Faculty to Meet 1975-76 Hiring Goals

The Faculty will probably meet its affirmative action goals for 1975-76, Phyllis Keller, equal employment officer for the Faculty said yesterday.

In 1973 the Faculty set affirmative-action goals for women faculty at 3 per cent of the tenured faculty positions and 17.5 per cent of the non-tenured professorships.

Based on estimates prepared last week, women will have 3 per cent tenured faculty representation by next year and will hold 18.8 per cent of the junior faculty positions, slightly exceeding the goal.

Goals for minority representation were 4.9 per cent of tenured faculty and 6.7 per cent of non-tenured positions. Last week's projections set the estimated representation at 5.1 per cent and 6.3 per cent, respectively.

Keller said that the Faculty is "doing well" in affirmative action in relation to the rest of the University.

Walter J. Leonard, special assistant to President Bok and coordinator of affirmative action and equal employment programs, said yesterday that University-wide figures will be discussed at today's meeting of the Council of Deans. Leonard yesterday would not release University-wide estimates corresponding to Keller's Faculty projections.

Keller said that it was "too early" to say whether any department within the Faculty had violated the affirmative action guidelines. She said it would be "embarassing" to reveal estimates for particular departments, as the hiring procedure is not yet complete.

Goals vs. Quotas

Keller distinguished between goals and quotas, saying that while quotas are "hard and fast requirements," the affirmative action goals are "based on reasonable expectations--they're what you're trying to hit."

Harvard calculates its three-year goals by predicting the gain in minority and women appointments if all the expected vacancies in the period were to be filled in proportion to the representation women and minorities hold in the pool of applicants for the professorships.

In the resulting "staging effect," Keller said, the representation of women and minorities on the junior faculty will gradually grow to reflect their representation in graduate schools. Only after that can the senior faculty which draws from the junior faculty in hiring expect an increase in women and minority representation.

Minority Enrollment

Although Keller said she expects "continuing improvement" because of the staging effect, she said she finds a "disturbing element" in the staging process: the recent nationwide decline in graduate school minority enrollment. In addition, while the enrollment of women in graduate schools is not decreasing, it is heavily concentrated in English and Fine Arts.

Delda White, director of publications at Radcliffe, who in August 1973 filed a complaint with the Department of Labor charging Harvard with discrimination against women employees, said yesterday that the Faculty "could have done a lot better." She termed the affirmative action goals "embarassing" and "absurd."