University Not Planning To Act in Loury Case

In the wake of charges against Kennedy School Professor of Political Economy Glenn C. Loury for beating a Boston woman, a top Massachusetts Hall official said yesterday that the University does not discipline professors who brush against the law outside Harvard.

The 38-year-old Loury, whom President Reagan tapped in March for the number two post in the Department of Education, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday to charges of assault and battery, threat to commit murder and willful and malicious destruction of property.

Although he would not discuss the Loury case specifically, Vice President and General Counsel Daniel Steiner '54 said yesterday that "as a general matter the University does not get involved in people's entanglements with the law."

However, Harvard has no written policy on how to deal with professors who are convicted of a felony unrelated to the University or its members. K-School and Mass. Hall officials have continually refused to comment on the case. Loury did not return repeated calls yesterday to his answering machine at his Cambridge home.

Steiner added yesterday that the University would get involved in such a case only if a connection existed between the felon's action and Harvard. "Therewould have to be a close correlation between theperson's personal actions outside the University"and Harvard, he said.

Pamela Foster charged Loury with assault,claiming in the complaint she filed with thepolice that she lived with the K-School economistin a penthouse suite in the South End of Boston.In the complaint, Foster accused Loury of beatingher severely with a dangerous weapon, his "shodfoot."

Although this is the only case of its kindinvolving a professor to become public in recentmemory, Steiner speculated that similar incidentsmay have occurred in the past.

"Professors are human and have theirinvolvements in different aspects of life,"Steiner said. "I would not be surprised if overthe course of years professors have not beencharged with some or other violation of the law."

Loury, who withdrew his name from considerationfor the post of Undersecretary of Education earlylast week, would have been the second-highestranking Black in the Reagan Administration and thesecond-most powerful man in the EducationDepartment after Secretary William J. Bennett.

Loury is one of the nation's leading Blackconservatives. He has taken stands againstaffirmative action and questioned the views ofsome civil rights leaders.

National attention focused on Loury'snomination in May when the Education Departmentdelayed its presentation to the Senate for hisconfirmation. Civil rights groups such as theNational Association for the Advancement ofColored People, vowed to testify against Loury. Inturn he charged them with attacking him because heis Black