The new Assistant Dean of Public Service Judith H. Kidd said in an interview Friday that she is not taking personally the student indignation stemming from her appointment.

Kidd, who will also serve as director of Phillips Brooks House (PBH), has been widely criticized by students involved with public service for her alleged lack of experience in working with students. Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 announced Kidd's appointment Tuesday night.

"I'm not responding personally in the slightest," Kidd said Friday. "I do believe that the vehemence of the opposition against my selection is related to the vehemence of the reaction to the position being created."

The assistant dean post was initiated due to a recommendation in the 1994 Report on the Structure of Harvard College, co-authored by Lewis and Administrative Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Nancy L. Maull.

The same report also recommended the creation of a faculty-student committee on public service, which is chaired by Professor of Sociology. The da Skocpol and will meet for the first time in December or January. Both Skocpol and Lewis participated in Friday's interview.

Picking a new dean was not a step toward cutting back on PBHA programs, Lewis said.

"We've gotten where we are through a very deliberate and intentional process," Lewis said. "There seems to be lots of unfounded fears out there that these administrative moves are somehow designed to scale back our commitments to public service programs. It's absolutely not a plot to scale back anything."

Skocpol echoed his assurance.

"Someone observed to me the other day that no one creates a new administrative position these days without a very good reason," she said. "If this is a plot to get the administration more involved in public service, there are better ways to do it."

Plans For the Future

Kidd said she will do her best to alleviate student fears by meeting with as many people as she can before she takes office Jan. 1.

Last week, Kidd met with PBHA president Vin Pan '95, '96 and another student, she said. She will meet today with Gail I. Epstein, director of public service Epstein and Greg A. Johnson '72, the current director of PBH, will stay on until June 30 to help with Kidd's transition.

Kidd said she will have to be careful how she handles her new position.

"It's not going to do me any good to say, 'I'm here to listen. I'm here to learn,' because [the students will] say, 'She's just going to say she's here to listen, she's here to learn, because in a year she's going to lower the boom," Kidd said. "[I'd like to tell them] they're lucky to get me, because I care tremendously about what they care about."

Kidd said the job, for which she said she applied through an advertisement in the Boston Globe, is ideal for her because it brings together three of her interests: "working with young students, public service and higher education."

Kidd said she is not yet sure how she will restructure public service at Harvard but will take into account input from all sources.