Wearing Two (Hard) Hats

Gross—who maintains two offices, advises doctoral dissertations and senior theses, chairs several committees as dean and still finds time to fly to Paris to officiate at awards ceremonies—has a lot of energy. But he is only human, and upon his appointment, many expressed fears that the combined deanship would be too much for one person to handle.

“The job of the dean of undergraduate education was way more than half-time, plus the dean of the College, which is way more than one job,” Todd says. “So together you get about a job and two-thirds at least.”

Some worry that the former dean of undergraduate education will ultimately treat student issues as an afterthought.

Gross himself says his main focus next year will be the curricular review. And he makes no promises about serving longer than one year on the Ad Board.

Lewis built a reputation for being not only knowledgeable of, but also directly involved in, all the facets of undergraduate life.

By next year, Lewis will have appointed 11 of the 12 House masters. He counts the improved morale among the masters and the administrative staff as one of his greatest successes as dean. He also chaired eight committees and sat on another 20.

“To be dean of the College is to be father of 4,000 students,” Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education Deborah Foster says.

Gross, however, will need to find other people to compensate for the fact that he will not be able to pay such close attention to the minutiae of student issues. He says he is likely to appoint someone to serve in a capacity similar to that of a dean of students, relieving him of some of the tasks that Lewis has handled as dean of the College.

One of these tasks is overseeing House life, and many of the masters’ concerns with the restructuring arise from a general fear that Gross will have too much to do too as dean.

Kirkland House Master Tom C. Conley said it would “be wrong to say” he does not worry about Gross assuming the combined deanship. “I don’t see how one person can have so much responsibility,” he says.

But responsibility will be delegated, and for the most part, the Masters seem confident that Gross will not harm House life.

“It was wonderful to have Harry backstopping many of the serious problems that we had in the Houses,” Leverett House Master Howard Georgi ’68 says. “But I think Dick will be equally involved, possibly in a slightly different way.”

Gross will probably face close scrutiny next year, so it is likely that he will seek to preserve the political capital he now enjoys among masters.

Though Gross has made a point of attending concerts and other extracurricular events as an indication of his concern for the activities, the demands of the new job will soon prevent him from maintaining this level of involvement.