New WEAL Brief Criticizes K-School

A nationwide women's group yesterday released a point-by-point rebuttal to a recent "progress report" on affirmative action issued by the Kennedy School of Government, arguing that the school has made only illusory progress in hiring faculty and improving its search processes.

In a three-page statement sent to the Department of Labor (DOL) to assist in its ongoing review of the University's hiring record, the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL) contends that evidence cited as "signs of progress" by the K-School is either "irrelevant" or "a misrepresentation of data."

WEAL--which last year charged the school with violating federal affirmative action hiring codes--also argues in its statement that the K-School's recent appointments of several women and minorities reflect only "reliance on the old-boy network."

Of the five minority and female appointments to the K-School faculty in the last year, the statement notes, four were of individuals with previous Harvard affiliations and were not "a result of an extensive search as the report would suggest."

Ira A. Jackson '70, associate dean of the school, said yesterday that "I won't deny that a lot of these people are local, but they resulted from an extensive search" and that "we've never designed a search with a (specific) person in mind."

Denying WEAL's charges of misrepresentation of data, Jackson said his progress report on hiring merely summarized information he had previously submitted to the University for its report to DOL.

Classifications of faculty members that WEAL challenged are in conformance with DOL's reporting requirements, Jackson said.

University officials are currently meeting with DOL representatives to discuss Harvard's affirmative action record in hiring and to hammer out a "conciliation agreement" to resolve any problems DOL finds. DOL officials were unavailable for comment yesterday.

The new WEAL brief seeks to rebut a series of points made by Jackson in his progress report. The group contends:

Ithe school should not have included among its list of appointments four new faculty members who joined the school when it merged with the City and Regional Planning (CRP) program last year. Weal argues that CRP's superior record in affirmative action" stems from its "largely independent" hiring;

I the school should have specified to DOL that its appointments last year of two minority post-doctoral fellows did not include teaching responsibilities;

I Jackson's progress report was misleading in not specifying the previous Harvard affiliations of two women and two minorities among the school's recent hirees; and

&the recent appointments of two women I the recent appointments of two womenty reflect nongenuine gains because one of the women "is rarely seen" in the school and the other's only course is given at the Law School.

Jackson stressed that, by definition, adjunct lecturers are not required to teach courses but that the school hopes those lecturers will "teach here more often" in the future.

Carol B. Grossman, president of WEAL, said last night Jackson's progress report to the faculty chould have avoided its relience on DOL's required classifications.

By categorizing hirings like those in the CRP solely as "new appointments" in the progress report, Grossman said, Jackson "could make you feel that the efforts (of the K-School) were a little more spectacular than they were.