Faculty Elect 7 New Members to FAS Faculty Council

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences elected seven new members to its powerful Faculty Council last week, installing a new group of professors that will help steer looming grading reforms and budget cuts, according to faculty familiar with the results.

The results, set to be announced at next Tuesday’s faculty meeting, come at a pivotal moment for the FAS as it confronts a contentious grading proposal and a $365 million structural budget deficit.

The Faculty Council — a 19-member body chaired by FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra — is the FAS’ top faculty committee, reviewing policy before it reaches a full faculty vote. The group oversees Harvard’s largest academic unit, which includes Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Division of Continuing Education.

Three professors will serve as at-large representatives: Classics and Comparative Literature professor Emily Greenwood, East Asian Languages and Civilizations professor David C. Atherton ’00, and Molecular and Cellular Biology professor Sean R. Eddy, according to two faculty members familiar with the matter.

Four others — Philosophy professor Regina “Gina” L. Schouten, Physics professor Cora Dvorkin, Psychology professor Joshua D. Greene ’96, and Electrical Engineering professor Demba Ba — were elected as divisional representatives, according to faculty members familiar with the results.

Greenwood, Atherton, Greene and Ba confirmed their elections. Eddy declined to comment, and Schouten and Dvorkin did not respond to a request for comment. FAS spokesperson James M. Chisholm declined to comment on the election results.

This year, faculty elected one more Council member than in the past two cycles. With the exception of Atherton, who will serve a two-year term, the newly elected members will begin three-year terms on July 1.

The new council members will take office just as the FAS prepares to weigh one of the most closely watched academic policy changes in years — a contentious grading proposal that would cap flat A grades at roughly 20 percent of students.

They will also step in as the FAS undergoes a vigorous cost-cutting campaign to shore up a $365 million structural deficit. Eddy, one of the new at-large representatives, currently serves on the FAS Task Force on Workforce Planning, which is charged with restructuring administrative structures amid mounting financial pressures.

Several other incoming members bring experience in Harvard’s upper-level governance. Greenwood, Schouten, and Dvorkin served on a committee advising Hoekstra during the most recent College dean search, while Greene serves on the subcommittee that drafted the grading proposal.

The Council — which has received rare audiences with top Harvard administrators in the past — will also guide FAS through ongoing federal scrutiny.

It does so alongside a growing constellation of faculty groups, including a Faculty Advisory Council convened last year by Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76, a nascent faculty senate, and a Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Currently, Schouten sits on the Faculty Advisory Council, and Ba serves as a member of the faculty senate planning body.

Greene wrote in a statement that he was “honored” to join the Council and emphasized his interest in student input.

“I very much want to hear student perspectives and encourage students to reach out any time,” he wrote.

Ba added that he hoped to take a collaborative approach during a particularly trying time for the FAS.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues across FAS and to develop a shared sense of mission and vision that can help students, faculty, staff and stakeholders to navigate these challenging times,” Ba wrote in a statement.

—Staff writer Abigail S. Gerstein can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at abbysg.97. Follow her on X @abbysgerstein.

—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at amannsm.38. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.