Before assuming her role as Dean of the College in June 2008, Evelynn M. Hammonds served as senior vice provost for faculty development and diversity, advising University President Drew G. Faust on issues of faculty diversity. So when Hammonds had the chance to appoint two new House Master couples to Winthrop and Pforzheimer Houses within seven months of assuming the deanship, diversity was naturally one of her top priorities.

In February 2009, she appointed Harvard Law School Professor Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr. and lecturer Stephanie Robinson as Masters of Winthrop House—the first African-American House Masters in Harvard’s history.

By the end of the year, three more sets of resignations arrived at Hammonds’ desk, and once again, she had the opportunity to make her commitment to diversity a reality, naming Harvard Business School Professor Rakesh Khurana, who is Indian, to head Cabot House.

In the same announcement, she appointed Romance Languages and Literatures and Comparative Literature Professor Christie A. McDonald to lead Mather House, increasing the number of female Masters—as opposed to co-Masters—to three.

One month before that, Hammonds also selected HLS Professor James L. Cavallaro ’84 and his wife Nadejda Marques, who is Hispanic, to hold the spots of the Currier House Masters while they are on sabbatical next year.

The majority of Hammonds’ appointments demonstrate a push toward diversity that reflects the increasing heterogeneity of the faculty. Though this diversity might not have a tangible effect on the lives of House residents, administrators say they still seek to foster as much diversity as possible among the cadre of Masters and in the broader faculty as well.

AN INCREASING MIX

Although only a seemingly small number—three, to be exact—of next year’s 26 permanent House Masters are racial minorities, the makeup of the House Masters mirrors the ethnic composition of the tenured University faculty.

While 13.5 percent of tenured faculty members—the primary requirement of being a House Master—identify as non-white, 15.4 percent of next year’s House Masters are non-white.

According to several of the Masters, this increase in diversity can be attributed to Hammonds’ heightened attention to the issue and her success at marshalling diverse candidates.

“I think it’s probably the most diverse group ever,” Sullivan says of next year’s collection of House Masters.

Diversity was just one of many factors Hammonds says she considered.

“The primary thing for House Masters, in my view, was not whether or not I wanted diverse House Masters—that seemed to be almost a given—but rather the people who I picked would be people who would be really committed to bringing their various interests into the work of building a House community,” she says.

THE VALUE OF DIVERSITY

Diversity—not only racial, but also religious, intellectual, cultural, and socioeconomic—is widely acknowledged as an asset at Harvard and its peer institutions.