Harvard College began implementing a major overhaul this week that will include staff cuts, a return-to-office mandate, and a more consolidated administrative structure. In an email sent to Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) employees on Wednesday morning, Edgerly family dean Hopi Hoekstra and FAS dean of administration and finance Warren Petrofskysaid that College staff members would be informed on Thursday about “how their roles fit within the new model.”
Some employees’ jobs will change, while others’ will be eliminated, they said. “These are deeply consequential decisions,” Hoekstra and Petrofsky wrote, “and they were not made lightly.” A University spokesperson declined to specify the number or types of jobs affected.
The College reorganization plan, which was first unveiled to faculty and staff in late June, is part of a division-wide restructuring of the FAS, intended to address a $350 million structural deficit. That broader overhaul, which affects staff but not faculty positions, began last week with a narrow round of layoffs. In a July 14 email to FAS employees, Hoekstra and Petrofsky said that division leaders were meeting with the head administrators of FAS academic units—which includes 40 departments and more than 30 centers—to inform them of any changes to their jobs.
“Most” of these staff members, Hoekstra and Petrofsky wrote, were told they would remain in their roles, in some cases with altered responsibilities. Others were laid off, “although there may be opportunities to move into other positions in the FAS as new roles are posted,” according to the letter.
Hoekstra and Petrofsky also added that notifications for all other FAS employees will come in “several waves,” continuing through mid-August. A FAS spokesperson confirmed that the new structure is scheduled to be fully in place before the start of the fall semester. Course registration for the College opens on August 11; classes begin on September 2.
These announcements about the rollout of the restructuring come amid rising tension and uncertainty among faculty and staff, as well as significant pushback from the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW). Roughly one-third of the 2,300 administrative employees whose positions fall within the scope of the restructuring are HUCTW members.
The changes are projected to include significant layoffs—reportedly as much as 25 percent of FAS staff—and will transform the division’s administrative operations. FAS leaders have said repeatedly that in designing the overhaul, including decisions about where to make staffing cuts and which operations to consolidate, their priority was to protect and support teaching and research. HUCTW organizers, as well as some faculty and staff members, have expressed concerns that reducing administrative staff and centralizing their roles will undermine teaching and disrupt the smooth functioning of academic units.
In a series of town hall meetings in June and July, Hoekstra, Petrofsky, and other division leaders outlined a new organizational structure they described as a “federated model,” grouping FAS departments, centers, and other units into three large clusters: arts and humanities, social science, and science. These clusters would be subdivided into “administrative groupings” according to subject area, operational needs, and proximity to each other on campus. Each grouping would share administrative operations and be staffed by a smaller number of more centralized employees.
Earlier this month, the FAS announced the appointment of three “managing directors” to oversee each of the large clusters. Arts and sciences will be led by Emily Warshaw, who currently serves as director of administration for the University’s theater, dance, and media program. Damari Rosado, currently the executive director of economics department, will lead the social science cluster. And Rebecca Chetham will oversee the science cluster; she is currently the executive director and chief administrative and financial officer for the department of organismic and evolutionary biology, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Harvard University Herbaria.
Harvard College also recently filled a key—if temporary—role in its restructuring plans. Last week, Danoff dean of the College David Deming announced that retired dean of freshmen Thomas Dingman ’67, M.Ed. ’73, would return as interim leader of a new and expanded freshman dean’s office, a core component of the College’s reorganization. Deming said he expects to launch a nationwide search for a permanent freshmen dean this fall.
And in early July, Deming introduced Lauren E. Brandt ’01, Ph.D. ’09, as the newly hired secretary of the College, another position created during the restructuring. Brandt will be responsible for policies and procedures related to student discipline and academic integrity, Title IX, and antidiscrimination and anti-bullying. Previously the College’s associate dean of students, she began her new role this week.
The bulk of other changes planned for the College mirror those of the FAS as a whole: cuts to staffing and a consolidated administrative structure that Deming said would be “leaner” and more agile, as well as “more responsive” to student needs. The plan also includes a requirement that College staff work on campus five days a week during term time, a proposal that has sparked strong opposition from HUCTW and other employees.
In their letter this week, Hoekstra and Petrofsky acknowledged the strain and uncertainty of the past few months. “We know this has been a long and difficult process for our community,” they wrote. “We are now entering the hardest stage of this work.”
