FAS Appoints Diversity Dean

Dillon Professor of International Affairs Lisa L. Martin became the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ (FAS) first diversity advisor on Wednesday, assuming a post created in the wake of University President Lawrence H. Summers’ controversial January remarks on women in science.

Martin, who will also chair the Standing Committee on Women, becomes a special advisor to Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby, and the rest of the Faculty, on matters relating to gender, racial, and ethnic diversity, Kirby announced in a press release.

The creation of Martin’s post was recommended in May by two task forces on women created earlier in the year. Martin will be charged both with implementing the task forces’ recommendations and with coordinating FAS’ efforts to recruit and retain women and minority faculty.

“Harvard is a venerable institution, and some of the practices of this institution have unintended negative effects on the careers of minorities and women,” Martin wrote in an e-mail. “My goal is to generate widespread awareness of these effects and of unconscious sources of bias.”

During the 2003-2004 academic year, only four of 32 tenure offers went to women, and only one of those offers was accepted.

But while professors throughout the Faculty applauded the creation of Martin’s post, they cautioned that a long-term commitment to gender and racial diversity will be needed if the position is to be effective.

“Lisa’s appointment is one piece of a long-term process for which everyone on the faculty bears responsibility. That sense of collective responsibility is, finally, the key,” Government Department Chair Nancy Lipton Rosenblum ’69 wrote in an e-mail.

“I don’t know if it will be effective or not,” Professor of Government Beth A. Simmons said. “I don’t think that creating one post is going to be effective if the administration is not interested in listening to the advice.”

“So I guess I’m agnostic on that,” she added.

Martin said Kirby approached her early in the summer about assuming the position and that she accepted it earlier this week.

Kirby wrote in an e-mail that Martin will have an office in University Hall and will officially become an academic dean.

“I am absolutely delighted that she has accepted this position,” he said.

Dean of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Theda Skocpol ’75 said five other schools within the University will make similar appointments.

But one professor was skeptical of the nature of Martin’s mandate.

“Professor Martin will have done an excellent job of bringing diversity to the campus if, during the course of her tenure, there will appear as many conservative thinkers in the Government Department and other departments as there currently are female professors on campus,” Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature Ruth R. Wisse wrote in an e-mail.

The new University-wide post of senior vice provost for diversity and Faculty development, another recommendation of the task forces, has not yet been filled.

Many professors said they saw a similarity between the new post of diversity advisor and the now-defunct post of associate dean for affirmative action. The Crimson reported last December that the Standing Committee on the Status of Women recommended the restoration of the dean, but Kirby said then that he thought the job was best left to divisional deans.

Kirby said in an e-mail yesterday that Martin’s post “intersect” with the responsibilities of the old affirmative action dean.

“It will have broader responsibility too in helping to set strategic policies, not only on appointments, but also on matters of environment (e.g. tenure clock, child care),” wrote Kirby.

Colleagues praised Martin’s qualifications for the job.

“Lisa Martin is a very smart and direct person and I think that she’ll do an excellent job of defining the issues that FAS faces in recruiting women and minorities,” Skocpol said.

“She’s always been very sensible,” Simmons said. “She’s not extreme.”

Martin has long-standing ties to the women’s community at Harvard. In the past, she has served on both the Standing Committee on Women and the Government Department’s Committee on Sexual Harassment.

She has also served as a member of the Faculty Council, the 18-member governing body of FAS.

—Staff writer Natalie I. Sherman can be reached at nsherman@fas.harvard.edu.