Hammonds said she convened her Cabinet soon after beginning her tenure as dean.

Interviews with her colleagues and student leaders suggest that since then, Hammonds has become increasingly knowledgeable about student life.

“I would guess that she, as with any faculty member who wasn’t a House Master or something like that, came in with little idea how many student organizations there were or really the whole student life side of things,” said Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris, another Cabinet member. “She now knows it inside and out.”

CHANGING THE CHIEF OF STAFF

During his term as UC president, Ebrahim always knew who to go to when he wanted to convince Hammonds to accept a Council proposal.

He would reach out to McLoughlin, who became associate dean of the College and senior adviser when Hammonds took over as dean.

Before meeting with Hammonds, Ebrahim would talk to McLoughlin to fine-tune his proposal and make it more appealing.

“We found that she was much more likely to agree to our initiatives if we ran them by Dean McLoughlin first,” Ebrahim said. “Dean McLoughlin had her ear in a way not a lot of other people did.”

During his time at Harvard, McLoughlin was known as a student ally who worked extensively on social space, winter break, and Opening Days programming for the College. Though not all his ideas, like the creation of the Student Organization Center at Hilles, were popular in the long run, he was a critical peg in carrying out Hammonds’ commitment to listening to students.

In August, McLoughlin stepped down from his role in the College to teach graduate students at Boston University. He has since been named dean of students at Lafayette College.

In November, Hammonds chose Rouse—who worked in administration at Columbia for eight years before coming to Harvard—to fill one of McLoughlin’s two roles, the associate dean position.

Rouse, who had been hired as Hammonds’ executive assistant only a month before she was promoted to associate dean, now serves essentially as Hammonds’ chief of staff.

Speaking of her desire to get to know more students, Rouse wrote in an email, “This is truly the part of my job that I enjoy the most.” She mentioned a ROTC training event where she recently enjoyed interacting with cadets.

Hammonds has not filled McLoughlin’s second position, senior adviser—and she says she does not need to.

Hammonds said that she has many advisers throughout the administration and added that despite his job title, McLoughlin was never her only “senior adviser.”