Foster Likely to Stay at Harvard

Longtime College instructor and administrator Deborah Foster will most likely keep her advising and teaching responsibilities, despite being told last week that she would lose her post as assistant dean at the end of the spring semester.

Students, faculty, and alumni have lobbied top deans for the past week to keep Foster at Harvard. And it now appears that Foster may be here to stay.

In addition to her soon-to-be-terminated assistant dean post, Foster is also currently a senior lecturer on Folklore and Mythology and the head tutor for students in that department. She is also the director of undergraduate studies for students who have designed their own special concentrations.

Foster’s assistant dean job will be eliminated under the College’s plan to centralize advising. And Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) rules say that non-tenured instructors can only teach at Harvard for a maximum of eight years unless they simultaneously hold an administrative position.

As a result, Foster, who has taught at Harvard for 18 years, likely would have lost her post as a lecturer and tutor in the Folklore and Mythology Department—and potentially her special-concentration advising role as well—if she ceased to serve as assistant dean.

“I was told that my duties were being absorbed by the office of advising and... that I would no longer be needed,” Foster said in a phone interview last night.

But after Foster’s impending departure was reported in The Crimson last Friday, her colleagues and students—past and present—organized on her behalf.

They sent dozens of e-mails in support of Foster to Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 and Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby.

Gross said in an e-mailed statement yesterday that he and Kirby “hope to create opportunities for Deborah Foster to remain at Harvard and to continue in her role as Director of Undergraduate Studies in Folklore and Mythology and in Special Concentrations.”

Foster said that Gross approached her yesterday about her job for the first time since the initial Crimson report.

“He said that he and Dean [for Humanities Maria] Tatar and Kirby were working hard to find a slot for me that would work. The sense was that special concentrations would be a part of that,” Foster said last night.

Though she said she has no written confirmation of any new post, Foster said that Gross seemed “very apologetic” during their talk, and that he took full responsibility for her near-dismissal.

On Wednesday, Gross expressed similar sentiments in an e-mail to Crimson photography editor Corey M. Rennell ’07, a Special Concentrations student who had lobbied the dean in support of Foster.

Rennell e-mailed Gross to ask why Foster was being “fired,” why Foster was “not informed directly of this decision,” and why other professors on the Special Concentrations committee were “not consulted in this decision.”

Gross responded: “Good questions. The answer is that my office made some mistakes (for which I take responsibility). I am now working with Dean Kirby and Dean Tatar to set it right.”

Gross declined to comment yesterday on his e-mail to Rennell, saying only that “I want to focus right now on the solution.”

Tatar did not return phone calls seeking comment. Kirby was travelling and not available for comment, according to his spokesman.

‘GOTTEN THE MESSAGE’?

Rennell had planned a protest in support of Foster outside University Hall, slated to take place at noon today. And a pro-Foster Facebook group has garnered more than 50 members.

In an e-mail yesterday morning, Gross’ executive assistant, Anna K. Fraser, said that the dean would be willing to meet with Rennell at noon today.

But Gross’ statement of support for Foster appears to have allayed many of the protesters’ concerns.

Meanwhile, pro-Foster professors are asking the College to take concrete steps toward keeping the folklore scholar on board.

“We’ve expressed ourselves at length to the administration about Deborah Foster’s situation,” Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures Julie Buckler wrote in an e-mail yesterday afternoon. “University Hall seems responsive, even apologetic. This is a very hopeful sign, but we are eager for more than assurances,” Buckler added.

The chair of the Folklore and Mythology Department, Stephen A. Mitchell, said he has received confirmation from Gross, Kirby, and Tatar that something is being done to keep Foster at the College. But Mitchell said it is not clear what exactly Foster’s new job will entail.

Several alumni who were former students in the Special Concentrations program also e-mailed Gross and Kirby with letters expressing concern for the fate of their former adviser.

“If she is not reinstated, I will not donate another cent to the University,” one alumna wrote in an e-mail forwarded to The Crimson.

Foster said that Gross handed her a “packet” of e-mails he had received from concerned students and alumni.

Watts Professor of Music Kay K. Shelemay, who is also affiliated with the Folklore and Mythology program, said yesterday: “I think University Hall has gotten the message. I have no reason to think that they won’t make good on their promises that they will fix things.”

The furor over Foster’s near-dismissal came just weeks before the new associate dean of undergraduate advising, Monique Rinere, is set to arrive on campus to take a post that may partly subsume Foster’s old role.

Rinere will lead a new center that centralizes Harvard’s currently-dispersed advising structure.

The near-dismissal of Foster “surely does not encourage confidence in the new advising center,” Shelemay said. “I choose to be hopeful, and I’m glad we’re paying attention to advising, but this is a decidedly discouraging start.”

—Staff writer Liz C. Goodwin can be reached at goodwin@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Ying Wang can be reached at yingwang@fas.harvard.edu.