Susan D. Chira '80, president of The Harvard Crimson in 1979, has been appointed editor of the Week in Review section of The New York Times.

"I don't have any specific plan for the near future except to enjoy this job, because you get to think about all the news," Chira said.

Chira, who will begin her new position in October, said that her time at Harvard and at The Crimson was very influential on her journalism career.

"The Crimson is a great way to learn how to be a journalist. You have a certain freedom there, so that you can learn and you take chances and write about different things," she said.

Chira's classmates said they admired her hard work and dedication as president of The Crimson.

"She's a very unusual person. She's extremely accomplished and yet she doesn't come off that way," said Katherine S. Burke '79-'80, also a Crimson editor and friend of Chira.

"She was clearly extremely talented and motivated and I always thought that she would do something great," Burke said.

Chira's peers also praised her writing and social skills, which they said were honed during her work at the college daily.

"It was a fairly high pressure environment," Burke said. "She had to learn how to resolve conflicts and I think that she did it with an amazing amount of maturity for someone her age."