Shots In The Dark: Dizzy Deans

Wednesday, March 28, 2024

Dizzy Deans

In the Crimson, Johannah Cornblatt reports on Theda Skocpol's decision to step down as GSAS dean. A very fine article, but one line caught my eye:

Skocpol was widely considered a candidate to replace Knowles, who is serving as interim dean until July 1, but her announcement suggests that she will no longer vie for that post.

Really? Why? That's an important assertion, but it lacks context and supporting evidence. Why, exactly, does the move suggest that Skocpol will no longer vie for the deanship? (After all, we can all think of a certain Harvard figure who said no to one deanship because she was interested in a bigger job.) Tell me more, Johannah.....

Who will be the next FAS dean? Here are the three candidates whose names occasionally drift downwind from Cambridge to Manhattan.....

Theda Skocpol
Gov/sociology prof
Current GSAS dean
Senior adviser at
the Radcliffe Institute

Jeremy Bloxham
Geophysicist,
computational scientist
Dean for the physical sciences

John Huth
Physicist
Chairman, Dept. of Physics

These are the names I hear. What about you?

Just to sweeten the pot a little...let me announce a contest. The first person to correctly guess (i.e., post) Drew Faust's pick for FAS dean will receive from me, in the mail, a silver pen with "Harvard" inscribed on it. (They were giving 'em away at the "Harvard in Canada" conference last weekend.) It's a lovely pen with a Yale-blue grip (I know, weird) and it comes in a nice box with a little red string around it.

Vote now! And when the time comes, e-mail me and identify yourself (we'll have to use the honor system here). I'll send you this top-quality Harvard pen, value at least ten bucks, yours free for the simple matter of being right and being first....

And don't let this stop you from voting, because as am employee of this blog, I can not enter the contest, but...my guess? Jeremy Bloxham.

¶ 7:44 AM

Comments:

Isn't it said that Jim Engell of the English department wants the job?

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 8:44 AM

If he gets it, you win a pen....

# posted by Richard Bradley : March 28, 2024 9:03 AM

Based purely on looks -- i.e., the infamous Geek Test -- I'm going to go with the guy in the middle.

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 10:32 AM

Alison Richard

# posted by Knows Too Much : March 28, 2024 10:52 AM

ALLISON RICHARD?

Why would she want to move from being the chancellor of Cambridge to being the Dean of FAS? She wasn't interested in the presidency... Come on, Knows Too Much... you're anonymous. Cough up a little more. Plus, she's an anthropologist... don't you think they'd want someone from a more traditional science?

RB, shipping a pen to Australia would cost more than the pen itself ;) so I'm playing for pure sport. Any deadline? I want to hear a few more names--having a hard time believing it's down to these three.

Btw, anon. 10:32... then-and-now FAS Dean Jeremy R. Knowles does not pass your Geek Test.

# posted by Waiting Emu : March 28, 2024 11:01 AM

Nancy Rosenbloom, Government chair, is also a candidate for FAS Dean, rumored to want the post very much. She has dominated the chairs' group this year and has supporters and detractors. Can we have a picture of her, too? She is the best-looking.

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 11:27 AM

I hear a vote for Nancy Rosenbloom...will this be a pen-winner?

# posted by Richard Bradley : March 28, 2024 11:40 AM

And I'll work on the picture.

# posted by Richard Bradley : March 28, 2024 11:40 AM

You know, Richard, it's not a prerequsite of the job that one be named Jeremy.

# posted by eadw : March 28, 2024 11:40 AM

Hey, don't shoot the messenger....

# posted by Richard Bradley : March 28, 2024 11:47 AM

Incidentally, it's Rosenblum.....

# posted by Richard Bradley : March 28, 2024 11:49 AM

I'll still bet on Theda--I need a nice pen.

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 12:10 PM

No one wanted the FAS deanship more than Theda Skocpol. In fact, she spent the better part of the last two years campaigning for it. (Her chairing the Task Force on Teaching and Career Development was the latest, most public, effort.) But as soon as Drew Faust was announced as president, all hope was lost (bad blood there, I hear), and Skocpol didn't want to waste any more of her time in an FAS administrative post with no hope of the top job.

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 12:23 PM

Here we go again, with anon 12:23 cleverly (were it not so obvious s/he has an agenda) seeming to know of the inner thoughts of Pres. Faust and Dean Skocpol:
"all hope was lost (bad blood there, I hear)" and "Skocpol didn't want to waste any more of her time in an FAS administrative post with no hope of the top job". What amazing access to the hidden thoughts of the players!

The thread is a fine one of course, and the pen a prize worth competing for I'm sure, but let's not take any of this too seriously, particularly as aspirants or their proxies come on SITD to tell us anonymously what the landscape looks like.

# posted by Richard Thomas : March 28, 2024 1:15 PM

charles rosenberg. i hear drew faust and he are quite close.

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 2:18 PM

What about Henry Louis--or as I like to think of him, 'Hank'--Gates?

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 2:26 PM

I know it's a longshot but I'm going with Larry.

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 3:07 PM

Even though his parents spelled his name in a way that is different from the norm, I'll go with Jeffry Frieden.
Sam Spektor

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 5:03 PM

Jeffry is certainly a new way of spelling Jeremy.

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 5:16 PM

Rosenblum would be great but she is convincing when she says she does not want the job.
I vote for Huth.

