Francis Pipkin Will Become New Associate Faculty Dean

Francis Marion Pipkin, professor of Physics, will become the first associate dean of the Faculty for Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges after the governing boards give his appointment their routine approval this week.

Pipkin will supervise all undergraduate education and administration, overseeing the work of Dean Whitlock, who does College administrative work, and Robert J. Kiely, associate dean of the Faculty for undergraduate education.

In a further restructuring of the College administration, Bruce Collier, research assistant in the Office of Tests, will become the first assistant dean of the College with specific responsibility for the Houses.

The Houses are now under the jurisdiction of Richard G. Leahy, associate dean of the Faculty for resources and planning, but next year will be among Whitlock's overall responsibilities.

Solomon Resigns Deanship

Barbara M. Solomon will resign as assistant dean of the College in order to teach full time, and her responsibilities as secretary of Special Studies and secretary to the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) will be divided temporarily while Pipkin decides how to reapportion them permanently. Judith B. Walzer, director of the Office of Women's Education, will oversee the CUE, while David A. Harnett, secretary to the Faculty, will take over Solomon's Special Studies responsibilities.

The Corporation will consider the administrative changes tomorrow, and submit their decision to the Board of Overseers for approval at its meeting Wednesday. The new appointments will be announced Thursday.

Pipkin, who taught no undergraduate courses this year and has never held a major administrative job, is a nuclear physicist who has been at Harvard for 20 years.

He and Dean Rosovsky were junior fellows from 1954 to 1957, and have known each other since then, although sources say they are not close friends.

Leahy said Saturday, without naming Pipkin specifically, that the new associate dean "has an excellent reputation as a scientist and a teacher." He added that Pipkin's colleagues "thought highly enough of him" to put him in charge of the High Energy Physics Project, a federally-funded research project.

Whitlock said Saturday that the changes in University Hall represent a decentralization of the power of the dean of the Faculty. "The Faculty has been underadministered," Whitlock said, "but under [then-dean of the Faculty John T.] Dunlop it didn't show up as much because his power was very centralized. He had no desire to delegate authority."

Whitlock added that Rosovsky "doesn't want to do it that way."

Rosovsky is reportedly unhappy with the amount of undergraduate administrative work he has to do because there is no one dean in charge of all undergraduate affairs. He created the new deanship in order to give himself more time for long-range planning.

Whitlock, Leahy and Kiely will all remain in their present jobs next year, although Kiely has said he will probably resign his deanship when his three-year contract expires at the end of next year. Several sources speculated last week that after Kiely leaves his post, Rosovsky will not refill it.

Pipkin's job is modeled on that of Dean Dreben, who is directly responsible for all Graduate School of Arts and Sciences matters. Rosovsky is reportedly pleased with the way Derben handled his job this year and wants to create a similar line of responsibility in the College.

Pipkin, who was unavailable for comment yesterday, was born in Marianna, Ark., in 1925 and graduated from Iowa State University in 1950. He received his master's degree at Princeton University in 1952 and his Ph.D. there in 1954. He has been professor of Physics since 1964.

Rosovsky and Bok would not comment Saturday on Pipkin's appointment, but Rosovsky said the new dean "has as much administrative experience as I did when I became dean."

Collier, a lecturer on the History of Science, came to Harvard as a graduate student in 1965 after graduating from St. John's College in Annapolis, Md. He was a part-time assistant College dean this year and for the last two years has done the computer programming for House assignments.

Responsibility for the Houses had been a Faculty matter separate from the College administration until Collier's appointment. Whitlock said the shift in responsibility for the Houses came because his office has dealt increasingly in recent years with House affairs