# FAS Faculty Meeting (Oct. 7, 2025) October 10, 2025 Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences [**Hopi Hoekstra**](/about-dean-hoekstra "About Dean Hoekstra") used the first Faculty Meeting of the 2025-26 academic year to express confidence in how the FAS is facing this time of continued uncertainty. “I can say with confidence that in the FAS, we are meeting this moment with clear purpose and steady action,” said Hoesktra. She pointed to current efforts ranging from [**support for researchers**](/news/2025/10/research-continuity-update-and-next-phase-committee-work "Research Continuity: Update and Next Phase of Committee Work") to [**deep study**]() of administrative structures, and to future conversations around long term planning with the Research Continuity Committee and Task Force on Workforce Planning. Hoekstra also used her dean’s business to reflect on the weight of the moment and to express gratitude for her faculty colleagues who push forward research and continue to teach with creativity and care, and who mentor students, and support one another. She described a recent lunch with faculty as “grounding,” and ended her remarks by sharing her recent experience getting to know Marianne Cullen, a young girl from Springfield, Massachusetts, who traveled to Harvard to meet her heroine, Jessica Whited, Associate Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, for whose research she raised $1,000. “What we do here also inspires curiosity, compassion, and hope. Even in six year olds,” said Hoekstra. “And in times like these, that hope matters more than ever.” Faculty assembled in University Hall heard a range of business. Hoekstra welcomed Professor [**David Deming**](https://college.harvard.edu/about/dean-deming) to his first meeting as Danoff Dean of Harvard College. Deming used the opportunity to invite faculty to nominate Currier House Faculty Deans (current deans Latanya Sweeney and Sylvia Barrett will step down at the end of the year having served 10 years) and also invited them to join students in the dining halls, noting that they could now swipe in for three meals a week, as meaningful opportunities for faculty and students to interact outside of the classroom. “Any time with students is wind in my sails,” he said. “They are so optimistic, and they are so excited about being here.” Recentering academics for undergraduates is a priority for Hoekstra, who referred to the foundational [**work**](https://www.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum716/files/2025-04/CSCC-FINAL_Adopted-03.04.25-FINAL-ua_0.pdf) of the Classroom Social Compact committee last year that laid the groundwork for collective action by the faculty. “It’s about making what happens in the classroom something they don’t want to miss out on,” she said. “We have an opportunity to re-establish the classroom as a place of wonder and challenge – where students wrestle with ideas that will shape them as thinkers, scholars, and leaders long after their time at Harvard.” On the docket were legislated reviews of both the Environmental Science and Engineering (ESE) concentration and of course scheduling. SEAS Dean David Parkes and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education, Academic Programs and Policy Gillian Pierce presented on the ESE’s two tracks (the broader Bachelor of Arts and the more engineering heavy Bachelor of Science).FAS Registrar Erika McDonald presented a review of course scheduling, noting the successful standardization of start times and even the elimination of “Harvard time” Continued challenges included lack of diversity of course options on the Allston campus and low scheduling on Fridays and at 9 a.m. times, with McDonald adding that efforts “to decompress the schedule and find more time for lunch for students” will continue. Earlier in the meeting, faculty heard poignant reminiscences of Richard Goody, Mallinckrodt Professor of Planetary Physics, Emeritus, who died in 2023, and Tai Tsun Wuy, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Professor of Physics, Emeritus, who passed away last year. Jennifer Roberts, Drew Gilpin Faust Professor of the Humanities, was also named an FAS Arts and Sciences Professor by Hoekstra in recognition of her exceptional contributions to research and teaching. [**Stephen Greenblatt**](https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/stephen-greenblatt), John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities, gave the Research Minute presentation, focusing on his new book “Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival.” Greenblatt set the scene of 1560s England as a “cultural wasteland” – one in which poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe found success as a student in Cambridge only to meet an early death, with his murder at age 29. A master storyteller, Greenblatt ended his brief talk with a cliffhanger, noting that more recent research called into question the motive for the murder. See also:- [ Faculty Meetings ](/news-categories/faculty-meetings)