Deming Calls Summer Layoffs ‘Horrible’ But Says College Programming Largely Survived

Harvard College Dean David J. Deming called the College’s summer restructuring “horrible” and “one of the hardest things” he has ever had to do, but argued that student-facing program had emerged largely intact at a Wednesday open forum.

Dozens of College staff were laid off this summer as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences moved to close a $365 million structural deficit, eliminating 165 positions across the division. The restructuring also dissolved the College’s Office of Student Services, revived the Freshman Dean’s Office, and created the Secretary of the College. The College also imposed a new five-day in-office requirement for staff.

“It was horrible,” Deming said when asked about the process of restructuring. “I didn’t enjoy any aspect of it, but it had to be done, and we had a duty to do it responsibly. And I think I’m not ready to declare victory or anything, but I’m really, really proud of the Harvard College staff. Really proud. Because the truth is orientation and a lot of beginning of year stuff more or less went off well.”

Deming said he had sought input from students, staff, and College leaders throughout the process — but claimed final responsibility for the decisions made at the College level.

“I got a lot of feedback from a lot of people, but ultimately the decision was mine,” Deming said. “And I wrestled with it for weeks, months, you know, I really did, turning it over in my mind: ‘What’s the right thing to do?’”

He argued that the shape of the College narrowed his options. Many of its offices are too small to absorb a proportional cut, he said, leaving him to choose between keeping them whole and closing them outright.

“There’s lots of offices at the College that serve some particular function and have like two or three staff in them, and it’s pretty hard to cut an office like that by 20 percent or 15 percent,” Deming said. “So you either have these things or you don’t. My worst fear was we would cut a bunch of things and they would never come back.”

Instead, he said, he tried to leave the College room to rebuild.

“And so I thought, ‘What can I do that doesn’t do that, so that if we have to pare back and we pare back too much, we can grow again?’” he said. “And also, ‘How do we maintain what we’re doing?’”

On Wednesday, Deming framed the College’s new structure as a return to an arrangement that had worked for Harvard before.

“We actually used to have a smaller footprint a little less than a decade ago, and so we returned in many ways to the administrative structure that we had in that time,” he said. “Which to me, ultimately, I felt was a responsible way to do things because I know we can do it because we did it in recent memory.”

“That was not the only reason, but one of the reasons to bring back the FDO, to disband the Office of Student Services, to bring back the Secretary of the College,” he added.

Both moves reverse decisions by Deming’s predecessor, Rakesh Khurana, who stepped down in 2025. Khurana created the Office of Student Services and phased out the Freshman Dean’s Office — and expanded public service programming through the Phillips Brooks House, which lost a greater share of its staff to this summer’s layoffs than any other College office.

At an open forum last spring, Deming said he had yet to make final decisions but hoped to limit cuts to student programming and preserve as many staff positions as possible. On Wednesday, he acknowledged that some of that programming was lost.

“People came in with some good ideas, but there’s only so many ways you can slice things up,” he said. “The College is mostly student-facing programmatic work. I didn’t want any of that to go away, and some of it did, but most of it didn’t. And we tried as hard as we could to try to limit the impact on students and limit the impact on staff.”

Still, Deming said, the first weeks of the semester had eased his worst fears.

“So far, the sky hasn’t fallen,” he added. “I feel good about where we are, given what we had to go through.”

Deming said supporting staff was a priority this year, and that he had spoken “extensively” with them about getting new offices up and running and managing the aftermath of the layoffs.

“Part of it is just hearing from them what’s working, what they’re frustrated about, what they would like to see more of. So that’s a big part of it. It’s just listening and trying to improve things,” he said.

—Staff writer Sebastian B. Connolly can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at sbc.23. Follow him on X @SebastianC4784.

—Staff writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ser.85. Follow her on X @summerellenrose.