He says he considers teaching an essential part of his job as secretary of the Ad Board.
“The reason [students] are here is the classroom, and I need to have contact with that,” Ellison says. “I get to see [students] at their best.”
AN ADMINISTRATOR
While Ellison no longer wields a gun, he is still an enforcer of the rule of the land. Today his focus is no longer on the laws of the state, but rather the rules of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Ellison’s responsibilities include working with students who have been reported to the Ad Board, collaborating with resident deans, and organizing and participating in Ad Board proceedings. His plethora of previous experiences help him better understand the perspectives of different people involved in the Ad Board process, according to his colleagues.
“Jay is able to wear an incredible number of hats when he’s on the board,” says former Undergraduate Council President Matthew L. Sundquist ’09, who was a member of the Committee to Review the Ad Board.
While Ellison says that he is a “kinder and gentler Jay” than he was during his four years working as a police officer, members of the Ad Board say his experience in law enforcement helped to prepare him to lead Harvard’s disciplinary body.
Ellison’s understanding of the legal system—another by-product of his police work—has also been of use in dealing with Ad Board cases with criminal implications, according to Faculty of the Arts and Sciences Registrar Barry S. Kane, who also sits on the Ad Board.
Moreover, working in the stressful environment of law enforcement prepared Ellison to manage Harvard’s emergency situations, such as the Kirkland shooting last May.
“The fact that I was a police officer means that I understand emergencies,” he says. “I don’t get riled. I know how to handle them.”
While years have passed since Ellison was last paid to wield a gun, he has not lost his affinity for the profession and those who hold it.
When administrators traveled to this year’s Harvard-Yale Game, Ellison rode to New Haven with members of the Harvard University Police Department, recalls Associate Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II.
“I wouldn’t peg him as a cop except when I see him with other cops,” McLoughlin says. “He might as well have a uniform on. They love him.”
—Staff writer Melody Y. Hu can be reached at melodyhu@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Eric P. Newcomer can be reached at newcomer@fas.harvard.edu.