Corp. Should Have Another Academic

It's little wonder some people complain that Harvard increasingly resembles a business. The University, after all, is run by a Corporation.

Harvard's most powerful governing board, the seven-member Corporation has its roots in the business world: three millionaire executives and a lawyer have the power to out-vote two academics and the University's president.

The result? At a faculty meeting last month, McKay Professor of Computer Science Barbara J. Grosz summed up the frustrations of many of her colleagues when she spoke out against the University's new, leaner benefits package for faculty members. Grosz complained that "it seems as though we were being treated more as employees of a business than members of a community."

In light of this sentiment, last week's announcement of the resignation of one longtime Corporation member, Charles P. Slichter '45, presents Harvard's leaders with a chance to reaffirm their commitment to the academic community.

Slichter, 70, a professor of physics and chemistry at the University of Illinois, is the lone non-Harvard academic on the Corporation. His appointment, at the end of the turbulent 1960s, was designed to increase the representation of academics on the University's top governing board.

The choice of his successor will say a lot about the direction in which the Corporation will lead Harvard in the next century. Replacing Slichter with a respected academic would send a powerful message: that Harvard is more committed to scholarship for scholarship's sake than to the bottom line.

On the other hand, replacing him with another suit from corporate America would only serve to further alienate an already disenfranchised faculty.

If this seems to overstate the significance of a single appointment, consider the Corporation's place at Harvard. More than any other group, these seven individuals control the University, its policies and its management. Even President Neil L. Rudenstine reports to them.

As a result of these broad governing powers, Slichter's successor will necessarily play a key role in helping to shape the University's future. In fact, as several of Slichter's colleagues themselves approach retirement age, it is likely that the next Corporation member will one day be the senior constituent of the body that chooses Rudenstine's successor.

And, while being an academic does not automatically qualify anyone for Corporation membership, we believe it should be an important prerequisite for Slichter's replacement.

The voice of an outsider familiar with the workings of a university--from the inside--is crucial to the success of Harvard's top governing board, both for the actual input contributed and for the symbolic value.