Currier Dean Takes BU Job, Will Depart at Year's End

UPDATED: Oct. 28, 2014, at 6:10 p.m.

Currier House Dean Laura K. Johnson will leave her position at the end of the semester to assume the role of associate dean of student affairs at Boston University's School of Education, Currier House Masters Richard W. Wrangham and Elizabeth A. Ross wrote to the House community Monday evening.

According to the email sent to the House list, Wrangham and Ross are working with the College to secure an interim dean for next semester, and the search for Johnson’s official replacement will begin in the spring. Johnson has also served as senior resident dean, a position given to the highest-ranking House or freshman Yard dean, since longtime Adams House Dean Sharon L. Howell vacated the position.

Johnson, who received her doctorate in American Studies from Boston University, also serves as a lecturer on Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and a faculty member at the Graduate School of Education. She was scheduled to teach a cross-listed course on gender and education in the spring.

By The Harvard Crimson

Wrangham and Ross wrote in the email that Johnson “joined us at a time when we needed a strong and competent Dean and in Laura we got just that.”

Wrangham elaborated in an email to The Crimson that Johnson “has had a brilliant three years in every way.”

“We wish she could stay but we are thrilled that she has won such a suitable new position,” he wrote. “Laura and her family will be hugely missed by everyone in the house.”

Johnson will work under the school's dean of student life, Hardin Coleman; at press time, Boston University had not released an official statement about the appointment.

Johnson’s departure is the latest in a series of shuffles among House deans. Ari R. Hoffman ’10, a resident tutor in Lowell House, was appointed acting Dean in Kirkland House this semester, and Adam Muri-Rosenthal, a resident tutor in Mather House, was named Dean of Adams House in June after Howell’s departure. Former Cabot House Dean Emily W. Stokes-Rees left the College at the end of the last academic year as well.

September also saw two changes in the position’s formal title and a set of clarifications regarding the role of the dean based on the recommendations of an FAS committee.

—Staff writer Nikki D. Erlick can be reached at nikki.erlick@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @nikkierlick.

—Staff writer Brianna D. MacGregor can be reached at brianna.macgregor@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @bdmacgregor.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: October 28, 2014

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Laura K. Johnson's new position at Boston University. In fact, Johnson will be the associate dean of student affairs at the university's School of Education, under Hardin Coleman.