Previously the Dean of New Students for six years and a psychology professor, Hart was offered the job after the College conducted a nationwide search for a replacement for Lieber.
Though Claremont McKenna College’s (CMC) Dean of Students, Jefferson Huang, was offered the job, he refused it, telling the CMC community that he “[had] come to love CMC more” even though “it was a dream [he] had waited 20 years to come true.” The College then decided to ask Hart to serve an interim term of three years at the end of which they will conduct another search. According to College president Tony Marx, Hart was an ideal choice for the job.
“I think we’re hugely fortunate to have Allen Hart step into this position for at least an initial three-year term,” said Marx. “Then we will search again. It’s hard to imagine that we could have done better ending up with Allen in this position. I look forward to working with Allen to maintain the great strengths of the Dean of Students’ office and to continue to rethink how we can do even better.”
The new position will require Hart to spend a greater amount of time in an administrative, managerial role than his former position, in which he worked more directly with students. However, Hart expects that his threefold experience as an Amherst dean, professor and student will help him in his new role, as he can understand these three components of the college community.
“I think my history is important,” he said. “I’ve seen the campus from those different perspectives over the time frame. My freshman year was 1978, the second or third year of co-education. It was a very different campus. It’s been wonderful to have an over 30-year affiliation with Amherst. Many of the folks that I knew when I was a student are still here. In [the] psychology [department], my office over there was sandwiched between two professors I took classes with. To be able to have a 30-year history, but still feel like it’s all relatively new for me, is great.”
Hart attributes his interest in student affairs to his time as a student in that many of his mentors in the psychology department were also affiliated with the Dean of Students’ office. Seeing their interactions with students inspired him to help students in the same way. As Dean of Students, he hopes to carry on this tradition and help students develop as unique individuals and find their place in the world, much in the same way that the open curriculum helps students.
“The open curriculum is a model of helping students define their academic paths,” he said. “I think the beauty of the open curriculum is that it allows it to be a unique journey. I see student affairs in much the same way: helping students find their path. There is a certain set of intellectual challenges that they will face, and for every student it will be unique. As their time on campus is up, I hope they will be able to look back at their personal relationships, academics and extracurricular activities and see that they’ve been able to develop to their unique satisfaction.”
Many students welcome Hart’s new appointment and fondly recall times that he has helped them in the past.
“He's great, always smiling and so friendly,” said Chenlan Bao ’11. “He helped me change my first-year seminar when I had a [schedule] conflict.”
“There was one time that a few friends of mine and I were walking across the quad just before the holiday break, and we said happy holidays to [Dean Hart] in passing,” recalled Greg Barrett ’12. “He then asked where we were going and had a lovely conversation just out of the blue. A few of us had actually met him before so it was doubly nice of him to take the time.”
Having recruited Hart from the faculty for his previous position and worked with him over the years, Lieber is confident that Hart will prove himself an excellent successor.
“I think he’ll be a terrific Dean of Students,” said Lieber. “I was very proud to have recruited him from the faculty to be Dean of New Students, and he’s worked out terrifically. He’s by all accounts a very talented teacher, and he brings the same sort of empathy and warmth towards students that he brings towards his teaching. He’s a terrific guy and will do a first-rate job.”