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 6:48 PM

Robert J. Sampson

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 7:31 PM

Isn't there a single faculty member who is qualified to be Dean at GSAS who is also a member of a racial minority group? say an African American or a Latino?

The Globe asks today why isn't there more diversity among Harvard's sports coaches. Isn't it racist that they do not ask the same question about members of the academic senior management team, say Deans?

http://www.boston.com/sports/articles/2007/03/28/a_coaching_vacancy/

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 8:58 PM

The racial imbalances at Harvard are not a topic of interest to Richard or this blog. Remember, he too was educated at Harvard.

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 9:35 PM

Name a plausible minority candidate and win that pen!

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 9:48 PM

Anonymous 10:35, you should have scrolled down a little further before making that claim...you might have noticed a fairly prominent item on just that Boston Globe story....

# posted by Richard Bradley : March 28, 2024 10:43 PM

Jorge Dominguez.

# posted by Anonymous : March 28, 2024 11:48 PM

I second that.

# posted by Anonymous : March 29, 2024 7:40 AM

Vice Provost Jorge Dominguez would be an outstanding candidate for the Deanship.

An all around Harvard Graduate --college and GSAS--, Harvard Fellow, outstanding scholar in the field of comparative politics, remarkable administrator and colleague. Ten years founding director of the Weatherhead Center.

In fact, given his intellect and credentials it is puzzling that he was not tapped earlier for the job.

Might this have something to do with the fact that he was born in Cuba and has an unmistakable latino identity?

After all, this is the same Harvard where a recent President felt emboldened to insult in his office an African American University Professor and where the Board of Overseers allowed their only African American Colleague to resign over serious differences with the same former president.

# posted by Anonymous : March 29, 2024 9:05 AM

I have enough good pens, but if I could, I'd also nominate Jorge Dominguez.

# posted by Anonymous : March 29, 2024 9:10 AM

You are joking about Dominguez right? Does the institutional memory about him go back as far as that of Skocpol's enemies? Do you really think Harvard's first feminist President is going to make this guy Dean of FAS? Dream on.

# posted by Anonymous : March 29, 2024 9:17 AM

That article on TS resignation by Jacobs and Hernandez is truly first rate. It's excellent journalism. Wouldn't you say Richard.

In fact, Javier Hernandez disproves the often held view on this glob that Harvard is unfriendly to minorities. He seems to be thriving and often writes the lead article in the Crimson. This would not happen in a place unfriendly to latinos. Furthermore, he has never written anything related to diversity challenges at Harvard. Isn't this proof of the fact that the only problems on that front exist on the minds of contributors to that blog, who may or may not be part of the Harvard community?

# posted by Anonymous : March 29, 2024 9:19 AM

The smear job on Skocpol should disqualify Hernandez and his side kick from any future job in journalism at all.

# posted by Anonymous : March 29, 2024 9:24 AM

That's right 9.24. In fact he should be expelled from Harvard right away. Is this how these latino kids show their gratitude to generous Harvard? Who do they think they are?

# posted by Anonymous : March 29, 2024 9:42 AM

It is evident that Hernandez is part of a big conspiracy of all these minorities who want to take control of Harvard. This conspiracy is far reaching: this blog suggesting a minority Dean, the Globe suggesting minority coaches, the Crimson suggesting minority faculty members in Education.

This is what the misguided leadership of Neil Rudenstine did to Harvard. It raised the expectations of people like Cornel West and his ilk.

Larry tried to put things in their proper place. It is obvious that he did not finish the job. Let's hope the Corporation tells Drew exactly what she needs to do to finish it.

# posted by Anonymous : March 29, 2024 9:46 AM

What needs to be done to people like Hernandez and others like him is very simple. It's the way we lynch in America today.

Let's set many traps for him to fall, push him around, push him again, push him again, hope he falls, if he does, document it well, make sure his record sticks with him for the rest of his life.

Keep record of any errors of judgement he makes, then make sure he maintains a reputation as someone not smart enough.

Keep record of any problems with his character, then feed the myth that even if he is smart he has character issues.

Hopefully he will fall to the pressure one day, then say that he does not have what it takes to lead.

It was faster when we lynched with a rope around their neck, but this is just as effective.

# posted by Anonymous : March 29, 2024 10:03 AM

Hey, folks, let's cool this down a little bit, okay? I know that there are strong political feelings at stake here, but let's not forget that you're also talking about an individual, and one who happens to be a student. Best to take it down a notch.

# posted by Richard Bradley : March 29, 2024 10:12 AM

Fantastic piece by Hernandez, luckily he's better at writing and expressing himself than a couple of the creepy posters on this blog. And Dominguez would be terrific.

# posted by Anonymous : March 29, 2024 10:46 AM

Ah, yes. That is the approach. Smear someone and then hide behind your purported status as victim.

# posted by Anonymous : March 29, 2024 12:33 PM

Back to the topic. I don't think "Hank" would want that job... which is too bad.

RB, can you say why you think it's Bloxham, or will that compromise the integrity of the contest for the pen? ;) I never heard anything about him...

Feeling really indecisive, but I guess I should make a guess soon :)

# posted by Waiting Emu : March 29, 2024 7:27 PM

The racial paranoia is fascinating. What do you call racism when you really see it? I guess if you are a minority you can be a sleaze and no one gets to say so, 'cause that is like saying you are uppity? So what? You can smear anyone you want to? You get to be just as hateful as the people that hate you?

# posted by Anonymous : March 29, 2024 8:41 PM

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