Clinton Picks Univ. Affiliates For Panel

Three of the six people named to the board heading President-Elect Bill Clinton's transition effort have studled at or received degrees from Harvard.

Former Vermont Gov. Madeleine Kunin, former San Antonio Mayor Henry G. Cisneros and former National Urban League president Vernon Jordan, will join three others on the panel, which Jordan will chair.

The panel will assist Clinton in filling thousands of jobs in government agencies, including White House and Cabinet-level posts, as well as work for a smooth transfer of power from the Bush administration.

Kunin, a Distinguished Visitor in Public Policy at Radcliffe's Bunting Institute in 1991-92, said yesterday she was pleased with the appointment.

"I'm very happy and honored to serve on the transition team," Kunin said, speaking by telephone from her Shelbourne, Vt., home.

Kunin declined to discuss any further details of the transition, saying she planned to wait to meet with the board next week.

Kunin, who served as governor from 1985 to 1991, was the first female governor of Vermont and is currently the president of the board of the Institute of Sustainable Communities, a program seeking community solutions to environmental problems in Eastern Europe.

Bunting Institute Director Florence C. Ladd said she and her associates were "elated" by the appointment.

"She brings intelligence, gubernatorial experience and a very strong sense of social justice," Ladd said.

Ladd also said Kunin, who was also a fellow at the Institute of Politics in 1983 after a stint as lieutenant governor, had "a remarkable capacity for working collaboratively."

Jordan, a 1976 Institute of Politics fellow and 1978 recipient of an honorary doctorate, headed the Urban League from 1972 to 1981 and later became a partner in a major Washington law firm.

Jordan did not attend the Little Rock press conference announcing his appointment as chair, but, according to the Associated Press, told reporters outside his Washington office the panel would "take our time" and "be deliberate" in selecting officials.

Jordan is considered a top prospect for attorney general or another high-level Clinton administration post.

Cisneros, who received his master of public administration from the Kennedy School of Government in 1973, has been an active Clinton supporter throughout the campaign.

Cisneros, after obtaining a doctorate in public administration from George Washington University in 1975, was elected mayor of San Antonio, Tex., in 1981.

Others appointed to the board were Warren Christopher, the deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration who will head the day-to-day operations of the transition team; Mickey Kantor, who managed Clinton's campaign and long time Clinton friend Thomas F. (Mac) McLarty, head of Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Co.

Christopher, who served with Jordan on the committee that picked Sen. Al Gore '69 as Clinton's running-mate, said the transition panel will operate much the same and will set up strict guidelines to prevent transition team workers from seeking private gain.

"I think you will see the most stringent set of ethics rules that have ever been promulgated for our country," Christopher said at a Little Rock news conference.

This story was complied with wire dispatches.