page_title: Harry R. Lewis
section_title: Dean of Harvard College
hierarchical_section_title: Harry R. Lewis / Dean of Harvard College
caption_attribution_description: From source (blog of en:Harry R. Lewis): "In the fall of 1982, I taught CS50, intro CS (it was then called AS11&#160;...) We graded the hour exam on Halloween and after we were done doing that, the TFs were invited over to my house for dinner. One of them got the bright idea to get up in Harry Lewis Halloween costumes&#160;..."
context_page_description: Harry Roy Lewis is an American computer scientist, mathe­ma­ti­cian, and uni­ver­sity admin­i­stra­tor known for his research in com­pu­ta­tional logic, textbooks in theoretical computer science, and writings on computing, higher education, and technology. He is Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University, and was Dean of Harvard College from 1995 to 2003.
  Lewis has been honored for his "particularly distinguished contributions to undergraduate teaching"; his students have included future entrepreneurs Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, and numerous future faculty members at Harvard and other schools.
  The website "Six Degrees to Harry Lewis", created by Zuckerberg while at Harvard, was a precursor to Facebook.
  A new professorship in Engineering and Applied Sciences, endowed by a former student, will be named for Lewis and his wife upon their retirements.
context_section_description: In 1994 Lewis coauthored the "comprehensive" Report on the Structure of Harvard College, and in 1995 he was appointed dean of Harvard College, responsible for the nonacademic aspects of undergraduate life. In that capacity he oversaw a number of sometimes-controversial policy changes, including changes to the handling of allegations of sexual assault, reorganization of the college's public-service programs, a crackdown on underage alcohol use, and random assignment of students to upperclass houses (countering the social segregation found under the prior system of assignment according to student preference).
  He also pressed improvements to advising and health care.
  A colleague has said that Lewis "reshaped undergraduate life more powerfully than anyone else in recent memory."
  After the 2001 inauguration of Harvard University's twenty-seventh president, Lawrence Summers, Lewis and Summers came into conflict over the direction of the College and its educational philosophy. Lewis, for example, emphasized the importance of extracurricular pursuits, advising incoming freshmen that "flexibility in your schedule, unstructured time in your day, and evenings spent with your friends rather than your books are all, in a larger sense, essential for your education", while Summers complained of an insufficiently intellectual "Camp Harvard" and admonished students that "You are here to work, and your business here is to learn." After Lewis issued what The Harvard Crimson called "a scathing indictment of the view that increasing intellectual rigor ought to be the [College's] priority" – pointing out that prospective employers show less interest in grades than in personal qualities built outside the classroom – he was peremptorily removed as dean in March 2003.
  Lewis continued to teach throughout his time as dean. In 2015 he served as interim Dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
caption: On Halloween 1982, Lewis' teach­ing assis­tants appeared at his home in "Harry Lewis" costume, includ­ing his then-trademark mus­tache and pipe. Future Harvard professor Margo Seltzer is at left.[20]
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