The Activist Administrator

But while all are willing to sing Kirby’s praises as an academic, not all are certain how effective the inquisitive historian will be as dean—a job that requires convincing not only oneself of decisions, but others as well.

This year, most have been surprised by the decisive manner in which he has made two major decisions to overhaul the structure of the University Hall bureaucracy.

Come next fall, there will be almost completely new lines of command throughout FAS.

But this time Kirby’s consultation took place behind closed doors.

On March 15, he announced that Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 would conclude his deanship at the end of the academic year and that the offices of the dean of undergraduate education and the dean of Harvard College would be consolidated.

Later that month Kirby announced that the new deanship would be occupied by current Dean of Undergraduate Education Benedict H. Gross ’71.

The move stunned many—including the outgoing dean and his staff.

“I learned in the past two weeks that the dean of the Faculty had decided to reorganize,” Lewis said at the time. “That was unexpected.”

“I was totally, totally shocked,” says Associate Dean of Harvard College for Public Service Judith H. Kidd. “There was no warning, no consultation, and it appeared, no plan on what we were going to be doing in July.”

While Faculty members say they were not necessarily opposed to the idea, most said that this was the first they had heard of it.

“It is a good issue to think about, but I have never considered the matter before,” says Williams Professor of History and Political Science Roderick MacFarquhar.

“He has put in almost an entirely new team, and I didn’t know of any discussion whatsoever,” says Professor of German Peter J. Burgard.

And though Kirby says a consolidated office to address both the academic and extracurricular aspects of undergraduate life was necessary before the curricular review could proceed, even those involved in brainstorming ideas for the review were surprised.

Harvard College Professor Peter Galison, who has met with the dean in several general meetings about the direction of the review, says the reorganization had never come up.