Taking a Closer Look

Dean Rosovsky's decision last week to form an ad hoc committee to investigate promoting Theda R. Skocpol, associate professor of Sociology, to a tenured position pleased Skocpol, but it did not surprise her.

She said this week that she began to sleep easier when the three-member Faculty committee investigating her grievance against the Sociology Department recommended that Rosovsky advance her case to the next step in the tenure process.

The ad hoc committee will not meet until the end of May, when it will either decide that Skocpol should not receive tenure here or recommend to President Bok that she should.

If a tenure offer emerges from the process, Skocpol said she will "seriously consider" it but could not return until the 1982-83 school year at the earliest. She must decide on outside tenure offers before the ad hoc committee meets.

Skocpol said she was leaning toward taking a joint position at the University of Chicago in sociology and political science.

Although she said she was happy with Rosovsky's decision, Skocpol expressed concern that her charge of sex discrimination might be forgotten as a result of the dean's referring it to the University's and Faculty's affirmative action offices.

James A. Davis, chairman of the Sociology Department and one of the five senior department members who opposed recommending tenure for Skocpol, said last week he was pleased with Rosovsky's decision.

He and Skocpol agreed that the Faculty's grievance process--which was put to its first test in Skocpol's case--took an exasperatingly long time. Skocpol filed her grievance in November.