Sommers Is Expos Search Frontrunner

The national search for the next director of Harvard's Expository Writing Program is unlikely to turn up any qualified candidates besides current Expos associate director Nancy Sommers, sources and teachers said this week.

Six Expos teachers interviewed by The Crimson this week said they were concerned that the first stage of the search, which ends today, would not turn up any viable alternatives to Sommers, who has all but officially been given the position.

Sommers has been endorsed by outgoing Director Richard C. Marius and the program's third-ranking official, Senior Preceptor Gordon Harvey.

The problem, the sources and teachers charged, is University Hall's unusually short advertising campaign for the post.

The first ad for the post to appear in the Harvard Gazette, for example, ran last Friday, January 21. But the deadline for applications is today, leaving prospective candidates with just three working days to notice the ad and apply.

"That timing speaks for itself," one Expos source said.

No advertisement for the director's job has run in January issues of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Officials with the Modern Languages Association, whose publications are frequently used to advertise for writing jobs, did not return phone calls yesterday.

Dean for Undergraduate Education Lawrence A. Buell acknowledged yesterday that the process of advertising for the position had begun after January 1 and would end this week.

"The search process, we hope, will complete itself this winter," Buell said.

Buell would not say how many applications have been received. "They will need to take stockwhen the doors are closed, but it's not anoverwhelming number," he said.

Teachers said the qualifications outlined inthe Gazette ad would be impossible for anyone butSommers to fulfill. In addition to requiring adoctorate and "a record of research, publicationand intellectual leadership in the teaching ofwriting," the ad says the job will go to someonewith "extensive experience administering a similarprogram."

That qualification limits the field ofcandidates, teachers said, because very fewfirst-year writing programs in the country operatelike Harvard's.

Sommers is praised as one of the country'sleading thinkers in first-year composition, andshe appears to be a lock for the job.

But some teachers have raised questions aboutSommers' ability to make personnel decisionswithout favoritism and to administer the programfairly.

They point to her decision two years ago topass over several brilliant teachers to promoteStephen Donatelli, who received decidedly mediocreevaluations of his teaching, to a head preceptorposition.

And they note charges made by two former Exposemployees that Sommers improperly entered her ownstudent's work in the annual contest for the bestfirst-year essay four years ago. Sommers' studentwon the contest.

Sommers has denied both of these charges.

Teachers said they were more concerned with theprocess for filling jobs in Expos than withSommers's imminent selection as the new director.

Two sources said that the job as head ofExpository Writing at the Extension School wasawarded last year before other Expos teachers weregiven the chance to apply. The individualoriginally selected for the position later backedout, the sources said, and a more extensive searchensued which gave Expos teacher David Gewanter thepost.

Jennifer L. Burns contributed to the

Teachers said the qualifications outlined inthe Gazette ad would be impossible for anyone butSommers to fulfill. In addition to requiring adoctorate and "a record of research, publicationand intellectual leadership in the teaching ofwriting," the ad says the job will go to someonewith "extensive experience administering a similarprogram."

That qualification limits the field ofcandidates, teachers said, because very fewfirst-year writing programs in the country operatelike Harvard's.

Sommers is praised as one of the country'sleading thinkers in first-year composition, andshe appears to be a lock for the job.

But some teachers have raised questions aboutSommers' ability to make personnel decisionswithout favoritism and to administer the programfairly.

They point to her decision two years ago topass over several brilliant teachers to promoteStephen Donatelli, who received decidedly mediocreevaluations of his teaching, to a head preceptorposition.

And they note charges made by two former Exposemployees that Sommers improperly entered her ownstudent's work in the annual contest for the bestfirst-year essay four years ago. Sommers' studentwon the contest.

Sommers has denied both of these charges.

Teachers said they were more concerned with theprocess for filling jobs in Expos than withSommers's imminent selection as the new director.

Two sources said that the job as head ofExpository Writing at the Extension School wasawarded last year before other Expos teachers weregiven the chance to apply. The individualoriginally selected for the position later backedout, the sources said, and a more extensive searchensued which gave Expos teacher David Gewanter thepost.

Jennifer L. Burns contributed to the