Davenport College Dean Craig Harwood GRD ’02 will step down at the end of the month, he announced in a Tuesday email to students in Davenport College.

Harwood, who has served as Dean in Davenport since June 2005, will take a position as Director of the Hunter-Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He attended Queens College, CUNY as an undergraduate student.

Read his email below:

Dear D’porters:

I write to you with the happy yet bittersweet news that I have accepted an offer to become the Director of the Hunter-Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, CUNY in New York City. This is an exciting opportunity both personally and professionally, and therefore I will be stepping down as Dean of Davenport College at the end of the month.

I am excited about the opportunities and challenges that await me in this new position, at the same time it is hard to express the mixed emotions for myself and my family that accompany leaving Davenport. Much more than a job, Davenport has been our home for the past six years. You have been our community, our support system and our friends. I have been honored to be able to rejoice with you in your triumphs and console you in your sorrows. Moreover, Julie and I have enjoyed sharing our lives with you. From our daily meals in the dining hall to the births of both Asher and Ellie, you have been with us and given us your support and compassion. Most of all, I couldn’t think of a better set of role models for our children, and it was not a rare moment when I delighted in seeing my children learn from you: their first babysitters, their first teachers, their first friends.

But just as you came to Davenport knowing that you would eventually graduate, my time has come as well. Davenport has taught me so much about the strength of community and the power of an education that extends well beyond the classroom. The opportunity to direct the Hunter-Macaulay Honors College is particularly exciting because as a graduate of Queens College, CUNY, working at CUNY will be a homecoming for me. I am looking forward to combining my understanding of undergraduate life at CUNY with my experience at Yale. The prospect of continuing to support an incredibly smart, motivated and diverse group of students in a public university, providing them with an experience that is as rich and robust as the one here in Davenport, is a dream of mine that I look forward to fulfilling in this new position.

It has been a great pleasure working with Master Richard Schottenfeld, who has been the most encouraging mentor I could hope for, always placing student development as his top priority; Tanina, Joseph and Mila, our models for creating a family within the college; Carolyn Haller, the Operations Manager, who we are lucky to have advocating for Davenport’s best interests; Barbara Munck, the Master’s Assistant, whose tireless energy is felt by every student in the college; Linda Patenaude, whose culinary wizardry keeps the whole college happy; Rhonda Vegliante, who more than an assistant, has been my adviser and friend and whose dedication and kindness is the force behind the success of the Davenport Dean’s Office; and the Davenport Fellows, who contribute so much to this community through their commitment to the college. With their continued support and guidance, I know I leave Davenport in good hands.

As I have said more than once in a commencement speech, Davenport is about people, both those here now and those that came before you. It is your creativity, your personalities and your accomplishments that shape this place, and I am honored to have been part of it.

With gratitude and respect,

Craig Harwood