New Administrative Jobs Draw Flood of Applicants

Hundreds of people have applied for two new high-level administrative jobs within the University's Government and Community Affairs department. Harvard sources said this week.

The two new posts--associate vice president for public affairs, and associate vice president for state and community affairs--were advertised early this summer in several national publications. The ads did not use Harvard's name, identifying the school only as "a leading Eastern Research University."

Since the ads--which also ran in the Harvard Gazette--appeared, applications have flooded in, sources said. One Harvard employee estimated that the University has received as many as 1000 applications.

Robin Schmidt, vice president for government and community affairs, was out of town this week and could not be reached to explain the creation of the positions. The posts will be under Schmidt; presumably, one of the new vice presidents will supervise Deane Lord, director of information, and the other will oversee the efforts of state and local lobbvists including Louis Armistead, assistant to the vice president for community affairs.

Overload

"It may be a realization that there is simply too much work for one person (Schmidt) to do," one staffer said.

The advertisement for the public affairs position states: "a senior executive is needed to develop and implement extensive public information programs. Duties include supervising media relations, news office, and internal newspaper."

The associate vice president for state and community relations will "help develop and implement university policy in regard to state government and the local community," and will be particularly involved in "developing long range programs based on research, consultation and reconciliation of conflicting goals," the ad said.

The last associate vice president for government affairs--Michael Brewer--left the University almost two years ago. Local leaders claimed before and after Brewer's departure that University officials were often inaccessible.