Dean Kirby's resignation

Five minutes ago, right after I returned from John Harvard's - where GM has told me many things not only about Ecuador - we received a characteristically nice and diplomatic - and in this particular case also uncharacteristically content-rich - e-mail from the dean of FAS William Kirby announcing that after the spring semester, he will return to his dynamic field, modern and contemporary China, and resign as the dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University. The whole process looks very elegant - and still, the well-informed readers should be aware that the president has the right to fire the deans independently of the direction of the wind. The readers of The Reference Frame could learn the news even before the readers of The Crimson.