Hammonds Welcomes Students in Office Hours

When Jacqueline C. Hairston ’10 heard about Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds’s office hours this semester, she immediately added the date to her Google Calendar.

“I marked ‘run over [to University Hall]’ on my calendar,” Hairston said. “I thought there was going to be a long line [of people].”

Though there was not quite a “long line” of students waiting to talk to Hammonds at her first office hours session last Friday, many students did take advantage of the opportunity to speak with the dean on a personal level. Almost all the available 10-minute time slots were filled, according to College spokesperson Jeff Neal.

In an interview with The Crimson earlier this month, Hammonds said she decided to hold office hours this semester because she was looking for additional ways to engage directly with students and hear about their concerns.

“Office hours is one way I would do it if I were still teaching, so I figured that was a good way to...allow students to come in and talk to me if they wanted to,” she said.

Hairston, who came to drop off an Association for Black Harvard Women publication to which Hammonds had contributed, called the dean “really cool.”

“She asked me to autograph it,” Hairston said with a laugh.

Hairston, a statistics concentrator, added she was surprised by how welcoming Hammonds was.

“She seemed very interested in what I was doing,” Hairston said. “We ended up watching the Real Life Statistics [General Education course] trailer on her computer.”

During Hammonds’s first year as Dean of the College last year, some students and House officials criticized her and the College administration for what was perceived as a lack of transparency and a disconnect from the undergraduate experience.

For example, though Hammonds initially stated that she planned to hold monthly teas with students, she has more often met students in other settings.

Hammonds said earlier this month that many of her interactions with undergraduates have taken place at student events and athletic competitions, where she said she found it difficult to speak one on one with students.

“Dean Hammonds had several very positive conversations [on Friday],” wrote Neal in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “She looks forward to doing it again in the future.”

Hammonds will hold three more office hours sessions this semester on March 5, April 9, and May 7, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Students will be able to sign up for time slots at University Hall starting at 11 a.m. on the same days.

—Staff writer Melody Y. Hu can be reached at melodyhu@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Eric P. Newcomer can be reached at newcomer@fas.harvard.edu.