Gross Offers Dean Job Back

Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 announced on Friday that he will offer Assistant Dean of the College Deborah Foster her job back as director of special concentrations, just over a week after Foster was alerted of her pending dismissal.

“I promise to give her an offer,” Gross said to supporters of Foster who were gathered outside University Hall on Friday. “I hope she takes it.”

After news of Foster’s imminent departure was reported in The Crimson on Feb. 10, students, faculty, and alumni lobbied Gross and Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby to keep Foster at Harvard.

Without her position as assistant dean, Foster—who has served the College for 18 years—would not have been able to retain her position as lecturer in Folklore and Mythology. Faculty of Arts and Science rules declare that non-tenured instructors who have taught for over eight years must also hold an administrative post in order to continue teaching.

If she accepts Gross’s offer, Foster will be able to keep her lectureship position in Folklore and Mythology.

Gross told the students and alumni—who were prepared to protest if he declined to reinstate Foster—that he would make a public statement of apology for the handling of Foster’s dismissal.

He also said he took “full responsibility” for the termination of Foster’s post.

“We’ll find some other academic responsibilities—teaching or something­—that will replace her administrative role on the ad board,” Gross said.

Had she been dismissed, Foster’s advising responsibilities would have been absorbed at the end of the spring term by the College’s newly-created Center for Advising, which will be headed by the new Associate Dean of Undergraduate Advising Monique Rinere.

Rinere arrives from Princeton University in less than two weeks.

“We all have to be open to fresh, new ideas, absolutely,” Foster said during an interview last Thursday. “I’m not opposed to the enhancement of advising at Harvard, [but] I don’t like the way I was treated and I think that it was wrong.”

As assistant dean, Foster also manages Advanced Standing, the A.B./A.M. programs, independent study opportunities, and the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program, according to the College’s website.

In a letter presented to Gross on Friday, students demanded that the administration explain why Foster was dismissed and apologize for “a breach of due process.”

Drafted by Special Concentration student Corey M. Rennell ’07, who is also a Crimson photography editor, the letter was accompanied by 57 signatures from pro-Foster students and alumni.

Despite the protestors’ request, Gross said that he cannot provide details of Foster’s dismissal because matters regarding personnel are private.

Rennell, who organized the protest, said that by not disclosing the details, administrators are hiding behind a “veil of confidentiality surrounding personnel issues.”

“In this circumstance, they crossed the line,” Rennell said. “Administrators are accountable to the decisions they make.”

Professor of Scandinavian and Folklore Stephen A. Mitchell, who is also chair of the Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology, said that he was never contacted by University Hall about Foster’s administrative dismissal and was personally told the news by Foster.

The protestors’ letter also asks the College to consider granting the Special Concentrations and Folklore and Mythology programs official departmental status, “to prevent circumstances such as these from arising again.”

Gross wrote in an e-mail Friday that he would take the request to recognize both programs as departments to Kirby, but added that any change in status would require a faculty vote.

The front doors of University Hall were locked on Friday in response to the planned protest—a common response when administrators feel that there is any “potential for dissent,” Gross said.

—Liz C. Goodwin contributed to the reporting of this story.

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