MacFarland Steps Down From English Committee

A member of an outside committee established to help the English Department make six tenure appointments left the panel after accusations that he sexually harrassed a student.

Princeton Professor of English Thomas MacFarland said in an interview last week that he withdrew temporarily from the committee in February, after a graduate student accusation of sexual harrassment led to his suspension from Princeton's faculty.

But in recent weeks, after public furor over MacFarland at Princeton mounted, the professor said he decided to retire early from his post and also from the English Department's outside committee.

The outside committee has been meeting with the English Department for the past year to speed up Harvard's notoriously slow tenure process and to help the tradition-bound department examine its strengths and weaknesses.

If MacFarland had returned to teaching at Princeton, he could have asked to rejoin the Harvard committee. Although Princeton officials would have allowed MacFarland to resume full teaching duties, he said he opted for early retirement because of the controversy.

Four professors in MacFarland's department have resigned since the allegations were made public, at least two of them stating that they left because of what they said was Princeton's leniency toward the scholar.

"His appointment on the outside committee was contingent on his active duty at Princeton," said Harvard Associate Dean for Academic Planning Phyllis Keller, adding that she did not think the department would replace MacFarland on the committee.

Members of the English Department said they were relieved that the issue had been settled by MacFarland's retirement, because they thought it would have provoked controversy if he had asked to return to the committee.

"I would like to come back, but just to be realistic, I'm not sure they would want me," MacFarland said in the interview. "I reluctantly understand their position. This event wouldn't effect my ability to judge scholarship, but it might undermine the committee's mandate."

Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence created the committee because the department had been unable to agree on tenure appointments. By discussing potential senior candidates with the department before they are voted on, the committee is supposed to insure that the department's tenure candidates do not get rejected by the traditional ad hoc committee or by President Derek C. Bok.