Porn Discovery Led to Div. School Dean's Fall Resignation

Dean of the Divinity School Ronald F. Thiemann resigned last fall after thousands of pornographic images were found on his University-owned computer, Harvard sources told The Crimson yesterday.

Meanwhile, a bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said he will be meeting with Thiemann, who is an ordained Lutheran minister, to determine what action the church might take against him. The church adopted an official policy opposing pornography in November 1996.

Thiemann resigned from his post in the fall after 13 years as dean. At the time, Thiemann said publicly he was leaving for "personal and professional" reasons. Rumors at the time held that Thiemann had left because he was suffering from depression.

Thiemann could not be reached for comment yesterday, but a Lutheran church official said that he had spent the day receiving spiritual counseling from other church members.

According to one source, the pornographic material was found on Thiemann's Harvard-owned computer by technicians servicing the machine. The source said Thiemann had left material on the screen.

"This was not very secretive," the source said. "Maybe this was a cry for help."

According to the Boston Globe, which first reported the story Wednesday, Thiemann had also requested more disk space for the computer, which is located at his home.

For more than a year, people in computer services had encountered the pornography on his computer, a source told The Crimson yesterday.

Sources said the images did not include child pornography or other illegal material.

But Thiemann's possession of the material violates the Divinity School's official policy regarding computer usage.

According to the policy, storing material that is "inappropriate, obscene, bigoted or abusive" on University computers is prohibited. The policy also limits computer use to activities "related to the School's mission of education, research and public service."

As part of his resignation as dean in the fall, Thiemann announced that he would take a one-year sabbatical from his faculty position--he is O'Brian Professor of Divinity--and return to teaching and researching in 2000.

University officials have been reluctant to discuss the details of the case.

"When it comes to personal matters in people's lives, I have a very strict policy that I just don't comment," President Neil L. Rudenstine said.

University spokesperson Joe Wrinn said in a statement that Thiemann and Rudenstine together "agreed that it would be in the best interests of the Divinity School for the dean to resign."

There is no indication that the University is planning any further investigation into the matter and no indication that a criminal investigation will be undertaken.

Harvard's strong reaction to the case could be linked to exposure other staff, faculty or students might have had to the material on Thiemann's computer.

But Bishop Robert L. Isaksen of the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America said their investigation into the matter is "just beginning."

Isaksen said that, because Thiemann is a minister in his region, he personally has the responsibility to decide what course the church will take in Thiemann's case.

"My first responsibility will be to meet with Dr. Thiemann and to discuss the whole matter with him to try to ascertain some of the details," Isaksen said. "I expect to be having that meeting very soon. It's not yet scheduled."

Isaksen said church action could range from admonition to censure to, in very serious cases, dismissal from the roster of pastors.

"We have no history on this sort of matter," he said.

Back at Harvard, Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz said that, though he did not know the details of the case, what Thiemann chooses to do privately is his own business and only becomes the University's concern if it is illegal.

"As long as it's done in private and doesn't hurt anyone is not the school's business," he said. "I don't think it matters that he is the Divinity School dean."

To prevent similar questions arising in the future, the University needs to clarify its rules, he said.