Jeremy W. Rusk, the director of Harvard's Center for Lifelong Learning, has been appointed associate dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), the school announced yesterday.

Rusk will begin part-time work at the GSAS's Byerly Hall offices this week and will make the final transition to full-time work in March.

The new official replaces Richard A. Kraus, who left his post in December following his election to the Massachusetts Senate.

The GSAS associate dean oversees the day-to-day administration of admissions and financial aid policy, fundraising among graduate alumni and the office of student affairs.

In another GSAS personnel development, Suzanne M. Lipsky, the school's director of student affairs, said Monday that she resigned from her post last week. She refused to comment on her reasons for leaving.

GSAS staff members said they plan to divide Lipsky's responsibilities until a replacement is named.

Rusk said yesterday that a major goal of his administration will be to reverse the recent tread toward professional graduate training in law, business, and medicine, by encouraging students to purses the "vigorous, inventive, imaginative and broadly educated mind" that traditional graduate study in arts and sciences provides.

The key to such reversal lies in Harvard's commitment to helping Ph.D. candidates identify career opportunities outside the traditional area of teaching, said Rusk, who received his Ph.D. in the history and philosophy of religion at Harvard in 1976. "We still assume you get a doctorate from Harvard and the world is your oyster," he explained.

Another priority Rusk cited is relieving graduate students' feeling that they are second-class citizens at Harvard.