Many Scares, But Only Three Leave

Three professors left Harvard this spring for other universities--Dean Rosovsky says that is the average rate--while another three renowned scholars gave the University scares with tentative plans to pack their books.

Martin M. Shapiro, professor of Government and a constitutional expert, will leave Harvard this month to join the Political Science department at the University of California in San Diego. Shapiro's wife Barbara, dean of Wheaton College, will become an associate professor of History at San Diego.

Also heading for the West Coast is Richard F. Thompson, professor of Psychology, to be a professor at the University of California at Irvine in December.

The third apostate is Albert O. Hirschman, Littauer Professor of Political Economy, who will join the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton next year.

Hirschman said in mid-April that the Institute will allow him to study his field, Latin American development, "with less pressure and no diversion."

James S. Duesenberry, chairman of the Economics Department, said at the time, "We're all very sorry he decided to retire to a monastery."

Shapiro said last week that he and his wife typify an increasing incidence of academic couples seeking dual appointments.

"Husbands and wives get divorced, commute hundreds of miles, or go to the other side of the country all in an attempt to work at the same place," he said.

Dean Rosovsky and President Bok, in separate comments this spring, both acknowledged the growing importance of satisfying husband-wife academic teams.

Dual job offers come so rarely, Shapiro said, that he and his wife felt little hesitation before accepting the San Diego positions.

As for the vacancy, Harvey C. Mansfield Jr., chairman of the Government Department, indicated in late April that Harvard will try to replace Shapiro with someone whose expertise is in the same field--the Supreme Court and the Constitution.

Thompson is a specialist in physiological psychology, and is a popular professor among graduate students in the department. Graduate student sources suggested in late May that Thompson was discouraged because the department had rejected a proposal to change the first-year curriculum submitted by a committee he headed.

Thompson denied that this affected his decision and explained that he would rather live on the West Coast.

Seymour Martin Lipset, professor of Government and Social Relations, considered an appointment at Stanford University but said last week he will reject it. Lipset earlier noted his and his wife's fondness for the weather in California.

Lipset's research has been in the fields of the sociology of political movements and the sociology of intellectuals.

Another threat came from Kenneth J. Arrow, professor of Economics and winner of the 1972 Nobel Prize for Economics, who also turned down a Stanford offer.

Arrow said in early March, that Cambridge's crime rate had soured him but that he was more influenced by his colleagues who urged him to stay.

Two months later, in late May, Arrow accepted a Harvard promotion to the James Bryant Conant University Professorship, effective July 1.

Finally--not exactly a wrench in the works but certainly a red herring--The New York Times reported in late March that Oscar Handlin, Pforzheimer University Professor and chairman of the Faculty library committee, was being considered for appointment as the Librarian of Congress.

Handlin said last week that he never got that offer, and will stay at Harvard.