Harvard FAS To Begin Layoff Notifications Next Week

Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences will begin notifying some staff of layoffs next week, according to a person familiar with the matter — part of a broader process that could also include direct placements into new positions or opportunities to move into different roles.

The notifications mark the beginning of a long-anticipated staff overhaul that has been in the works since last spring. It is unclear how many employees will be affected, though the FAS could lay off up to one quarter of its staff.

Days before the expected notifications, FAS announced Thursday that it had appointed three senior administrators who will help carry out the school’s new administrative model.

FAS spokesperson James M. Chisholm did not deny the expected timeline in a statement, writing that the school “will continue to communicate transparently about the workforce planning process,” including by proactively alerting staff and providing detailed information about any job action.

The three new “managing directors of department and center administration” — one for each of the FAS’s academic divisions — will oversee department and center administrators and coordinate with human resources and finance leaders under the new structure, according to a Thursday email from FAS Dean of Administration and Finance Warren Petofsky.

Rebecca “Becky” Chetham, executive director and chief administrative and financial officer for the Organismic and Evolutionary Biology department, Museum of Comparative Zoology, and Harvard University Herbaria, will serve as the managing director for the Division of Science.

Economics Department executive director Damari Rosado will manage the Division of Social Science, and Emily Warshaw, director of administration in Theater, Dance, and Media, will fill the position for the Division of Arts and Humanities.

All three participated in the workforce planning process, though the extent of their involvement in developing the final structure is unclear.

Chetham and Warshaw served on a staff advisory group to the Task Force on Workforce Planning, which spearheaded the restructuring. In Thursday’s announcement, Petrofsky said Rosado “played an active role in the Workforce Planning design process.”

The FAS has not disclosed the members of the 10 design teams that helped develop the final administrative structure. An Office of Undergraduate Education administrator told staff last week that design teams had voted not to release their members’ names.

Chetham, Warshaw, and Rosado did not respond to requests for comment on their involvement in the workforce planning process.

Petrofsky introduced new administrative groupings for FAS departments and centers at a series of town halls last month. Under the new structure, some positions serving individual departments will be replaced by roles overseeing clusters of academic units.

During the town halls, Petrofsky said the managing directors would serve as an “escalation point” for department and center administrators. That same week, FAS opened up the three positions to internal applicants, with applications due June 21.

The appointments were expected to precede broader staffing changes. When announcing the searches last month, Petrofsky said some new leaders would need to be in place “to support a smooth transition.”

Harvard’s layoff policy provides a 60-day notice period, meaning that staff notified next week could remain in their positions into September.

In the meantime, hiring for the new structure has continued. The FAS’s human resources website currently lists four internal openings: a director of department services and three divisional associate directors of faculty searches and reviews. None have fixed application deadlines, according to a person familiar with the listings.

The school is also accepting applications for a senior manager of human resources operations through July 17.

The appointees’ transitions into their new roles will not necessarily be immediate. In an email to OEB affiliates sent before Petrofsky’s announcement, department co-chair Mansi Srivastava said Chetham would be “ramping into her new role over a few months.”

“For now, the majority of her effort remains OEB-focused,” Srivastava wrote in the email, according to the announcement obtained by The Crimson.

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