Woven throughout the evening was a ranging discussion on concerns that students and committee members hoped the new dean might address. These included the General Education program, which is already set to be reviewed in the coming year, and House renewal.

“I want a strong dean who can represent the house system and advocate for the house system to Mike and to the Corporation and to the donors,” said physics professor and Leverett House master Howard M. Georgi ’68. “It’s not going to work unless [the dean is] somebody who knows about [the house system] and believes in it and interacts with students often.”

Georgi also said that he would seek a dean with “a significant Harvard experience,” preferably at the College.

Towards the end of the meeting, Smith reflected on the last few weeks of the search process, during which he has held four student forums—three open to all students and one with the Undergraduate Council.

“There are some policies that we’ve heard of as we’ve talked to students, especially when we met with the freshmen [and heard] their initial reaction to some of the aspects of the clubs and the extracurricular activities, [that] I think opened a bunch of our eyes as to what's actually happening here,” Smith said. “We can probably come up with some policy changes in cooperation with the UC and the student body that could remove some of the pressures.”

—Staff writer Matthew Q. Clarida can be reached at matthew.clarida@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattClarida.