Delbanco May Leave Harvard For Possible Columbia Tenure

One of the rising young professors in Harvard's English department may be leaving Cambridge at the end of this year for a tenured position at Columbia University.

Assistant Professor of English and American Literature Andrew H. Delbanco '73, best known for his course Literature and Arts C-31--The Literature of the Outsider, said yesterday that he had "been offered an appointment as Associate Professor in the Department of English at Columbia University, but the final stages of the tenure process at the level of the University have yet to be completed."

George Stade, vice-chairman of Columbia's English Department said his department has recommended Delbanco for a tenured position and that "it is now the administration's job to act on the recommendation."

Although Delbanco said that no decisions about his career at Harvard have been made, Joel Porte, vice-chairman of the Harvard English Department, suggested that he might have taken the job at Columbia because of the number of professors already tenured in Harvard's American Studies Program. "We can't keep everybody we'd like to keep, and there simply isn't a place [for Delbanco]" Porte said.

Delbanco cited a new environment, as one of the primary reasons for his departure from Harvard. "The opportunity at Columbia is such an exciting one that I would be foolish to turn it down," Delbanco said.

"I'm sorry to see him go," said Porte, but added "It's not unhealthy for him to be going somewhere else--he's been here since he was an undergraduate."

Porte added that Delbanco's departure would also mean that his popular core offering, Literature of the Outsider, would also not return. However, Delbanco said that he hoped that "the core curriculum would continue to include material [that I] covered in the course."

Students also expressed concern over the loss of the course and felt that Harvard should find a way to keep it in the core. "Delbanco is a good lecturer, although not one of the best, but [Outsider] is a good course, one that should be taught," said Rebecca A. Humenuk '88.

"It's an important course to have in the core, because it makes people think about issues they normally wouldn't," said Jene Lubowitz '85.