Faculty Meeting Agenda Set Without Lewis Motion

In many ways, Tuesday's Faculty meeting will be business as usual for members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. They will hear a presentation on Faculty trends, discuss the Biomedical Engineering concentration, and consider creating a new degree.

But the agenda for the meeting, released Friday, includes a notable absence: a motion proposed by former Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 opposing the unrecognized single-gender social organization sanctions.

Lewis’s decision to forego his motion came a few days after Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana announced the creation of a faculty committee to examine the current policy, which, starting with the class of 2021, prohibits members of the organizations from holding club and sports team leadership positions and being nominated for certain selective scholarships.

The motion, introduced in May 2016, resolved that “Harvard College shall not discriminate against students on the basis of organizations they join.” University President Drew G. Faust tabled the motion until 2017 at the full Faculty meeting in December, and further discussion on the motion was expected to continue at the upcoming Feb. meeting.

Despite the change in plans, the meeting will carry on with three scheduled docket items, according to the agenda, which was obtained by The Crimson.

Dean for Faculty Affairs and Planning Nina Zipser will present a long-delayed presentation on Faculty trends. In an interview last month, Faust said discussion of the sanctions had taken a long time and pushed Zipser’s presentation back.

“...I can’t remember how many Faculty meetings now this has taken and Nina Zipser still is waiting to give her report on faculty hiring and there’s a lot of faculty business that needs to get done,” Faust said in an interview last month about the sanctions on single-gender social organizations.

Also on Tuesday, Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris will present a review of the six-year-old Biomedical Engineering concentration, which was established by Faculty vote in 2010.

Finally, Professor of Economics and Statistics Department Chair Neil Shephard will request that the Faculty create a Master’s degree program for Data Science, under the purview of a standing committee appointed by Faust. This item is up for discussion only.

—Staff writer Joshua J. Florence can be reached at joshua.florence@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaFlorence1.

—Staff writer Mia C. Karr can be reached at mia.karr@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @miackarr.