#  FAS Faculty Meeting Recap 

 





December 12, 2024

 

 

In the final Faculty Meeting of the fall semester, Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Hopi Hoekstra oversaw a full agenda of business in various stages of discussion and review.

FAS Chief Campus Curator Brenda Tindal, who also serves as Hoekstra’s senior advisor on Academic Community Engagement, gave an update about her work across the nearly 300 buildings and 11 million square feet of space that comprise FAS campus spaces. She highlighted upcoming work in University Hall’s Faculty Room, the very room in which Faculty Meeting takes place. As a space that houses 35 paintings, 15 busts, a historic clock, chandeliers, and textiles, she noted that the lack of mechanized HVAC system in University Hall and rising temperatures during summer months have caused seasonal fluctuating humidity levels in the Faculty Room, as such conservation efforts are underway for select artworks. She also referenced a longer term consideration of adding details related to provenance and historical context to strengthen interpretation of works on display.

“As we make way for more dynamic curation of this space, maintaining the integrity of our circulating collection of artworks and cultural assets is a critical part of this work, especially within our campus’s historic built environment,” Tindal said.

Faculty approved the 2025 Harvard Summer School course list as well as revisions to the Handbook for Students related to the undergraduate program that codify the College’s in-person residential model of learning. The changes to the handbook will go into effect July 1, 2025.

Professor of Religion and Indian Philosophy Parimal Patil gave a final presentation on legislation recommending rebalancing Faculty Council, specifically dedicating three seats to SEAS to better align with Science, Social Science, and Arts and Humanities representation. This recommendation and resulting legislation came out of the ad hoc Advisory Committee on Meetings of the Faculty, which Patil chaired. A vote on this proposed legislation will be taken from December 10 through December 17 by a ballot made available to all voting members of the Faculty. If passed, this change will go into effect July 1, 2025.

Robert J. Wood, Harry Lewis and Marlyn McGrath Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, ended the regular portion of the meeting with a Research Minute presentation about his work in robotics. Wood’s research began with hardware robotics and has evolved to include soft robotics and, in the last 10 years, a focus on marine biology. As part of [**Project CETI**](https://www.projectceti.org/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAx9q6BhCDARIsACwUxu5hdcOTEK457nt8E3RkP-RKvkjPWqeiQ8bi7OVmiaLWo385eS0TNGsaAinFEALw_wcB), a group of researchers studying whales, he has been a leader in efforts to develop soft devices to study the mammals’ vocalizations.



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Faculty Meetings ](/news-categories/faculty-meetings)