Semester Brings New Name, Clarifications to Resident Dean Position

The administrators once known as resident deans begin this semester with a new name and a clarified role in the College’s administrative structure.

The administrators, now called Allston Burr House deans, report to both the dean of the College and the masters of their respective Houses. They may serve up to 13 years in the position and are required to have earned a Ph.D. They are also formally relieved of teaching responsibilities during their first semester in the role.

Donald H. Pfister, the botanist and longtime Harvard faculty member who completed his roughly yearlong term as interim dean of the College this July, signed off on the changes before he left office. The recommendations were the work of a Faculty of Arts and Sciences committee that was convened last summer to review the resident dean position and its role in the Dean’s Office and upperclassman Houses.

The review was commissioned months after a scandal erupted in spring 2013, when it was discovered that administrators had secretly searched the email accounts of the resident deans in response to a perceived leak to the media about the Government 1310 cheating scandal.

Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana released a summary of the committee’s report this summer confirming the changes, but Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesperson Colin Manning declined to provide a full copy of the report, citing confidentiality rules regarding personnel decisions.

—Staff writer Madeline R. Conway can be reached at mconway@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @MadelineRConway.

—Staff writer Steven S. Lee can be reached at steven.lee@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenSJLee.