Richard, Could you at least try to spell her name correctly? It has 2 n's. You've consistently gotten it wrong unless you're quoting from someone else.

This appointment is a classic case of cv-polishing. The new dean needs to do an excellent job so that she can burnish her credentials and move on to bigger and better things. And she will do an excellent job.
 

Mea culpa; it's fixed.
 

Yes, Anonymous is exactly right. Faust wants to give Hammonds a few years in a line administrative position, so H can move to a presidency elsewhere.

As for "excellent," anything Harvard does is by propaganda declared excellent no matter how poorly executed, so Hammonds is bound to succeed.
 

Are you saying that "excellent" is Harwellian? (smile)
 

What exactly were Hammonds achievement as provost for diversity?
 

How can the deanship of Harvard College possibly be regarded as a stepping-stone job? 10:45 is pointing the way toward a serious scandal. It might not be the actual story but it should be looked into.

In any case, Richard, I guarantee that the pursuit of diversity at Harvard College is not the scandal of Hammonds's appointment. The pursuit of diversity is only a scandal to sniping right-wing morons.

Clean up this act, man, seriously, or I'm just gonna post a GBCW comment to promote myself and peace out. I won't miss SITD very much if this is the kind of slop you're going to be throwing up here.

SE
 

Deaning the College these days does not strike me as a resume-burnishing job. Harry Lewis ran it very well, though he only had to run the student-service end, not the academic end. Since then, it seems to have become a den of backbiting and fear, and most of the good people (at least in UHall) and most of the institutional memory have left. That may not be Gross's or Pilbeam's fault, but it hasn't reflected well on them. Hammonds will have to do an amazing job for it to reflect well on her, unless the bar has simply become very low in the last five years.

I suppose she might be thinking of this as a CV boost, but if so she's not very familiar with the mood in the College.
 

EH has been shortlisted for a number of prestigious academic posts, eg president of Wellesley. The positions haven't come through, and the obvious gap on her resume is engagement with undergraduate education. Not quite QED, but worth following up as SE suggests.
 

The postings so far miss the point. By appointing someone who has broadcast far and wide that she is angling for a university
presidency, and who will be out the door at the first opportunity, the FAS Dean has put the career interests of this Drew Faust protege above the needs of Harvard College. After the inertia of the past few years, FAS needs a high-energy Harvard College dean with a track record of engagement with undergraduate education who will settle into the job for a minimum of 5-6 years.

If Hammonds had a record of great accomplishment in the Provost's office, the decision might be defensible. But alas, Hammonds mainly has put her efforts (and funds earmarked for women) into building up her staff and pleasing her bosses, not into producing concrete gains for Harvard faculty women. No one doubts her commitment on diversity issues, but where are the results? And her breezy and evasive, non-consultative management style is going to have to change if she hopes to succeed as Harvard College dean.