Though he has not yet determined his goals for the deanship, Khurana has been a vocal participant in discussions on a range of issues that fall under the purview of the dean of the College and colleagues say they are optimistic about his future in University Hall.

In 2010, he chaired of a committee composed of students and administrators to review the College’s alcohol policy, helping to inform a new set of guidelines designed to standardize rules across the College. Khurana told The Crimson last spring that the policy was designed to accommodate the different uses of alcohol between upperclassmen and freshmen instead of a “one size fits all” solution.

Khurana also has served on the Academic Integrity Committee, which first convened in 2010, but has accelerated its work, including efforts to establish an honor code, since the Government 1310 cheating scandal. A subcommittee began drafting an honor code in October and was expected to undergo review by the entire committee before going on for formal approval.

Khurana has also advocated against Greek life in favor of house community, echoing the administration’s decades-long refusal to recognize sororities, fraternities, and final clubs.

“I’m always suspicious of a club that builds itself on gendered exclusivity,” Khurana told the Crimson in 2011. “It’s so much easier to hang out with people who remind you of your favorite person—yourself—than it is to figure out how to create an organic real community that has strength in its diversity.”

Yet the exact initiatives and priorities that Khurana will undertake as dean are yet to be determined. In a phone interview Wednesday, Khurana did not specify what issues or policies he might focus on, saying he would "have to have a sense of where different issues are."

Still, his colleagues said they are confident in Khurana’s commitment to bringing an open mind to the office.

Former Dean of Student Life Suzy M. Nelson, who co-chaired the alcohol policy committee with Khurana, wrote in an email that the incoming dean “has a wonderfully collaborative leadership style, listens well, and cares deeply about the student experience.”

Others described the incoming dean’s leadership style as transparent and rational.

"[He is] the sort of person I think we need as Dean of the College," said Classics professor Richard F. Thomas. “He seems to be somebody who listens, who forms his views according to the evidence.”