Bok Endorses Plan For Minority Hiring

President Bok yesterday endorsed many of the specific changes in hiring policy recommended last week by a Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) committee on affirmative action.

The committee, chaired by Pforzheimer University Professor Sidney Verba '53, called for the appointment of an associate dean for affirmative action and the selection of a senior faculty member in each department to supervise recruitment efforts. It also proposed the establishment of a standing committee on affirmative action.

In an interview yesterday, Bok praised the Verba Report for stressing changes within the University's current affirmative action guidelines, rather than advocating any wholesale revision of those rules.

"We needed a report that focused not so much on new methods, but on making sure that the methods and resources that we already have in place are implemented effectively and consistently," Bok said.

Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence--who in the end will decide how much of the Verba Report becomes FAS policy--last week called the Verba Report "thoughtful" and "very good," but witheld judgement on its specific proposals until he could consult with faculty members.

About 8 percent of FAS's senior faculty members are women and about 7 percent are minorities, according to the Verba Report. The report was prepared at Spence's request after the Minority Students Alliance last spring released a report charging FAS with "confusion" and "complacency" in its minority recruitment efforts.

Bok compared the Verba Report to a 1980 affirmative action report--prepared by Dean K. Whitla of the Office for Instructional Research and Evaluation--which called for stepped up recruitment but offered no structural changes.

"To the extent that...there are opportunities and resources in place, but there was not a machinery to make sure the methods and resources were utilized properly, the Verba Report does fill in the vital missing link," Bok said.

Bok endorsed the report's call for the appointment of a new associate dean for affirmative action. "It's a very good way to focus on the problem by helping representatives in each department do their job and [intervening] when there seems to be somesignificant problem," he said.

He also said he thought the designation ofdepartmental affirmative action liaisons wouldfacilitate recruitment of women and minorityscholars.

"It is important to have somebody specificallycharged with that responsibility who willtherefore feel an obligation to attend to it fromthe very beginning of searches," he said.

"Obviously, there are problems making sure thepeople appointed actually do it. But the conceptof it is a sound one," Bok said.

Bok also endorsed another of the committee'srecommendations--the creation of outsidecommittees to review the hiring processes ofdepartments having trouble hiring minorities andwomen.

Bok downplayed criticism from some students andfaculty members that the report does not payenough attention to women's concerns such as childcare, citing the University's current efforts toexpand its day care facilities.

In addition, he praised the committee'srecommendation that the University work toincrease the pool of female and minority Ph.D.candidates.

"In the end, no strategy that does not includea vigorous effort to increase the pool is going toget very far," Bok said