DISTORTION

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

This letter is written in regard to an article entitled "Junior Faculty Claim Pay Hike No Incentive," which appeared in the CRIMSON on December 14, 1965. In this article I was quoted by your reporter as saying: "There are colleges with less adequate libraries that could offer me $20,000 a year--and I still wouldn't go."

This is a distortion of my words and is taken out of context.

When asked by your reporter in the course of our telephone conversation on Monday afternoon whether I wanted to stay on at Harvard after the expiration of my present appointment. I replied that this all depended on what other possibilities were available. I then proceded to outline the sort of considerations involved in making a choice for a teaching job. Salary was only one factor: the quality of the student body, the leave system, teaching load, location were others. Especially important for me was the adequacy of the research facilities. I concluded my remarks on this by saying that a school without adequate research facilities could offer me a large salary, even $20,000, and I would not accept it.

The distortion of the printed statement lies in the addition of the word 'less' which implies that I was making some comparison with Harvard whereas in fact in this portion of my remarks I was speaking generally about the problem of selecting a school.

But more important than the distortion of my words is the fact that I specifically requested a promise from your reporter to the effect that he would not use any material from our ten-minute phone conversation before clearing with me. He made such a promise and we set up a time that evening when either he or another member of the CRIMSON staff would call. This promise was not kept. Ronald G. Witt   Instructor of History