Mitchell Named Diversity Dean Amidst Budget Cuts

In an effort to streamline the University’s communication costs, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith has eliminated the FAS communications office and transferred its former director Robert P. Mitchell to the newly created post of FAS diversity dean, which has yet to see clearly defined responsibilities.

The FAS communications office will be merged into the Harvard public affairs and communications office, with specific individuals charged with handling FAS, Smith wrote in an e-mailed statement. All information requests, media inquiries, and press releases pertaining to FAS—Mitchell’s former domain—will now fall under the purview of the University’s senior director of communications, John Longbrake.

Mitchell, who works on the FAS Diversity Committee, said he will act as the primary communications vehicle for individuals whose work involves student, faculty, and staff diversity.

According to Smith, Mitchell has already started his duties as assistant dean for diversity relations and communications—a post that had been in the works for “several months.” But Mitchell said in an interview yesterday that he has yet to comprehensively draft his goals as diversity dean, emphasizing his desire to meet with key individuals first.

“It’s not a position that does programs,” said Mitchell, who serves as co-chair of the Harvard Association of Black Faculty, Administrators and Fellows. “I hope that I can help [the administrators] better communicate what they do.”

FAS communications, which separated from the University news office ten years ago, is now returning to its former home, according to Longbrake. The merging will likely save costs, such as the lease for the FAS communication office’s space on Bow Street, he added.

Though Smith has noted the cost-effective aspect of the merging, FAS will continue to pay for the salaries of Mitchell and his two former staff workers—assistant director of communications Stephen Bradt and communications specialist Amy A. Lavoie, who now report to Longbrake. It has not been decided whether Bradt and Lavoie’s salaries will be paid for by the University rather than FAS after the current transition phase, according to Longbrake.

Mitchell said he has met with students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and plans to meet with Senior Adviser on Faculty Development and Diversity Michele Lamont, Assistant Dean for Human Resources Andrea L. Kelton-Harris, GSAS Dean Allan M. Brandt, and Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds—who served as provost for faculty development and diversity before assuming her current role.

“His years of experience at the University, his strong commitment to the cause of diversity, and his expertise in communications position him to be a strong ally in the years ahead,” Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity Judith D. Singer wrote in an e-mailed statement about Mitchell’s appointment.

“I think having more resources of this type is just extremely, extremely important,” said sociology professor Lamont, who added that she hopes FAS will recruit and tenure more women and minorities. “It’s not just about racial diversity; it’s about cosmopolitanism and the range of realities that our faculty have experience in as human beings.”

Mitchell worked as communications director at Brandeis University, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Hahnemann University, and also served as an adjunct professor of public relations in the School of Journalism at Northeastern University before arriving at Harvard in August 2002 to assume the post of FAS communications director under then-FAS Dean William C. Kirby.

—Staff writer Bonnie J. Kavoussi can be reached at kavoussi@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Esther I. Yi can be reached at estheryi@fas.harvard.edu.