Harvard dean who okayed secret faculty email search steps down

Harvard College Dean Evelynn Hammonds, who last month acknowledged authorizing a secret search of email belonging to several residential deans at the university, will step down from her position July 1.

According to the Harvard Gazette, Hammonds will return to teaching and research at the departments of History of Science and African and African American Studies at the university's W.E.B Du Bois Institute. She will head a new program for the study of race and gender in science and medicine at the institute, the Gazette noted. She will also continue to serve on several advisory committees and boards at Harvard.

Hammonds was the first woman and first African American to be named dean of Harvard College when she was appointed in 2008.