Despite Law School Student Government Demands, No Move Toward Student Involvement in Dean Search

Harvard University declined to commit to add student members to the advisory committee for the ongoing Harvard Law School dean search after the Law School’s student government demanded the change in a December resolution.

The advisory committee, announced in October, consists entirely of faculty members — as is standard practice for dean searches at every Harvard school. The student government passed a non-binding resolution on Dec. 3 seeking “at least two student representatives on the Dean Search Advisory Committee.”

The resolution, proposed by the body’s student affairs committee, said students were “the most important stakeholders in the HLS community” and asked for “other avenues for broader and substantial student involvement.”

The resolution passed unanimously, with all fourteen votes in favor.

The resolution referenced dean searches at other law schools, such as the University of Michigan Law School and Stanford Law School, which included students on dean search committees. However, that is not standard practice at Harvard or most of its peer institutions, including Yale and Duke.

“I understand that institutions have a lot of stakeholders. I think that none are more important than the folks currently that compose the campus,” Courtney E. Chrystal, one of the student government’s two first-year representatives, said.

“I think student voices is the lifeblood of any institution,” she added.

University spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in a statement that faculty advisory committees were “a longstanding practice in Harvard’s dean searches.”

“Faculty members of the search advisory committee work to gather input from a broad cross-section of the community, including students, through in-person and zoom meetings,” Newton wrote.

He declined to comment when asked if the University would add a student to the committee.

After Martha Minow, who served as the Law School’s dean from 2009 to 2017, stepped down, Law School students similarly demanded a larger say in the selection of their school’s new leader, sharing concerns about their limited role in the search.

At the time, the faculty advisory committee responded to those concerns by organizing two forums for students to give feedback on the process.

In his October email naming the advisory committee, Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 circulated a dedicated email for sending input on the dean search and attached a Qualtrics feedback form.

Chrystal acknowledged that, from the administration’s perspective, “they have created more avenues for student voice.” Chrystal said, however, the student government felt the University has not done enough.

“It is important to have a student that is in on the conversation,” she said.

To date, the dean search committee has not revealed any clues as to how far along they are in the search for the Law School’s next leader.

“It’s never too late, I think, to add someone,” Chrystal added.

—Staff writer Caroline G. Hennigan can be reached at caroline.hennigan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cghennigan.

—Staff writer Bradford D. Kimball can be reached at bradford.kimball@thecrimson.com.