Names and faces in the spotlight

Saul L. Chafin, credited with rebuilding the morale of the Harvard Police Department during his five-year tenure, left his post as chief of police to take a simnilar position at Vanderbilt University. His replacement was Paul E. Johnson, a 26-year veteran of the Boston police force, who almost immediately had to handle a hot potato in charges that the force had harassed Black youths. Johnson responded to the allegations in an appearance before the Cambridge City Council.

Also stepping down--for personal reasons--was James C. Thomson Jr., curator of the Nieman Foundation, which brings mid-career journalists to Harvard for a year of study. Thomson takes much of the credit for bringing increased numbers of women and minorities into the program in his 12 years on the job, though in his last four years, sniping could be heard from alumni of the program who had problems with his style of administration. His reported replacement: Washington Post managing editor Howard Simons.

George Putnam '49, University treasurer, also decided to call it quits after 11 years on the job. Putnam, who has been on the Board of Overseerers for 18 years, was the person with perhaps the single greatest effect on Harvard investment policy in the 1970s. In 1974, he created the Harvard Management Company, whose effectiveness and unique independence from the rest of the University has been credited with Harvard's immense endowment growth--to its current total of about $2.4 billion.

Sidney Verba '53, the genial political scientist, was mentioned as a likely candidate for dean of the Faculty. He didn't get the job, but instead was tapped to replace Oscar Handlin as Pfozheimer University Professor and University Librarian. Handlin moved over to the Loeb University chair, replacing retiring Law School eminence grise, Archibald Cox '34. Two other scholars also nabbed for university chairs, the highest honor Harvard can bestow on its professors: outgoing Dean of the Faculty Henry Resovsky and Business School teaching whiz Roland Christensen.

Bok also named John H. F. Shattuckas his vice president for government, community and public affairs, replacing Robin V. Schmidt. Shattuck, who was director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union, has said he is interested in making his office more active, especially in defending academic freedom and trying to develop strategies for dealing with tax reform as it relates to universities.

In other appointment news, Harvard gained three new tenured women, all through internal promotions, raising the number of female full professors on the roughly 350-member faculty to 21. The lucky three were: Diana L. Eck, a specialist on Indian culture and religion: Nancy E. Kleckner '68, a biochemist; and Susan R. Suleiman, an authority on modern French literature.

The Sociology Department also broke a dry spell, luring Aage B. Sorenson to Cambridge from the University of Wisconsin. Sorenson was the first professor to accept a department offer in seven tries. Still, the sometimes controversial department seems destined to remain in the spotlight--at least for a while--as President Bok still must make up his mind about granting tenure to Theda Skecpol, who was refused tenure and then filed a successful sex discrimination grievance suit three years ago.

One other interesting promotion was that of Polish dissident Stanislaw Barancak, who will fill Harvard's chair in Polish language and literature, the only one of its kind in the country. Barancak first came to Harvard in 1981 as an associate professor, after three years of negotiation between the University, the State Department, and Polish authorities, who were reluctant to have him leave because of his opposition activities.

Another dissident, South Korean Kim Dae Jung, also had a stint at Harvard, although only for the year. Kim, one of the leading opponents of the authoritarian rule in his homeland, spent the year at the Center for International Affairs, writing and lecturing. Another refugee from politics at Harvard this year was David R. Gergen, a former top Reagan Administration White House aide Gergen quit his post in Washington in December to take up a fellowship at Harvard's Institute of Politics in the spring semester.