Design School Chief Draws Fire

In a backroom battle reminiscent of the strife that toppled Harvard’s president last week, faculty members of the Graduate School of Design (GSD) have in recent days clashed with their dean, Alan A. Altshuler. The battle reached a boiling point this week, when the Harvard Corporation—the University’s highest governing board—intervened with an unusual letter of support for Altshuler and a pledge to summon incoming Interim President Derek C. Bok to help resolve the matter next week.

Altshuler, who was appointed to the deanship by University President Lawrence H. Summers last February, faces opposition from a group of GSD faculty members who are angered by his public support of the controversial president, according to one professor involved in the dispute and another former faculty member familiar with the situation. They also said that the faculty discontent was triggered by Altshuler’s comments in support of Summers that were published in The Crimson last week. Altshuler called the president’s leadership “extraordinarily effective.”

The individuals spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

In the letter to the GSD faculty obtained by The Crimson yesterday, the Corporation’s senior fellow, James R. Houghton ’58, said that the board had “strong support and admiration” for Altshuler and his “impressive combination of professionalism, incisiveness, and good sense.”

Altshuler said last night that he was “extraordinarily grateful” for the Corporation’s support.

“I look forward to working with the faculty on the issues that some members of the faculty have raised,” Altshuler said.

The former faculty member and the current professor both said that a group of department chairs met privately with Altshuler last week. According to the former faculty member, who spoke with someone present at the session, Altshuler was “threatened” with a vote of no confidence at an upcoming faculty meeting.

But in an interview last night, Architecture Department Chair Toshiko Mori said that “there was no such thing as a vote of no confidence.”

She said that department chairs meet regularly with the dean, but she refused to comment on the content of those meetings or the nature of the complaints levied by professors.

“It’s a matter of a continuing school discussion,” Mori said. “As you can imagine, every one of us has to reassess the school because we have a discussion going on in the school and [it] is about this dean.”

The former GSD professor said that Altshuler had canceled a faculty meeting and brought the matter to the Corporation and members of the University’s central administration.

One concern of the faculty is Altshuler’s academic background. Altshuler, a political scientist, has been a member of the Design School’s faculty since 1988, but some professors believe he lacks the design expertise necessary to run the school.

Altshuler served as dean of New York University’s graduate school of public administration and academic dean of the Kennedy School of Government before taking the helm at GSD.

José A. Gómez-Ibáñez, a supporter of Altshuler, said in an interview from Washington, D.C. last night that he believes Altshuler’s background has enhanced his leadership of the Design School.

“I understand that the designers in the school may have been disappointed that a political scientist was named as dean. But I think Alan tries very hard to bridge the designer, non-designer gap,” said Gómez-Ibáñez, who is the Bok professor of urban planning and public policy.

Another GSD professor who is a supporter of Altshuler said last night that the discussion surrounding the dean’s leadership has been confined to “individuals and small groups” within the faculty.

“People have talked about this, but not in what I would call a widely consultative, widely collaborative, widely deliberative way,” said the professor, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“I think it is hard not to read the letter from the Corporation as reminding the Design School faculty that discussions and debates and disagreements are perfectly reasonable but they must be conducted within the framework of civility, of decency, and of respect for the governance model of the University,” the professor added.

—Staff writer Javier C. Hernandez can be reached at jhernand@fas.harvard.edu.