'The Insider' Tackles FAS's Problems

"He's everybody's ideal of a committee chairman. He might not like that, but that's the truth," says Geyser University Professor Henry Rosovsky of Sidney Verba '53.

Verba is, at age 57, the consummate faculty insider, a professor to whom deans have repeatedly turned for help in solving some of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' stickiest problems.

When the Core Curriculum was first being implemented in the early 1980s, then-Dean of the Faculty Rosovsky called on Verba to ease the transistion, naming him associate dean for undergraduate education in 1981.

And when the library system, facing a severe crunch as the burgeoning supply of books outstrips available storage facilities, needed a new director, who did the dean turn to? Verba, of course. He was named to the job in 1984 as soon as his term as associate dean ended.

With Verba's ever-lengthening list of faculty positions, it was no surprise that Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence tapped the government scholar to chair a committee charged with proposing a new affirmative action strategy at a time when only about 8 percent of FAS' tenured faculty are women and 7 percent are minorities.

"The trouble with this university is if they give you a miserable and thankless job, the only reward they ever give you is a more miserable and thankless job," quips Verba.

In fact, Verba, a top contender for dean of the Faculty when Spence was appointed five years ago keeps adding administrative posts to his resume. And many of his colleagues say Verba's successes result because he has the connections and the consensus-building skills necessary to push measures through the tangle of Harvard's decentralized bureaucracy.

"He's able, he's amiable and he's very effective," says Thomson Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield '53, a classmate of Verba's as an undergraduate. "He's definitely an insider--Sid Verba the insider."

"He's a Harvard College graduate and knows the local scenery," says Markham Professor of Government H. Douglas Price. Verba received his doctorate from Princeton and then returned to Harvard in 1972 after teaching stints at Stanford and the University of Chicago.

Verba seems to fit the Ivy League image so well that he was recognized by M Magazine in 1985 as one of the nation's "tweediest professors."

"I haven't changed what I've been wearing over the years since my undergraduate days," said Verba at the time, noting that at least one of his favorite tweed coats dated from his days as a student at Harvard.

For someone so involved in some of FAS' most controversial issues, Verba is a strikingly uncontroversial figure. He is universally well-liked among fellow faculty members, and even a minority student leader who was often highly critical of Verba's committee work offers guarded praise of the man.

"During our meetings he was very approachable and a very reasonable guy," says Minority Students Alliance spokesperson Wendell C. Ocasio '90. "Although I'm not 100 percent pleased with what he did, he did it very professionally."

Beyond the tweed coats, though, colleagues repeatedly point to Verba's ability to forge compromises where others see only polariza- tion as his primary selling point.

"[Verba] is also highly creative in findingways to bring together people who disagree and inbuilding consensuses without compromisingprinciple," says Secretary of the Faculty John R.Marquand.

And Verba himself says as much--after initialdisclaimers. When asked why deans have a habit ofturning to him in times of need, theself-deprecating Verba says, "I'm too stupid tosay 'no'. I don't really know. It's hard for me toanswer."

"I suppose I have a lot of patience," Verbacontinues: "[I'm] willing to listen to lots ofDepartment chair who has authored or co-authored18 books, primarily on group politicalparticipation and comparative government.

But while Verba is saddled with thoseconsensus-building duties, he also has been aprolific and much-decorated scholar in his yearsat Harvard. The Pforzheimer University professor,Verba is a former Government Department chair whohas authored and co-authored 18 books, primarilyon group political participation and comparativegovernment.

In recent years, the focus of his scholarshiphas increasingly shifted toward issues of socialand political equality in capitalist systems. Twoof the three books he has published since 1985have the word "equality" in the title, includingEquality in America: The View From the Top,which he co-authored in 1985.

Besides his interest in social and politicalequality, Verba says he manages to gainintellectual stimulation from his position aslibrary director.

"I like books. It's very interesting," saysVerba. "The information technology business isactually one of the most fascinating intellectualproblems around. It's kind of an interesting,partial-shifting of gears for me."

But Verba's many different faculty roles comeat a price, as far as some student activists areconcerned. They say that, because of Verba'sinsider status, he relied too much on the goodwillof faculty members in proposing affirmative actionguidelines.

And Verba, the student of the Harvardbureaucracy, cedes the point. "I said that wasabsolutely true, that there was no way in whichyou can really force people to do things in asystem such as ours," Verba says.

Verba, though, doesn't spend his timequestioning the Harvard system. He is too much apart of it.