Looking beyond controversy surrounding the email searches and the Government 1310 cheating case, other professors praised Hammonds’s leadership at the helm of the College.
Religion professor Diana L. Eck, the co-Master of Lowell House, said Tuesday that Hammonds “worked tirelessly” on behalf of students.
Eck commended Hammonds’s decision to serve as Dean and “to put aside her own work and research at this difficult period of time—and a difficult period of time for the College. Most of us would not think of doing that.”
Eck added that, along with her co-Master of Lowell House Dorothy A. Austin, she was grateful to have had the chance to collaborate with Hammonds.
“It has been a real privilege to work with her for five years,” Eck said. “House Masters like Dorothy and I see her work relentlessly behind the scenes for programs and facilities that benefit our students.”
Multimedia
Upon her return from sabbatical, Hammonds will lead a new program at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research on the intersection of race and gender with science and medicine.
“I am looking forward to redesigning my classes in light of new technologies and modes of teaching,“ Hammonds said in the Gazette. “I’m eager to return to my teaching and research on race, genomics, and gender in science and medicine.”
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a professor in the Department of African and African American Studies and the director of the DuBois Institute, said Tuesday that he sees Hammonds’s decision to step down and return to academics “in nothing but the most positive terms.” Gates, who learned of Hammonds’s decision to step down in a personal email from her Tuesday morning, would not comment on the specific motivation behind the decision.
“From my point of view, it’s wonderful,” Gates said. “Evelynn and I have for several years directed a working group at the Du Bois Institute about genealogy and genetics, and I have wanted her to pursue this area of scholarship rather than remain in administration.”
Hammonds was selected to be the first woman and first African-American to serve as Dean of Harvard College in 2008. Her tenure saw the full implementation of the General Education program, the launch of Wintersession, and the beginning of House renewal construction. Though she taught few classes during her time as dean, Hammonds remains a member of the History of Science and the African and African American Studies departments.
—Staff writer Nicholas P. Fandos can be reached at nicholasfandos@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @npfandos.
—Staff writer Samuel Y. Weinstock can be reached at sweinstock@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @syweinstock.