A Disconnected Dean

Nearly five decades ago, when one of her teachers called her to the front of her Atlanta public-school classroom, Evelynn M. Hammonds—the first black woman to serve as Dean of Harvard College—thought she would be recognized for an ‘A’ she had recently earned on a test.

Instead, the teacher mockingly repudiated Hammonds’ work.

“If this woman could get an ‘A,’” the teacher said to the class, “then certainly all of you can.”

And according to outgoing Associate Dean of Student Life and Activities Judith H. Kidd, who reflected on the anecdote of Hammonds’ youth that she once heard from the Dean herself, “Evelynn just decided to show him,” going on to excel in school despite stifling circumstances.

“She’s exceptionally bright,” Kidd adds. “And to be a smart black woman being bused in Atlanta? Well, when her back is up against the wall, she shows people how tough she is.”

In subsequent years, Hammonds maintained this reserved and “tough” personality. As a graduate student at Harvard in history of science, Hammonds was “poised,” “direct,” and “not effusive,” says her mentor, Professor Everett I. Mendelsohn.

And currently, her actions as Dean reflect what her colleagues describe as a “shy and confident” demeanor.

The challenges that greeted Hammonds in her professional life over the past year, as well as her reserved personality, have prevented her from gaining the trust of the student body as the chief College administrator. And in her personal life, the diagnosis of her wife, Alexandra, with cancer soon after her acceptance of the deanship has compounded the struggles of the past year.

As Hammonds’ first year in office draws to a close, students and House officials say they still do not know who this intensely private leader is and feel she is disconnected from the undergraduate experience and unresponsive to their concerns.

AN ‘INVISIBLE’ LEADER

After accepting the offer to serve as Dean, Hammonds told The Crimson that she hoped her “time as dean will be remembered as one where the students were engaged, students were listened to, students were involved in helping to produce a better quality of life and better educational opportunities.”

To that end, Hammonds says that one of her primary means of enmeshing herself in undergraduate life was to hold monthly teas with students, though she only held three in the last year. Many of these gatherings were restricted to certain groups of students or lotteried.

“I think that she definitely was trying to create a comfortable way to interact with students,” says Andrea R. Flores ’10, Undergraduate Council president. “I think she’ll also expand on the concept next year.”

Though Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin says that Hammonds stays open to students’ perspectives by reading campus publications and House lists, the Dean has lacked a strong physical presence in the College, according to some students.

“You know, I’ve heard the name, but I wouldn’t be able to recognize her if you showed me a line-up,” Tanille J. Paniogue ’11 says.

Citing a failure to create formal programming for next year’s inaugural “January Term” and a reluctance to divulge the contents of the Administrative Board Report—which proposed reforms to the College’s main disciplinary body—students have criticized the Hammonds’ administration specifically for a “lack of transparency,” says Christopher A. Johnson-Roberson ’11.

What students equated with secretive decision-making over the last year culminated in the town-hall meetings that followed the announcement of sweeping Faculty of Arts of Sciences budget cuts last month.

Students attending these mid-May meetings say the cuts—from the elimination of hot breakfast to the possible scaling back of shuttle service—disproportionately affect student life, and argue that the student body had not been sufficiently consulted in the decision-making process.

“I feel that [Hammonds] does try to present some sort of impression that she’s open to student concerns, but I don’t know how true that is,” Johnson-Roberson says. “She didn’t take the criticisms seriously enough or present a case that spoke to the actual issues.”

The student body is not the only constituency that has taken issue with Hammonds’ apparent neglect of opinions outside her office.

In an April letter to The Crimson, Mather House resident tutors spoke of the Dean’s tight-lipped nature regarding J-Term planning and her apathy towards their concerns, writing that they were “worried by Dean Hammonds’ refusal to say whether some Houses will be closed over January.”

And lower-level House administrators, who spoke to The Crimson on condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, say that the areas of House life the Hammonds’ administration has targeted for budget cuts—particularly the possible consolidation of resident deans’ assistants—reflected a deficient knowledge of the House system, which they consider to be “instrumental” to undergraduate life at Harvard.

A DEANSHIP DERAILED

In contrast to the reputation Hammonds has gained over the past year, her full-time predecessor—Benedict H. Gross ’71, who left the deanship in August 2007—was noted for an inclusive leadership style.

“Dick was very jovial,” McLoughlin said, comparing Gross’ management technique with that of Hammonds, who administrators said tends to makes decisions behind closed doors.

In 2007, then-UC President Ryan A. Petersen ’08 described Gross as a “friend to Harvard undergraduates” with a legacy that “improved Harvard College.” During his tenure, Gross was recognized for establishing the Cambridge Queen’s Head pub, the Lamont Library Café, the Student Organizations Center at Hilles, and the New College Theater, and for overseeing significant curricular change.

