Princetonian May Consider K-School Chair

The chairman of the politics department at Princeton University may become the new Henry R. Luce Professor of Applied Ethics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, a Princeton faculty member said yesterday.

Dennis F. Thompson is considering accepting the K-School position. W. Duane Lockard, professor of politics at Princeton, said yesterday. Neither Thompson nor K-School officials would comment earlier this week on this possibility.

However, Edith M. Stokey, secretary to the K-School and coordinator of academic appointments, said yesterday she expects the University to officially announce the appointment soon.

A K-School search committee made recommendations earlier this year to Graham T. Allison Jr. '62, dean of the K-School, for the new professorship, Stokey added.

The committee, headed by Don K. Price, professor of Government, spent more than six months considering several dozen candidates for the professorship, she added.

The Corporation must approve the candidate before the University can offer him the job, she said.

The new chair is one of 15 professorships awarded by the Henry Luce Foundation. Martha R. Wallace, executive director of the organization, said yesterday.

The foundation sponsors a competition to stimulate academic creativity. Each college with a winning proposal receives a five-year grant with an optional three-year renewal, Wallace added. Harvard is the only school with two Luce professorships, the other one being in Film Study, she added.

The foundation will provide Harvard with $50,000 a year to support the chair, Wallace said.

Thompson was an instructor in Government at Harvard before going to Princeton in 1968. He has been chairman of the politics department there since 1976