improve the campus climate for women and minorities using data collection and analysis, methodologies that reflect her academic background.

A self-described "data geek" who is currently authoring her second textbook on statistics, Singer that she intends her work to be "very data-driven."

Gross, who could not be reached for an interview, comes to Harvard after 13 years managing arts programs at MIT.

Harvard has made progress in strengthening the arts despite a year-long vacancy in the associate provost position, as University President Drew G. Faust created a University-wide arts task force last fall and secured a $30 million gift dedicated to the arts this spring.

But the changes have been relatively small ones, and arts programs appear poised for a more significant shake-up, a prospect reflected in Gross' charge of working "with whatever governance and organizational structure is adopted for the arts" after the task force makes its recommendations this fall.

The American Reperatory Theatre, a financially-struggling Harvard-affiliate whose patrons have worried would receive diminished support from the University, also falls under her purview. Diane M. Paulus '87 was hired as director of the theater last month after a protracted search.

Gross also takes responsibility for putting arts planning for the new Allston campus back on track. Last year, Harvard shelved proposals for an arts museum there in the face of community opposition to the University's planning process at the time

—Staff writer Clifford M. Marks can be reached at cmarks@fas.harvard.edu.