Jeremy R. Knowles announced in February that he will step down as dean of the Faculty at the end of June.

While students likely would articulate feelings on issues such as Faculty diversity, she said it would be unlikely that students had thought about what type of person the new dean should be.

“We’re trying to draw abstract qualities from concrete issues,” she said.

According to Chopra, Harvard has been more reluctant than some other Ivy League schools to allow student input into high-level decision.

At Princeton, for example, two students sat on the committee to select the University’s new president last year.

“We’re going to prove to President Summers and all future presidents that student input is valuable and necessary,” Chopra said.

—Staff writer William M. Rasmussen can be reached at wrasmuss@fas.harvard.edu.