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When Thomas Dunne first stepped onto Harvard’s campus, he was unsure if he was even allowed to walk through Harvard Yard.

Then a graduate student at Boston College, Dunne had taken the T to Harvard Square to explore the College, but he was unsure if he could enter the Yard due to its imposing gates.

“There was a guy in the security booth that’s right inside the gate there,” Dunne said in a Tuesday interview, his first with The Crimson. “And so I went up and asked him, I said, ‘Is it okay if I walk around?’”

In June, Dunne took over as Harvard College’s dean of students after working in the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students at Princeton University since 1999. At Harvard, the dean of students oversees student social life, extracurricular activities, and the College’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging.

Before interviewing for the position, Dunne said that he thought he would spend the rest of his career at Princeton, having felt “very deeply entrenched” there. He initially approached the interview process “through a lens of Princeton,” mostly interested less in landing the job and more in learning about “how Harvard organizes itself.”

“When the opportunity presented itself, it was sort of a state of shock. It was like, ‘I can’t believe this is actually happening,’ and ‘Would we actually do this?’” he said.

The College announced that Dunne would serve as the next dean of students in January. Dunne’s final semester at Princeton, he said, was “a very long and very celebratory, beautiful farewell to a place that I love.”

Dunne has told students that since arriving at Harvard in June, he is aiming to try 100 things this year to familiarize himself with the school.

“At Princeton, I think I was probably in every building and knew a ton of people, so everything felt very familiar. And I remember the first day I moved here, I saw a turkey and I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is a real thing,’” he said. “I just thought to myself, ‘It’s helpful to have a goal to push yourself to do new things.’”

As dean of students, Dunne’s responsibilities include close interactions with the Harvard Undergraduate Association and student organizations. In recent months, the DSO has taken a series of steps that have increased the regulation of clubs, including a pause on recognition of new student organizations to enable a “thorough assessment of the independent student engagement environment,” per a statement by the DSO and Office of Student Engagement.

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Dunne said he agrees with the decision to freeze club creation because it will allow the DSO to examine the development of newer clubs formed in recent years.

“I think it’s something that’s really smart,” he said. “There’s groups that have been established in the last three years — a lot of them aren’t successful and they’re not enduring.”

The pause has faced criticism from leaders of new student organizations and HUA Co-Presidents John S. Cooke ’25 and Shikoh Misu Hirabayashi ’24, who stand staunchly opposed to the decision.

Dunne said he understands student frustrations, but he reiterated that he believes the freeze is a good decision in the long term.

“People do understand the importance of seeing a need and identifying it, and being a founder of your own organization. I get the drive for that,” he said. “I think the short term pauses say there are elements in this system that indicate that there are things that are not working.”

In reflecting on his time at Princeton, Dunne said one of the things he was most proud of was his work in supporting first-generation students on campus.

“Some of the most meaningful work I did at Princeton was around the first-gen community — to see the growth of that,” Dunne said.

As he prepared to step down from his position at Princeton in June, Dunne said among his last duties was addressing attendees of the first-generation graduation ceremony.

“That was really meaningful for me to see, just in very tangible ways,” Dunne said, as it was something he’d been involved with since its inception.

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Dunne said it is exciting when students — on Princeton’s campus and on college campuses generally — take ownership in creating space for their identities.

“It’s one of these great moments where students, I think, were able to identify and articulate a need and purpose themselves, that then institutions responded to,” he said. “I think it’s a good model for students to say, ‘We do have an active role in shaping this community.’”

In his transition to Harvard, Dunne said he intends to become involved with supporting the College’s first-generation students.

“That’s a community that I’m really interested in working with and trying to find, both being mindful — for me personally — that there’s a bunch of people at Harvard who, like Princeton, have been doing this work and for me to find out what’s being done and how does it work here,” he said. “Then to say, ‘Are there ways that I personally can be involved because something is important to me?’”

Overall, Dunne said his family’s transition to Cambridge has been an exciting — but unexpected — experience.

Dunne spoke about his new routine of walking his daughter from Harvard Square, past the Radcliffe Quadrangle, to school every morning as unique from his experience at Princeton. While they walk, he listens to her “stream of consciousness” narrative about the journey they’re making.

“That’s not something I got to do at Princeton, and so we’re really excited to be part of this new community,” Dunne said.

While Dunne and his family imagined they would take the opportunity of living in the Square to explore the Greater Boston area, he said they have found themselves especially tied to Cambridge.

“I’ve ended up spending a lot more time in Cambridge and Harvard Square than I thought I would,” he said. “There’s a gravitational pull to being here.”

—Staff writer Ella L. Jones can be reached at ella.jones@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @ejones8100.

—Staff writer John N. Peña can be reached at john.pena@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @john_pena7.