"Dean Wolff has initiated transition in the graduate financial support program. I hope to continue this and make Harvard as attractive to the very best graduate students as possible," he said.

Both Ellison and Pedersen will continue teaching classes with their new positions.

But if their predecessors are any indication, they should set aside substantial time for these jobs.

Todd, the outgoing dean of undergraduate education, worked to increase the number of Core courses, decrease the number of concentration requirements and offer language citations, among other accomplishments.

"Dean Todd has always had the quality of the instructional program at the front of his mind in all the interactions in which I have observed him, from answering dozens of individual student inquiries up through the appointment of senior faculty," Lewis wrote.

Todd also emphasized his work with students in discussing his favorite parts of the post.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed working with several sets of committed and imaginative students on the [Committee on Undergraduate Education] to help implement their suggestions for improving undergraduate education," Todd wrote in an e-mail message.