A Candid Conversation with Dean Deming
Graphic by Angie Li
Danoff Dean of Harvard College David J. Deming hosted an open student forum on Jan. 27 in the Lowell House Junior Common Room. Approximately 30 attendees guided the conversation around subjects including recent funding cuts to college student services as a result of Harvard’s endowment tax, the College’s push for grade deflation, Deming’s perspective on Charlie Kirk’s passing, and the incoming Hazing Report’s effect on the College’s undergraduate handbook.
Artificial Intelligence
Deming assumed the role of Danoff Dean in July 2025, succeeding Rakesh Khurana to become the current chief administrator for undergraduate academic and student life. As an economist, Deming specializes in studies on education and skill development’s effect on long-term life and labor market outcomes.
This research has informed his views on artificial intelligence as Harvard continues to form new policies surrounding AI usage in the classroom; most professors discourage generative AI in their courses. In a Dec. 2025 interview published in Time, Deming emphasized that while AI automates routine tasks, skills like decision-making, adaptability, teamwork, and social intelligence will become more important because they cannot easily be automated.
One attendee was still skeptical of this analysis and prompted Deming to elaborate on AI’s place in the College. “Do you think that the meaning of education and what we should all be getting from Harvard is changing?” the student asked. “No, I don’t, actually,” Deming replied.
“When things are changing really quickly, and the world is likely going to be really different in the future than it is today, that’s actually when a liberal arts education is more important,” Deming explained. “We’re teaching you a very general-purpose toolkit that is meant to survive multiple technological evolutions.”
Endowment Tax
As Danoff Dean, Deming holds the responsibility to oversee undergraduate academic life and advance public legitimacy to secure more philanthropic funding for the University. This informs his push to improve Harvard’s reputation and secure new donors amid growing bipartisan pressure on elite universities and subsequent funding losses.
In 2025, Congress passed a sweeping tax and spending package that raised the federal excise tax on university endowment investment income from 1.4% to as high as 8%. Harvard’s endowment—the largest in the United States—will fall into the highest tax bracket under the new law, a shift that university leaders have warned could reduce funds available for financial aid, research, and core academic programs.
“Three years ago, the Massachusetts State Legislature advanced pretty seriously a proposal to tax [Harvard’s] endowment. And this is a heavily Democratic legislature. And now, we have an actual increase in the endowment tax passed by a Republican Congress,” Deming explained.
“And so what that tells you is that, sure, the heat has turned up on Harvard now, but it’s not like we can just ride this out. We have to be able to make the case that we provide value to the public and that we are the kind of institution that is in the interest of the public to support.”
In the wake of the University’s financial losses, one attendee noted granular changes in the University’s finances, including $2 cuts to TAs’ hourly salaries and removing free coffee to visitors at the SEC. Generally, the University has made cuts across schools, including SEAS laying off 25% of its unionized clerical and technical staff and the college letting go of nearly a dozen faculty and lecturers in Oct. 2025.
“I wouldn’t underestimate the impact of the endowment tax,” Deming said. Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics and Faculty Dean of Lowell House David Laibson ’88 was present for the discussion and interjected to share that the endowment tax created a $100 million hole in Harvard’s budget. “Just for the FAS,” Laibson said.
One student asked Deming if he expected any greater changes in the near future. “I’m very hopeful we won’t have to make fundamental changes,” Deming responded.
Grade Deflation
Deming also took time to address concerns over grade deflation at the College. In Jan. 2026, Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh ’01 addressed Faculty of Arts and Science instructors, reporting that the share of flat A-grades fell from 60.2% in the 2024-2025 school year to 53.4% in the fall. This decline reflects attempts by the College to encourage stricter academic measures, detailed in a 25-page report released by Claybaugh in Oct. 2025.
Despite student dissent, Deming justified the College’s push to decrease flat A’s awarded to students. “In a decentralized way over time, various pressures have led to people starting to award more and more A’s every year,” he said. “In the last 12 years or so, we’ve gone from a college that awards roughly 35% straight A’s to a college where we’re awarding 60% straight A’s.”
“You may not think this is in your interest, but I promise you it is,” Deming continued.
“Conversations with employers and with graduate school admissions directors have led us to believe that the grading system we have here is common knowledge to them, and it’s actually harming you,” he said. “For example, medical schools feel like they can’t make distinctions between students at Harvard anymore because there are so many A’s.”
Hazing Report and Handbook Changes
Deming also discussed changes in student life beyond academics. In response to the federal Stop Campus Hazing Act passed by Congress in late 2024, the College began requiring all student group leaders to attend federally mandated hazing prevention training. Congress now expects campuses to compile reports on organizations involved in hazing incidents, strengthening its anti-hazing policies and prevention programs.
“We are planning to review the language in the Student Handbook to make sure it’s consistent with the law,” Deming said.
Political Tension On Campus
Several attendees posed questions related to the Israel-Hamas war, referencing students’ grief of the ongoing casualties in Gaza and dialogue on campus for Harvard to divest from Israel.
One student questioned Deming’s unwillingness to comment on the war. “You mentioned earlier that the issue of divestment from Israel is outside of your purview, which to me feels [like] a bit of a double standard, given your comments last fall on the killing of Charlie Kirk—which I feel is equally outside your purview, or, by another logic, equally within it,” the student said. “These are both issues—the killing of Charlie Kirk, divestment related to the killing of Palestinians—that students care about.”
The student referenced Deming’s comments from Sep. 2025, when he condemned the murder of Charlie Kirk and pledged to support and protect conservative students on campus at a gathering of Republican and right-leaning student groups.
“I disagree with the juxtaposition of the Charlie Kirk thing,” Deming said. “All I did in that case was say to students who were grieving the death of Charlie Kirk—somebody who they felt was a mentor—I just expressed in a personal sense that I know they’re grieving and I’m here to support them personally.”
Following the forum with Deming, one attendee reflected on these statements in an anonymous interview with the Independent.
“[Deming] has an inability to stake a claim on certain things, and I think that does destroy the image that you want to put out as someone who’s really willing to listen to students,” they said. “I don’t understand the response that grieving Palestinians is ultimately political such that [Deming] couldn’t make a statement about grieving Palestinians.”
“It seems to me that [he does] think that Palestinians and their lives are a political issue, thus that [he] can’t comment on them but for some reason [can comment on] Charlie Kirk,” they continued.
At the end of the discussion, Deming added that there will be other opportunities to discuss still-present concerns with him: “I will make the time to hear students out who have particular points of view, and take their views seriously, and communicate their views appropriately to people who need to hear it.”
Courtney Hines (courtneyhines@college.harvard.edu) is the News Editor for the Independent.