Ellison Steps Down, Skocpol To Take Helm of GSAS

Peter T. Ellison will step down as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) at the end of the month, ending a highly successful five-year tenure in which he championed an unprecedented increase in graduate student financial aid.

His successor will be Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol, who was a vocal critic of University President Lawrence H. Summers’ leadership earlier this semester.

In the fall of 2000, Ellison took the helm of a graduate school that granted only two years of financial aid to 60 percent of students in the humanities and social sciences. Students in the natural sciences received full funding for all five years, but were made to serve as undergraduate teaching fellows (TFs) in their first year.

Five years of fundraising and lobbying later, every graduate student in the social sciences and humanities admitted in this year’s admissions cycle will receive, for the first time, full funding for their education. And students in the natural sciences will fund their first year through fellowships—not TFing.

Ellison said he flouted the conventional wisdom that donors are unsympathetic to graduate student needs.

“I was told, ‘You can’t raise money for graduate students and the library,’” he says. “I just didn’t believe it. I came in with a greater determination than most. I knew it would be hard, but I was determined.”

In addition to the aid increases, Ellison also successfully lobbied for the creation of three new housing complexes for graduate students. Ellison said the housing was designed to “provide reasonably-priced housing for students close to campus so that we don’t become a commuter school for graduate students.”

His achievements—as well as his approachable and congenial style—have earned him the praise and respect of his colleagues.

“I think of all the deans of the Graduate School that I’ve worked with, he’s really the one that has done the most in a positive way, and also was the easiest to work with without sacrificing standards,” says Acting Chair of the Germanic Languages and Literature Department Judith Ryan.

East Asian Languages and Civilizations Chair Philip A. Kuhn says he admires Ellison both professionally and personally.

“He did a splendid job within the resource constraints he had to work with,” Kuhn writes in an e-mail. “He was a tireless advocate for the Graduate School, handling a tough job honestly and loyally.”

Though University presidents and deans of the Faculty usually stay at their posts for at least a decade, it is not out of the ordinary for the GSAS dean to leave after a shorter term. Previous GSAS Dean Christoph J. Wolff served for seven years.

Ellison said he decided to step down because once humanities and social sciences students were finally secured full funding this year, he had accomplished his mandate as dean, which was to implement the recommendations of a 1998 committee.

Though he steps down at the end of a year mired by conflict between the Faculty and University President Lawrence H. Summers, Ellison said the crisis did not influence his decision to step down.

But Ellison did say that his relationship with Summers was at times uncomfortable.

“I haven’t always felt as comfortable with his personal style, which tends to be challenging and assertive,” Ellison says. “Our views on things haven’t always lined up, which is fine. It’s been a less comfortable working relationship, but not unworkable.”

Ellison says GSAS has a few outstanding problems that will require Skocpol’s attention as she takes over the reins. First, he says the school must do a better job of preparing students not only how to do research, but also how to teach. And second, the dean must help the graduate school adapt to modes of interdisciplinary research.

“The areas of research, scholarship, and training are changing and don’t necessarily map precisely onto our current structure,” Ellison says.

Some professors have also said that administrators were looking to appoint a woman to the post in light of recent criticisms of the dearth of tenure offers to women under Summers’ presidency.

“It’s possible” that Skocpol’s gender played a part in the decision, Sociology Department Chair Mary C. Waters says. “There’s been a lot of pressure to begin having some more women deans around here, so I’m sure that was one thing considered” in choosing Skocpol, she says.

While Skocpol settles into the post next year and begins to confront these problems, Ellison says he plans to take a sabbatical.

“I have a book [I am writing] that I’d like to catch up on, and five years of my field to catch up on,” he says.

After his sabbatical, Ellison, who is also the Cowles Professor of Anthropology, plans to return to Harvard to teach.

—Staff writer William C. Marra can be reached at wmarra@fas.harvard.edu.