Advising Office Adds Deans

The recently-created Advising Programs Office (APO) has finalized the team that will usher in the College’s newly-overhauled advising system, which includes a freshman advising program that could cost as much as $300,000 annually.

Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 announced late last month the three new additions to the APO, which is headed by Associate Dean of Advising Monique Rinere.

In a bout of administrative shuffling, former Assistant Dean of Freshmen James N. Mancall and former Assistant Dean of Academic Advising Inge-Lise Ameer will both become assistant deans of advising within the nascent APO. And Brooks Lambert-Sluder ’05, a former curriculum review project associate, will serve as the manager of the Peer Advising Fellow Program.

During the spring, all three appointees were involved with the APO’s initial efforts to revamp freshman advising. They attended weekly meetings of the Student Advisory Board, a 37-member undergraduate board assembled to help determine the direction of advising initiatives.

Rinere, who is out of the country, could not be reached for comment.

In his new position in University Hall, Mancall—the resident dean of Ivy Yard for the past six years—will focus on first-year advising and oversee the peer advising program. Established this spring, the program was designed to “replace and augment” the 20-year-old Prefect Program as a part of the College’s comprehensive curricular review.

Mancall’s advising role will also extend to advanced standing, visiting, and transfer students, Gross said.

“The new position will allow me to consider first-year advising issues more globally,” Mancall wrote in an e-mail, adding that there will be some overlap in his new post in that he will continue to collaborate with his colleagues at the Freshman Dean’s Office (FDO).

Mancall’s successor at the FDO, William Cooper ’94, was appointed the new resident dean of Ivy Yard late last month. Cooper previously worked in the Financial Aid Office and as a proctor in the Yard, according to Gross.

Mancall is not the only FDO administrator to be offered a position in the APO. Former Associate Dean of Freshmen Rory A. W. Browne left for Boston College’s new advising center last month after turning down an offer to become an assistant dean of advising.

Ameer—whose former position was also within University Hall—will now concentrate her efforts toward House and concentration advising, according to Gross. Ameer was previously responsible for advising the 36 visiting students from the Gulf coast displaced by Hurricane Katrina this fall.

Lambert-Sluder’s new role will place him in charge of the over 180 peer advisers hand-picked in April. He will also monitor future efforts to select, train, and evaluate these peer advisors. Lambert-Sluder, a recent Currier House graduate, was hired by the College last year to work on Curricular Review reforms.

The peer advising program is the APO’s first large step towards reforming undergraduate advising, and the office will work extensively this summer to gear up for its inaugural run in the fall.

—Staff writer Brittney L. Moraski can be reached at bmoraski@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Ying Wang can be reached at yingwang@fas.harvard.edu.