Students will continue to serve on search committees despite warnings to the contrary by Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 this summer.

After The Crimson reported the confidential short list of finalists for director of Harvard Dining Services (HDS) this summer, Lewis speculated that student members of the HDS search committee might be responsible for the leak and indicated that the role of students on search committees might be jeopardized.

But Lewis and other administration officials said this week that students would continue to serve on committees.

"I have had a great deal of success with student members of committees (search and otherwise) over the years," Lewis wrote in an e-mail message. "Their insights have almost always been perceptive and valuable, and I have had several experiences in which student members of committees have handled highly sensitive information with great discretion."

The search for a new HDS director to replace Michael P. Berry, who left Harvard in April to become a vice president of food services at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., was postponed until next semester after the top candidate for the post declined the job, according to Vice President for Administration Nancy H. "Sally" Zeckhauser.

Berry's assistant director, Leonard D. Condenzio, will serve as the interim director.

The continued silence of dining services committee members on the name of the candidate who declined the job appeared to reassure the administration that students could indeed keep important secrets.

Student Membership

Several officials said this week that they are committed to having students serve on search committees.

"Student representation on appropriate search committees is important and helpful," said Jeremy R. Knowles, dean of the Faculty.

"I think [student representation] creates an enormous draw for the candidates," said Associate Dean Thomas A. Dingman '67. "They recognize one of the great strengths of Harvard as they meet some of the people who are enrolled."

Lewis denied this week that he had thought students on the HDS committee were implicated in the leak this July.

"Members of the dining services search committee did ask me about students on the search committee in the aftermath of the leak; my attempt to trace it was as much an effort to be able to reassure the people who had raised the question with me as anything else," Lewis said.

He also said he had never seriously considered not putting students on search committees, and blamed The Crimson for misrepresenting his remarks.

In July, Lewis wrote in an e-mail message that he "fear[ed] that the publication in The Crimson of the names of all the finalists...has undermined, in the eyes of some, confidence in the wisdom of giving students sensitive information."

The dean wrote that he did not want to "wreak retribution" on "the leaker," but said he is "genuinely concerned only to restore confidence where it has been lost."

Some students were troubled by the dean's comments, and took them as a hint that students might be booted from future searches.

Are They Valued?

Students who have served on various types of committees say their opinions are generally valued.

"The student members on the committees I have been on have always been treated extremely well," said Bradford E. Miller '97, a member of the dining services search committee and a Crimson editor. "I always felt that I was being treated as an equal in the committees."

But some students said their input is not taken as seriously as that of faculty members.

"Students aren't typically ignored in discussions, but our input is not always given adequate consideration," said Marco B. Simons '97, an Undergraduate Council member who has served on several student-faculty committees, although not the HDS search committee.

Miller, a veteran of several student-faculty committees, said the HDS candidate list leak may cause faculty and administration committee members to be more careful with sensitive information.

"I do think that committees will be more careful overall in how information is distributed and the discussion of confidential information," he said.

Students involved with committees continue to deny that students were responsible for the leak.

"I feel confident that no student leaked the information," Simons said