After extensive discussion with scientists in and beyond FAS, Kirby kicked off a national search to fill the new position this year.

The consideration of area deans is not new but rather the result of a long-discussed concern that the job of dean of the Faculty is too large for one person.

Many have felt that the dean should delegate some of his responsibilities for overseeing the academic mission of each area.

Several deans have considered the plan, but dismissed it for fear of adding an extra layer of bureaucracy between the faculty and their dean.

Some say Kirby has been overwhelmed by the load and that this search for divisional deans is a reflection of a desire to delegate his responsibilities.

“[Area deans] are in part due to his discomfort with his responsibilities,” Maniatis says.

Several Faculty have pointed out that while Knowles was able to work at the job nonstop, Kirby, who has two high school-aged children and, unlike Knowles, chooses to live off-campus, is looking to put new structures in place.

“The structure of the job was possible for someone who was able to work a the job 24/7, but even [Dean Knowles] was spreading thin,” Anthropology Professor William L. Fash says.

And Knowles agrees that the dean would benefit from some advice.

“The time has come,” he says. “We shouldn’t worry about layers of bureaucracy—it is more important to have expert help.”

But already several professors have objected to the plan.

MacFarquhar says he believes the extra administrative layer is a huge mistake and has raised these concerns in several e-mails to Kirby.

“As a chair of a department, I would rethink accepting if the dean above me was an economics professor or even another government professor,” he says.

Kirby has not attempted to rally any kind of consensus behind either of these major restructuring decisions.

His lack of concern for building a coalition of supporters behind his initiatives has some questioning the degree to which values faculty advice.