From Kirby, A (54 Page) Long Goodbye

Outgoing Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby released his last annual letter to colleagues today, saying that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will forge ahead with the physical and professorial expansion that is pushing the school toward a $70 million budget deficit by 2010.

Kirby reiterated his goal to grow the Faculty to 750 members by the end of the decade, but noted that “we must also remain flexible enough that we can adjust with the ever-changing state of our finances and other resources”—a nod to the sudden slowdown on faculty hiring this year that frustrated and surprised department chairs in August.

Kirby, who resigned in January under pressure from University President Lawrence H. Summers, acknowledged the “unexpectedly challenging” events and “often tumultuous discussions” of this winter and last spring.

Kirby noted the “issues of diversity and inclusiveness” that were brought into focus in the course of professors’ fight with the president, which intensified in January 2005 after Summers made his comments on the “intrinsic aptitude” of women in science.

“We must be conscious of our efforts to recruit and retain outstanding women and minorities,” Kirby wrote.

Kirby’s senior adviser on diversity, Dillon Professor of International Affairs Lisa L. Martin, will set up programs to help department heads to conduct “inclusive” searches in her capacity, he wrote.

The letter summarized the Faculty’s financial state, attributing a projected deficit of $68.4 million by 2010 to a “time of critical invesmtent and unprecedented growth.”

Kirby wrote that the Faculty is managing $800 million in capital projects, including the North Yard science complex, slated to be completed in 2007.

The letter, dated May 1, also touched on an issue that sparked controversy at Tuesday’s meeting of the full Faculty, which saw three professors criticize the current system of student course evaluations administered by the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE). At the meeting, Philip J. Fisher, the Reid professor of English and American literature, said he “learned nothing” from the online evaluations he received last fall.

But in his letter, Kirby wrote that the online method “gave students more time for considered responses, and the very high participation rate has convinced the College to move the CUE fully online.”

Kirby also reprised the progress of the curricular review, which began in the first year of his term. The review has led to Faculty approval of a semester delay in concentration choice and the introduction of secondary fields, but professors are still far from agreement on the shape of the review’s centerpiece—the next system of general education and the future of the Core Curriculum.

All of the review’s achievements to date, Kirby wrote, are part of an effort to bring undergraduates closer to their professors.

“The most consistent—and most accurate—criticism of a Harvard education today is that student-faculty contact is much too limited,” Kirby wrote.

Kirby lauded efforts at interdisciplinary teaching. He praised David M. Cutler ’87, Eckstein professor of applied economics and the dean for the social sciences, for attracting professors from other Harvard faculties to teach undergraduates.

The letter, 14,000 words and 54 pages long, painted the legacy of Kirby’s tenure in broad strokes as well as in meticulous detail.

In a paragraph on “IT Security,” Kirby wrote, “During the summer of 2005, all non-secure email access to FAS was shut down, allowing only SSL-encrypted (Secure Socket Layer) IMAP and POP sessions.”

—Staff writer Anton S. Troianovski can be reached at atroian@fas.harvard.edu.