Skocpol Negotiates Tenure Offer

Harvard seems to be negotiating in good faith with sociologist Theda R. Skocpol, whom President Bok tenured last month after a controversial four-year review.

But negotiators indicated recently no decision should be expected any time soon.

"People shouldn't hold their breath," said Skocpol, who is currently tenured at the University of Chicago. I'm sure I'm going to take a lot less time deciding on them than they took deciding on me."

Skocpol said she has met with Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence, and will meet in the future with Sociology Department Chairman Aage B. Sorensen to hammer out the details of Harvard's offer.

Skocpol said she will then weigh this offer against an anticipated counter-offer from Chicago and an upcoming tenure offer from the Universe of California at Berkeley, which also boasts a highly regarded Sociology Department.

"I think Chicago will make a counter-offer, but Chicago doesn't need to do anything. They've been very kind to me," Skocpol. "It would be very difficult for me to leave."

Harvard Strategy

Harvard is expected to try to lure the former Harvard associate professor back to Cambridge with a package that includes ample office space, workshop resources, sufficient salary, and employment for Skocpol's husband William, a Bell Laboratory physicist who also taught several years ago as a Harvard junior faculty member.

Contract negotiations will probably revolve chiefly around the last matter, since "Harvard doesn't have that much variance" in salary and other factors, said Sorensen, who went through similar negotiations before accepting Harvard's tenure offer last year.

"She's not an equipment user," added Sorensen. "The main thing [is whether] her husband will be able to find a job in this area... MIT might be more of the place for him."

MIT, which bill Skocpol is said to be visiting in March, is one of the few places in the country that covers Skocpol's mixture of physics and engineering, stated Sorensen. A few years ago, Sorensen-then at the University of Wisconsin--tried to find a job for Skocpol in the Madison area so as to lure his wife to Wisconsin.