New Chair To Lead Government Dept.

Government Professor Timothy J. Colton has been appointed chair of the Government Department, replacing Nancy L. Rosenblum ’69 to lead about 50 professors and the second largest group of undergraduate concentrators.

Colton said that the department hopes to undertake a “huge effort” to improve the undergraduate program over the next few years by examining areas such as graduation requirements, the advising system, and faculty hiring.

Under his leadership, the department will focus on recruiting to bolster its research sector and to increase the student-to-faculty ratio, he said.

Colton, who is concerned that concentrators do not enroll in enough quantitative courses, said he also wants to update requirements to reflect a greater emphasis on political science.

The government department has approval from the office of Dean of Social Science Stephen M. Kosslyn to hire one more faculty member, according to Colton. But he added that the department has “enough retirements coming up that we’re just trying to make sure that we don’t shrink.”

The Government Department currently faces a shortage of professors, which could threaten the department’s standing compared to other universities, Colton said.

He hopes to continue many of Rosenblum’s initiatives, such as the new Peer Concentration Counselors program, which pairs upperclassman concentrators with junior concentrators to expand the department’s advising.

“Sometimes students don’t have time in their busy schedule to come here,” Colton said.

The department will examine the advising system with “a pair of fresh eyes” next year, and Colton will pay close attention to the economics department’s new model, which uses a dedicated concentration adviser who oversees more students but has greater specialization than graduate student advisers.

Colton graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences with a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1974.

—Staff writer Gautam S. Kumar can be reached at gkumar@college.harvard.edu.