According to one administrator, Lewis “just thought the statement issued by Summers was too weak.”

The administrator says Lewis was told by Mass. Hall not to make a statement in Yasin’s defense.

Finally, Lewis has been a vehement opponent of the preregistration initiative that both Kirby and Summers advocated.

Although Summers says the idea was Kirby’s, the president initially agreed that preregistration would enable the College to hire better graduate students as teaching fellows.

While Lewis made no official statements on the issue, those close to the discussion say he believed that eliminating shopping period would limit students’ flexibility in choosing classes.

With the opposition of most of the Faculty, the preregistration proposal failed even to go to a vote. Only after this considerable opposition did Summers change his position on preregistration.

“Overall, they are just two people who look at Harvard very differently,” Registrar of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Arlene Becella says.

The Bumpy Rise

Although Lewis now runs the College like a well-oiled machine, his rise to the most powerful College deanship in recent memory has been bumpy.

Even in his inaugural year as dean, Lewis drew fire from students for implementing the randomization of housing assignments.

Although L. Fred Jewett ’57, Lewis’ predecessor as dean, had announced the new practice of randomizing placements in the housing lottery, Lewis had strongly endorsed the proposal in a report before he became dean and drew the wrath of students who in the past had been able to apply for acceptance into Houses.

Lewis also provoked controversy when he appointed Judith H. Kidd as assistant dean of the College for public service and head of Phillips Brooks House. Student leaders protested that Lewis picked Kidd without taking student input into account.

In response to his appointment of Kidd, 700 students rallied in the Yard against Lewis’ choice.

Lewis’ power over the House system and University Hall may have grown, but his decisions have not become any less contentious.

Last spring, students rallied against Lewis for pushing a new requirement that those making rape accusations present “sufficient corroborating evidence” before the Ad Board investigates allegations of sexual assault. This year, the requirement was overturned.