Kirby called on students to prioritize their studies in a speech to incoming first-years last fall.

Harvard has been known as a serious, sober institution, and remains so to an extent, Kirby said in September.

“You are here to work, and your business here is to learn,” he said.

And though Summers says he values extracurriculars, others who have dealt with him said he does want students to shift some of their focus away from activities and onto more scholarly pursuits.

He has been generally supportive of the Ivy League’s efforts to cut back on the number of athletic recruits.

Summers has said he doesn’t remember using the term, but one University Hall official tells of a meeting with House tutors where Summers quipped that the College too much resembled a “Camp Harvard,” given its focus on extracurriculars.

Possible Fallout

Those in Lewis’ office and others involved in the College said they worry that Lewis’ dismissal and the administrative reorganization will leave the extracurricular aspect of student life without a strong advocate.

When she worked in the admissions office, Assistant Dean of the College Karen E. Avery ’87 said she had to fight “tooth and nail” to dispel the idea that Harvard prioritized research over caring for its undergraduates.

“I think I would have to answer that question differently today if I worked in the admissions office, given this change,” she said. “I certainly didn’t expect this to happen and I’m not sure many people did.”

The reorganization would merge Lewis’ office with the office of the dean of undergraduate education in what Kirby yesterday called an effort to link academics more tightly with student life.

But professors and House masters raised concerns yesterday about the feasibility of combining the two positions.

Former Dean of Undergraduate Education Susan G. Pedersen ’81-’82 pointed out that both the dean of the College and the dean of undergraduate education are large jobs, though she said there are many feasible ways to integrate oversight of both undergraduate life and the curriculum.

Winthrop House Master Paul D. Hanson said that without details of the reorganization he couldn’t comment on whether a combined job would be too large for one person.

But he said he had “deep concern that the kind of close attention to and understanding of the House system and support of all aspects of the well-being of our students, inside of the classroom and without, that we have witnessed under Dean Lewis’ deanship, be present in the new structure.”