Actions Speak Louder

HARVARD is perfectly willing to convene committees and issue reports to correct its pathetically low proportion of minority and women faculty. Unfortunately, it has a poor track record for following up on its pronouncements and posturing with concrete, sustained actions.

Last March a high-level faculty committee, headed by Pforzheimer University Professor Sidney Verba '53 issued a report containing pointed criticisms of the University's faculty recruitment and positive suggestions for reforms. Although the Verba Committee report has not been so grievously neglected as the Whitla Report of 1980, it seems destined to produce regrettably little substantive change.

THE first problem with the treatment of the report was that it had its teeth removed by the Faculty Committee. Months of effort by a competent and dedicated senior faculty committee deserved more than a cursory examination by a steering committee that met behind closed doors.

Not surprisingly, the Faculty Committee attempted to appear progressive while nickel-and-diming the report's recommendations to death.

The Verba Committee asked for senior faculty members to act as spokespersons for each department's recruiting efforts. Unfortunately, most of this vision did not survive the steering committee. The proposed senior faculty representatives were replaced by department chairs. Independent faculty representatives would be more likely to put the goals of their position before departmental chumminess. And many department chairs, already overtaxed with a wide range of administrative duties, are often so concerned with the images of their fiefdoms that incisive criticism is likely to be squelched.

ANOTHER casualty of the Faculty Committee was the Verba Report's recommendation that departmental affirmative action representatives form a standing faculty committee that would evaluate each department's progress. This committee would be headed by an associate dean for affirmative action. With regular meetings and a focused agenda, this committee might have been the engine of recruiting reform at Harvard.

reports from the department heads to the new Associate Dean for Affirmative Action, Berkman Professor of Economics Andreu Mas Colell.

Mas-Colell contends that he does not need the committee to effect change, relying instead on "quiet diplomacy." Quiet diplomacy and friendly dealing are not the solution to the minority faculty problem, but the root cause. It is precisely because hiring in the past has been free from administrative oversight that the composition of Harvard's faculty is so skewed today.

Accountability gets results. It produced the Verba Committee and only it will see that the University reaches the goals of the report.

UNFORTUNATELY, the specific policy recommendations of the Verba Committee appear unsalvageable. It would be nice if groups such as the Minority Students Alliance (MSA), which has spearheaded the push for minority faculty in the past, could convince the Faculty Committee to reconsider. But from a purely pragmatic standpoint, holding out for the fulfillment of the Verba Report's policy recommendations would be less effective than taking what the Faculty Committee has offered and exploiting it to the maximum.

Mas-Colell seems genuinely dedicated to creating a more balanced Faculty. The MSA should cultivate a strong working relationship with him. Mas-Colell, for his part, should establish the credibility of his office early and hold the department chairs' feet to the fire. Just as important, he should push the administration toward a broad commitment to increasing the available pool of minority scholars.

The Verba Committee's policy recommendations may have fallen victim to Harvard's bureacratic inertia, but it's goals need not.