Minority Leaders Fear Exclusion

Leaders from eight of Harvard’s largest student cultural groups voiced concerns Friday over the lack of formal input from minority professors in the search for the College’s next dean.

The students questioned Dean of the Faculty Michael D. Smith about the dearth of minority members on the eight-member advisory committee that will help him search for the next Dean of the College.

Nworah B. Ayogu ’10, the political action chair of the Harvard Black Men’s Forum and lead organizer of the meeting with Smith, said he had set up the meeting out of concern that an all-white advisory committee might not have the cultural breadth necessary to pick a dean representative of the entire student body.

“You’d think there would be a little more inclusion,” Ayogu said. “The Dean of the College has control over a large part of our experience.”

Ayogu said he was surprised by Smith’s receptiveness.

“I thought, you know, after he had a committee that was all white, he wouldn’t have been so in tune to racial issues,” Ayogu said.

Smith told the students that some of the faculty members under consideration for the deanship are members of minority groups and that he did not want to include potential top contenders on the advisory committee, according to Ayogu and Vice President of the Black Students Association Timothy D. Turner ’09, who also attended the meeting. Smith and a Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesman did not return requests for comment last night.

Turner said he was encouraged by the meeting.

“Although I think he definitely could have made some better efforts to include minorities on his advisory committee, on the same token, because we got to speak to him directly, I feel he’ll be able to make the best decision,” Turner said.

It is not yet clear to what extent Smith will take into consideration the concerns of students or the advice of committees as he searches to replace interim Dean of the College David Pilbeam.

Advisory committees often play important roles in gathering information for the president or dean charged with making the appointment. But that is not always the case.

In 2003, then-Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby reportedly chose Benedict H. Gross ’71 as the new dean of the College before the committee delegated to discuss the new position had even met.

And professors have not always been excluded from consideration in the searches they have advised.

Jay O. Light was named dean of Harvard Business School in 2006, after serving for one year as interim dean. He also served on the 15-member faculty committee that advised the Business School Dean search.

The eight groups represented at Friday’s meeting were the Asian American Association, the Association of Black Harvard Women, the Black Men’s Forum, the Black Students Association, Concilio Latino, Native Americans at Harvard College, the Society of Arab Students, and the South Asian Association.

The eight members of Smith’s faculty advisory committee are Lyman Professor of Biology Andrew A. Biewener, Professor of the History of Science Allan M. Brandt, Professor of Latin Kathleen M. Coleman, Psychology Department Chair Stephen M. Kosslyn, former Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68, Beren Professor of Economics N. Gregory Mankiw, Co-Master of Mather House Sandra Naddaff ’75, and Government Department Chair Nancy L. Rosenblum ’69.

—Staff writer Charles J. Wells can be reached at wells2@fas.harvard.edu.