Of Appointments and Disappointments

September

23--Even as activist alumni continue their campaign to gain pro-divestment seats on the Board of Overseers, a Board committee, chaired by Boston Federal District Court Judge William G. Young '62, releases a report asking the University to take a more active role in its elections.

28--A faculty committee on women and minority faculty hiring, chaired by Pforzheimer University Professor Sidney Verba '53, has its first regular meeting, months after undergraduates from the Minority Students Alliance had charged Harvard with "complacency" in its affirmative action efforts.

29--A group of activist alumni immediately attacks the Young Report, claiming that its recommendations were formulated to undermine dissent at the University. Members of Harvard-Radcliffe Alumni Against Apartheid (HRAAA) say the proposed changes are designed to impede pro-divestment candidates' election to the Board.

30--The Harvard OnLine Library Information System (HOLLIS) which cost the University $3 million, opens officially, although many faculty say the library system is not yet up to date.

October

5--President Derek C. Bok speaks out in support of the Young Report, saying there should be a mechanism to allow alumni to express their views to the University without having to run for election to the Board of Overseers.

12--A joint committee of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers meets with activist students to discuss University investment policies. The students present a petition demanding divestment from companies that do business in South Africa, but leave the meeting dissatisfied.

25--The Association of Black Faculty and Administrators presents a report to the University asking for improvements in minority hiring. The report, written by Professor of Law Derrick A. Bell, calls for 10 percent minority representation within Harvard's faculty and staff by 1990. While Harvard officials say they agree with the tone of the Bell Report, they say they have their own plans for affirmative action and, for the first time, announce numerical goals for minority and women hiring.

November

1--The Crimson reports that Harvard may net between $6 million and $12 million from its investment in a limited partnership fund attempting a $20.3 billion leveraged buyout of RJR-Nabisco. If the takeover were successful, Harvard money managers say the University would hold indirect investments in the cigarette company--the same company from which a Harvard committee on ethics in investment advised the University to divest in the spring of 1988.

2--Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence announces the creation of a special fund to promote development of ethnic studies courses by bringing visiting professors in the field to Harvard.

7--It is announced that the English Department has denied tenure to Associate Professor of English Joseph A. Boone. The decision comes at a time when the department is seeking to fill roughly six appointments.

11--The U.S. Department of Education announces that it is investigating whether Harvard admissions policies discriminate against Asian-Americans. The review seeks to determine if the University violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits federally funded institutions from discriminating on the basis of race, ethnicity or religious creed.

December

12--The Corporation and Board of Overseers approve a report calling on companies to withdraw from South Africa. They do not, however, modify the current University policy of divesting only from those companies that do not follow the Sullivan Principles of selective divestment. Activists, members of the faculty, alumni and the student advisory committee to the Harvard Corporation complain that the step is merely symbolic.

January

11--Robert A. Hastings '57 announces his decision to resign as executive director of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) at the end of this academic year.

20--HAA's list of nominees to the Board of Overseers includes Secretary of Commerce Elizabeth H. Dole, then-Democratic National Committee Chair Paul G. Kirk '60 and actor John A. Lithgow '67. HRAAA members claim that the alumni association nominated the celebrities only to draw attention away from pro-divestment candidates.

February

7--Washington attorney Judith Richards Hope is named the first woman member of the Harvard Corporation--the University's 339 year-old chief governing body. She replaces Andrew J. Heiskell, the former head of Time, Inc.

24--The Crimson reports that Harvard has increasingly taken on the management of its own corporate takeover funds, valued at $168 million.

28--A few members of the Board of Overseers meet to criticize some of the Young Report's recommendations, saying that the proposed reforms would stifle diversity on the Board. One overseer describes the plan as "a plane with a big hole in the fuselage."

March

3--The Verba Committee on affirmative action issues a report recommending the creation of a standing committee on affirmative action, the appointment of a senior professor in each department to address hiring issues and the installment of a new associate dean for affirmative action.

9--HRAAA announces the nomination of South African Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu and four other divestment supporters to the Board of Overseers.

10--The Crimson reports that the Radcliffe presidency has been offered to Yale University Professor Judith Rodin. Should Rodin accept, she would succeed outgoing Radcliffe President Matina S. Horner, who is scheduled to step down from her post on July 1.

13--Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities Deborah E. Nord is denied tenure, despite receiving her department's approval the previous month. The decision on Nord marks the second junior faculty tenure denial this year at a time when the English Department is seeking to make a number of senior appointments.

15--Radcliffe sources report that Rodin has removed her name from consideration for the Radcliffe post. The Crimson also reveals that at least three other candidates on a short list of six have removed themselves from consideration, including Harvard Law School Professor Martha L. Minow.

April

4--Harvard releases a report showing that investments in South Africa-related companies fell from $230.9 million to $163.8 million--more than 30 percent during the last six months of 1988. But University money managers say the drop was caused by company divestments and not by any direct efforts on Harvard's part.

6--The Crimson reports that Board of Overseers candidate Peter J. Malkin '55 wrote a letter cautioning against HRAAA's pro-divestment candidates.

May

1 --English Department junior professors meet with President Bok and Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence to complain about the promotion process, arguing that Harvard's tenure system is slanted against junior professors seeking to advance within the University. The English Department has tenured only one junior professor in the last 25 years.

3 --The Crimson reports that University Vice President for Alumni Affairs Fred L. Glimp '50 helped Stanford President Donald Kennedy '52 to publish a letter in Harvard Magazine encouraging alumni not to vote for HRAAA's pro-divestment candidates.

4 --Feminist scholar and French literary expert Alice A. Jardine, professor of Romance languages and literature, says she has been granted a lifetime post by the University. Amid junior faculty complaints that they have almost no chance of being offered tenure at Harvard, Jardine's appointment is the second promotion of a junior faculty member from within her department in the last five years.

9 --New HAA President Charles J. Egan '54 --who paid the $9500 to run Kennedy's letter as an advertisment in Harvard Magazine, harshly criticizes HRAAA's leaders and their slate of what he calls "single-issue candidates" for the Board of Overseers. HRAAA Executive Director Robert P. Wolff '54 calls the remarks "slanderous" and demands an apology.

31--Linda S. Wilson, a University of Michigan administrator, is appointed the seventh Radcliffe President, after a 16-month search.