When McKay Professor of Computer Science Harry R. Lewis '68 takes the helm as dean of the College July 1, he will usher in a new era at Harvard.

For the first time in more than 20 years, a faculty member will be in charge of Harvard College. That status, colleagues say, will give Lewis a unique perspective and possibly an advantage in managing the College's academic affairs.

"The Faculty of Arts and Sciences [FAS] is a self-governing body, and Dean Lewis is one of those enfranchised faculty members, and so he has a passport to speak to any educational issue that falls within the purview of the faculty," said Secretary of the Faculty John B. Fox Jr. '59. "I think faculty members have sometimes felt that deans who came up on the administrative side did not have such a passport."

Lewis' status as a faculty member is especially relevant because the College will embark next year on a review of its most central educational requirement--the Core.

"I really think that it will be a kind of a broad-based and multifold set of him to his new post," said Dean for Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell. "It will be fruitful not only with respect to the role he may have in Core review but in other areas as well."

Lewis said he has mixed feelings about the way the Core is structured.

"My impression is that the Core is full of excellent courses--there is much better quality control than there was under the old [General Education] system by the time I started teaching in the middle [seventies]," Lewis said in an e-mail message last week.

"On the other hand, I don't think the Core is perfect for various reasons; for example, I think it's too bad there is not some better opportunity for progression of courses or taking advantage of prior knowledge within the Core," Lewis added.

"And I think it's too bad that courses in mathematics, technology and the like don't fit anywhere, though I know the Core was never meant to be all-inclusive," he said.

But Lewis hastened to add that these are opinions and not a formal plan.

"These are just some personal opinions at this point, not an agenda," he said.

Prevention of Alcohol Abuse

Next fall, Lewis will look into the College's alcohol policy in hopes of improving current prevention and treatment programs.

A reevaluation of the College's handling of drinking on campus was prompted in part by a recent study at 140 campuses throughout the nation reporting that nearly half of college students binge drink.

Henry Wechsler, a lecturer on social psychology at the School of Public Health, who conducted the study, found that 44 percent of students binge drink, or consume five drinks on a single occasion, at least once every two weeks.