Dunster House Faculty Deans to Step Down at End of Academic Year

Updated August 27, 2024, at 2:00 p.m.

Dunster House Faculty Deans Cheryl Chen and Sean D. Kelly will step down at the end of the 2024-25 academic year, the deans announced in an email to House affiliates on Tuesday.

“Due to recent (happy!) changes in our lives, and after much careful thought, we have decided that it will soon be time to pass the torch to new Meese leadership,” Chen and Kelly wrote, referencing Dunster House’s mascot.

Chen and Kelly, who are both philosophers, will end their tenure as faculty deans after eight years in Dunster, and just two years before they would have been forced to leave their roles upon reaching the end of their second five-year term.

The announcement on Tuesday was largely expected after Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra announced in April that Kelly will serve as the next dean of the Arts and Humanities division. Kelly began his appointment on July 1.

New Dunster faculty deans will be selected by the end of the fall semester to provide enough time to introduce and integrate them into the House, according to the announcement from Chen and Kelly.

Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana wrote in a separate email to Dunster affiliates that Resident Dean Gregory K. Davis will partner with the College to form an advisory committee composed of House staff, affiliates, and students to provide input during the search process.

Dunster will host “listening sessions” throughout the fall to hear student “hopes and aspirations” for new faculty deans, according to Khurana’s email, which also included a form to nominate tenured faculty members for the position.

Chen and Kelly will not be involved in the selection of their successors but said that they are “committed to welcoming them into this amazing community once they have been chosen.”

In addition to serving as Arts and Humanities dean, Kelly is also the chair of a faculty committee reviewing a request to dename Winthrop House and led a committee that helped design the College’s current General Education program.

Chen will also remain a senior lecturer in the Philosophy department.

In his email, Khurana praised Chen and Kelly as “extraordinary leaders and wonderful colleagues.”

“Through their leadership among the Faculty Deans, in the Philosophy Department, in the Division of Arts & Humanities, and on University committees, Cheryl and Sean have been indispensable members of the Harvard community and have made Harvard a better place,” Khurana wrote. “I look forward to continuing to work with them through the year ahead.”

One day before the announcement, in a Monday newsletter sent to the Dunster mailing list, Chen and Kelly welcomed new and returning Dunster residents and publicized House-wide orientation events for the coming weeks.

“We are excited and grateful to embark on our eighth year as Faculty Deans of this amazing House,” Chen and Kelly wrote in their Monday email, which offered no indication of their decision to step down.

The College has conducted two faculty dean searches in the last two years — for Pforzheimer House and Eliot House.

Bonnie Talbert and David F. Elmer ’98 will begin their first year as Eliot House faculty deans this fall.

Each of the College’s 12 upperclassman Houses is led by two tenured Harvard faculty, who are responsible for overseeing House-wide programming, advising undergraduates, and managing staff.

“We are so grateful to all of you, and to all of your many predecessors among the students, tutors, and staff at Dunster, for making our lives here richer, fuller, and more meaningful,” Chen and Kelly wrote in their email on Tuesday.

“Like you, we will from now on be Meese forever!” they added.

​​—Staff writer Azusa M. Lippit can be reached at azusa.lippit@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @azusalippit or on Threads @azusalippit.