Immediately after banging her gavel to begin yesterday’s Faculty meeting, University President Drew G. Faust opened with a few words, followed by a moment of silence in honor of former Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles who passed away last week.

“It would be impossible at this moment, in this room not to be thinking about Jeremy,” she said. “We will have times and occasions to speak about Jeremy in the days and weeks to come, but today I want to ask you for silence, for silence in his memory, silence in his honor, silence in gratitude to and for Jeremy Knowles.”

The Faculty fell quiet, perhaps considering the legacy of a man who had achieved so much in the confines of that very room in University Hall.

A BROAD RESTRUCTURING

Dean of the Faculty Michael D. Smith discussed plans for a wide administrative restructuring at the meeting, emphasizing a bigger role for divisional deans and proposing to temporarily slow faculty hiring.

The divisional deans would take on increased roles, including control over budgeting, faculty searches, hiring and salaries, and academic and strategic planning.

Government professor Stanley Hoffman expressed worry that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences administration might become too bureaucratic like his native France, and that teachers and researchers might be “not just constrained but pushed aside by professional administrators.”

English professor Elaine Scarry sympathized with the need for “more support” for the administration, but argued that the Faculty and students could also use more resources.

With regard to the upcoming drop in hiring, Smith said that arresting growth is necessary so that upcoming projects, including expansion into Allston and improvements to pedagogy, can be implemented without running out of “resource headroom.”

A FIRM HAND

Also at yesterday’s meeting, the Faculty voted on a rare motion to dismiss a student from the College.

Such motions are tantamount to a permanent severance of ties with Harvard. A two-thirds vote by the Faculty is required to pass the motion, and the action can only be reversed by another Faculty vote.

In most cases, disciplinary action against students is the domain of the Administrative Board. In extreme cases—such as rape, sexual misconduct, or large-scale theft—the Dean of the College can bring the matter before the Faculty, according to Secretary of the Ad Board John “Jay” Ellison.

Former Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 said that dismissal cases tend to be regarding “the sort of thing for which you could do serious jail time.”

Ellison declined to comment on the details of yesterday’s case. That portion of the meeting took place “in camera,” meaning that only Faculty members were allowed to be present.

According to Ellison, over the past 70 years, only 25 dismissal votes have occurred before the faculty.

“I must say that in the early years these votes occurred for offenses much less severe than what happens these days,” Ellison wrote in an e-mail.

According to Lewis, prior to the creation of the Ad Board, all disciplinary matters across the University were taken before the Faculty—as outlined in the University’s statutes. As the University expanded, the College delegated the responsibility to the Ad Board except in said extreme cases, he said.

“Because it happens so rarely, the Faculty tends to be a little confused about what they’re actually being asked to do,” Lewis said. “They fundamentally are supposed to be assured by the College administration that the proper procedures have been followed to determine the truth of the matter.”

He explained that the Faculty Council generally vets the case before bringing it before the Faculty.

“This is a vote to make it permanent,” he said.

JUST PLAIN ‘ENGLISH’

A vote to change the name of the Department of English and American Language and Literature to simply “Department of English” passed at yesterday’s meeting,

Department Chair James T. Engell ’73 offered up a humorous yet passionate speech in favor of the change, using the current unwieldy title and overdramatic language for comic effect.

“Those of you who have followed literary studies in the past few decades may wish to detect in this some secret semiotic code or bewitchment,” he said of the change. “But you won’t find it.”

The motion will have to be confirmed at the next Faculty gathering due to the lack of quorum at yesterday’s meeting.

—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Maxwell L. Child can be reached at mchild@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Christian B. Flow can be reached at cflow@fas.harvard.edu.