Asst. Provost to Head Cross-School Programs

The University has created a new office within its central administration to oversee the growing number of interdisciplinary programs.

Sean T. Buffington '91, a development officer, will take over as the assistant provost for interfaculty programs on May 17.

Buffington will supervise "interfaculty initiatives"--academic programs that cut across several of Harvard's schools.

Harvard began with five interfaculty initiatives on ethics and the professions; children; environmental studies; mind, brain and behavior; and health policy.

But now the University is adding new interdisciplinary programs, including several international centers and the Native American Program.

With the initiatives expanding, the University decided it needed someone to oversee them and created the assistant provost position.

Buffington currently works in Harvard's fundraising office, focusing on raising money for the interfaculty initiatives. Officials at the development office said his appointment as assistant provost will help coordinate fundraising and the interfaculty initiatives themselves.

"It's a wonderful thing for us," said Tamara Elliot Rogers '74, Buffington's supervisor at the development office. "It makes us that much stronger--it's great to have a link from the development office to the Provost's office...It shows how important the Provost's office thinks this is."

With a mere six months remaining in the University's five year, $2.1 billion capital campaign, Harvard has only raised about $20 million of its $40 million goal for interfaculty initiatives.

Officials say they will need to continue raising money for the initiatives after the campaign, and bringing a development officer to the central administration to oversee the initiatives will help the effort.

"Because we are concentrating more attention on the initiatives in the last phase of the campaign and in the years beyond, the new assistant provost will work closely with [development office] and the initiatives," Associate Provost Dennis F. Thompson wrote in an e-mail message.

In addition to fundraising, Buffington will supervise planning and advisory councils for the different initiatives.

"Although we hope and expect that most will have a home in one of our faculties, they all need some assistance from our office," wrote Thompson, who is director of the program in ethics and the professions.

Buffington said he is looking forward to assuming his new position.

"I know what crossing disciplinary boundaries can accomplish intellectually," he said in a press release. "I also know how difficult it can be to facilitate such movement institutionally--especially in a decentralized environment like Harvard."

Buffington concentrated in English and Afro-American studies while at Harvard. He received a master's in American culture in 1994 from the University of Michigan.

He served as assistant director in the Harvard Alumni Association from 1994 to 1997.

"He knows Harvard extremely well," Rogers said. "He has a very deep understanding of academic issues and while he was at [The University of] Michigan, he helped design interdisciplinary courses. He is extremely well-positioned to work for the Provost."

Buffington will join a crew of three other assistant provosts in charge of finance, policy and information technology.