In order for resident deans to do their jobs, “students need to feel confident in our communication,” Howell said.

Stokes-Rees added that the searches have already created anxiety among some students, who are more hesitant to trust the confidentiality of their interactions with resident deans.

“I have students who I have corresponded with over the past few months becoming very, very nervous about whether the content of our correspondence could have been viewed, as well as parents of students expressing concern,” Stokes-Rees said.

In addition to the challenges posed by resident deans, Smith and Hammonds’s original March 11 statement contained a number of inconsistencies.

While it said that the searches had been limited to a subject-line query of the administrative email accounts of all resident deans, at last Tuesday’s faculty meeting, Hammonds cited her “failure to recollect” the additional queries, which included the names of Crimson reporters covering the Government 1310 case as search terms and probed both the administrative and faculty accounts of the resident dean identified in the first search.

In her remarks, Hammonds also said she had authorized that second search with the approval of the Office of the General Counsel. Neal declined to comment Monday night why the General Counsel did not correct the original statement.

Resident deans claimed that these continued inconsistencies offered by administrators, particularly Hammonds, have strained the trust so vital to the function of the Ad Board. Though they are not the only members, all resident deans sit on the Ad Board.

Stokes-Rees said the breach of trust between Hammonds and the resident deans is not irreparable, but will require each to be willing to work to a solution moving forward.

Hammonds made a public apology in her appearance at the faculty meeting last week, and though she has not yet addressed the resident deans as a group, she has begun to meet with them individually, Howell said.

The Ad Board is scheduled to meet for its regular meeting Tuesday afternoon for the first time since Hammonds announced the second round of searches.

—Staff writer Nicholas P. Fandos can be reached at nicholasfandos@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @npfandos.

—Staff writer Samuel Y. Weinstock can be reached at sweinstock@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @syweinstock.