Drew Faust’s Dean Problem
Posted on May 22nd, 2007 in Uncategorized | 21 Comments »
On Gadfly, Adam Goldenberg suggests that, with Jeremy Bloxham having turned down the FAS deanship, Drew Faust is going to have a very difficult time finding a replacement. I agreeâthough not for all the reasons Goldenberg states. They are:
- Deal with Harvardâs faculty. Every single day. Forever.
- Deal with FASâ budget deficit. More than $75 million in the hole, at last count!
- Deal with someone elseâs Curricular Review. Explain how the new curriculum is not the Core, redux. (It is.)
- Give up oneâs academic vocation and instead become an administrator.
I don’t think 1, 3, and 4 are such a big deal. The FAS deanship is still a prestigious and desirable job, especially for professors who might want to become college presidents one day. You also get a big raise. And let’s face it, leaving scholarship behind for a while isn’t always the worst thing.
Finally, I’m inclined to think that the FAS deanship under Drew Faust is going to be a strong position. She needs strong deans, and she’s smart and secure enough to realize that.
No, the problem seems to me to be #2âbudget issues. What if the new dean is going to have to operate in a time of shrinking resources? Trying to manage the relationship between science and Allston at a time when FAS is facing budget cuts could be a nightmare.
It’s a lot more fun to be dean when you can say yes than when you’re constantly telling people no.
I suspect that this is the real issue here, and it is a big problem for Drew Faust. She obviously wanted a scientist for the deanship. But will any scientist take the job if he or she has to pick and choose among the various science factions because of budget cuts?
21 Responses
5/22/2007 9:03 am
On topic, please.
5/22/2007 9:12 am
The FAS deficit would be $26.5 smaller were it not for the Schleifer Affair.
How many other bold Presidential explain the rest of the deficit?
5/22/2007 9:59 am
Knowles had to deal with a budget deficit during his original deanship, and did so admirably. It’s doable. What’s more, someone who dealt with it successfully would be a very appealing presidential candidate elsewhere, no?
5/22/2007 10:48 am
You mean you don’t think 1, 3 and 4 are a problem?
5/22/2007 10:57 am
What FAS needs is experienced leadership for the next few years, someone who will provide strong and ethical guidance, tackle the overhang of problems, and encourage others, not someone trying to move on to a presidency. Much of academia’s problem is that leaders bucking for promotions or next moves avoid tough issues and try not to offend anyone. Nothing could be worse for Harvard, where problems are often due to entrenched faculty or administrators who veto change and protect sleazy wrongdoers.
5/22/2007 11:02 am
Right, and that sort of behavior really grosses me out.
5/22/2007 11:51 am
Yeah, and it wouldn’t hurt if he/she was HOT!
5/22/2007 2:03 pm
Please, 11:51, behave yourself!
5/22/2007 2:29 pm
Perhaps 11:02 was not so covertly alluding to a particularly problematic administrator (“close to the FAS administration”) who is desperate to save his job, and who doesn’t care who he smears or undercuts in the process. Let’s ask Adam G to be one of our two sources on this.
5/22/2007 5:57 pm
Who? Who?
Perching Owl
5/22/2007 6:23 pm
I think 2:29 is suggesting tinkering with 11:02:
“[Right, and that sort of behavior really] gross[es me] out”
5/22/2007 8:49 pm
An interesting point. Do you think he is having trouble keeping his position? Or just staying awake?
5/23/2007 12:36 am
Hey, Adam G., isn’t it time to come on and deny these scurrilous imputations about your own college dean, who would surely not have talked to his undergraduates in such ways about his colleagues?
5/23/2007 2:13 am
Dean Gross has never, ever made disparaging, unflattering, or even remotely scandalous comments to me about any of his colleagues. I wish he would!
To the courageous souls who are audacious enough to make those sorts of accusations about him in this space under your precious veils of anonymityâshame on you. I can only imagine the sorts of bile you spew about your colleagues behind their backs.
(Also, 8:49, was that a reference to Dean Gross’ unfortunate habit of dozing during faculty meetings? Because I genuinely believed I was the only one who noticed.)
Adam G.
5/23/2007 7:59 am
I wouldnt think you would have to “imagine” it-you’ve reported it.
5/23/2007 8:08 am
AG, you think you are the only one who notices that DG slouches and sleeps through meetings? Hilarious. He shows this disrespect in front of everyone. Sign of a deeper disengagement except when he sees a chance for good press.
5/23/2007 12:44 pm
He sleeps through FAS meetings, he sleeps through committee meetings. He attends the first half of a committee meeting and then dashes off to do something else.
5/23/2007 11:50 pm
Adam G.
You say:
“Dean Gross has never, ever made disparaging, unflattering, or even remotely scandalous comments to me about any of his colleagues.”
Depends how you define your adjectives there, so let’s move to yout Gadfly post from last week:
“At this afternoonâs Faculty Meeting, Skocpol will join Dean of Harvard College Benedict H. Gross â71 in presenting legislation that would require CUE evaluations of almost Harvard professors. According to one source, Skocpol has lined up a number of high-profile Faculty members to speak in favour of the measure, which emerged from her Task Forceâs recommendations and which is reflexively seen as anti-Faculty in content. Thereâs little doubt that Skocpol will use todayâs meeting to bolster her candidacy for the top FAS position.”
In fact nobody spoke in favor of the motion, and word is Gross asked Skocpol to call around to get people to speak up, but she in fact didn’t do so — which is why nobody spoke up for it at the meeting, which happened after your source told you “a number of them” would. Interesting if not disparaging.
5/24/2007 12:30 am
Godfather II it seems
FREDO
JOHNNY OLA told me about this place. He brought me here. I didn’t believe him — but seein’ is believin’, huh?
[MICHAEL glances over at FREDO.]
JUDGE DEMALCO
I see it, and I still don’t believe it!
FREDO
Fifty bucks, Pat. Old Man ROTH would never come here, but Old Man JOHNNY knows these places like the back of his hand. Now watch him — he’s gonna break a cracker with it.
GEARY
Break a cracker — I want to see him break a brick.
[MICHAEL turns and signals to his BODYGUARD then turns back. He looks at the floor and then covers his face with his hand. He is in great pain realizing that FREDO is the Family traitor]
5/24/2007 7:39 am
Dick is Freddo, sad and incompetent. (Have you seen him take cell calls from his wife during meetings he’s running?) Summers knew this and put Gross in this job so Summers could push for long-overdue changes in University Hall. With Summers out, Gross spent the year as Knowles’s wind-up toy. He’ll probably stay in the job because he’s the perfect dean for Faust and her many, don’t-change-anything-in-our-club supporters.
5/24/2007 1:18 pm
Re 5-23 2:13am and 11-50pm: leaking that Bloxham declined the FAS deanship would not be “disparaging,” “unflattering,” or “scandalous” about him. Not good for Faust or FAS, tho.