Confronting alcohol consumption was another top priority for Gross. One of his first endeavors was to assemble a committee, chaired by Currier House Master Joseph L. Badaracco, to investigate alcohol abuse at the College.

Taking the decanal reins in the wake of the release of the Leaning Committee report on sexual assault, Gross committed early on to improve student health, and has also helped supervise a committee which has called for the restructuring of mental health services this spring.

Gross further designated the space crunch for student activities as an area desperately needing amelioration. When the library ceded the Quad’s Hilles Library to FAS control, Gross jumped at the opportunity to expand student space, commissioning a group to examine possible uses for Hilles. Today, he speaks enthusiastically of the possibilities of a women’s center at the Quad, or the addition of new student offices.

All three committees—on alcohol, mental health services and Hilles—have reports in final draft form.

And it appears that Gross will keep up his initiatives in the coming year; he has already set the groundwork for a committee to investigate and reform the process by which student groups are recognized.

‘IT’S JUST TOO MUCH’

Over the year, it has become clear that the combined roles assigned to the dean of the College in his first term are simply too broad for Gross to remain effective.

“I’ve tried to touch most of the bases this year in the College,” Gross says. “But I realized that I had to hire someone to help me divide this job—it’s just too much.”

So next year, though Gross will remain the head of both the academic and residential sides of the College, he will be able to delegate many of his administrative responsibilities to a freshly minted deputy dean, a post O’Brien will fill beginning August 1.

“He has used this year to figure out how the dean’s office might be organized in a way to relieve him,” Dingman says. “The deputy dean will pick up some of what he’s doing, and relieve the rest of us whose portfolios have expanded.”

Delegating has already proved effective in trimming away some of the duties formerly handled by the dean of the College.

In January, Gross moved Wolcowitz to a role focusing on the curricular review full time.

Also this year, Dingman has become the point person on most routine House issues, instances where Lewis may have been more involved in the past, some House Masters say.

“There are lots of different things on the table these days,” Pforzheimer House Master James J. McCarthy says of Gross’ responsibilities. “It’s a different kind of interaction because of the curricular review.”

Dingman says that he has become the point person for most standard House concerns.