Student Life Office Names Two Administrators

The Office of Student Life has hired Loc Truong to serve as its new director of diversity and inclusion programs, a position within the College’s new Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

Truong previously served as the assistant director of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, from 2008 to 2015, according to Emelyn A. dela Peña, the College's assistant dean of student life for equity, diversity, and inclusion who emailed her colleagues about the hiring last week.

In his new role, Truong will report to dela Peña and serve as the “point person to student organizations and provide support for first generation college students, undocumented students, and foster youth,” dela Peña wrote in her email.

His new position will involve collaborating with other College diversity offices, such as the Harvard College Women’s Center, the College’s Office of BGLTQ Student Life, and the Harvard Foundation. He will also work with a team on new initiatives like an intergroup dialogue program and the diversity peer educator program, in addition to working with specialty tutors and proctors.

Truong’s hiring fills a void in leadership at the new OSL’s newest office and coincides with another mid-level administrative transition within the College’s bureaucracy.

Associate Dean of Student Life David R. Friedrich will serve as the OSL’s associate dean for residential life. Friedrich previously oversaw student organizations and assumes the residential life job after William Cooper ’94 left the position over the summer.

Associate Dean of Student Life David R. Friedrich, pictured in University Hall earlier this year. By George J Lok

The College will conduct a national search for Friedrich’s successor, according to Dean of Student Life Stephen Lassonde. Friedrich will take on the added responsibility of managing his successor, who will report to him.

“It’s actually a promotion because he has more responsibility than Will had,” Lassonde said. “David wanted the experience in residential life, and he’s perfect, he knows everybody, and he knows the institution really well.”

The staff transition comes as the College continues to focus its resources on Harvard’s more than $1 billion House renewal project, and in his new position, Friedrich will likely play a part in the planning process.

So far, Harvard has renovated portions of Quincy and Leverett Houses and all of Dunster House, which reopened to residents this fall. After a roughly year-long break in construction, Winthrop House will undergo renewal starting next summer, and Lowell House will follow in 2017-2018.

Along with House renewal, the College has also recently poured resources into the Houses to create more inclusive social spaces in the wake of administrators’ concerns over the influence of off-campus final clubs on the undergraduate social scene.

—Staff writer Ivan B. K. Levingston can be reached at ivan.levingston@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @IvanLevingston.