Still, both professors in FAS and College administrators say that it is unfair to compare the legacy of Gross to the “unprecedented” reality Hammonds is currently facing.

“I think she’s had the worst first year possible,” Kidd says.

When she was first appointed Dean in March 2008, Hammonds said in an interview with The Harvard University Gazette that she was cognizant of “many challenges facing the College.” But in multiple interviews with The Crimson over the last month, the Dean’s colleagues in University Hall say that she, like them, never anticipated the slew of obstacles to face the College administration this year: an unprecedented budget crisis, uncertain House Renewal, and traumatic events in the student population, including four undergraduate deaths and a shooting in Kirkland House last month.

McLoughlin, who serves as Hammonds’ senior aid, says that the Dean had hoped to use her “freshman year” to accustom herself to College life, including learning how to navigate the College bureaucracy. He and Kidd say that the nature of this year has prevented her from getting the chance to ease her way into the deanship.

A FIERCE COLLEGE ADVOCATE?

Despite the student-held image of Hammonds as a disconnected bureaucrat, College administrators say that Hammonds has been a fierce advocate of College interests.

Kidd says that the Dean is “a very strong proponent of the College and holds her own in meetings with FAS.” And though students criticized the timing of budget-cut announcements, which came during Reading Period, McLoughlin says that Hammonds had actually convinced other, higher-level University administrators to disclose the cuts before students left for summer.

While administrators who work directly under her say that Hammonds has the best interests of students in mind, others acknowledge that a limited understanding of undergraduate life has undermined her ability to effectively represent student interests.

McLoughlin says that in the wake of the death of Peter Cai ’10 last October, Hammonds—who has a six-year-old son—“took to heart the tragic situation” and recurrently brought up her concerns about Cai’s death and the impact it had on his family and friends. But, McLoughlin says, it took that “tragic” event for her to realize that “House communities are so much closer than she knew.”

As “a Black, lesbian, feminist, writer, scientist, historian of science, and activist”—a series of words Hammonds used to describe herself in a 2004 article in “The Black Studies Reader”—the Dean has made a point to emphasize diversity, having previously served as the University’s first senior vice provost for diversity and development.

Colleagues point to her appointment of the College’s first black House Masters—Law School Professor Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. and Law School lecturer Stephanie Robinson—in Winthrop House in February as a testament to her commitment to fostering diversity at the College.

But she may have also fallen short of expectations in some respects. Other than the Black Students Association, which has met with Hammonds multiple times this year, minority student groups say they have had limited, if any, direct outreach from Hammonds’ office.

Queer Students and Allies co-president Christian L. Garland ’10 says that, though the College administration has been more open to working with his organization than in the past, Hammonds has not attended any QSA event.

But Hammonds appears to recognize her own lack of immersion in student life thus far.

“I have had the opportunity to interact with a number of students this year,” she wrote in an e-mailed statement. “It’s never as much as I would want, especially as a former faculty member who had the opportunity to interact with many students.”

GOING INTO NEXT YEAR

According to McLoughlin, Hammonds depends heavily on her staff to gather information to help her make decisions.

As a result, it remains to be seen how Hammonds will fare next year, as three key, seasoned administrators—Dean for Administration Georgene Herschbach, Associate Dean of Advising Programs Monique Rinere, and Kidd—leave the College, leaving a potential gap in institutional knowledge of student concerns. Their departure raises questions as to how both the College’s administrative structure and dynamic might change in the coming months.

Having served as a House Master, FAS Registrar, and College administrator, Herschbach amassed a strong base of knowledge on how the College functions during her almost 30-year career at Harvard. She specialized in budgetary matters in her most recent position and delved into the academic realm of the College by expanding the Freshman Seminar Program, aiding in the creation of the Program for Research in Science and Engineering, and designing introductory science classes, including Life Sciences 1a and Physical Sciences 1.

Under Rinere’s leadership as the first associate dean of advising programs, the office revamped the College’s advising system and created the Peer Advising Fellows program, Advising Fortnight, the sophomore advising program, and the online advising network portal.

And in her six years as associate dean of student life and activities, Kidd oversaw the openings of the Pub and the Harvard College Women’s Center, and has been an advocate for undergraduate extracurricular activities.

In a testament to her reticent nature, Hammonds declines to reveal how she will fill these vacancies, or if she will alter the structure of the College administration altogether.

Instead, she simply—and optimistically—referred to the repercussions of the loss of three integral members of her administration as another obstacle.

“With every challenge comes opportunity,” Hammonds wrote in an e-mailed statement. “So I feel confident that we emerge from the summer with the right structure for the College.”

—Staff writer Lauren D. Kiel can be reached at lkiel@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Ahmed N. Mabruk can be reached at amabruk@fas.harvard.edu.