Donald Pfister, Former Ad Board Review Committee Chair, To Serve as Interim Dean of the College

Donald H. Pfister, a longtime Harvard faculty member and administrator who chaired a committee that reviewed the Administrative Board from 2008-2010, will serve as interim Dean of the College as it begins to explore a proposal to give students a role in adjudicating some disciplinary cases, Harvard announced Tuesday.

Pfister, dean of Harvard Summer School and a former Kirkland House Master, is also a professor of botany and curator of the Farlow Reference Library and Herbarium. On Wednesday, Pfister will assume the position held by former dean Evelynn M. Hammonds until the start of this month. The announcement in May that she would leave her post came nearly two months after she told faculty she had authorized the secret search of a resident dean’s faculty and administrative email accounts without the necessary permission, breaking faculty email privacy policy.

Tuesday’s announcement did not specify how long Pfister will serve, though it did say that FAS Dean Michael D. Smith will convene a committee and begin the search for a permanent dean in the fall.

—Staff writer Madeline R. Conway can be reached at mconway@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @MadelineRConway.

—Check TheCrimson.com for updates.