Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby said it was “virtually certain” that Harvard will have surpassed his predecessor’s goal of growing the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) by 10 percent in 10 years—a resolution made in 2000—when the FAS closes the current academic year on June 30 with 700 members.

Former Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles announced in 2000 that he planned to expand the Faculty’s ranks to 700 professors by 2010.

But Kirby says the FAS will reach the 750 mark by 2010 and will not stop there; he says he eventually wants to see 800 chairs set in University Hall each time the full Faculty gathers for its monthly meetings.

The FAS weighed in at 672 professors in January, up from 656 faculty members in the previous year and 636 in 2003.

“What Dean Knowles had suggested is that when we were at a Faculty of 635, we would aim to add 60 professors, to wind up with about 700,” Kirby told The Crimson in December. “We are moving more quickly toward this goal than he had anticipated.”

Growing FAS to this size will rejuvenate an aging faculty, allow the increasing student-faculty interaction recommended by the ongoing Harvard College Curricular Review, and improve the school’s collective research output by building a faculty with a wider range of research interests, Kirby wrote in his third annual letter to FAS in February.

Kirby has identified three key subsections of the faculty on which he plans to focus hiring efforts.

He has said that hiring women is an important element of FAS growth and that the process will be facilitated by two new positions to be created next year: a senior vice-provost for diversity and faculty development and a liaison to that provost from within FAS. (Please see “Shopping for Diversity,” page C1.)

To increase the size of the Faculty, Kirby’s initiatives have also included a focus on promoting younger professors from within and on hiring interdisciplinary scholars.

MOVING ON UP

In his annual letter, Kirby announced that departments should consider assistant professorships “tenure-track” positions, which should encourage the recruitment of junior faculty members and their eventual promotion to senior positions.

In previous years most hires have been senior faculty members and now 37 percent of senior faculty members are 60 years old or older, according to Kirby’s letter.

“At least two-thirds of our growth should occur in the non-tenured ranks over the coming decade. Therefore, to a much greater degree than in the past, we will be appointing new senior faculty from within,” Kirby wrote.

“The assistant professor of today will be the full professor of tomorrow. We will, of course, maintain very high standards for promotion. But it is a common misperception that achieving tenure at Harvard is inconceivably difficult, if not impossible,” he continued.

Dean for the Social Sciences David Cutler echoed Kirby’s interest in hiring professors earlier in their careers, with the goal of later promotion.