“Even though she’s going to be focusing on the residential life at the college, it’s most important to me that she’s had all that experience working and being in contact with students,” he said.

Glazer said that Nelson’s greatest challenge may not be long-term physical planning in Allston, but rather building student community—an aspect of the Harvard undergraduate experience that Glazer and others say needs improvement.

“I think in terms of residential issues that need to be focused on are the integration of bridging the gap between freshman year and house life, that needs to be improved, and building a house community within the houses,” Glazer said.

Colleagues and students alike describe Nelson as a sensible administrator with a collaborative leadership style.

Former president of the Interfraternity Council Jeffrey P. Massa, who graduated from Cornell this spring, said that while many may have perceived Nelson as having a largely distant role as a disciplinarian, she was very supportive of the Greek system at Cornell.

“There have been numerous times where the University questions what we do, and Suzy’s always been the level-headed spokesperson for our Greek system in favor of the positive opportunities one has in terms of being a member of a fraternity or sorority,” he said.

Students and colleagues at Cornell also describe Nelson as the backbone of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs (OFSA) at Cornell and credit Nelson for helping to implement “Creating Chapters of Excellence,” a program that facilitates community service and cultural awareness initiatives on campus.

“She came in when the OFSA was virtually a brand new office. She basically started from scratch and helped make the Greek system here what it is—one of the strongest and the second largest Greek system in the country,” said Ashley L. Higgins, a Cornell senior and president of the school’s Panhellenic Association. “Suzy helped envision a new structure on how to help the [Greek] community relate better to themselves as well as to the university.”

And a handful of Harvard undergraduates who had the opportunity to meet Nelson this summer as she entered her final round of interviews identified her extensive student experience as a strength.

“On several issues Dean Nelson was able to articulate the student opinion. One example was her understanding of the students’ want of freedom at events such as Harvard-Yale,” SAC member J. Sawalla Guseh ’06 wrote in an e-mail. “I am confident that being able to see from the student perspective is something that will set her aside from other administrators.”

Deputy Dean of the College Patricia O’Brien, who is also the co-master of Currier House, coordinated the search for the new dean of residential life.

—Staff writer Margaret W. Ho can be reached at mwho@fas.harvard.edu.